A few months ago I talked about replacements for superheroes and theme songs, and how they can be hit or miss. This of course happens on TV shows too. But it’s often more miss than hit. Replacing a popular character is very hard to do. For example, I mentioned Chloris Leachman the other day who did a decent job replacing Mrs. Garrett on The Facts of Life. Others may disagree with that, but I liked it. Other examples where it worked include Don Knotts on Three’s Company, Col Potter on MASH, and Rebecca Howe on Cheers. But for the few that worked you have examples like Budd Bronski on Wings. Remember him? Course not. Do I even need to mention Cory and Vance? Ughhhhh
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Sadly, it usually doesn’t work. Here are five sitcom replacements which were just failures. And of course, just opinion.
Ted McGinley on Happy Days
Poor Ted McGinely! I mean that, I mean talk about walking into a no win scenario! There was no way that they could duplicate the chemistry Ron Howard and Henry Winkler had. He portrayed Roger Phillips for the last few years, and for the most part is just a forgotten memory as far as that show is concerned.
Leanna Creel on Saved By The Bell
Try to imagine you were me, a fan of the show who watched it for four years. And around the 4th season, Kelly and Jesse disappear to be replaced by Tori. Huh? Oh don’t worry Tori would vanish and Kelly and Jesse returned for the final episode. Basically this was the result of the network extending the season, and as hard as she tried it just did not work. She was a tough girl who vied for Zack and Slater’s affections and…no on cared.
Jon Lovitz on NewsRadio
Well you can’t blame the guy for trying. When Phil Hartman as tragically killed, the show needed to go on. To be fair, they didn’t try to carbon copy Bill McNeil. Lovit’s character was a different person. To bad the creators couldn’t decide what kind of person. He tended to flip depending on the episode, and Lovitz himself just never fit in anywhere near the way Hartman had.
Julia Duffy on Designing Women
I guess it’s unfair to mention this since I mentioned it before in my replacement TV theme article. But man was bringing Julia Duffy in a mistake. She just didn’t have the charm that Delta Burke gave Suzanne, enabling us to forgive her selfish moments. Instead she was just shrill and mean. And gone the next season.
Daphne Maxwell Reid on Fresh Prince
Some may disagree with me on this one, and I mean no disrespect to Reid she’s just lovely, but this change was awful. If there’s anything worst than replacing a character on a show, it’s trying to play the exact same character. Not a pastiche, the same character. Once in awhile it works (Bewitched, Roseanne) but often it fails. The story for why Vivian Banks was changed is long, and kind of convoluted. But Janet Hubert Whitten just fit in so much better. She felt like part of the family. She was thigh and no nonsense, and was just plane awesome. Reid, never really was. All she kind of did was stand around smiling and and as a result her Vivian lacked all of the spark and energy that the previous one had. Making her just plain dull. Not horrible, but dull.
Plenty more, did I miss your favorite? Comment and let me know.
I'm glad you mentioned Vivian. I thought Reid was fine but Hubert rocked. Even though it was a new show, I'd say the replacements for Apollo and Starbuck in Galactica: 1980 sucked. That whole show sucked, so it was par for the course.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, there was the replacement for Harriet on Family Matters. That was definitely a WTH moment.
To be fair though, I believe that Daphne Maxwell Reid did as well as she could. When you think about that Janet Hubert Whitten went totally nuts, they had to replace her with somebody. And it was up to Daphne to take on that difficult tasks. Sure, her Vivian seems to be less tough and funny than Janet's version. But if you ask me, she still had some good moments.
ReplyDeleteThe same thing goes for the second Harriet on "Family Matters". It is very difficult to to replace an actor, who has defined a role for years. And she probably did what she could, even if that wasn't good enough for some people.
I should have mentioned they had no choice but to recast the role, and that whole drama is a story in of itself. Reid was fine she just didn't fit in nearly as well.
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