Name a TV show where an actor leaves the series and then a co star becomes the lead by default. It doesn't matter whether comedy, drama or talk show. Let's try to dig and see how many we can come up with.

The Royal Family: Redd Roxx passed on and while Della Reese was his lead co-star, she and Jackee became the head stars with Della Reese in front.

8 Simple Rules: Similar to The Royal Family. John Ritter's death caused Katey Sagal to become the lead of the show.

This happens fairly often on hour-dramas, particularly the kind with ensemble casts...

on "Beverly Hills, 90210": Kelly was originally a supporting character, but when Brenda proved to be less popular with viewers, Kelly quickly became one of the leads. Donna was a minor character in the early seasons, but eventually became one of the two female leads.

on "E.R.", Abby started as a minor character and became a leading character fairly quickly.
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Good Times: After Esther Rolle and John Amos left, Ja'Net DuBois (Willona Woods) became top billed.

California Dreams: After Brentley Gore left, Kelly Packard was the head of the ensemble cast.

An obvious one would be Happy Days where Fonzie went from recurring to main cast to lead actor.

Okay- I'll have to think on this one. What about "Good Times"? When John Amos left the show and his character was killed off, J.J. seemed to jump up even more as a lead character, along with Florida.

On the UK Sci Fi classic, Blake's 7, the character of Avon, Blake's presumptive second in command, took over the lead role after Blake disappeared during the Andromedan War (in reality, Gareth Thomas ("Blake") decided to leave to pursue his craft with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Okay- I'll have to think on this one. What about "Good Times"? When John Amos left the show and his character was killed off, J.J. seemed to jump up even more as a lead character, along with Florida.


What I'm actually looking for is when a main character departs a series and which supporting actor gets the lead. Now, Janet DuBois took over with Jimmie Walker in that co star lead with her after Ms Rolle left.


Actually, I think I understand you, now. John Amos leaves and Jimmie steps in. Makes sense DISREGARD first paragraph.

BTW, its good to hear from you, Mac Leaper. I hope you're well. ;)

The Waltons - When Richard Thomas left, Ralph Waite and Michael Learned became top billed.

Little House On The Prairie - When Michael Landon left, Melissa Gilbert got top billing.

Love that Girl: Tatyana Ali left and then supporting Bresha Webb became "that girl" and the lead character although she has not had a lot of front burner main storylines.

A Different World: Lisa Bonet quit the show and Jasmine Guy rose to top billing.

the family step by step once they added Cody kind of took over with the family.

What I'm actually looking for is when a main character departs a series and which supporting actor gets the lead. Now, Janet DuBois took over with Jimmie Walker in that co star lead with her after Ms Rolle left.


Actually, I think I understand you, now. John Amos leaves and Jimmie steps in. Makes sense DISREGARD first paragraph.

BTW, its good to hear from you, Mac Leaper. I hope you're well.

Okay- cool. Yep, doing well. Thanks. Hope all is good with you too.:) :cool:

I don't know if this exactly counts, but I thought it might be worth mentioning one of my favorite shows- The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries. This show is a little complicated in its history, but basically- it started as a mid-season replacement with a Hardy Boys episode and Nancy Drew episode alternating each week in the first season. When it came time for Season 2 [the only full season, by the way], apparently the producers decided The Hardy Boys were more popular in the ratings [I believe that's what it was]- in any case, for whatever reason, the setup changed and Nancy Drew now primarily showed up in crossover episodes with The Hardy Boys- though Nancy still got three solo episodes as well this season. Pamela Sue Martin got frustrated with the dimunization of her role (I guess you can't really blame her) and so she left the series midway through Season 2. Janet Louise Johnson (now known as Janet Julian) took over as Nancy Drew for a 2-part episode and then 2 more episodes- all of them crossover episodes with The Hardy Boys.
By Season 3 (which was a short-lived 10 episodes), Nancy Drew's character was dropped altogether and the show's name changed to simply "The Hardy Boys" and it now only featured Parker Stevenson as Frank Hardy and Shaun Cassidy as Joe Hardy.
I guess this may not fit as well, since Frank and Joe had always been lead characters anyway- but now they were the sole lead characters.

I thought of a similar situation, but I think this is more of a deal where an actor suddenly left the series either by the actor's death or the person just left the series altogether over a dispute or something.
And then new characters were added to the show, rather than supporting characters stepping up more.
This is the case with the mid-'80s show "Cover Up". It started out starring Jennifer O'Neill and Jon-Erik Hexum. However, after having filmed the pilot and 7 episodes, Hexum had a tragic accident on set and wound up killing himself. (He was playing Russian Roulette with a prop gun loaded with blanks and jokingly put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger.)
When Hexum died, Antony Hamilton stepped in as a new character to work alongside Jennifer O'Neill's character. They finished the season and the show was cancelled due to mediocre ratings.
This example may be a bit out of the scope of the thread here, but I thought it might be worth mentioning.

21 Jump Street- Johnny Depp leaves and then Holly Robinson gets first billing and leads the ensemble.

The Golden Girls - Bea Arthur leaves the series and then it becomes the Golden Palace and Betty White takes over as the lead for the ensemble.

Hosea Chanchez- The Game. Tia Mowry left and Hosea Chanchez along with Wendy Raquel Robinson are at the helm.

Wonderful choices. I remember many of these shows and the characters.

Charlie's Angels - When Kate Jackson left, Jaclyn Smith became the lead.

Petticoat Junction - When Bea Benederet (Kate) passed away, Edgar Buchanan (Uncle Joe) got top billing.

Well, Law and Order: SVU: Mariska Hargitay took over officially as lead when the other co star left the series.


Larry Hagman became the lead of the show "Dallas" afterwhile. The show was originally supposed to focus on the characters Patrick Duffy and Victoria Principal portrayed on the show.

I have another one: Tichina Arnold from "Martin" stepped up when Tisha Campbell left the show. Many of the episodes from season five was centered around characters "Martin" and "Pam". Tichina Arnold was good at comedy and proved it in this season.

How about a double? When series leads Gabe Kaplan and John Travolta left WBK, their respective camps were taken over by Marcia Strassman (authority/home) and Arnold Horshack (Sweathogs).

Horshack? I never thought that he was a lead by default. I know he had some storyline but I never thought about it that way. Interesting. Now, Julie, I can see that for sure. Suddenly, she was at the school working there under Woodman and being a teacher.

Urkel from Family Matters kind of went from supporting to lead.

Can the OP define a "lead character?"

For example, in shows such as Cheers with an ensemble cast, there were several "leads."

*Hangin' With Mr. Cooper: When Dawnn Lewis left, Marquise Wilson (Tyler) became a regular cast member. Also, Omar Gooding (Earvin) became a regular cast member once Nell Carter left.

the family step by step once they added Cody kind of took over with the family.
Although Cody was popular he never got top billing, I think he was used more in the cold openings and the tag ends like he would be onto some sort of wacky journey and the end results would backfire on him.