What about Seinfeld's dad?!: 11 (well, 12) slightly less jarringly recast roles

We realize that Inventories are never complete,
and we rely on commentators to let us (and everybody else) know what we missed.
Since there were so many solid suggestions for "The Darrin Effect" this week, we figured we'd offer a sequel.
Some things that are still off the table: soap operas (because crazy recasting
is just par for the course) and what's referred to as SORAS (soap opera rapid
aging syndrome), in which a character rapidly ages from one season to the next
(like Chrissy Seaver on Growing Pains).

1. The two Morty Seinfelds (and Frank
Costanzas) on Seinfeld

Veteran television actor Philip Bruns played Jerry
Seinfeld's father, Morty, when the character briefly debuted in Seinfeld's second episode, "The
Stakeout." The story goes that series co-creator Larry David wanted someone
more cantankerous for the part, and Bruns was too relaxed. When Morty returned
for "The Pony Remark" in season two, he had been replaced by another television
veteran, Barney Martin, who held the role until the show went off the air in
1998. Less remembered is John Randolph, who appeared as George Costanza's
father, Frank, in one episode of season four. Although viewers can at least see
Philip Bruns as Jerry's dad in reruns, John Randolph's scenes as Frank Costanza
were re-shot with Jerry Stiller for syndication.

2. The three Jack Ryans in The Hunt For Red
October, Patriot Games/Clear And Present Danger, and The Sum Of All Fears

Jack Ryan, frequent protagonist and center of the "Ryanverse"
created by Tom Clancy's novels, has had three different faces in film
adaptations. It began in 1990 with The Hunt For Red October, where Alec Baldwin came
closest to accurately portraying Ryan's youthful vigor. When filming for the
next Clancy adaptation, Patriot Games, was delayed from 1991 to 1992, Baldwin opted out
because it conflicted with his plans to appear on Broadway. The producers then
approached Harrison Ford, who had turned down Red October, supposedly because the
film wasn't focused on Ryan's character enough. Even though Ford was a spry 49
when he made Patriot Games, Clancy considered him too old to play Ryan, whom
Clancy imagined to be in his early 30s. (Clancy later disowned the film.) Ford
continued the role in 1994's Clear And Present Danger, but turned it down for
2002's The Sum Of All Fears. In came Ben Affleck, who's 30 years younger than
Ford, forcing some major deviations from the book. Instead of being married
with children and Deputy Director of the CIA, Affleck's Ryan was an unmarried
low-level intelligence worker. Don't expect a repeat performance from Affleck,
though. The film helped nix any future he might have had as an action star, and
when word came out in March of this year that Sam Raimi was in negotiations to
do another Jack Ryan film with a younger lead, Ryan Gosling's name was
mentioned, not Affleck's. But Ford mentioned in an interview that he'd be
interested in revisiting the character.

3. The two Harriet Winslows on Family
Matters

It's tough to describe JoMarie Payton-France's
absence from Family Matters as jarring, because nobody was really watching Family
Matters
by the time she was replaced by Judyann Elder. Urkel was still the focus of the
show, the sassy Grandma was gone, and mysterious daughter Judy went up the
stairs years earlier and never came back. (The actress who played her went on
to porn and Celebrity Rehab.) But Payton, who originated the Harriet
character on Perfect Strangers, went on to bit parts in other series, taking her
husky voice with her.

4. The two Angie Jordans on 30 Rock

Again, this role change was hardly jarring: In the
character's first appearance, Tracy Jordan's wife was played—very
briefly—by Sharon Wilkins. In all subsequent episodes, she was portrayed
by the smiley Sherri Shepherd, who apparently doesn't mind portraying someone
who likes to "play rape" with her husband. Good for her!

5. The two Donnas in Twin Peaks and Twin Peaks:
Fire Walk With Me

David Lynch couldn't round up the whole cast for Twin
Peaks: Fire Walk With Me,†his big-screen
sequel/prequel to the cult-hit TV show Twin Peaks, and he opted to cut
characters like Sherilyn Fenn's Audrey instead of recasting them. (Other
favorites appeared in scenes that didn't make the final cut, leaving the town
of Twin Peaks weirdly underpopulated.) But Lara Flynn Boyle's decision to bail
left Lynch with a part he couldn't cut, so he recast her with future Cutting
Edge†star Moira Kelly. The film
is a confused mess, and Kelly, possibly the least expressive actress of her
generation, only makes it messier and more confused.

6. The two young John Connors in Terminator
2 and Terminator 3

Edward Furlong was an unknown when he palled
around with Arnold Schwarzenegger's cuddlier killer-from-the-future in Terminator
2: Judgment Day in
1991. He spent the rest of the decade battling personal demons while still
taking high-profile roles in films like Pecker†and Detroit Rock City. He was the right age to play an older
version of Connor in Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines, and the character's
struggle with drugs seemed to dovetail with Furlong's own experience. Still,
Nick Stahl got the part. Not confused enough? A third actor, Thomas Dekker,
plays Connor on the TV show Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles,†while no less than Christian Bale has signed on for the part
in the McG-directed fourth film, Terminator Salvation, out next year.

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7. The three Gordons on Sesame Street

Childhood memories are easily taintable, so hang
on. Gordon wasn't always Gordon. The African-American leader of Sesame
Street—especially
in its first couple of years—was played by Matt Robinson, who was
inexplicably replaced by moustacheless Hal Miller, who looked nothing like
Robinson. Miller stayed in the role for a couple of years, until Roscoe Orman
took it over in 1974. He holds it to this day.

8. The two Deborah Ciccerones on The
Sopranos

This one's more of a tease than a jarring change,
because only a certain segment of Sopranos watchers got to see
Fairuza Balk play the FBI agent who flips Adriana. According to Balk, the
character was only written as a one-off, and when the producers decided to make
it bigger, Balk wasn't available. Her scene was re-shot with Lola Glaudini, who
would continue in the role.

9. The two Jennifer Parkers in Back To The
Future
and its sequels

Claudia Wells debuted the character of Jennifer
Parker, Marty McFly's girlfriend, in the original Back To The Future, but dropped out of the
sequel released four years later. (Wells wouldn't make another film for more
than a decade.) Elisabeth Shue took on the role, which required a re-shoot of
the ending of the first film, which became the first scene of Back To The
Future II. Shue
would reprise the role for Back To The Future III in 1990.

10. The two Gladys Kravitzes from Bewitched

Sure, the two Darrins get all the
recognition—probably because Darrin was, y'know, Samantha's
husband—but nosy neighbor Gladys Kravitz was replaced after two seasons
because the actress who played her, Alice Pearce, died of cancer. Sandra Gould
took over the role for the remainder of the series, but never proved to anyone
that Samantha was a witch.

11. The two John-Boys on The Waltons

At the end of The Waltons' fifth season, Richard
Thomas left the show, and with him went John-Boy, the series' most popular
character. At the start of the eighth season, The Waltons' producers brought
John-Boy back in an episode that showed him recuperating in a hospital after
having his plane shot down in World War II. Only instead of the mole-faced
John-Boy audiences knew and loved, the character was played by Robert Wightman.
They do say that war changes a man…