16 Times TV Show Characters Were Replaced With Basically The Same Person

Three's Company became a wildly popular sitcom due to the comedic chemistry between the three main characters: Janet, Jack, and Chrissy. However, when Suzanne Somers left the show due a salary dispute, the producers had to replace Chrissy somehow, and brought in Jennilee Harrison in Seasons 5 and 6 as Chrissy's cousin, Cindy.

Cindy shared many traits with Chrissy, and took over Chrissy's job working for Mr. Hadley, in addition to moving into her bedroom. Cindy's main distinct trait was her clumsiness, leading to many exaggerated physical gags. Later, Cindy was also phased out to be replaced yet again by Terri, played by Priscilla Barnes (who had also auditioned for the role of Cindy). 

Dr. Doug Ross and Nurse Carol Hathaway were one of the main romances at the Cook County General Hospital on ER. However, when Ross left due to Clooney deciding to pursue a film career, Luka Kovač swooped in to take Dr. Ross's place. Though his personality was distinct, Kovač shared several qualities with Ross including a love for children, and interest in Carol Hathaway. But when Hathaway left the show a season later (to go start a family with Ross), Abby Lockhart stepped up, from a guest role as Hathaway's delivery nurse, to a series regular working through her med school rotation in the ER.

Kovač and Lockhart began a relationship with plenty of ups and downs to capture the interest of romance-seeking fans after Ross and Hathaway's love story was over. 

The first episode of New Girl shows Jess moving in with a group of male friends: Nick, Schmidt, and Coach. However, Damon Wayans Jr., who played Coach, departed the show immediately after the pilot, due to a commitment on another sitcom, Happy Endings, which he did not expect to get renewed. The show worked his departure into the plot, when the roommates searched for someone to fill Coach's room and found the new series regular, Winston, played by Lamorne Morris.

Winston was said to be a former roommate of theirs, and thus already had existing relationships and dynamics with the other guys, keeping Jess as the "New Girl" she was meant to be. However, Winston and Coach were both so beloved in their own right that Coach returned to the series in Season 3, and remained a part of the show for the rest of its run. 

Cora Hale joined the ensemble of Teen Wolf in Season 3 as the younger sister of Derek Hale, and a werewolf just like the rest of her family. She bonded with the teen characters, Scott and Stiles, and was one of the first female werewolves in the main cast, but disappeared halfway through Season 3 and never returned.

The episode after Cora left, Malia Tate appeared, a were-coyote who grew up without knowing her real family and primarily lived in her wild coyote form out in the woods. The main characters took her into their group and helped her adjust to regular life, with Malia growing to be a major part of the ensemble, and eventually one of the leads as more and more series regulars departed over the course of the show. It was even revealed later on that Malia was also a member of the Hale family, with Peter Hale as her father, making her Cora's cousin, and deepening their similarities. 

If you weren't watching too closely, you may not have even noticed this cast replacement, since this pairing was almost comically identical to the leads they stepped in for. Bo and Luke were well-known as the fun-loving Duke brothers, fighting against Boss Hogg's schemes in Hazzard County, GA. However, in Season 5, stars John Schneider and Tom Wopat were locked in an intense salary dispute with the network, so the writers had to improvise a solution: enter Coy and Vance, a couple of Duke cousins who showed up out of the blue to take over while Bo and Luke supposedly went to compete in a NASCAR race.

The cousins were nearly identical to Bo and Luke in every aspect of their personalities, since the change was so last-minute and the scripts were written with Bo and Luke in mind. By the end of Season 5, the dispute was settled, and Bo and Luke returned to grace Hazzard County with their infamous Dodge Charger, much to the delight of fans.

You'd think a show centered on the "Power of Three" would die when one of its three sisters died, but Charmed navigated Shannen Doherty's departure between the third and fourth seasons extremely well. Doherty's character, Prue died fighting a powerful demon at the end of Season 3, and Rose McGowan joined in Season 4, playing Paige, half-sister to the Halliwells, Phoebe and Piper. An earlier plot had established their mother had an affair with her whitelighter, so Paige was neatly written into the show as a half-witch, half-whitelighter child.

Paige had a similar power to Prue's, with her telekinesis functioning slightly differently due to her whitelighter half, but she did fill a different dynamic within the trio as the youngest sibling, whereas Prue was the oldest. One might have a preference for the plot of either the Prue or Paige seasons, but both characters were beloved by fans in their own right, due to their distinct personalities.