Shows where an important character changed drastically from the pilot

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Strat-Mangler, Aug 20, 2017.

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  1. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker Thread Starter

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    Toronto
    Dan Fielding's character from Night Court started out as this stick-in-the-mud conservative pipe-smoking librarian type but quickly changed into the sex-starved wild exuberant character we're all familiar with today.

    What other shows had an important character change from his initial rendition?
     
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  2. rebellovw

    rebellovw Forum Resident

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    hell
    Mash? Didn't all the characters change?
     
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  3. rebellovw

    rebellovw Forum Resident

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    Sorry I mixing up the movie w the pilot
     
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  4. Standoffish

    Standoffish Smarter than a turkey

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    North Carolina
    Seinfeld

    Kramer - he started out as a lethargic guy who never left the apartment building. Turned into a hyper guy who was always out and about pulling his wacky hijinks.

    George - started out as a fairly normal guy (albeit, a little neurotic), with a good job. Turned into a basket case who couldn't hold down a job (and was happy when his fiancee died).

    Both good changes, in my opinion! (But shame on George for picking those cheap envelopes :shake:).
     
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  5. JohnO

    JohnO Senior Member

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    That Girl. In the pilot, Don had an American Indian name "Donald Blue Sky", and became Ann's agent.
     
  6. Solitaire1

    Solitaire1 Carpenters Fan

    Moral Orel
    Orel Puppington: Begins the series as a somewhat naive but well-meaning young man who always tries to do the right thing (but often takes what he learns the wrong way). However, as the series progresses he starts to see what is really going on around him (especially about his father) and he becomes a bit cynical to the world around him.

    Star Trek - The Next Generation
    Data: Begins the series as an unemotional being who strives to be human. As the series progressed, he became more and more human, and by the time of the movies, he basically becomes human.

    Lost In Space
    Dr. Zachary Smith: Began the series as cold and icy villain who would not hesitate to kill anyone who got in his way (in the early episodes he basically held the Robinsons hostage via the Robot and he was the one who caused them to become lost in space). Ended the series as a bit of a bumbling comic foil, with little remaining of the villain he began as.

    Green Lantern - The Animated Series
    Aya (the ship's navigation system): Began the series she was just the ship's AI (and little more than a disembodied voice) but soon installed herself into a robot body. As the series progressed she repeated showed that she was more than just an AI, and by the end she crossed the line from being a machine to being a fully living and emotional being.
     
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  7. JozefK

    JozefK Forum Resident

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    All In The Family -- Edith is much closer to the original character from TDUDP, cynical and sometimes insulting. She was softened for the series, made dumb but lovable. Archie changed a bit as well but this was subtler, more in O'Connor toning down his performance.

    Hogan's Heroes -- Klink is sharper, and more antagonistic to Hogan, more like the conventional movie German. In the series he was an out-and-out buffoon.

    The MASH characters changed but only gradually, especially after Larry Gelbart left and Alan Alda took creative control.
     
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  8. sotosound

    sotosound Forum Resident

    Mr Spock in Star Trek changed almost entirely between the two pilots, "The Cage" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before", and he changed further as series one began. In "The Cage" he was a guy with pointie ears but also with a limp and a smile. No logic or lack of emotion. In "Where No Man Has Gone Before" he was a very logical being who was rather bemused by emotional humans. A kind of showcase alien. In the first real episode, "The Corbomite Manoeuvre", he was a softer and more rounded Vulcan, ie the real Mr Spock.
     
  9. Luvtemps

    Luvtemps Forum Resident

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    At the beginning of[Bonanza]the Cartwrights would chase folks off the [Ponderosa]but shortly after ,strangers were welcomed.
     
  10. Vahan

    Vahan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Glendale, CA, USA
    Mr. Belvedere
    George Owens (The Dad, played by Bob Uecker): Construction Worker in the pilot, Sports Writer and Sportscaster (Seasons 1-3 and 4-6 respectively) in the series.
     
  11. JozefK

    JozefK Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dixie
    Early on there was definitely an Us-vs-Them vibe emanating from the Cartwrights, and a lot scowling at strangers -- and in the pilot, even each other: New Englander Adam and Creole Little Joe weren't terribly fond of each other to start off with.

    This idea was dumped for the series. TPTB soon realized their characters needed to be rather more friendly to keep an audience, and the family got a lot more hospitable.
     
  12. Roland Stone

    Roland Stone Offending Member

    I thought that the character of Rachel changed drastically between the first episodes of FRIENDS and the rest of the series. She went from Spoiled Rich Girl to the Sensible Best Friend rather quickly. I suspect like the softer, friendly "Fonz," this was due to the actress' immediate popularity.
     
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  13. ianuaditis

    ianuaditis Matthew 21:17

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    Long River Place
    IIRC didn't Adult Swim play the Christmas episode of Moral Orel first, completely out of order for the series?

    I watched every episode of that show, I remember it being among the most brutally sad things I've ever watched. I'm getting depressed just thinking about it.
     
  14. Monosterio

    Monosterio Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Florida
    I was tempted to say Becky Conner, Aunt Viv and Darrin Stephens. ;) But instead I'm going with:

    Karen Walker on Will & Grace. Initially just a snobby socialite who spoke normally, she eventually became the squeaky-voiced party animal we all remember.
     
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  15. EdogawaRampo

    EdogawaRampo Senior Member

    Smith actually was trying to sabotage the ship in the first episode...you got the impression he was a spy or something. Then he got trapped on board when a last minute check by a technician threatened to foil his sabotage efforts, which he had to re-do in the last seconds before lift off, trapping him on the ship he was trying to destroy.
     
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  16. mr_mjb1960

    mr_mjb1960 I'm a Tarrytowner 'Til I die!

    The Incredible Hulk Cartoon,where Hulk talked better than the later series,where He talked like a Monster rather than a Human,but later still,in the "S.M.A.S.H." Disney series,Hulk went back to talking like He'd done in the First Episodes.
     
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  17. OldSoul

    OldSoul Don't you hear the wind blowin'?

    Location:
    NYC
    Mindy Kaling's Kelly from The Office (US) was a pretty normal, quiet, background character when she first appeared in the second episode, "Diversity Day." By the time she left, Kelly was almost like a teenaged girl: talkative, and in love with fashion and boys.
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  18. Solitaire1

    Solitaire1 Carpenters Fan

    They did run the First Season Finale first for the Christmas Season since it was considered a Christmas episode. Since I began watching the show after its run was over, the broadcast order didn't matter much to me since I watched the series in the correct order.

    I agree that Morel Orel at time was one of the harshest series ever put on television. Being animated, and on Adult Swim, allowed them to do stories that would not have been allowed had the series been live action and/or on any other channel.
     
  19. Solitaire1

    Solitaire1 Carpenters Fan

    That's the only reason he allowed the Robinsons to live, he needed them for his own survival. Considering that he would eventually have to sleep, it seems strange that they would have just waited for that and then take him down. Since Smith was a popular character, it is likely that had to change him from being a villain so that he could remain on the ship.
     
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  20. EdogawaRampo

    EdogawaRampo Senior Member

    I always attributed the change to the fact Irwin Allen blew his budget on first-rate script writers during the first season. He did that with all his shows if you think about it. They all started out kind of serious, then went silly pretty quickly. Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, Lost In Space, The Time Tunnel...they all went downhill pretty quickly. Which was a shame.
     
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  21. The Panda

    The Panda Forum Mutant

    Location:
    Marple, PA, USA
    What about Kelly Bundy on married With Children?
     
  22. Tanx

    Tanx Forum Resident

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    Happy Days. Fonzie really was cool when the series started out; Henry Winkler nailed the part. Too bad the character morphed into such a clown.
     
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  23. Bobby Buckshot

    Bobby Buckshot Heavy on the grease please

    Location:
    Southeastern US
    Kramer's change was absolutely necessary.

    And I'd say George went through several phases. The later, post-Yankees George became a caricature in certain ways. Still funny, but different.
     
  24. Solitaire1

    Solitaire1 Carpenters Fan

    I remember reading somewhere that they explained the change via a retcon by saying that Spock experimenting with emotions at the time of "The Cage" and rejected them by the time of "Where No Man Has Gone Before".
     
  25. Tanx

    Tanx Forum Resident

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    I'm not sure if this was the pilot, but when Laverne and Shirley first appeared on Happy Days, the Shirley character was just like Laverne (tough, gum-chewing, etc.). As the show progressed, she became more and more the nice, neurotic foil to Laverne. (Clearly I watched too much Garry Marshall as a kid.)
     
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