I know they're both horrible, but which one can you put up with better??? I personally don't have TOO much of a problem with Same character different actor, because things happen. Like actors want to leave series, or conflict of interest. But to me...there is no excuse for Same Actor different character.

Same actor/actress, different character:

Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha and Serena on "Bewitched".

Patty Duke as Patty and Kathy Lane on "The Patty Duke Show".

Larry Storch as Corporal Agarn and a number of different cousins on several episodes of "F Troop".

Barbara Eden as Jeannie and Jeannie on "I dream of Jeannie"

Melissa Joan Hart as Sabrina and Katrina on "Sabrina"

I got rather tired of the Steve/Stefan thing on Family Matters, especially after they seemed to have split into two different people. (I missed how that happened.)

Two words: Chuck Cunnigham!

Chuck Cunnigham from Happy Days was played by two different actors in two different seasons.

The actress who played the original bosses' wife in the first two seasons of "Perfect Strangers". When the boss left the show, she returned as a different character.

Oh yeah, there were two different women who played Harriet Winslow. I liked the first one best. I don't know what happened to her. I hope she didn't die.

On I Love Lucy, there were actors and actresses who played different characters at different times too numerous to mention. None of that bothered me though.

Some that I can think of:

I. Same actor, different characters:

1. Sam Anderson - played both the person at the bank who gave Balki his checks when he learned about checking and Mr. Gorpley at the Chicago Chronicle on Perfect Strangers.

2. Florence Henderson and Robert Reed - played both Mike and Carol Brady as well as Carol's grandmother Connie Hutchins and Mike's grandfather Hank Brady in Episode #93, "You're Never Too Old", on The Brady Bunch

3. Ann B. Davis - played both Alice Nelson as well as her cousin Emma in Episode #69, "Sergeant Emma", on The Brady Bunch

4. There have been several instances where Bronson Pinchot plays a character other than Balki on Perfect Strangers. Come to think of it, I remember one episode in which Melanie Wilson and Rebecca Arthur played characters that looked just like Jennifer Lyons and Mary Ann Spencer, respectively, at a restaurant. Niko, from Greece, was played by Bronson Pinchot IIRC.

II. Different actors, same character:

1. Richard Thomas and Robert Wightman, John Boy Walton on The Waltons

2. Does it count that Patricia Neal played Olivia Walton in the 1971 movie "The Homecoming" but Michael Learned played Olivia during the series The Waltons?

Friends had David Schwimmer play both Ross and Russ.

Diff'rent Strokes had two people play Maggie McKinley. Conrad Bain also played Mr. Drummond and I believe Phillip Drummond's Aunt.

Cheers had Rhea Perlman play Carla Tortelli and her sister whose name escapes me.

Originally posted by TheFonz
Two words: Chuck Cunnigham!

Chuck Cunnigham from Happy Days was played by two different actors in two different seasons.
*nods* I liked them both, but #1 was better.

I liked Patty Duke as both, because that was the concept of the show.

I hate when its a different actor, but Darrin (Bewitched) didnt bother me too bad. York was MUCH better though.

Ugh.. when Mike & Carol played the greatparents, I thought I was gonna be sick. I mean..whos GREATgrandparents do that?!?

SAME CHARACTER, DIFFERENT ACTOR:
MASH
Father Mulcahy - George Morgan played him in the first episode; William Christopher was there for the rest of the series.

Bewitched
Gladys Kravitz - Alice Pearce, then Sandra Gould
Louise Tate - Irene Vernon, then Kasey Rogers


SAME ACTOR, DIFFERENT CHARACTER:
Addams Family
Carolyn Jones played both Morticia and her sister Ophelia.

Get Smart
In one episode Don Adams played (of course) Maxwell Smart, but also was some member of royalty that Max was standing in for to catch the culprits in an assassination plot.

And then, of course, while some consider this next show to be a drama, I always saw it as a sitcom. Sooooooo...

Batman
Adam West - Bruce Wayne and Batman
Burt Ward - Dick Grayson and Robin
Yvonne Craig - Barbara Gordon and Batgirl

Also, in one episode of Home Improvement Richard Karn played both Al Borland and his brother Cal.

The first thing I thought of was on Hogan's Heroes, when Ivan Dixon left, he was replaced by Kenneth Washington, but the character changed. Well, the name changed, Kinch and Baker were practically the same person.

But I liked that better than if Washington would have come in as Kinch.

Jon Lovitz played three different characters on NewsRadio - a psycho in a ward befriended by Bill McNeil, a man about to jump off of the WNYX building, and finally Max Louis after the death of Phil Hartman.

Originally posted by ¤MsConanOBrien¤
I hate when its a different actor, but Darrin (Bewitched) didnt bother me too bad. York was MUCH better though.

Although everybody knows that Dick York played "Darrin #1" and Dick Sargent played "Darrin #2", here's a bit of trivia that many people may not know:

When Elizabeth Montgomery and her husband, Producer William Asher, were first casting the various roles on "Bewitched", they originally wanted Dick Sargent to play the part of Darrin right from the start. Sargent was unable to do the show because of other commitments, and so Dick York was given the role instead. Several years later, when York had to leave the show due to his health problems, they immediately approached Dick Sargent again about joining the cast as "Darrin", and this time he was available. The rest, as they say, is TV history.