Can you imagine anyone else but Keanu Reeves playing Neo from The Matrix? No, it would be a huge ask, but in the world of Hollywood where sequels and reboots are common, iconic roles eventually have to be recast. If casting and production teams are lucky, the original actor will reprise their role, but that usually doesn't happen because of numerous reasons such as scheduling conflicts, an actor's death, or creative differences. Replacing actors for an iconic role is tricky business and they run the risk of angering loyal fans. Here are actor replacements that totally ruined the movie.
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00:00When an actor leaves a hit show, it can either be a blessing or a curse.
00:05Sometimes write-outs are worked into a show very nicely, like with the revolving door
00:08on Grey's Anatomy that only adds to the drama factor.
00:11In other cases, though, a character is so essential that their disappearance downright
00:15dooms the series, especially when they're replaced by someone who doesn't have the same
00:19appeal as the original star.
00:22Duh!
00:23Here are a few TV shows that just couldn't recover from the loss and replacement of a
00:27major cast member.
00:29The Office
00:30Steve Carell was a well-known comic force from The Daily Show and Anchorman before he
00:35got his biggest break with the small-screen comedy series The Office.
00:39The show was an American adaptation of the Ricky Gervais BBC sitcom of the same name
00:44and became wildly popular with audiences.
00:46I've made you what you are and I'll get nothing back."
00:53Carell's film career started to take off shortly thereafter, with starring roles in movies
00:57like The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Little Miss Sunshine, and Crazy Stupid Love, elevating him to household
01:02name status.
01:03So in 2013, when Carell's contract with The Office was up, he opted to walk away from
01:07the series even though it was still a critical and ratings hit for NBC.
01:12The awkward, lovelorn Michael Scott finally found love with HR director Holly, and they
01:17moved away to Colorado.
01:18But Dunder Mifflin still needed a boss, and that came in the form of oily, unsettling
01:23Robert California, CEO of its parent company, Sabre.
01:27Well, I will not be blackmailed by some ineffectual, privileged, effete, soft-a** debutante."
01:34And it was all downhill from there.
01:36The show's critical favor and viewership numbers took a nosedive, and the series finally came
01:41to a close after two Carell-free seasons.
01:44The X-Files
01:45For its first six seasons, The X-Files was a huge hit for Fox and made its on-screen
01:51pair of Paranormal Investigators International stars.
01:54But prior to the start of the series' seventh season, David Duchovny sued the network, claiming
01:59that it had sold rights to reruns of the show at a discount to its own affiliates and cheated
02:04the stars out of profits.
02:06While the lawsuit was eventually settled, it was filed right when Duchovny was negotiating
02:10working on future seasons of the show, and neither he nor Fox were keen to continue working
02:15together.
02:16So, a deal was reached.
02:17Duchovny's character, Fox Mulder, would mysteriously disappear at the end of season seven, and
02:22would only appear in a handful of episodes in season eight.
02:25But Gillian Anderson's agent Scully still needed someone to work with in his absence,
02:30so producers auditioned dozens of actors and eventually settled on Robert Patrick to come
02:35in as FBI agent John Doggett.
02:37Another actress was also hired in case Anderson decided to leave the show after her contract
02:42ended, too.
02:43It didn't matter much, though, because without Duchovny in his regular role, viewers tuned
02:46out.
02:47She saved me.
02:50As difficult and as frustrating as it's been sometimes, your goddamn strict rationalism
02:53and science has saved me a thousand times over.
02:57Eight Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter
02:59This ABC sitcom was forced to reformat after the unexpected death of its star.
03:04Eight Simple Rules was built around TV legend John Ritter, who starred as a cranky suburban
03:09dad, desperately trying to rein in his wild teenage children.
03:13Dating had just begun on the second season of the series when Ritter fell ill on the
03:17set and sought medical treatment.
03:19He died later that day of a heart defect that had never been diagnosed.
03:23ABC announced that the show would go on, and it did, with some necessary changes.
03:28No longer a show about a cranky dad, it became one about a family trying to pick up the pieces
03:33after the death of its patriarch.
03:35Two new stars joined the cast to fill the void left by Ritter, cousin CJ and grandpa
03:40Jim.
03:41According to Ritter, the show only lasted another season before being shelved for good.
03:46Blue's Clues
03:47Actor-musician Steve Burns beat out roughly 1,000 other actors in 1996 for the only human
03:53role on Blue's Clues, Nickelodeon's interactive, animation-live-action hybrid show for preschoolers.
04:00Burns played the striped-shirted host and owner of the cartoon dog named Blue.
04:04He talked directly to the young viewers at home, urging them to help solve each episode's
04:08riddle or mystery by yelling things at their screens.
04:11In 2002, after about 100 episodes, Burns decided it was time to leave the series.
04:17He wanted to take on other roles, as well as perform music.
04:20Nickelodeon hired actor Donovan Patton to be the new host of Blue's Clues, playing Steve's
04:25younger brother Joe.
04:26So as not to traumatize or confuse the show's very young viewers, Steve carefully explained
04:31that he was leaving for college, and Joe would be looking after Blue.
04:36Patton as Joe proved to be the gentle and affable host Blue's Clues needed, but he just
04:42couldn't replace someone so closely associated with the role to an army of toddlers.
04:46After around 50 episodes with Patton as Joe, Blue's Clues was canceled.
04:51Scrubs
04:52This comedy about medical interns desperately trying to figure out what they were doing
04:56as they worked in a hospital was a critically acclaimed, Emmy-nominated hit over its first
05:01few seasons on NBC.
05:02The network dropped the show after seven seasons, only to see ABC pick it up.
05:07The show's writers and cast prepared a true series finale at the end of the year, only
05:12for ABC to unexpectedly renew the series again for season nine.
05:16But star Zach Braff, the focus of the show as young Dr. John Dorian, was ready to move
05:21on to other things.
05:23Onward!
05:24Yee-haw!
05:25Oh, good God.
05:29So the show was retooled and rebooted.
05:31No longer taking place at a teaching hospital, but at a medical school.
05:35Dr. Cox and Dr. Turk were now teachers instead of active surgeons.
05:39I'm just back to teach some classes.
05:42Replacing Braff as the center of the show and narrator was Dr. Lucy Bennett, but the
05:46big changes were too much to take, and the ninth season of Scrubs was also its last.
05:52Spin City
05:53Michael J. Fox returned to regular series television for the first time since the end
05:57of Family Ties with Spin City.
05:59On the ABC sitcom, he played Mike Flaherty, a wheeler-dealer for a New York City deputy
06:04mayor.
06:05Two years later, Fox announced that he'd been battling Parkinson's disease and left the
06:09show to spend more time raising funds for research on the disease.
06:13Replacing him as deputy mayor was a guy named Charlie Crawford, portrayed by Charlie Sheen.
06:19With Fox out, the show became more of a romantic comedy surrounding Sheen and Heather Locklear's
06:23characters, but viewership tanked shortly after the replacement, so ABC cut the cord
06:28on Spin City.
06:29I can't guess you guys aren't ready for that yet, but your kids are gonna love it.
06:38Designing women
06:39Delta Burke had not been happy on the set of Designing Women for years.
06:42She even claimed that a producer routinely screamed at cast members and told them they
06:46were expendable and criticized Burke when she gained weight.
06:50Are you serious?
06:51CBS grew so tired of Burke publicly trashing the show's producers and the network and the
06:56press that they fired her from the show, and co-star Jean Smart followed her out the door
07:00shortly thereafter.
07:01Every time I look over at the sofa, I kind of miss seeing her.
07:06That meant that Designing Women had lost half its main cast, but the show was still a ratings
07:10draw, so the network brought in some replacements.
07:12Now I know that all of our nerves are a little bit jangly because of this silly old money
07:17situation, but you know what we got to do?
07:20We got to look for the light.
07:22Julia Duffy arrived as Suzanne's cousin, and Jan Hooks came in as Carlene, Charlene's
07:27sister.
07:28Despite ratings on par with previous years, CBS fired Duffy after her sole season on the
07:33series and replaced her with Judith Ivey as a rich Texan widow named B.J.
07:38Poteet.
07:39It didn't do much good, because CBS moved the show to Friday nights, where it slipped
07:43into ratings oblivion and then cancellation.
07:46And that is the night the lights went out in Georgia."
07:54That 70s Show
07:56After seven seasons of riding on a high, ratings-wise at least, two of That 70s Show's main stars
08:01decided to step away from the series.
08:03Topher Grace decided to leave the show in order to more fiercely pursue his blossoming
08:07film career, and was written out of the eighth season altogether.
08:10Meanwhile, Ashton Kutcher decided his time in the bell-bottoms was done, too, but did
08:15appear for a few of season eight's early episodes.
08:18To replace two very big holes in the cast, producers hired MADtv veteran Josh Myers.
08:24His character, Randy, joins Hyde's record store Grooves, and has a brief relationship
08:29with Donna.
08:30But Randy didn't have much time to mesh with the ensemble, because the decimated cast led
08:34to diminished popularity for the show, and it was ultimately canned at the end of the
08:38season.
08:39"...you have the right to remain BIAAAAAHHHHH!"
08:44Community
08:45Even though Community never had a huge audience during its five-year run on NBC, it was still
08:50a critically-acclaimed comedy with a passionate cult following.
08:53Five seasons was ultimately NBC's limit, but internet giant Yahoo! stepped in and renewed
08:59Community for a sixth season, intending to position the comedy as a premier offering
09:04on its streaming service Yahoo!
09:06Original regulars Joe McHale, Jillian Jacobs, Danny Pudi, Ken Jeong, and Alison Brie followed
09:12the series to Yahoo!, but the show had already been losing cast members left and right, and
09:16kept losing them as it transitioned to streaming.
09:19Chevy Chase, Donald Glover, and Yvette Nicole Brown were not part of the regular cast of
09:23Community's sixth season.
09:25New actors were added, including Keith David and Padgett Brewster, but it just didn't work
09:30out, and there was no seventh season of Community on Yahoo's screen — or anywhere.
09:35Not enough people tuned in, and the show didn't generate as much advertising revenue
09:39as Yahoo! had hoped.
09:40The revenue was so small that it effectively led to the complete shutdown of Yahoo's screen.
09:45Show may be canceled and moved to the internet where it turns out tens of millions were watching
09:48the whole time.
09:49May not matter.
09:50Fake commercial may end with disclaimer gag which may descend into vain Chuck Lorre-esque
09:53rant by narcissistic creator.