What are the worst examples of actors being replaced by other actors?

Valerie Harper with nobody, on a show named Valerie!

I see y’all are too young to remember Bewitched.

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Colleen on Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman

Aunt Viv in Fresh Prince of Bel Air

Game of Thrones character Dario Neharis. One season he's Fabio, the next Eric Bana.

The original daughter in Last Man Standing was actually the better one.

Becky on Roseanne. Went from being someone that had a rude angsty teenager vibe to a nice girl.

My ex wife recast me with a younger more athletic husband.

Alias Smith and Jones. One of the stars, Pete Dual, suffered from depression and killed himself. It was barely a couple of days later they announced his replacement, Roger Davis. But there was none of the charisma between Smith and Jones, so it was cancelled.

They replaced the actor who played Early on Squidbillies with Tracy Morgan. He sounds nothing like Early and basically didn't even try to replicate the voice or even sound like he fits in the show at all. He basically just reads the lines in his normal speaking voice. It's quite jarring and awful.

Lionel Jefferson in the Jeffersons.Michael Evans was the real Lionel.

Jake. From State Farm.

Replacing Lisa Robin Kelly as Laurie on That 70’s Show was an awful decision

Game of Thrones was notorious for this! 2 actors play Daario, 2 play Tommen, 3 for the Mountain, 2 for the guy who the lord of light kept bringing back, and the second actor who played Tommen also played another Lannister in the earlier season. I’m sure there were more!

The Last Man Standing example is one that really got to me. The daughters were all so perfectly cast that replacing them immediately made me dislike the show. I just couldn't stick with it.

Maybe an odd example, but Christine Cavanagh retiring as the voice of Chucky (from Rugrats) and being replaced by Nancy Cartwright is probably the most jarring one for me.

Haven’t seen new season yet but still not happy about Henry Cavill being replaced in Witcher.

I know this isn't what was asked, but my favorite actor replacement was the detective in Due South because the Mountie was the only person who knew and was confused as to why no one realized it was a different person.

Michael Huisman replaced Ed Skrein as Daario Naharis in Game of Thrones and it completely ruined the character. Skrein played the role very mysterious, dangerous, and borderline creepy. Huisman came in and played the most milktoast attractive mercenary. Nothing against Huisman because I think he's a fine actor. It was just a horrible casting decision.

Miss Ellie on Dallas. Barbara Bel Geddes replaced with Donna Reed

Topher Grace’s replacement on That 70s Show sucked.

Two and a Half Men-they should’ve ended the show when Charlie Sheen got fired. I love Ashton Kutcher but I don’t like the Walden episodes. Then when Alan befriends Lindsay’s boyfriend it really goes off the rails. I mean really, Jeff Strongman?

Fresh Prince (the mom) and Family Matters (the mom). You can't replace mom!

Steve from Blues Clues.

Bonus points for horrible replacement choices. Like bad fits or completely different acting.

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Replacing Julia butters ♥️♥️

In the original Dynasty one of the sons was replaced. They explained the difference in appearance by saying he had been badly burned in a fire and had plastic surgery.

Becky on Roseanne. Sarah Chalke replaced Lecy Goranson about halfway through the show. Then Lecy came back, but then left again, and Sarah took over for good. I hated Sarah's version of Becky, but I loved her in Scrubs.

Laverne and Shirley without Shirley. 🙄

Spartacus. I get that the actor died, but the guy they got to replace him was just nothing like him. Different acting style, different look, different demeanor, just different everything.

Maggie Gyllenhaal replacing Katie Holmes in Dark Knight.

Petticoat Junction — 6 actresses played the 3 daughters; 7 if you count Sharon Tate, who was fired before shooting began for posing in Playboy

I was gonna list some examples, but this link has me beat:

https://www.grunge.com/10225/tv-casting-decisions-drove-fans-crazy/

Yeah, on Last Man Standing, they replaced Ryan, Kristin, Mandy, Boyd, and Carol (Larabee). I still like the show, but I wish they could’ve avoided replacing all of those actors.

Aunt Viv, Fresh Prince, and what they did to Suzanne Somers. I didn't even like Three's Company and I thought it was bad. The girl who replaced her was just not the same. I watched a few episodes to see. The dynamic was just off.

Back before I lived Barney and the Choir and The Song Festers, while I still liked TAGS, I watched them try to replace Don Knotts. I wish they hadn't even tried because he was great.

Tourette's is not comedy, either.

No dispersions on the actors, it's just that that episode ticks off some terrible memories.

Tom Ellis played Robin Hood in one episode of once upon a time. After that it was Sean Maguire.

also I know it’s not TV but I’m still mad about them recasting Evie in the mummy for the 3rd movie. There’s no replacing Rachel Weisz

Last season of seventies show and last season of scrubs.

Also honorable mention: GOTs early Dario had the cockiness from the books and was a believable merc. His replacement was more of a romance novel warrior.

The switching out of Daario Naharis in GOT between S2 and S3 threw me for a loop.

The mom/wife in Fresh Prince.

Aunt Viv, in The Fresh Prince of Bel Air.

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They’re all worst examples. “Wait, that’s supposed to be the same character?” is a question the viewer should never have to ask. Just go a different direction.

I saw a clip from Days of Our Lives from the early 90s. Guy is in the shower. Says a line, faces wall, turns around towards camera and it's a different actor. Bam. Replaced.

When Brady Bunch came back briefly as a variety show they replaced Jan.

Coy and Vance Duke.

Eve Plumb didn’t participate in “The Brady Bunch Variety Hour” for whatever reason, so they cast another actor, Geri Reischl, as Jan and went ahead with it. Reischl did fine — I remember liking her cover of Elton John’s “Your Song,” so for all I know she was a better singer than Plumb — but you don’t just replace a Brady in a show whose premise is ‘the whole Brady family (and Alice) doing a variety show.’

Anna Kat on American Housewife. (I agree with many other examples on here, too.)

Two and 1/2 men - Charlie Sheen replaced by Aston Kurchor the worst

Friends: Ross’ ex wife Carol. The 1st actress only showed up in one episode then it was a different Carol.

I know it’s a movie and I know it’s because the actor died but….Dumbledore in Harry Potter movies will always be the one that sticks out to me.

There's this British TV show where they've replaced the lead actor like twelve times, even once with a woman! People really seemed to hate that one, but I think it was just bad writing.

(in seriousness I actually think 13's run gave us one of the best villains with Ashad, even then they did him dirty by unceremoniously killing him off only to half-assedly bring him back)

Doctor Who, 1 moment he's a crotchety old man the next he's some kind of cosmic space hobo. Am I really supposed to believe that's the same character?

light skin aunt Viv replaced dark skin aunt Viv on fresh prince of bel air I keep forgetting their names.

Adam hicks replaced Mitchell mousso on pair of kings

will Forte replaced Matthew Lillard as shaggy in scoob

also Zac Efron replaced frank Welker as Fred in scoob.

I like Don Cheadle, but Terrence Howard as Rhodey in Iron Man. Still not used to it, but I’m also not sure how he would’ve fit the role after seeing Infinity Saga unfold.

I don’t know if anyone here watches soap operas like the young and the restless or general hospital, but it’s hilarious on those shows. There have been like four different actors that played the same role over the years. They kill them off and then they come back from the “dead” with “plastic surgery” so they look different t than they used to. It’s hilarious. They also age kids ridiculously quick. One day a character will be a little girl coloring rainbows and then she goes to “boarding school” and comes back a month later a teenager.

Not so much the WORST example because it’s hardly noticeable, but the character Marilyn Munster on The Munsters was played by 2 different actresses. The original actress quit so she could marry her fiancé. The first actress wasn’t a natural blonde and had to wear a wig and always wore a headband/headscarf to cover her natural hair peaking through.

Also, Gates McFadden on TNG replaced by Diana Muldaur as Dr. Pulaski in season 2. I couldn't stand Dr. Pulaski and thought she was so grating. I'm not sure if it was the actress or the writing or both, but I'm so glad McFadden came back for the rest of the show.

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I will never forgive The Fosters for replacing Jake T Austin with Noah Centineo. (Noah wasn’t terrible but he didn’t play Jesus as well as Jake imo.) This might be a hot take but I’d rather have had Jesus written off instead. It also just annoyed me that the writers didn’t even crack a joke or anything about it. I feel like an audience will take a recast slightly better if the show doesn’t act like absolutely nothing happened. I would have been fine with a simple, “Something’s different about you. Did you change your hair.” kinda joke. That’s a bit of a cheesy example but I just feel like not acknowledging the change at all almost has the opposite reaction than the writers were anticipating. That’s just my take though.

When they replaced the original actor who played Jeff on Better Call Saul. The actor they hired as a replacement completely changed the personality of the character. Originally Jeff was creepy and threatening, but the second actor to step into the role turned him into this mousy little mollycoddled pansy. I earnestly believe that despite it being a relatively small change, the actor swap had a massive effect on the way the show ended. The original Jeff never would have said and done what the character wound up saying and doing after the part was given to someone else, and it succeeded in changing the trajectory of the show and altering the entire arc of the story. The creators should have done whatever was necessary in order to retain the original actor, or at the very least compensated for him being replaced by ensuring that the essence of the character remained intact and unchanged. It was not only disappointing - it was dowright infuriating.

They replaced Claire on my wife & kids. But i don't believe it made it worse.

Aunt Viv Prince of bel Air

They changed the actor who did the voice for Peso on the Octonauts and that was not a good swap :(

On the fosters Jake t Austin gets replaced by Noah centineo

Well 3's Company. They refused to pay the blond lady the same as Jack Ritter so she quit. Dumb. The replacement actress was good but not as good as Suzanne Sommers.

The second Aunt Viv

Aunt Viv from The Fresh Prince.

Lionel on The Jeffersons.

I didn't like Skylar Astin as Greg on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, (Santino Fontana is a very hard act to follow) but I think they handled it well "It's like you're a new man since you gave up drinking"

Dianne on "Cheers" by Rebecca.

I was not happy when the beautiful Halston Sage was replaced on The Orville. Not happy at all!

This is way, way, way before all of your times, but on Burns and Allen, the neighbor Harry Morton was played by a series of actors. The wife of that character, Blanche Morton, was played by the insanely talented and irreplaceable Bea Benaderet.

For those of you who have never heard of this show, go find some and watch them. A gold mine of comedy. Gracie Allen was one of the GOATs. Trust me on this. Pie are round.