True. Although, he did get 1st billing on Homicide in Seasons 4-7 but that's just because they were going alphabetically.
Has this ever happened in a TV show or movie...
- Thread starter gblews
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True. Although, he did get 1st billing on Homicide in Seasons 4-7 but that's just because they were going alphabetically.
Okay, so why don't you provide a couple of examples that you know of and illustrate the concept for the rest of us poor schlubs?
Melakon, how the FRACK did you remember the ancient TV shows, December Bride and Pete and Gladys?I haven't thought or heard of these shows in a hundred years. But I don't think Pete was a lead character on December Bride.
I'm over 60, I used to watch both shows when they were still on network. I had to confirm some dates and character/actor names through Wiki though, brain cells and all that at an advanced age, don't you know.
But most of the responses, including mine, seem to be about supporting characters, not the leads. It would be like saying George Takei spun off into Captain Sulu.
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For a single actor ancient example, there's Arthur Lake, who did a long-running series of films with Penny Singleton, the original Jane Jetson, as Dagwood and Blondie Bumstead for Columbia, based on the comic strip. Those were often shown as the second half of double features during the 40s. They were also doing a radio series as the characters at the same time. In the late 50s, Lake did Dagwood again for a TV series with a different co-star.
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Robert Downey, Jr as Iron Man. Lead character in a trilogy of films, moved to The Avengers, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, and will be in Captain America: Civil War.
Chris Evans as Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor would qualify, too.
Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in the X-Men trilogy, before goin on to play the character in a prequel & sequels to the trilogy.
That count?
I'm surprised that no one mentioned this, but how about Captain Elizabeth Lochely from Babylon 5 Season 5 and "A Call To Arms", "River of Souls", "The Lost Tales" to Crusade? Sure she didn't appear in every episode, but she was credited as being part of the main cast, unlike Doctor Franklin who appeared in one episode and (I forget the actor's name) was billed as a "Special Guest Star" on that one episode.
Or what was that spin-off of Golden Girls (Golden Palace)? It's been about 20 years since I saw the spin-off, but didn't it have one of the Golden Girls as one of the main cast members?
If you're counting nonfiction, Siskel and Ebert did the same gig on three consecutive TV shows while each of their previous series continued with replacements.
For some reason, they got the kookie idea to call it Gloria.
I thought Kookie was on 77 Sunset Strip.
Seriously, the OP has disqualified all spinoffs because the conditions (as I read them) are
1) lead actors from one series
2) move into another already existing series
3) while retaining lead actor status
and 4) this somehow doesn't result in the franchises merging.
This sounds contradictory, but it might be possible. It would require established characters from outside the franchise to move in and displace the main cast. That's gotta be rare.
Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein might qualify. It's supposed to be in-continuity with the other Universal monster flicks; therefore, it's part of an existing series. The boys came from their own series of movies where they were the leads. They retain that status here. The only problem is they're playing the established character types they always play -- but with different names, as in their other films. Whether that counts as playing the same characters is debatable.
If you're willing to count "Bud Abbott" and "Lou Costello" as characters (regardless of what they're called onscreen), then it fits.
Seriously, the OP has disqualified all spinoffs because the conditions (as I read them) are
1) lead actors from one series
2) move into another already existing series
3) while retaining lead actor status
and 4) this somehow doesn't result in the franchises merging.
This sounds contradictory, but it might be possible. It would require established characters from outside the franchise to move in and displace the main cast. That's gotta be rare.
Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein might qualify. It's supposed to be in-continuity with the other Universal monster flicks; therefore, it's part of an existing series. The boys came from their own series of movies where they were the leads. They retain that status here. The only problem is they're playing the established character types they always play -- but with different names, as in their other films. Whether that counts as playing the same characters is debatable.
If you're willing to count "Bud Abbott" and "Lou Costello" as characters (regardless of what they're called onscreen), then it fits.
How about the Zorro TV series that Disney made? Zorro ran for 2 seasons before being cancelled, but then Disney made 4 (or 8 episodes, when you take into account that they were hour long shows, while the rest of the series was half-hour episodes in length) episodes on his Disneyland/Wonderful World Of Color anthology show?
Let me take a stab at this:
Lorne Greene as Commander Adama, Battlestar Galactica and Galactica 1980. He was certainly a main character in both series.
Or does this break the OP's conditions? Would it have to be something like Lorne Greene's Adama moves from BSG and becomes a main character on Magnum P. I. or Dallas?
Lorne Greene as Commander Adama, Battlestar Galactica and Galactica 1980. He was certainly a main character in both series.
Or does this break the OP's conditions? Would it have to be something like Lorne Greene's Adama moves from BSG and becomes a main character on Magnum P. I. or Dallas?
I think one major reason this doesn't happen a lot is due to royalties and legalities. I remember years ago when Disney was making the cartoon "TaleSpin" they were using all the characters (except Mowgli) from the 1960's "The Jungle Book" movie, right down to the level of having all the voices sound the same as the movie voices. But Disney didn't realize that the original voice-actor for Louie had a clause in his contract saying that Disney could not duplicate his voice and voice-acting in the movie without his written permission, something they never did for "TaleSpin", and the widow wasn't made aware of it until "The Jungle Book 2" was in pre-production, at which point the widow sued.
It's a common English phrase meaning "and the rest":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uncle_Tom_Cobley
Them Hobbits all sound like they come from Devon, anyway.
Okay, Mulder and Skully move from X-Files to Men in Black. They remain Mulder and Skully, played by David and Gillian, and remain the lead actors in MIB. One franchise to a completely different franchise, in different universe, with characters remaining the same and remaining the leads.
Dean and Sam Winchester move from Supernatural to Fringe. They remain the same characters, remain leads, but in completely different franchise in different universe.
Sounds like same universe.
Do I even need to say, same universe, here?
Add different in story universe, which eliminates a lead Star Trek character moving to a different Trek series as a lead character, and I think you have it.
Maybe. Bud and Lou were always the same characters in all their movies even though the names changed. Might be same universe, though.
Same franchises.
Yes, that's it.
One that hasn't been mentioned is Degrassi, or more precisely Degrassi: The Next Generation. Major characters from Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High carried over their characters to D:TNG as parents of new kids. They also carried over prior history, with some storylines being not only referenced, but continued from their older days as teenagers. The series as a result, not only focused on the new set of kids, but the parents who also got their fully-fledged storylines. I've yet to see a TV show that went to that same extent.
The following is said with peace and love:
I love this thread. It is completely off the rails. Nearly every example given is exactly what the OP didn't want (spinoffs and/or non-major characters), quite possibly because the OP has come up with a scenario that probably never actually happened, as witnessed by the wild examples of what he/she was looking for (Commander Adama joins Magnum PI as a main character).
I love this thread. It is completely off the rails. Nearly every example given is exactly what the OP didn't want (spinoffs and/or non-major characters), quite possibly because the OP has come up with a scenario that probably never actually happened, as witnessed by the wild examples of what he/she was looking for (Commander Adama joins Magnum PI as a main character).
What about John Ritter's character (Jack Tripper) in the shows "Three's Company" and "Three's a Crowd?" Or the Roper characters in "Three's Company" and "The Ropers."
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Then the simple answer to your question is NO, it doesn't fucking happen and never has, for the simple reason that characters are valuable intellectual property, and lead characters are what you build the franchises on, and no studio, network or production company in its right mind would transplant the lead characters from one successful franchise to be leads in a completely different franchise because the most likely outcome of such a stupid move would be the death of both franchises, because you took the backbone of one and dropped into another where it completely wouldn't fit!
So no, Kirk and Spock never took over command of Alpha Moonbase, Jim West and Artemis Gordon never ran a herd of cattle on Rawhide, and the notion of Commander Adama in Hawaii ordering Magnum around is just retarded.
You asked a "What if" question in the form of a historical one. You shouldn't be surprised at the responses you're getting.
The only other thing I can think of was that after the soap opera One Life to Live was cancelled, it was later resurrected as an online web series called Prospect Place, and many of the same actors (with their characters) continued, albeit with storylines that were edgier than what could be shown on network TV.
Three of OLTL's characters crossed over to General Hospital (same actors) and wrapped up their OLTL storylines via guest appearances from OLTL characters who were not crossing over, and then they started new ones at GH.
Prospect Place got upset that GH had made decisions regarding PP's storylines and threw a hissy fit, saying "You can't have those characters anymore, they belong to us." The problem was that the actors were still on contract. So the characters were very abruptly written out; in one scene it happened off-screen via a one-sided phone call. Then a few weeks later the actors came back as new characters.
I know this doesn't exactly fit the OP's criteria, since it's soaps in all cases. But I should think that there's a difference between TV and a webseries, and the weird way GH was forced to handle these characters.
Otherwise... The Flintstones. Cartoon and live-action movie.
Three of OLTL's characters crossed over to General Hospital (same actors) and wrapped up their OLTL storylines via guest appearances from OLTL characters who were not crossing over, and then they started new ones at GH.
Prospect Place got upset that GH had made decisions regarding PP's storylines and threw a hissy fit, saying "You can't have those characters anymore, they belong to us." The problem was that the actors were still on contract. So the characters were very abruptly written out; in one scene it happened off-screen via a one-sided phone call. Then a few weeks later the actors came back as new characters.
I know this doesn't exactly fit the OP's criteria, since it's soaps in all cases. But I should think that there's a difference between TV and a webseries, and the weird way GH was forced to handle these characters.
Otherwise... The Flintstones. Cartoon and live-action movie.
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