These 13 TV Shows Famously Replaced Characters — Tell Me If You Prefer The Originals Or Newbies
by Kristen Harris · BuzzFeedSometimes, when an actor leaves a TV show for whatever reason, production recasts a new actor in the exact same role. Other times, however, the original character is written off, and the replacement actor is brought on as a completely new character.
Warning: This post contains spoilers!
Here are 13 TV characters who were famously replaced with new ones. I want to know — do you prefer the original characters or their replacements?
1. On Charmed Seasons 1-3, Shannen Doherty starred as Prue Halliwell, who was ultimately killed off. At the time, Shannen said she quit the show, but in 2023, she revealed that she was actually fired.
On her podcast Let's Be Clear with Shannen Doherty, she said, "[Producer Jonathan Levin] said, you know, 'We're basically in a position where it's one or the other. We were told [by Alyssa Milano] that it's [Shannen] or me, and Alyssa has threatened to sue us for a hostile workplace environment.'"
She also said that her reps decided to say she quit because her career wouldn't "survive another firing."
In Season 4, Rose McGowan joined the cast as Paige Matthews, the secret youngest sister.
2. On New Girl, Damon Wayans Jr. played Coach in the pilot. However, in Episode 2, Coach moved out of the main cast's apartment to live with his girlfriend because Damon was contractually obligated to continue starring in Happy Endings.
He took the New Girl role because he thought that Happy Endings was going to be canceled.
However, in Season 4, Damon returned. Schmidt moved into the apartment across the hall, so Coach moved back in with the main group. However, at the end of the season, he moved to NYC with his new girlfriend.
Damon made several more appearances throughout Seasons 5-7.
He was replaced by Lamorne Morris, who played returning roommate Winston Bishop.
3. On New Girl, Zooey Deschanel starred as Jessica Day for Seasons 1-4. However, in Season 5, Zooey went on parental leave, and Jess got sequestered while doing jury duty. Then, Zooey returned for Seasons 6-7.
For Season 5, the show brought on Megan Fox as the temporary lead. She played Reagan Lucas, who rented Jess's room while she was in town on business. Reagan stayed on as a recurring character in Season 6.
4. On The Office, Steve Carell played Michael Scott for Seasons 1-7, fulfilling his original contract. However, the network allegedly "didn't even try" to renegotiate his contract to bring him back. So, Michael moved to Colorado with his fiancé.
Editor/director Claire Scanlon told the podcast An Oral History of The Office, "I feel like NBC dropped the ball, because I knew the story behind it, which was they just never even bothered, which was just like so dumb. I don’t know what was wrong with them.”
Showrunner Greg Daniels said, "You couldn’t be mad. [Steve] was so graceful and full of integrity that you could never be mad. Because he became a huge star in season two. The fact that he was still doing 28 episodes of TV some years really put a crimp in the number of movies that he did, and it’s, I think, testament to his integrity that he went ahead and completed the whole series according to his original contract of seven years.”
Michael Scott returned as a guest star in Season 9.
In Season 8, Deangelo Vickers, played by Will Ferrell, temporarily took over as branch manager.
After a series of temporary managers, Dwight Schrute, played by Rainn Wilson, took the position.
5. On Two and a Half Men, Charlie Sheen starred as Charlie Harper for Seasons 1-8. However, the actor was fired after he publicly made disparaging comments about series creator Chuck Lorre, and the character was killed off.
Ashton Kutcher was brought in to replace him in the role of Walden Schmidt for Seasons 9-12.
6. On Two and a Half Men, Angus T. Jones played Jake Harper on Seasons 1-10. In 2012, he decided to leave the show because its content was at odds with his religious views. So, Jake left because he was stationed in Japan.
In a video for Forerunner Chronicles (per The Hollywood Reporter), Angus said, "If I am doing any harm, I don't want to be here. I don't want to be contributing to the enemy's plan…You cannot be a true God-fearing person and be on a television show like that. I know I can't. I'm not OK with what I'm learning, what the Bible says, and being on that television show."
Jake's spot on the show was filled by Charlie's estranged daughter Jenny, who was played by Amber Tamblyn.
7. On Criminal Minds, Mandy Patinkin played Jason Gideon for Seasons 1 and 2. However, he left the series because the violence against women it depicted weighed heavily on him. In the first episode of Season 3, Gideon left his job at the FBI after an especially violent case.
In 2012, Mandy told New York Magazine, "The biggest public mistake I ever made was that I chose to do Criminal Minds in the first place. I thought it was something very different. I never thought they were going to kill and rape all these women every night, every day, week after week, year after year. It was very destructive to my soul and my personality. After that, I didn't think I would get to work in television again."
He was replaced by Joe Mantegna, who played David Rossi.
8. On Three's Company, Suzanne Somers played Chrissy Snow for five seasons. In 1980, she asked for a raise from $30,000 an episode to $150,000 so her pay would match what her costar John Ritter made. However, ABC only offered a $5,000 raise. The day before Suzanne and her husband/manager Alan Hamel went back to renegotiate, he got a call from a friend with connections at the network: "They’re going to hang a nun in the marketplace, and the nun is Suzanne." She was ultimately fired. The show wrote Chrissy off by sending her home to Fresno to take care of her mom.
Alan told The Hollywood Reporter, "The network was willing to do this because earlier that year the women on Laverne & Shirley had gotten what they asked for, and they wanted to put a stop to it. They’d destroy the chemistry on Company to make a point."
She was replaced by Jenilee Harrison, who played Chrissy's cousin, Cindy Snow. However, Jenilee was reportedly written out of the show in Season 6 because she was considered too young to do double entrendes with John Ritter, who was ten years older than her. Cindy moved out of the main cast's apartment to enroll at UCLA.
Finally, Priscilla Barnes rounded out the cast as the final replacement roommate, Terri Alden.
9. On Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Michelle Beaudoin played Sabrina's best friend, Jenny Kelley. However, after Season 1, she disappeared without any explanation or further mention.
In 2016, lead actor Melissa Joan Hart told HuffPost, "Yeah, season by season our show's cast would come and go based on audience reaction, and sometimes there'd be dispute about contracts and negotiations as far as payment goes for certain actors. And just bringing in a fresh perspective from a different character.
Also, there's a lot of politics that go on behind the scenes, like when a writer develops a certain character they get paid on the [likeness] of that character for every episode. If a writer develops a character, but that writer's gone, and there's bad blood, they might get rid of the character they developed, so they didn't have to pay them anymore. There are a lot of things that go into that situation."
In Season 2, Lindsay Sloane joined the cast as Sabrina's new best friend, Valerie Birkhead. However, after Season 3, Valerie was written off when she moved to Alaska with her family.
10. On That '70s Show, Topher Grace played Eric Forman for seven seasons. However, after landing roles in movies like Ocean's Eleven, Traffic, and Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!, he reportedly decided to leave in pursuit of a film career. So, Eric moved to Africa to be a teacher for a year to earn a full college scholarship.
Initially, the network planned to recast Josh Meyers as Eric for Season 8, but they worried that would upset fans of the show. So, they cast him as Randy Pearson, a new employee at the record store, instead.
11. On The Facts of Life, Charlotte Rae played Edna Garrett for Seasons 1-7 then left at the start of Season 8. She attributed her departure to health issues. The recently remarried Mrs. G left to join the Peace Corps with her new husband.
She was replaced by Beverly Ann Stickle, played by Cloris Leachman.
12. On the CBS TV series Beauty and the Beast, Linda Hamilton starred as Catherine Chandler, who was killed off after a time jump early in Season 3. Linda reportedly opted to exit the show because of her pregnancy.
For the remainder of the final season, she was replaced by Diana Bennett, played by Jo Anderson, a police officer investigating Catherine's murder.
13. And finally, on the first season of Kevin Can Wait, Erinn Hayes played Donna Gable, the wife of Kevin James's character, Kevin Gable. However, Donna was killed off to make room for a new character played by his former King of Queens costar Leah Remini.
On Twitter, Erinn said, "True, I've been let go from the show. Very sad, I had a great experience season 1. Thank you for all the support from our wonderful fans."