Best cast changes in non sci-fi shows you have watched over the years?

[Doggeh]

Re: Best cast changes in non sci-fi shows you have watched over the ye

Overall, I liked the cast changes in MASH. Though I do prefer Blake and Trapper over Potter and BJ, I still thought they were great characters.

One of the main reasons I liked Blake was for the interactions between him and Radar. They worked so well together.

My least favorite change for that show was when Radar left though. He was my favorite character and the last few seasons without him just werent as entertaining.

ER has gone through so many changes it makes my head spin. I didn't follow the series that well but it obviously worked given how long the show lasted.

 

[Possum]

Re: Best cast changes in non sci-fi shows you have watched over the ye

As I've been watching Gunsmoke on Netflix I must say the addition of Ken Curtis to replace Dennis Weaver. Curtis as Festus added so much to the show- a lot more humor and a good foil for Doc. Poor Weaver just didn't seem to get good writing. His character, Chester Goode, just hangs around Matt and helps occasionally and doesn't do much at all and doesn't have much of a personality. Festus does a lot for the character of Doc as well- he is no longer just the grousing old Docter. Before Curtis it is like McCoy without Spock.

MASH did the best for adding in new and better characters. And as I've seen a couple people mention Worf on DS9- I totally and completely disagree. I think the show would have been much better without him.

 

[Harvey]

Re: Best cast changes in non sci-fi shows you have watched over the ye

Jimmy showed that NYPD Blue could continue without Caruso/Kelly and was the perfect replacement for Sheen/Bartlett in the West Wing. I understand also that he's been great in Dexter (joining in the 2nd season).

Smits joins Dexter for the third season. He was also great during the final two seasons of The West Wing.

The Wire - introduced new characters every season, by dint of its focussing on a different part of the city every season (cops, workers, politicians, teachers, the press). The schoolkids introduced in season 4 stand out as particularly impressive.

Absolutely. Michael K. Williams (Omar Little) was very welcome as a regular beginning in the third season (though his role was about the same each year). Tommy Carcetti became another leading character starting in the third season. The kids in the fourth season are great. I could go on and on...

 

[Aragorn]

Re: Best cast changes in non sci-fi shows you have watched over the ye

You know, the rap Ted McGinley has is pretty inaccurate (but people do tend to like repeating wrong stuff). Married With Children has a lot more Jefferson seasons than Steve seasons. And regarding his other shows, if anything, he joins them after they've already declined and they somehow manage to chug out a few more years out of them.

 

[DevilEyes]

Re: Best cast changes in non sci-fi shows you have watched over the ye

MASH did the best for adding in new and better characters. And as I've seen a couple people mention Worf on DS9- I totally and completely disagree. I think the show would have been much better without him.

I think the show worked well with him, but could have worked quite well without him, as well. It's certainly an exaggeration to say that he raised the quality a lot of anything.

 

[Christopher]

Re: Best cast changes in non sci-fi shows you have watched over the ye

My least favorite change for that show was when Radar left though. He was my favorite character and the last few seasons without him just werent as entertaining.

Yeah, but the fact that he was visibly losing his hair (and otherwise outgrowing his boyish appearance) made it hard for him to keep playing an innocent man-child. He didn't really fit the character any longer, or vice-versa.

 

[Doggeh]

Re: Best cast changes in non sci-fi shows you have watched over the ye

My least favorite change for that show was when Radar left though. He was my favorite character and the last few seasons without him just werent as entertaining.

Yeah, but the fact that he was visibly losing his hair (and otherwise outgrowing his boyish appearance) made it hard for him to keep playing an innocent man-child. He didn't really fit the character any longer, or vice-versa.

Yeah, this is true. Heh, guess it woulda been kinda hard to explain his older appearance when the Korean Conflict only lasted 3 years. Plus I think he wanted out of the show in order to spend more time with family.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Re: Best cast changes in non sci-fi shows you have watched over the ye

And they didn't replace him, they just gave Klinger an expanded role, which was good.

 

[RandyS]

Re: Best cast changes in non sci-fi shows you have watched over the ye

On Cheers, I've always been more partial to Woody than Coach. Maybe not so much Rebecca over Diane though. Also enjoyed the addition of Frasier. Of course that led the way for his own show which I love.

Oh and I agree with RJDiogenes. MASH always did cast replacements well.

I agree too, but I've always liked Henry, Frank and Trapper every bit as much as Potter, BJ and Charles.

If anything hurt MASH, it wasn't the cast changes, it was the writing. The show worked much better as a comedy with dramatic overtones (early to mid-series), than it did as a drama with comedic overtones (later years).

 

[DarkHorse]

Re: Best cast changes in non sci-fi shows you have watched over the ye

Law & Order has made many great cast changes over the years:
To me, the show doesn't even exist pre-Jack McCoy.

McCoy was good, but I liked Stone better.

I am another Stone fan. I love to watch the early L&O episodes with Stone, Robinette and Claire. McCoy is tolerable as long as the assistant is superb (Jamie, Abby, and Rubirosa).

All of the MASH changes were great; I am an avid fan of The Shield, but the Glenn Close year escapes my memory as being anything significant.

I am surprised no one has mentioned Dick York/Dick Sargeant for Bewitched.

 

[Jayson]

Re: Best cast changes in non sci-fi shows you have watched over the ye

I just thought of another good one. How about "Seinfeld" adding Elanie to the show, even though she wasn't in the pilot episode.

Jason

 

[RandyS]

Re: Best cast changes in non sci-fi shows you have watched over the ye

I am surprised no one has mentioned Dick York/Dick Sargeant for Bewitched.

I don't know how anybody else feels about this one, but for me, like MASH, it's a writing issue. Dick Sargent came in, and instead of continuing the show, (which, admittedly they didn't to some extent), most of their stories were rehashes of episodes that Dick York did.

Of course, this is not Dick Sargent's fault.

And before anybody brings it up, Bewtiched is not Sci-Fi, but rather a fantasy sitcom, I know.

 

[Mysterion]

Re: Best cast changes in non sci-fi shows you have watched over the ye

Overall, I liked the cast changes in MASH. Though I do prefer Blake and Trapper over Potter and BJ, I still thought they were great characters.

IMO, the best period of MASH is the batch of episodes is after Blake leaves, and you've still got Burns and they add BJ and Potter. I don't think it's more than a dozen or so episodes, but the writing just seemed to hit a good stride there.

 

[tharpdevenport]

Re: Best cast changes in non sci-fi shows you have watched over the ye

To me it seemd like they were struggling for reasons to keep Burns there.

 

[darthraidr]

Re: Best cast changes in non sci-fi shows you have watched over the ye

deadwood, west wing have been mentioned... and the bit about seinfeld reminded me of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" the addition of Leon was awesome

 

[Christopher]

Re: Best cast changes in non sci-fi shows you have watched over the ye

I don't know how anybody else feels about this one, but for me, like MASH, it's a writing issue. Dick Sargent came in, and instead of continuing the show, (which, admittedly they didn't to some extent), most of their stories were rehashes of episodes that Dick York did.

That's because most of their episodes had been formulaic from the second season onward; it was hardly new. The original showrunner, Danny Arnold, had made Bewitched a smart, thoughtful comedy that kept the magical gimmickry to a minimum and used Sam's witch identity mainly as an allegory for gender, class, and race relations and power dynamics within marriage. But then he left after the first season and it became a much shallower, more gimmicky and formulaic show.

IMO, the best period of MASH is the batch of episodes is after Blake leaves, and you've still got Burns and they add BJ and Potter. I don't think it's more than a dozen or so episodes, but the writing just seemed to hit a good stride there.

Not sure what "it" you mean when you say "it's ... a dozen or so episodes." If you mean between Henry's departure and the arrival of BJ and Potter, that was no time at all; Henry left in the 3rd-season finale, BJ was added in the 2-part 4th-season premiere, and Potter arrived in the episode right after that (though they were produced in the opposite sequence and are usually aired out of story order in syndication). If you mean between Henry's departure and Frank's departure, that was two whole seasons, 48 episodes. Or do you just mean that roughly the first half of the 4th season was particularly well-written?

 

[PK95]

Re: Best cast changes in non sci-fi shows you have watched over the ye

The first one that came to my mind was when Anna Belknap replaced Vanessa Ferlito on CSI New York. I have only seen the first three seasons but I have enjoyed Lindsay as a character and think that she and Carmine Giovinazzo have good chemistry together...got to get around to buying season four soon.

There were some additions to Alias that I enjoyed as well....David Anders, Mia Maestro, Rachel Nichols, and Amy Acker. Even when the show was not at its best I thought these actors really shined.