TV show re-casting that didn't work

Been watching Family lately and the first 6 episodes with Elayne Heilveil as the oldest daughter worked. She looked like the rest of the family and like what James Broderick and Sada Thompson's daughter might look like. Then they replaced her with beautiful Meredith Baxter, who looked totally out of place.

Another one was Petticoat Junction. Jeannine Riley and then Gunilla Hutton were believable as Billie Jo. Meredith McRae didn't look or sound like a hick from the midwest but like what she was, a Hollywood blonde.

What others can you think of?

 

Top Gear.
James May, Jeremy Clarkson and Richard Hammond make a good set.
Every other iteration just seems wrong, forced, and ends up being sorta lame as compared to the shows with the three above as hosts.

 

I am assuming we are limited to performers who are actually playing the same character, not very similar characters who are actually different.

Well, Bewitched was infamous for this. Darren, I'm a Dick York man. Never liked Dick Sargeant in much of anything, and I don't like him here. Sandra Gould's Gladys Kravitz was too irritating to be funny. The two Louise Tates, hard to say. I liked Kasey Rogers with the red hair, so I guess that worked okay.

 

Can I just go ahead and jump forward about five years, and say that whomever Netflix replaced Kevin Spacey with in House of Cards, didn't pull it off.

Also, just for the record, I'm also not a fan of whomever plays Amy Pohler's part now on SNL ( you know - the part of Blonde Cast Member Who Sucks So Much Oxygen Out Every Minute In The Show To The Point Where You Wonder If She And Lorne Have A Thing Going?); they should have written out that character, rather than trying to replace it.

 

Donna Reed playing Miss Ellie on Dallas.

Sarah Chalke playing Becky on Roseanne.

 

Daphne Maxwell Reid as Aunt Viv on The Fresh Prince was so boring compared to Janet Hubert. She's honestly the main (maybe only) reason I don't like the second half of the series.

 

Yes I definitely preferred Janet Hubert as Aunt Viv.

 

Emma Samms replacing Pamela Sue Martin as Fallon Carrington Colby on Dynasty

 

The two Lionels on The Jeffersons. Loved Mike Evans, not so much the other guy.

Roger C. Carmel played Kaye Ballard's husband on the first season of The Mothers-In-Law . Richard Deacon - Mel Cooley on Van Dyke - took over in the second season and the change was jarring.

Darrin's father also changed from season to season on Bewitched. I preferred the first.

The original Mrs. Ziffel was the better one on Green Acres.

Julie Newmar will always be Catwoman.

 

+1 on the Julie Newmar.

 

Peter Duel was excellent as Hannibal Hayes on Alias Smith & Jones. After his death, Roger Davis struggled in the role and could never live up to the original.

Al Corley's Steven was a more interesting character than Jack Coleman's pretty boy blandness on Dynasty.

 

Larry Keating replacing Fred Clark as next door neighbor Harry Morton on 'The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show' = brilliant. Leon Ames replacing Larry Keating as the next door neighbor on 'Mr. Ed' = less so.

 

How about the landlord replacing Mr. Roper on Three’s Company?

 

Don Knotts was always funny... Mr. Furley was great.

 

The new, much taller parents that replaced the originals on OH, THAT RUSTY!

 

The character of Darrin Stevens being played by Dick York and the Dick Sargent. Too bad Dick York had to leave the show due ot medical reasons

 

Not sure if anyone but me even watches this show, but I didn't like the re-casting of Ray Liotta's wife from season 1 to season 2 on 'Shades of Blue'.

 

For the last season of Hogan's Heroes they replaced Kinchloe with some other guy that no one remembers.

 

I remember reading a book about M*A*S*H where Mike Farrell said that when Alan Alda first approached him about joining the show, they just wanted him to play Trapper instead of creating a new character, but he said he'd rather be a new character.

 

Mitchell Ryan was great as Burke Devlin in Dark Shadows. But, after he was fired due to his drinking problem, the character was recast with an actor named Anthony George.

Anthony George was no Mitch Ryan. The producers likely recognized this as the character of Burke Devlin was soon killed off.

Burke Devlin made the pre-Barnabas epsodes of DS tolerable. In fact, I might have even preferred him to Barnabas.

But, once the character was recast, I felt no remorse when they offed him.

 

Becky #2 on Roseanne

 

All-Righty! I always appreciate SCTV references.

 

All of the girls on The Brady Bunch were replaced by different actresses at one time or another. Jan was replaced for the Brady Bunch Variety Show, Cindy was replaced for "A Very Brady Christmas", and Marcia was replaced for the short-lived 1990 show "The Bradys".

 

On The Dukes Of Hazzard they replaced Bo and Luke with 2 other lookalike actors for a while until the originals came back.

 

On The Waltons they had a replacement actor playing the role of John-boy after Richard Thomas left the show.