Replacement Pet

When a loved one's pet dies or gets lost under their care, a character tries to secretly replace it with one that looks just like it.

Taxi

Appearances

• The Odd Couple: Season 5, episode 3, "The Frog" (1974). Oscar and Felix think they lost Felix's son's trained frog ahead of a frog jumping contest, so they go to a pet store to get a replacement, but the replacement frog won't jump, so they end up knee-deep in a bog trying to catch one.
• Taxi: Season 1, episode 15, "Friends" (1979). While Tony is out of town, he asks Bobby to feed his fish, but Bobby forgets to feed them, and they both die, so Bobby buys two new fish and tries to pass them off as Tony's fish, but Tony sees through the ruse right away.
• Diff'rent Strokes: Season 2, episode 23, "Arnold Faces Fatality" (1980). When Arnold's goldfish, Abraham, dies, Willis and Kimberly buy another fish that looks like him in an attempt to convince Arnold that Abraham is still alive.
• WKRP in Cincinnati: Season 3, episode 11, "Frog Story" (1981). While he's painting the kitchen cabinets, Herb accidentally paints his daughter's pet frog and kills it, so he buys another frog and tries to pretend it's the same one, but he can't keep up the act and confesses to his daughter.
• It's a Living: Season 2, episode 5, "Second Time Around, Almost" (1981). Dot is appearing in a dog food commercial with a trained 15-year-old dog. When she brings the dog to the restaurant, he passes away from old age, so Dot buys another dog that looks just like him and tries to teach him the same tricks.
• Head of the Class: Season 2, episode 1, "Science Fair-Weather Friends" (1987). When Dennis accidentally releases Arvid's depressed rats for his science fair project, he buys new rats to replace them. When Arvid discovers that the rats are not depressed, he thinks he's discovered a cure for depression.
• Cheers: Season 7, episode 11, "Aventures in Housesitting" (1989). Mr. Sheridan, one of the vice presidents of the Lilian Corporation, asks Rebecca to take care of his dog Buster while he's away. Rebecca tells Sam that she's nervous staying in Mr. Sheridan's isolated mansion, so Sam shows up to keep her company and accidentally lets Buster out. The whole Cheers gang searches for Buster but can't find him, and Mr. Sheridan is on his way home, so Woody borrows a dog named Satan that looks a lot like Buster to buy them time.
• The Golden Girls: Season 4, episode 21, "Little Sister" (1989). Sophia dogsits for Dreyfuss, a neighbor's dog, and accidentally loses the him, so she buys a look-a-like dog from the pet store in an attempt to replace him. Unbeknownst to her, while she's at the pet store, Dreyfuss came home, and she can't take the replacement back to the pet store because it's closed for the weekend.
• Cheers: Season 10, episode 21, "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" (1992). While Lilith is away visiting family, she leaves Frasier in charge of one of her laboratory rats, Whiskers. Frasier, of course, takes Whiskers to Cheers, and he gets out of his cage and runs away, so Frasier buys a rat at the pet store and attempts to pass it off as Whiskers.
• Spin City: Season 1, episode 11, "Dog Day Afternoon" (1996). A well-loved police dog named Bingo passes away, and Mike takes advantage of the opportunity to build a better relationship between the mayor and the police department, so he insists on throwing a funeral for Bingo. He tasks Carter and Paul with transporting teh dead dog, and when they get thrown out of a cab, they accidentally leave Bingo in the truck, so at the funeral, Mike shows up with another, living dog and has a vet sedate it in an attempt to replace Bingo. Unfortunately, the replacement dog wakes up and barks in the middle of the service.
• Frasier: Season 9, episode 19, "Deathtrap" (2002). When Roz's dog eats Alice's hamster, Roz buys her a new one and tells her her old hamster got lost, but she found him. Unbeknownst to Roz, Martin had already explained to Alice that her hamster died, so Alice calls her out right away.