Original Desmond

Has a Character and the same Actor from 1 Show ever been Moved to another Unrelated Established Show ?

SO NOT TALKING ABOUT SPIN OFFS

I was just discussing the new season of 24 with some workmates and we were discussing how cool it would have been to instead of having the new Janice character in the FBI, to have Marshall (with same actor) from Alias in the FBI as the tech geek. That would rock !

Has anything like this ever happened in TV history ?

I'm talking about a character moving from 1 show to a totally unrelated non spinoff show which in it's own right was already established

chowderhead

Detective John Munch moved from Homicide: Life on the Street to Law and Order: SVU after Homicide went off the air.

The Bus

Only thing I could think of.

stingermck

And was also on The X-Files

clckworang

Det. Munch was the first example to pop into my head as well.

According to IMDB, Det. John Munch has appeared on Homicide, Law & Order: SVU, Arrested Development, Sesame Street (?!), The Wire, Law & Order: Trial by Jury, The Beat, Law & Order, and The X-Files.

I realize many of those were just one-episode appearances and not quite what you were looking for, but I thought it was interesting anyway.

Arthur Dent

I thought of Munch as well, but it looks like Munch was a part of SVU from day one. The OP wanted actors who had moved to already established shows. And while L&O: SVU isn't related to Homicide, the original L&O had some cross-over episodes with Homicide, right? So SVU is related to a show that's related to Homicide.

Can't think of anything else, though.

DJLinus

It's only a guest spot and involves cartoons, so I don't know if it'd count, but Jay Sherman from "The Critic" was on an episode of "The Simpsons" when they were both Fox shows (the former moved to ABC for its second season).

dex14

Haha. Everyone thought of the same character as I did.

Super X

High school student Warren Coolidge (Byron Stewart) originated on the television series The White Shadow. Years after the show went off the air, the character reappeared as the janitor on St. Elsewhere. They even had an episode where Timothy Van Patten guest-starred and Warren initially recognized him as his character from The White Shadow, Salami, though Van Patten was playing a different character on St. Elsewhere.

Shannon Nutt

Does Bob Newhart count, since "Newhart" was essentially his character from the Bob Newhart Show having a dream?

Ursulla (Lisa Kudrow) from "Mad About You" was a recurring regular on "Friends," but not part of the weekly cast (although obviously she was, since Lisa was also playing her twin sister).

Red Dog

Denise Iannello (Debi Mazar) and Eli Levinson (Alan Rosenberg) moved from Civil Wars to L.A. Law.

There's also Worf - TNG to DS9 after DS9 had already been established.

majorjoe23

Sophia moved from Golden Girls/Golden Palace to Empty Nest. Of course, Empty Nest was a spin off of Golden Girls, but the move came years after Empty Nest had been established.

JasonF

I have a vague recollection of David E. Kelly moving some of his characters from one show to another when the first got cancelled, though maybe I'm wrong about that. I'm not talking about the Practice morphing into Boston Legal, but a character from Ally McBeal winding up on Boston Public (or whatever it was -- like I said, I don't remember the specifics).

Red Dog

There were numerous crossovers btwn The Practice, Boston Public and Ally, and there were actors (Fyvush Finkel) who starred on multiple DEK shows.

Double_Oh_7

Not sure this counts since both shows are spin-offs of the same franchise. (Plus, Picard was on the premiere of DS9).

Red Dog

I don't consider TNG a spin-off.

Doc Moonlight

Professor Kingsfield from "THE PAPER CHASE" returned to taunt one of his former students on a short-lived sitcom called "THE ASSOCIATES"

Rockmjd23

The character of Sgt. Slaughter from WWF television went on to appear as a regular in an unrelated show, GI Joe.

TGM

Trapper John from the sitcom "M*A*S*H" to "Trapper John MD" the pretty much unrelated medical drama?

SteveA

Best I can come up with is that on an episode of Eli Stone this season, a character who Eli has a vision of winning the Nobel Prize in the future, is currently employed at "The Work Bench," where the characters in Reaper work. Unfortunately, the character wasn't Andi Pendergast.

emachine12

Race Bannon - From Johnny Quest to The Venture Brothers

Johnny Quest - From Johnny Quest to The Venture Brothers


Harvey Birdman - From Birdman and the Galaxy Trio to Harvey Birdman: Attorney At Law

fujishig

How can you get those but miss Space Ghost?

Meglos

Simon McCorkindale's Manimal returned a decade later to make guest spot in Nightman.

How's that for obscure?

Double_Oh_7

You're splitting hairs. TNG may not "technically" be a spin-off, but all the shows are still related to one another.

Josh-da-man

The closest I can come up with an actual example is a daytime soap.

Several years ago, one daytime show got canceled ("Another World"?) and a handful of the characters from it moved to "As the World Turns." I think most of them eventually left or were killed off, though, but they were on it for several years.

(Don't ask me why I know this...)