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. Solitaire1

    Solitaire1 Carpenters Fan

    A factor in this might be the episode where Stewie does kill his mother (after taking over the country) and the results are horrifying for him. It turned out it was a VR scenario that Stewie was running and when Brian asked him how it went Stewie said (if I remember correctly) "Not very well."
     
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  2. Carl Swanson

    Carl Swanson Senior Member

    ISTR that when Make Room for Daddy had an episode about visiting the South, the sheriff played by Andy Griffith was kind of an amiable, semi-corrupt "good ol' boy" type. Not a "pilot" per se, but the episode did result in spinning off Andy Griffith into his own show.
     
  3. Carl Swanson

    Carl Swanson Senior Member

    ISTR they were basically hookers . . . without being directly called as much.
     
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  4. Carl Swanson

    Carl Swanson Senior Member

    Trimmed his eyebrows, too . . .
     
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  5. Carl Swanson

    Carl Swanson Senior Member

    . . . not that he ever was a "hero" . . . or even decent.
     
  6. 2trackmind

    2trackmind Forum Resident

    Location:
    MA
    I'm surprised no one mentioned Al Bundy. It seemed he became more stupid as the seasons went on. Almost cartoonish.
     
  7. Spitfire

    Spitfire Senior Member

    Location:
    Pacific Northwest
    All of his shows started out great but quickly went to crap. Too bad as they had a lot of promise and great props. That's probably the reason it happened. He spent all of his money on sets and no money for anything else.
     
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  8. malcolm reynolds

    malcolm reynolds Handsome, Humble, Genius

    Location:
    Oklahoma
    For me I would have to say Wesley from Buffy and Angel. By the time Angel ended at season five his character was completely unrecognizable from his first appearance on Buffy season three.

    Spike would be another. Actually I think out of both Buffy and Angel the two characters that changed the least were the title characters. No one was the same as how they began.
     
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  9. ohnothimagen

    ohnothimagen "Live music is better!"

    Location:
    Canada
    Homer Simpson in human form, in other words...
     
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  10. Tanx

    Tanx Forum Resident

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    Great example. One of the few natural progressions.
     
  11. JamieC

    JamieC Senior Member

    Location:
    Detroit Mi USA
    NCIS
    Gibbs was jokey and dropping movie references, traits that were given to Tony Dinozzo in the show
     
  12. Raf

    Raf Senior Member

    Location:
    Toronto, Ontario
    Everyone in Happy Days changed after season 2. Richie's older brother actually disappeared and was never mentioned by anyone again.
     
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  13. Monosterio

    Monosterio Forum Resident

    Location:
    South Florida
    And the rest of the show along with him. I actually preferred it at first, when Ted McGinley joined the cast, but eventually the show got really bad. IMO, of course.
     
  14. Damien DiAngelo

    Damien DiAngelo Forum Resident

    Location:
    Michigan, USA
    Phillip J. Fry on Futurama.
    The first 2/3rds of the episodes, he was a dumb, lovable loser. It was fun watching him bumble through the future.
    The last 1/3rd of the show, they turned him unto a complete idiot. Even the other characters on the show are annoyed by him, and seem to barely tolerate him at the end of the series.
     
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  15. Hot Ptah

    Hot Ptah Forum Resident In Memoriam

    Location:
    Kansas City, MO
    Actually, Andy Griffith is a good example. In the pilot of his show, he talks with an exaggerated Southern accent, tells Opey to go "get sugar" from Aunt Bee (meaning hugs and kisses), and plays his guitar and sings in an extended segment, in a much more hillbilly way than in later episodes when he plays and sings. His character was much more of a Southern rural caricature, compared to other episodes.
     
  16. Tanx

    Tanx Forum Resident

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    Chuck the basketball player!
     
  17. Solitaire1

    Solitaire1 Carpenters Fan

    This also happened on the soap opera All My Children. Timmy Martin went into the attic to get some skis...and never returned. Decades later, they did a scene in that attic...and there's a skeleton holding skis up there.

    If I heard correctly, there's a scene in (I think it was The West Wing) where a character was in a scene in the last episode of the season. When the scene continued in the first episode of the next season a character in that scene just disappeared without explanation.
     
  18. Solitaire1

    Solitaire1 Carpenters Fan

    Before The Andy Griffith Show (TAGS) the character appeared in an episode of Make Room For Daddy. Unlike Sheriff Andy Taylor in TAGS, this Sheriff Taylor appeared to be a questionable law officer (after stopping Danny Thomas and his family for speeding, when Thomas' character asked to see the judge, after hemming and hawing for a few moments Taylor just changes the sign on his desk to indicate that he is also the judge).

    Addition to original post:

    I see that Carl Swanson already pointed this out. I apologize for the duplication.
     
  19. Hot Ptah

    Hot Ptah Forum Resident In Memoriam

    Location:
    Kansas City, MO
    It is interesting to me that Andy's character went through two major changes, one character on Make Room For Daddy, a more ethical but more broadly hillbilly character (compared to later) in the pilot of The Andy Griffith Show, and then an ethical and less broadly hillbilly, more mainstream American character after the pilot of The Andy Griffith Show.
     
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  20. Carl Swanson

    Carl Swanson Senior Member

    No worries, good to know I wasn't hallucinating.
     
  21. Benno123

    Benno123 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Ohio
    I think once the Barney Fife character really took off it allowed the change to happen ... and for the better of the show, too.
     
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  22. Bobby Buckshot

    Bobby Buckshot Heavy on the grease please

    Location:
    Southeastern US
    Unsure about "pilot" in this sense...and this is an animated character, so I don't know if this fits - but Daffy Duck changed drastically at some point from his early incarnation as an absolutely insane troublemaker to his later version in which he was essentially a grouchy Bugs Bunny.
     
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  23. carrolls

    carrolls Forum Resident

    Location:
    Dublin
    Columbo in the original pilot "Perscription Murder" was a much more agressive and shouty version of the character. Falk also has yet to perfect his seemingly unassuming and muddled persona. And also he is not as scruffy.
     
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  24. detroit muscle

    detroit muscle MIA

    Location:
    UK
    Homer Simpson in Police Cops was much a more street wise tough guy in the pilot
     
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  25. Fortysomething

    Fortysomething Forum Resident

    Location:
    Californ-i-a
    I remember this being more obvious when the characters were making appearance on Happy Days - if I remember right, they were on there a few times before they were spun off. The differences were noticeable after the spinoff, to define the differences between Laverne and Shirley, I guess.
     
    fr in sc likes this.
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