15 Actors Replaced On TV Shows

It's pretty funny how completely attached we are to our favorite TV shows and to the characters in general. We believe that they are basically our best friends or even our family members and we think that we know them. The truth is that we probably know these people better than our own friends and parents and coworkers, and that would be because TV characters are so well-developed. We get to see their flaws, bad days, good days, mistakes, and so on. But sometimes shows actually replace the real life people behind the characters. Why? Do they think that no one would have any idea? We're not sure why this happens. All we know is that Hollywood is an interesting place and that continues to be proven true time and time again. Here are 15 actors who were replaced on TV shows. Yes, it confuses us too, and yes, we didn't know some of these either.

15 Lacey Chabert

You definitely know Lacey Chabert from her iconic role in Mean Girls. She said some pretty hilarious things and was absolutely adorable and super fashionable, too. Maybe you know her as Claudia on Party Of Five, too (aka one of the greatest 90s TV dramas ever). But did you know that she was a voice actor on Family Guy? Yup, she was. But then they went ahead and replaced her with Mila Kunis, who you might have heard of. She was only on That 70's Show for a while, has been in a ton of movies since then, and oh yeah, is married to Ashton Kutcher and raising his kids. You know, she's not that famous at all. This one might not be too noticeable at all because it's not like you're seeing the actress and noticing that they're been replaced since this is a cartoon. But it's still pretty interesting.

14 Dick York

This one is a total throwback. Dick York played an iconic role on Bewitched (the TV show, not the movie remake with Nicole Kidman and Will Ferrell that you might have seen). He held the role of Darrin in the 60s, and then he was replaced by Dick Sargent in the 70s. How come? Did they think no fan would ever notice? Not sure, because guess what? People did notice. Apparently, this was a pretty big deal at the time and got a lot of people talking. Hey, we don't know. We weren't even here in the 60s and 70s. But we will absolutely take their word from it because we can't even imagine if they replaced Caleb or Toby on Pretty Little Liars (actually, they did… more on that later!). It would be so confusing and so completely ridiculous. We just would never be able to handle it and it would be a shock to our system. But maybe it didn't work out too badly because tit got Dick York on the acting map and people knew who he was.

13 Barbara Bel Geddes

She was best known for playing the character of Miss Ellie Ewing on Dallas, aka the fabulously campy drama from back in the day. But even though that was an iconic role for her doesn't mean they didn't replace her. It's kind of a crazy story, actually. She left and was replaced by Donna Reed… and then came back to truly claim the role as her own. But maybe it's not really that crazy since when you think about it, being an actress is not exactly the most traditional 9-to-5 job ever. Maybe she thought she didn't want to be on the show anymore or had other stuff going on but then realized she missed it and loved it and wanted to come back. We'll never really know but it makes sense. And yes, that Donna Reed is the exact same one from The Donna Reed Show (and if you only get that reference because Rory dressed up as her in a Gilmore Girls episode, that's totally fine).

12 Maxwell Huckabee

First of all, isn't this just the coolest name ever?! Especially the coolest actor name. You may not know who this is but you know his famous role: as Bobby Draper, aka Betty and Don's son, on Mad Men. He was in seven episodes and then was replaced by Aaron Hart. But then that guy was replaced. Yes, really. Jared Gilmore then stepped in. So you may not have even noticed that Bobby Draper was played by not one, not two, but three different kid actors. But now you know. But the coolest thing about all this? You actually know who Jared Gilmore is because he plays Henry on the fun fantasy series Once Upon A Time. Think about how cool it must be to be that young and have starred on two super cool and super different TV dramas. That's truly living the life, don't you think? We definitely think so.

11 John Randolph

Sure, this name may not ring any bells, but you know the iconic role this guy played. You've heard of a little sitcom called Seinfeld, right? It's a show about nothing that actually deals with a ton of different topics. It's set in New York and it's about a group of friends that are pretty nuts and deal with everything from dating to food. Yeah, that's the one. John Randolph played George's father Frank, but he was then replaced by someone else, and then the actor Jerry Stiller came on the show and had the role. This one was super obvious and noticeable since there aren't a ton of returning characters on this show and, surprisingly, Jerry and George's parents get a whole lot of screen time. But this one doesn't upset us too much because we've been too busy laughing our heads off at this hilarious and amazing show. So that's pretty sneaky, really.

10 Missy Pyle

This actress was replaced on Two And A Half Men by a more popular name and face: Alicia Witt. You might know Alicia from a guest spot on Twin Peaks and a role on Friday Night Lights plus movies like Last Holiday and The Upside of Anger. Not sure if this was a noticeable switch or not but maybe not since the show has pretty much been focused on the fact that Charlie Sheen was on it, right? And on the fact that he has some pretty crazy antics going on all the time? Yeah, that's pretty much where our thinking is on that one. Maybe they figured no one would notice or get upset since the show is more focused on the male characters and there are so many random other characters coming in and out. And sitcoms move super fast anyway and don't usually dwell on plot lines longer than a single episode compared to dramas so maybe that was their line of thinking.

9 Philip Bruns

The actor has sadly since passed away, but he was actually the original choice for Jerry Seinfeld's dad on the show. So yes, Jerry and George both had two different dads when you think about it. Kind of interesting. The actor was then replaced by Barney Martin. This switch might not be quite as noticeable as switching up who played George's dad was, mostly because George actually moved in with his parents for a time and that was a really big plot line, so there was more of a focus on what his parents looked like and what their personalities were like. Maybe the writers and producers weren't sure how big of a role they wanted both their dads to play so they didn't hire someone for a longer period of time and just said it was a one-time thing. We don't know, of course, but it makes sense to us, so that's what we're going with.

8 Janet Hubert

She was originally Vivian Banks on that old-school sitcom The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, but then she was replaced by Daphne Maxwell Reid in 1993. Apparently, as the story goes, the original actress just didn't get along super well with Will Smith aka the real star of the show. So that really does make sense, since that, of course, is a pretty important part of any workspace. It doesn't matter if you're rich and famous and starring on a sitcom or you're a regular old person who works in a typical office environment. If you can't get along with your co-worker and it's honestly causing a whole lot of problems and chaos, you might want to think about putting -- or maybe they will leave instead. So that really does make sense to us. And not so surprisingly, this exact thing has happened a few times, and you'll see that later on.

7 James Neate

You may not know this name but you know the character he originally played, and that would be Spencer's former boyfriend Toby on the glorious drama Pretty Little Liars. He played that role in the very first episode and then later Keegan Allen came on the scene and replaced the former actor. Super fascinating, right? If you feel like you are going totally crazy because you cannot remember Toby looking super different in the pilot from how you are used to seeing him, that is totally okay. You are not crazy and it is all going to be fine. So this might have been the same kind of situation that we imagine happened on Seinfeld: maybe they did not know that Toby would end up being such a major character or they did not even think he would appear in any further episodes. It's an interesting thing to think about.

6 Anne Marie Deluise

Another Pretty Little Liars behind-the-scenes fact: Alison's mom Jessica was originally played by someone different than you might think. Anne Marie Deluise played her but was then replaced by Andrea Parker who you would definitely recognize since she has been Jessica for a much longer period of time. It looks like this juicy show has changed actors a ton of different times over the years. We guess it is pretty logical and normal since it is such a crazy show and the writers must have an interesting time juggling all the storyline and characters, especially since they have had the book series as source material to work from. Honestly we get it if you feel betrayed. Again, do not worry if you cannot possibly remember Jessica looking different because a few things have happened on the show since. Just a few. It is not like it is the craziest show you have ever seen.

5 Lisa Robin Kelly

We mentioned That 70's Show already and we are bringing up that great show again. It seems like all of our favorites have made this list! Lisa Robin Kelly played the character of Laurie but not for a super long time. She was on the show from the year 1998 until 2003 and then someone else came on the scene: Christina Moore. Sure, they both had blonde featured hair that looked a lot like Farrah Fawcett's from Charlie's Angels so at least it wasn't a huge shock since they looked similar to each other. People have speculated if the original actresses' personal problems factored into this decision since she unfortunately and tragically died in 2013 from some addiction issues. That definitely seems like it could be a possibility. So knowing that sad information, it doesn't make sense to get too worked up about this switch, so we're going to be respectful.

4 Merrin Dungey

You may not know her super well but you know the character she played. She was Naomi on two episodes of a show you might love called Grey's Anatomy. But although Naomi lived on and her character was part of the spin-off Private Practice, the actress didn't continue playing her. Merrin Dungey was replaced by the actress that you associate with Naomi: Audra McDonald. It's so interesting because it's hard to even remember seeing Naomi on Grey's, right? That honestly feels like a really long time ago and we can't exactly recall it. But really, so many crazy things happen in every single episode of this hospital drama, so it's pretty hard to keep track of all the storylines and cliffhangers. So it's nothing to do with the original actress. We bet she was awesome. What's cool about Merrin is she was also on the WB show Summerland that you might remember from your teen years and she's even been on Once Upon A Time, too.

3 Lily Nicksay

You may not know this name. And that's kind of the point here. Lily Nicksay was the actress behind the role of Morgan on Boy Meets World (aka Cory's younger sister). She played that role in the early 90s so she was a super young child actor. Then as the early 90s became the mid-90s, she was replaced by another actress named Lindsay Ridgeway. Okay, so you might think this isn't a big deal because she was just a kid and not a major character at all, but that kind of thinking is kind of confusing, right? Shouldn't supporting or side characters matter as much as the main ones? We might not have noticed that this switch happened because we were too focused on Cory and Topanga's epic childhood-to-adulthood romance. Makes sense to us. Go ahead and watch some old episodes and notice if you can even tell. You probably won't even be able to.

2 Jennifer Aniston

Okay, okay. Hold your horses and calm down. It's not that Jennifer Aniston stopped playing her super popular character Rachel Green. But here's the real story and here's why she's not the number one spot on this list: she was replaced for one scene. Okay, so one scene may not seem like a big deal and it's definitely not in the grand scheme of things aka the series' entire run. But people have pointed this out which makes it kind of awkward, to be honest. So in one episode, fans have realized that we can tell that it's not Jennifer Aniston. It was her body double or stand-in or whatever you want to call it. People have speculated that maybe they forgot about that and didn't realize they should get Jennifer Aniston back for the real shot. But wouldn't they notice when editing? We don't know and we're confused. But it just goes to show that things happen and mistakes are made, no matter what industry we're in. That's kind of comforting and nice, right?

1 Shannon Doherty

Now this is probably a story that you've heard before: Shannon Doherty was replaced on the old-school witch drama Charmed because she was way too difficult to work with. Hey, the same thing happened on Beverly Hills 90210, right? Okay, so she was never actually replaced on that 90s teen drama, but she did end up leaving the show because she just couldn't get along with the cast and she was causing all sorts of problems. So history really did repeat itself on Charmed and she ended up parting ways with the show. She was replaced by Rose McGowan who you probably knew from her iconic role in Scream (she played an awesome character in that campy horror film and was the star of a pretty unforgettable scene, too). This was well publicized and there was lots of talk about it so this was definitely not a secret and it was definitely pretty deliberate. The more you know, right?