They didn't seem to fit in the cast

Oh come now: crazy Claudia had an edge. I think Kirby was way worse in the looks department with her bushy brow and dangerous knockers.

Wendie Mallick is wonderful in many roles, but she did not fit in at all on "Frasier".

She and Pamela Sue Martin were probably the best actresses on the show; Joan and Stephanie, too, of course.

Jan Hooks didn't fit on "Designing Women". They should've fired everyone except her and called it "Designing Woman".

This is an interesting thread OP. Kudos. I have to think about it.

Ugh, I hated Kirby on Dynasty. Such a whiny little princess. Just as bad as that insufferable little bitch Linday Blaisdel. Loved Claudia but they did her dirty with that exit.

I meant "Lindsay".

r6 Whatever.

Unlike all the show's crazy fans, I still don't think Laura Linney belongs on Ozark. She always acts like she's too good for everything. I am NOT one of her fans and she makes the show unwatchable, to me.

Nutty Claudia was one of my favorite characters on Dynasty. My dad purchased a Cessna 185 when the show was at its zenith and let me name the plane, and so she was named Claudia. His previous aircraft, a Cessna 180, was named by my sister after another TV character, Mrs. Wiley from The Andy Griffith Show. Claudia was eventually sold in the early 90s and, sadly, crashed somewhere in the Canadian wilderness in the 00s.

Although I love his sick, twisted self, Helmut Berger playing Fallon's straight love interest was absurd to the point or parody -- even for "Dynasty." He gave new, sneering panache to dialing it in, and was both much too highbrow and oddly much too low for that role.

I ADORE your sister, R10!

Doris Day on The Doris Day Show

Remember Charlene Tilton was trotted-out once per show on "Dallas". She looked great but had nothing to do. There was hardly ever a story line involving her.

Though petite, she was very pretty. But she didn't seem to have what it takes to forge a career, and pretty much faded with the show.

I saw Charlene Tilton on late night tv the other night shilling for some law firm with a class action lawsuit about CPAFs.

Julia Duffy on DW.

Rose McGowan on Charmed.

The endless Brenda replacements on 90210.

Cousin Oliver.

Jamie Rose (Vickie #1) on Falcon Crest.

Kayleighyly Kuohocko, or however you fucking spell it, on Big Bang Theory.

This is a show for nerds, we're donig just fine, we don't need a 'pretty girl next door' to turn on the boys. Just no.

Kassie Depaiva as Asian Blair on OLTL

Kenny and (especially) Ginger on the first four seasons of Knots Landing. They were totally unnecessary and way underutilized.

Cousin Geri

Coco the cook/housekeeper/whatever he was

Cuoco and McGowan were both elemental on their shows and it wouldn't have worked if the characters were missing. Would be very different shows anyway. I'm not saying either is talented, but...

Ugly Scientologist Elizabeth Moss in any of her shows.

Paul Schneider the first season of Parks and Rec

Drea Demateo on Desperate Housewives

Kim

Gabrielle Carteris

Shelly Hack.

Donna Reed.

I’m going full elder here, but model Shelley Hack did not fit in with the other Charlie’s Angels and the made for TV T&A the show was known for.

R14 At some point Lucy was supposed to be a fashion model and she was 4’11”!

R33 She had some A but zero T.

R34 So true. So short that long hair. Pretty girl but unless she was modeling for kids clothes, I can't that one working out.

I always thought Ted McGinley on Happy Days was just too handsome. Kind of the same thing on Married With Children.

Alfre Woodard on Desperate Housewives, who was saddled with a horrible storyline.

Someone mentioned Vickie1 from Falcon Crest above. Vickie2 was worse. Such an awful character played by a limited actress.

Nancy, Sue Ann, Molly and Cindy on Facts of Life.

Kimberly on Diff’rent Strokes, who was on an island of her own after Dixie Carter showed up.

Polly Holiday in "Alice". All attitude, couldn't sing.

Pat Finley on The Bob Newhart Show. She added nothing to the show.

And of course, the Marilyns.

Steve Buscemi as Tony Blundetto on Sopranos. He actually is part-Italian. However, not believable as Italian and not believable as Tony Soprano's cousin who just got released from prison.

[quote] Remember Charlene Tilton was trotted-out once per show on "Dallas". She looked great but had nothing to do. There was hardly ever a story line involving her.

Short person here. Charlene Tilton (4'11") was too damn short and she was always wearing high heels. She was so short, it was somehow distracting. Linda Gray is supposedly 5'8".

That said, I think her character had some potential. But you're right, she never had anything to do on the show.

Jennifer Holmes as Leslie Vanderkellen on Newhart.

Lucy was always peripheral to the main battle for Ewing Oil storylines; her best stories were when that main story impacted hers, such the doomed romance with Mickey Trotter.

On the tv show "China Beach" they added a female African American character named "Frankie (what a dyke name)" who was in the motor pool. She was played by an annoying named Nancy Giles. There was a male African American character on the show that seemed to work but "Frankie" stuck out like a sore thumb. The character was unlikeable and didn't seem to fit in anywhere. I guess somebody just figured they should have a black female character on the show. At any rate, Nancy Giles has been a talking head on "CBS Sunday Morning" doing commentary on that show for many years now. I always found her presence on that show unfathomable too; why the HELL should anybody give a rat's ass about what Nancy Giles has to say about anything?

R30 I think Gabrielle worked for the first season, but by the fourth it seemed so obvious she was much older than the others and looked like a mature student at college. I’m not sure what else they could really do to make her seem younger and to top it all she was pregnant in that season making her character seem all the more older.

Gavin MacLeod on "Love Boat". I know he was the ship Captain but it's a comedy-romance, and he was a turd in the punchbowl.

Mischa Barton in The OC always seemed sort of out of place and was a bit miss matched standing next to bilson. She really accentuated bilson’s shortness. Also the main guy. I hated the show so don’t remember the character. But he was billed as a James dean type, but wasn’t unpredictable or different enough.

Estelle Parsons wasn't right for the part of Roseanne and Jackie's mom on Roseanne, IMO. It was hard to picture them as family physically, or her as a parent that raised those particular daughters. (Now that I think about it, the actress who played Dan's mom wasn't cast well for that role either, but she actually would have been believable as the mom of Roseanne and Jackie). And I'm only referring to the first four seasons of Roseanne, the only episodes I've seen. (That show went downhill fast after the first four years of a really good show.)

Also Shelly Winters as Estelle Parsons mother never made sense.

Meryl Streep in Postcards from the Edge. Her look is so distinctive and she just doesn't "fit" a Carrie Fisher type character, IMO. Debra Winger would have been a good casting choice for that role, actually. Doubt she and Shirley MacLaine would've wanted to work together again, though.

Estelle Parsons had such an irritating voice and was a one-dimensional character. Then, the big reveal of a gay character. Darlene? No. Jackie? No. Dan? No. Estelle? Yes.

The token black guy who appeared in the opening credits of "Gilmore Girls."

Tina Yothers on Family Ties, and there’s a whole thread here to prove it.

I always thought it was weird when Phyllis dropped into the newsroom to see Mary. Her character was so different from the others on that show.

Ayosha Tyler on Friends.

Is this thread limited to only TV shows? If not, I'll throw in Eleanor Parker in Home for the Holidays (1972).

Parker played sister to Sally Field, Jessica Walter, and Jill Haworth.

Parker was born in 1922; Field in 1946; Walter in 1941; and Haworth in 1945.

I like Parker a lot, but she looked every inch of her 50 years. I found the casting to be weird. Also, Parker had played Sally's mom just the year before in Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring!

Vince Vaughn on Curb Your Enthusiasm

R57 here, still being weird.

In 1994's Ultimate Betrayal, Marlo Thomas (born 1937) plays sister to Mel Harris (b. 1956) and Ally Sheedy (b. 1962) among other much younger siblings in the cast. I kept waiting for a brief line about Marlo's character not being around -- perhaps she was at college when the drama happens -- but no, she was among the poor, abused kids afraid of Daddy.

Like Parker above, Marlo looked every inch of her 57 years when this movie was made, so I thought her casting to be an odd choice.

Dennis, in the classic “Dennis, Calvin, and Jordan”

Tanya Roberts on Charlie's Angels.

Never understood how she got cast. She sounds like a such a dope! Plenty of stunning actresses, who sound like they have brains, in Hollywood! S

Dawn

Wendy, Marvin & Wonder Dog

Denise H.

Andy

Belle

Little Janice

Katharine Ross as a Krystle clone in THE COLBYS. Her frozen-in-headlights look at the link says it all.

Linky for Frankie Colby

Ann "Lana: Wedgeworth

Elizabeth McGovern in Downton Abbey

CORALLL!!!

Especially after Sophia died.

I couldn't believe how bad Claudia's hair looked. She should have borrowed some money from Blake to get it done.

That nurse on the original Star Trek always seemed like an outlier.

My vote would've been for Chekov R74.

R57 reminded me of “Until They Sail”, a movie where Joan Fontaine (born in 1917) and Sandra Dee (born in 1942) play sisters.

Vera just never seemed part of the Alice cast, she was isolated and never fully developed, even when Polly Holiday left that should have been a step up for Vera to become a fuller entity, but she didn’t.

R14, I'll have you know that Lucy was Miss Young Dallas!

R61, it was such a miss,

They knew how to fire an Angel and hire a new one but they clearly couldn't hire writers to flesh out backstories. Why DID Kelly look just like Margaret Barrows? Who were her parents? Was Charlie her dad?

Did Jill and Kris have other siblings?

What happened to Sabrina's ex and dad after season 1? Did she remarry her ex? Why did we never meet Tiffany's dad, who was an old friend of Charlie's?

They made Julie, the one most believable as an ex-cop, a model?

That nerdy computer/gadget guy on Riptide.

Ernie Hudson in Ghostbusters.

Jodie Foster in Little Man Tate.

I disagree about Charlene Tilton as Lucy on Dallas. She was more of a side character, but she fit in the family if you watched the show from the beginning. She was one of the few Ewings to call J.R. out on his shenanigans. At first, she was quite the little troublemaker. Then they redeemed her a bit, then she got into her romance with Mitch. I was a big fan of Lucy and Mitch, but the writers really ruined that romance quickly and next thing you know, she was divorced. Her storylines after that were not very good, and she got further and further marginalized as a character until she was written off the show. They brought her back, but it was the same as before and she left again.

Donna Reed was a horrible replacement for Barbara Bel Geddes as Miss Ellie. She never fit in.

[quote] Vera just never seemed part of the Alice cast, she was isolated and never fully developed, even when Polly Holiday left that should have been a step up for Vera to become a fuller entity, but she didn’t.

Vera was better in small doses, IMO.

R25, don't you think Cuoco could have been replaced with a different girl next door? One who was maybe not model gorgeous? Nerdy, or gothy or weird in her own right?

Donna Reed wasn’t believable as a Texan and ludicrous as JR’s mother. Horrible casting.

Donna Reed played that part like it was all beneath her.

Cooter on The Dukes of Hazzard.

R88 Don’t call Barbara Bach that, she was trying her best!

Sarah Chalke as the Becky replacement on Roseanne.

Sarah Silverman on SNL.

Chris Pratt in the MCU

No, no, if anybody didn't fit in with the MCU, it's Angelina Jolie.

omg I totally forgot about her, R93. You're SO right.

I thought everyone on Dynasty was quite a good fit until Joan Collins came in and started to ham it up, the whole weird family they created around her jarred against the original cast and then took over.

Miss Diahann Carroll never fit in with the Dynasty cast. They were all campy and chewing the scenery and she was slumming. It was a waste of her talent.

R96, she was criminally underused. Originally she was supposed to be Kirby’s mother, the result of Dominique’s affair with Joseph the chauffeur. But the Shapiros pussied out (or the network did) and they brought in the ultra boring Troy Beyer in to play the daughter.

Linden Ashby as Coop on Season 6 of Melrose Place.

Rick on the original Magnum, P.I.

r22 Remember when sid’s daughter (karen allen) almost had a threesome with kenny & ginger? Well, maybe just came on to kenny.

Ricky Segall on The Partridge Family and Quinn Cummings in Family. And Robbie Rist in The Brady Bunch.

When they added Seth Meyers to That 70s Show.

Judy Winslow on Family Matters

I mean Josh Meyers.

These bitches who aren't bothering to read the previous responses and have named actors and/or characters already listed.

They don't fit in.

Robert Downey Jr as Sherlock Holmes.

Richard Gere in "Days of Heaven".

[quote] She was curvy, all women wore undergarments to create a shape back then, but she wasn’t chubby nor overweight.

Marilyn Monroe never wore ANY undergarments. She WAS overweight in several of her films. In "Some Like It Hot" her heaviness was blamed on pregnancy, but in "Let's Make Love" and "The Misfits" she's decidedly heavy, whether from eating or drinking who knows.

Megan on Mad Men

The older, bald lifeguard in Baywatch.

"The older, bald lifeguard in Baywatch."

He should have had his own show with similar guys. Would have been sexier IMHO.

Twiggy on America's Next Top Model. The original cast was part of the then 1990's current modeling world. She seemed like she was doing a different show for housewives. .

Donna Reed as Miss Ellie on Dallas. Miscast and a terrible decision.

Michelle Hurd as Det. Jeffries on L&O: SVU. Luckily, they realized it and wrote her out after one season and replaced her with Ice-T.

Coco from THE GOLDEN GIRLS.

Fuck you R115.

That token chick on The A-Team.

[quote] "The older, bald lifeguard in Baywatch." [quote] He should have had his own show with similar guys. Would have been sexier IMHO.

Baldwatch.

R95 Collins made Dynasty

Trollwatch

R119 Joan Collins made Dynasty a success, but she's still the reason that certain cast members stopped being a good fit after the first season.

R121, well put.

It's not that she didn't fit in with the show; some of the show didn't fit in with her.

I would have loved to have seen JR and Alexis team up if the Dallas producers and Spelling could have worked it out.

R83 I agree about Tilton. She was on Eight Is Enough as girl who rejected Willie Aames, and she was bitchily good, which was a reason she was cast as Lucy. Lucy was a brat, screwing Ray and terrorizing Pam and standing up to JR, pulling the wool over Jock and Miss Ellie. The show was episodic originally, and when it went full blown serial, she was sidelined. She also had a loser bf who was he agent, making crazy demands and add cocaine into it....

The problem with Lucy Ewing is they didn’t keep her connected to Ewing Oil. After Alan Beam left the show needed to give her a love interest who was a sneaky protege of JR, like Alan. Instead we got sanctimonious Mitch.

Alan Bean and his chest hair were sexy!!

Lucy should've moved her ass to Knots Landing. I mean, who wouldn't love to live with hot Gary Ewing?!

When Dallas went in to direct competition with Dynasty (season 2 incarnation) the Lucy character was toast.

Might have been good on Knots Landing though? Bit of a missed opportunity there.

Chris Kattan as Bob on “The Middle” - no wonder he was written out in later seasons

Kristen Schall as Hazel on “30 Rock” - literally killed the show

Chris Elliott as Roland Schitt on “Schitt’s Creek” - similar to Chris Kattan he just started to disappear. Cringe humor is the worst.

Jan: Marcia, Marcia, Marcia

the men in the film Steel Magnolias.

Whenever a child actor is added to a cast they always stick out like a sore thumb. It's so obvious why they're there (ostensibly to perk up ratings); there's no reason for them to BE there, except as a ratings ploy. Cousin Oliver on "The Brady Bunch." Quinn Cummings at little orphan Annie on "Family." Ricky Segall on "The Partridge Family." They all seemed totally out of place, just there to be "cute."

Sherri Stringfield on ER - the second time. She proved you cannot always capture the magic the second time.

R132 - oooh nice one. I had forgotten all about that! I remember being disappointed when she returned.

Mackenzie Phillips on One Day at a Time. I watched the show as a kid, clueless about Mackenzie's famous dad, and often wondered how she got on the show.

Douglas Emerson owns this thread

Billy Dee Williams on “Dynasty”

The Nazis on Falcon Crest Season 4. No wonder they lost ground to Miami Vice.

Kevin Kline in A Prairie Home Companion. His standard zany clowning sticks out like a sore thumb in a more restrained ensemble.

R70 The character of Lana made no sense. Jack was a horndog and here was this sexy older woman who wanted to fuck him and we are suppose to believe he wants no part of her

Bobby, the youngest boy on The Brady Bunch. Can't recall anything he did or said.

That older brother, fresh-from-rehab character on Blossom. Beyond terrible...eventually disappeared from the show.

Abby Huntsman on The View. I liked her but she never really jelled with the rest of the cast.

Eldergays, remember when they tried to bring in that young lawyer David Gideon during one of the later seasons of Perry Mason? I guess it was to bring in a younger demographic, but regular viewers hated it, thinking he was taking a lot of the time Paul Drake had. He was gone after nine episodes.

Most of the later LA Law characters (CJ Lamb etc) didn't work.

Rhonda from Season 1 of “Melrose Place.” She was the token black in an all white cast.

r145 reminded me of Marisa Tomei, who was the token white on A Different World.

I think Elizabeth Baur did not fit Ironside as well as Barbara Anderson.

Lesley Ann Warren was not in the mold on Mission: Impossible.

Suzanne Crough was weak on Mulligan's Stew.