TV shows that were re-tooled and revamped for one reason or another

Fox did something similar with "Andy Richter Controls The Universe". In the first few episodes, Andy was mentored by the ghost of his company's founder. But as the other supporting characters began to get more airtime, the "dead boss" concept was quietly pushed aside.

 

"Good Morning Miss Bliss" -----> "Saved by the Bell"

It originally focused on the teacher played by Haley Mills. They wisely switched the focus through Zack's eyes. The kids moved from Indiana to California (with their principal). They kept the 3 best kids (Zack, Lisa, Screech), and replaced the rest.

 

Okay.

But Elaine was in the show from the beginning of airing.

Your example is a re-naming, not a re-tooling.

 

The Elaine character is not in the first episode. The waitress character is, and she was dropped and more or less replaced with Elaine.

 

Someone mentioned I Love Lucy turning into the hour shows, but what about The Lucy Show? The series started as Lucy and Vivian sharing a home and raising their children in Connecticut. Then in season 4 Vivian leaves, the kids are dropped, and Lucy relocated to California along with Mr. Mooney and became his secretary.

 

The Naked Truth with Tea Leoni changed significantly after its first season.

 

My wife and I were laughing last night about the number of times "The Facts of Life" was retooled.

In season five of "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" Sabrina goes off to college, moves out of her Aunts' house and into a campus house, gets new friends, and works at a coffee shop Aunt Hilda later runs. They had to find new convoluted ways to work the cat and the aunts into each episode.

 

Gag, season two of TNG is unbearable. I don't think the show really got good until season three.

 

Tim Allen's 'Last Man Standing' changed in season 2. They changed the actress who played the oldest daughter. The age of her child went from toddler to 8 y/o and the baby's father appeared.

 

Mork and Mindy - many of the background characters went away after the first season, with no explanation.

 

Until Cousin Oliver was decapitated with a machete during a drug deal gone bad in the bad part of Cleveland. After that the kids got jobs in the asbestos factory.

Then the diner went under and Mike had to dispose of bodies in the industrial furnace for the mob in order to make ends meet. Which led to Alice's "disappearance" after she broke Mike's favourite soup tureen at Thanksgiving.

 

"The Girl from U.N.C.L.E." changed from being introduced on an episode ("The Moonglow Affair") in season 2 of "The Man from U.N.C.L.E.) to being made a series. Originally Mary Ann Mobley (Miss America 1959) was paired with an older agent who was thinking of retirement, played by Norman Fell. For the series they decided that Mobley was too demure and went with Stefanie Powers as the chic, hip agent. They didn't want an older man so they hired Noel Harrison (Rex's son) and influenced by the popularity of "Batman", upped the campiness factor, which was also happening to "Man".

And of course Fell later got cheated out of returning to "Three's Company" when his spinoff "The Ropers" failed.

 

My Three Sons had a couple of changes during its' run.

M*A*S*H* also had changed fairly substantially between the beginning and end, though the changes felt gradual.

All In The Family, I think was mentioned. I think that one changed when Mike & Gloria left and the little girl moved in with them.

 

Andy Griffith Show
Went from the comedy focusing on Andy being a sort of michievious charmer to being the straight man for a town full of characters like Barney, Otis, Gomer, Floyd, etc. Then Helen Crump came in and Andy got grumpier and hung around Howard Sprague, Goober, and Emmit. Morphed into Mayberry RFD.

 

If I remember correctly, the latter episodes of "Bewitched" had Dick York sitting most of the time because he was not capable of standing for long periods of time. I remember reading that to ease the transition between York and Sargent in the summer reruns before Sargent took over they ran episodes that didn't feature York.

 

Ned And Stacey: A very funny series at the beginning but that changed as the series progressed.

The first season featured Stacey's family and the focus was on the main premise of the show (Ned and Stacey married simply so that he can get a promotion at his job and she can get a better place to live). By the second season, Stacey's family disappeared and the entire basis for Ned and Stacey to be together was basically dropped as Ned left his job and then his life goes downhill from there. Unfortunately, FOX cancelled the series before the end of the second season so we didn't get to see the conclusion of the series (later USA Network ran the series, including the unaired episodes).

Spoiler

The last episode ended with a very nice scene where Ned tells Stacey that loves her, and then Stacey admits the same. But they don't get together, and go their separate ways.

 

In the pilot with the "Make Room For Daddy" cast, it's interesting to see Andy Taylor as a character of questionable integrity, considering his eventual evolution. The fact that Andy and Barney were cousins (and Barney became a deupty through nepotism) was also never mentioned a second time.

 

"The Doris Day Show" went through a number of changes. Season 1 she's a widow with two boys living on a ranch in a rural area north of San Francisco. Season 2 she is commuting to San Francisco to work as a secretary in a magazine run by McLean Stevenson. Season 3 the family is now living in an apartment above an Italian restaurant in San Francisco. Day starts writing articles for the magazine. Season 4 and 5 Day is now a swinging single, no children ever and she has always been a journalist. With McLean Stevenson gone to "M*A*S*H", John Dehner is the boss. CBS concentrating on sophisticated urban comedies probably is responsible for the change. But in season 5 the couple that owned the building are gone. Although CBS is willing to do a sixth season, Day feels she has done all she can with the series and ends it.

Que sera,sera.

 

When I was a little kid, I was disappointed when THE JERRY LEWIS SHOW dropped it's comedy sketch format for what was more like an hour version of his telethon.

 

I have to echo this sentiment. I recently watched a couple of completely laughable episodes on MeTV. I think I can keep in my mind that this is a 70s show but I cannot grasp how this show was so badly written and directed. They don't even try to excuse gigantic potholes in the script. On top of that the situations and language is so laughably cliche even for it's time. I read that Lynda Carter knew what it was going to be and did her best. Changing the setting to modern times must have been only to save money cause it wasn't to have great scripts.

 

Can I say "Prison Break"?

Season 4 was essentially a different show with some of the same characters and none of the charm. Utterly dire, so bad I gave up about 2 episodes before the end; I cared so little about what happened in the end.

 

The last season of Scrubs moved from the hospital to a medical school.

 

Andy Griffith came back to TV in Headmaster, with a theme song sung by pre-star Linda Ronstadt, highly inspired by Room 222. That absolutely did not work, so without missing a week, they had The New Andy Griffith Show, highly inspired by The Andy Griffith Show. That absolutely did not work. At the same time, Mayberry R.F.D. was still on in its last year.

 

Phyllis
AfterMASH
Night Court

 

The Cosby show spinoff, 'A Different World', retooled the cast.