9 Actors Who Began Their Careers on Ill-Advised TV Spin-Offs of Great Films

1. Lee Tergesen (Oz, The Americans) played Chet Donnelly (a role originated by Bill Paxton) in the Weird Science television series:

2. Jennifer Aniston (Friends) played Jeannie Bueller (originated by Jennifer Grey) in the Ferris Bueller TV series.

3. Dana Carvey (Saturday Night Live) played Clinton Wonderlove in Blue Thunder (there was no Wonderlove in the original 1983 movie).

4. Melora Hardin (The Office played Frances ‘Baby’ Kellerman (originated by Jennifer Gray) in the Dirty Dancing TV series (Paul Feig, the director of Bridesmaids and co-creator of Freaks and Geeks was also in Dirty Dancing, but had no movie equivalent).

5. Sandra Bullock played the Melanie Griffith role in the Working Girl television series.

6. Scott Bakula played Hunt Stevenson (originated by Michael Keaton) in the TV series Gung Ho.

7. Blythe Danner (mother of Gwyneth) played Amanda Bonner in Adam’s Rib, a role originated by Katharine Hepburn. (Ron Rifkin and Ken Howard also starred in the series)

8. Christine Taylor starred as Mary (a role originated by Parker Posey) in the Party Girl TV Series (to be fair, this did come after Taylor’s semi-breakthrough in The Brady Bunch Movie).

9. Rachel Blanchard (who played Kitty Nygaard in the first season of the good spin-off, Fargo) also played Cher (originated by Alicia Silverstone) in the bad TV spin-off of Clueless.