10 Best Actor Replacements On TV Shows
2. Rob Lowe & Adam Scott Replaced Paul Schneider - Parks & Recreation
Parks and Recreation certainly suffered through rough patches in the early going, and one of the toughest aspects of those first two seasons in particular? How poorly the character of Mark Brendanawicz (Paul Schneider) gelled with the rest of the cast.
Mark was placed in the show as the clear "straight man" to his more outlandish co-workers, yet between Paul Schneider's palpable lack of chemistry with both love interests - Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) and Ann Perkins (Rashida Jones) - and the character's generally dull presence, he just didn't work.
Schneider's proven himself a perfectly solid actor elsewhere, but he just wasn't working for this part, and so for a variety of stated reasons - such as Schneider's film career blowing up - he and the show's creators mutually agreed on his exit at the end of season two.
The third season kicked off with Mark being replaced by not one but two new characters - Ben Wyatt (Adam Scott) and Chris Traeger (Rob Lowe), each serving as a love interest for Leslie and Ann respectively.
Where to even begin here? Beyond Ben and Chris simply being more interesting characters from the outset, both actors had effortlessly superior chemistry with the wider ensemble cast, and without them, Parks and Rec likely wouldn't have enjoyed all the success it did.