Something on a lighter note
I saw a post on a message board on IMDB and it got me to thinking. The post was critical of the NCIS franchise for casting Zoe McLellan on NCIS: New Orleans when she'd been a regular on JAG, the show NCIS was spun off from. Ms McLellan portrayed Petty Officer Jennifer Coates for three seasons on JAG and has been on every episode of the first two seasons of NCIS: New Orleans.
Was it wrong for the people behind the scenes to make this choice? The two characters have little in common other than they are being portrayed by the same person. I don't see the problem. It isn't unprecedented. Back in the late 1960s I was tuned in to every single episode of Star Trek (TOS). Now it is true that Leonard Nimoy did reprise his role as Spock on Star Trek: The Next Generation (ST:TNG) several times. DeForest Kelley did the same for one episode as Dr. Leonard McCoy. I can't imagine them portraying any other character in any program in the Star Trek "universe." Same for Leonard Shatner. However, I have never heard anyone complain about the casting of the late Majel Barrett on ST:TNG as Lwaxana Troi after she spent three seasons on TOS as Nurse Christine Chapel.
Moving back to the JAG/NCIS universe, Sean Murray has been on NCIS since the first season. But he did a five episode arc on JAG as one character and played a different guest character in one episode of that show.
What about shows who bring back people in multiple roles as one-off characters? I doubt anyone really noticed that John Di Benedetto appeared in six different episodes of Law & Order as six different characters. But I sure noticed Dan Lauria playing four different characters in episodes of Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Noticed, but wasn't bothered by it. He's a very talented actor.
Then there's the situation when an actor does a one-off guest appearance on a show and then becomes a regular on that same show. Diane Neal was excellent in one episode of Law & Order: SVU as Amelia Chase, a woman who was involved in the rape of a male stripper at a bachelorette party. Then two years later she was cast as series regular ADA Casey Novak. Didn't bother me or anyone else apparently. Jeremy Sisto did the same on the original Law & Order, doing a one off and then being cast as series regular Cyrus Lupo.
In the final analysis, as long as an actor cast as two different characters in the same movie or TV franchise does their job well, no one should care.
Was it wrong for the people behind the scenes to make this choice? The two characters have little in common other than they are being portrayed by the same person. I don't see the problem. It isn't unprecedented. Back in the late 1960s I was tuned in to every single episode of Star Trek (TOS). Now it is true that Leonard Nimoy did reprise his role as Spock on Star Trek: The Next Generation (ST:TNG) several times. DeForest Kelley did the same for one episode as Dr. Leonard McCoy. I can't imagine them portraying any other character in any program in the Star Trek "universe." Same for Leonard Shatner. However, I have never heard anyone complain about the casting of the late Majel Barrett on ST:TNG as Lwaxana Troi after she spent three seasons on TOS as Nurse Christine Chapel.
Moving back to the JAG/NCIS universe, Sean Murray has been on NCIS since the first season. But he did a five episode arc on JAG as one character and played a different guest character in one episode of that show.
What about shows who bring back people in multiple roles as one-off characters? I doubt anyone really noticed that John Di Benedetto appeared in six different episodes of Law & Order as six different characters. But I sure noticed Dan Lauria playing four different characters in episodes of Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU and Law & Order: Criminal Intent. Noticed, but wasn't bothered by it. He's a very talented actor.
Then there's the situation when an actor does a one-off guest appearance on a show and then becomes a regular on that same show. Diane Neal was excellent in one episode of Law & Order: SVU as Amelia Chase, a woman who was involved in the rape of a male stripper at a bachelorette party. Then two years later she was cast as series regular ADA Casey Novak. Didn't bother me or anyone else apparently. Jeremy Sisto did the same on the original Law & Order, doing a one off and then being cast as series regular Cyrus Lupo.
In the final analysis, as long as an actor cast as two different characters in the same movie or TV franchise does their job well, no one should care.
posted by me at 7:55 PM
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