Swapping Sitcom Actors
My favorite Chinese sitcom “家有儿女” (actually the only one I watch) switched actresses on me. In a proud tradition that started on the “Jeffersons,” continued on “The Fresh Prince,” and most recently appeared on “Roseanne,” the show canned the original actor and pretended like nothing was odd. In the latter case they replaced the daughter, whom they replaced with the significantly hotter Sarah Chalke, who later re-surfaced on “Scrubs.”
Here is the picture of the 家有儿女daughter when the show first started out (click for large image):
Only a few years later she looked completely different.
Here she is now (she’s supposed to be the one of the far right):
It’s not really clear why they switched actresses, but shows always seem to run into trouble when children start to get older. They get disgruntled, or awkward…or in the case of Gary Coleman, they don’t grow and the show has to try to explain why all of Arnold’s friends are taller than him by a huge margin.
So I guess what I’m saying is that it’s good to see that Chinese producers have as much problem with their talent as do their American counterparts. Below are a few of the famously replaced sitcom stars from over the years. If anyone out there can remember some that I’ve forgotten please let me know:
zhwj responds:
Posted: February 15th, 2008 at 12:09 am →
I never noticed that (guess I haven’t seen seasons 3 and 4). The original actress, Yang Zi, apparently left because she had to prepare for high school entrance exams. What’s odd is that they replaced her with someone so much older. Or maybe not so odd: her character was supposed to be 17 during the first series (I totally did not realize that until I looked up the online series description), but Yang Zi was only 12 at the time. So maybe the new actress is more age-appropriate.
Josh responds:
Posted: February 15th, 2008 at 7:51 am →
@zhwj:
Maybe not that odd? When was the last time a TV series decided to use a 12-year old girl to play a 17 year old? Usually they have 30 year olds playing 15 so that they can choose really hot actors/actresses without freaking out the audience for being a attracted to them (90210, Dawson’s Creek etc.)
Maybe the real issue is that kids can only work limited amounts of time on hollywood sets, while in China children can assemble firecrackers.
Jeremiah responds:
Posted: February 15th, 2008 at 9:09 am →
Well, who can forget the two Dick’s for Bewitched?
I can’t believe Yang Zi is gone (I need to watch more television, clearly.) She was the emotional center of the show, it’s as if they wrote Kate Hepburn out of a “Lion in Winter.”
Who else could whine and stamp her feet with such audacious verve or deliver such bold choices of facial twitch in preparation of a hissy fit? She was a true artist and…yes, I’m kidding.
kmm responds:
Posted: February 15th, 2008 at 8:03 pm →
You’ve got a different taste than me man–I can’t sit through a single episode of that show, and this is from someone who can spend hours at a time watching wretched Chinese soap operas just for the cause of practicing Chinese…
These producers ought to be really brave and just kill off these characters once the actors can’t continue. That would make these sitcoms a lot more enjoyable to watch.