TV Shows That Became A Different Show From How They Began

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Solitaire1, Feb 22, 2021.

  1. Erik Tracy

    Erik Tracy Meet me at the Green Dragon for an ale

    Location:
    San Diego, CA, USA
    Your insincerity is duly noted.
     
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  2. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Did Hartman's Reagan follow that path consistently or was it just for one sketch that they used that concept? Can't remember!
     
  3. I believe it was just that one sketch (going from my memory).
     
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  4. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    Mine too.

    Here Hartman plays Reagan as a dolt:



    I'm guessing this was the more typical Hartman approach and the "Reagan as mastermind" concept was that one-off...
     
  5. Jay_Z

    Jay_Z Forum Resident

    Actually, they were pretty nasty towards Ford. And almost fawning towards Carter. It wasn't even handed. Except for 1979-80. Ackroyd left, and Carter was portrayed by nobody. No Presidential portrayal for the entire season. Reagan was portrayed as being almost embalmed. I think they had Harry Shearer or someone dressed up as him, but don't think he ever had any dialogue. That season kind of felt like that version of the show was on its way out, given they never really knew how to deal with Reagan.

    After that, then it was more like you say. But not for the first five years.
     
  6. R79

    R79 Forum Resident

    Location:
    39629
    Who played Reagan during the 84-85 season? I know Joe Piscopo did for 1980-84, but he wasnt in the 84-85 season (actually, from what I remember, outside of the ep where Jesse Jackson-hosted ep, there wasnt much political stuff during that season at all actually).
     
  7. R79

    R79 Forum Resident

    Location:
    39629
    Back on topic, the Drew Carey show started off as a conventional workplace sitcom, but the middle years took it to absurdity, musical numbers, the wacky april fools episodes, Drew being sent to China, crazy science experiments going on at Oswald's workplace, an episode where two guys pursuing Kate was played up like a sporting event. Didnt really hurt the show though IMO (I lost interest when Drew got fired from the store and Kate left).
     
  8. MekkaGodzilla

    MekkaGodzilla Forum Resident

    Location:
    Westerville, Ohio
    Harry Shearer

    [​IMG]
     
  9. R79

    R79 Forum Resident

    Location:
    39629
    I guess Reagan holds the record for being the president portrayed by the most cast members (Piscopo, Shearer, Randy Quaid, and Hartman).
     
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  10. JediJones

    JediJones Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    Robin Williams played Reagan as a host too. He did a Cyrano-style sketch where someone was feeding answers into his earpiece and the signal got scrambled.

    Just look at a Fridays sketch to see how different it is from a Reagan-era SNL political sketch. Looks like an SNL sketch, but most of the "jokes" are just political statements.

    "Here it is, Christmas, a time for giving, and we've just spent the entire year working out how to take things away."

    Simply being portrayed as "stupid" can be seen as comedic, but the Fridays stuff can only be seen as political attacks.

     
  11. ALAN SICHERMAN

    ALAN SICHERMAN Van Cortlandt Park, Bronx, NY

    Location:
    Cleveland, OH
    "Family Matters" changed when Steve Urkel became popular.
     
  12. BeatleBruceMayer

    BeatleBruceMayer Forum Resident

    Location:
    Florida
    I crack up when my conservative friends complain about SNL's portrayal of Republicans and then praise the original cast. I guess it was so long ago they forgot or never watched the reruns to see how they portrayed Ford versus Carter.
     
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  13. Oatsdad

    Oatsdad Oat, Biscuits, Abbie & Mitzi: Best Dogs Ever

    Location:
    Alexandria VA
    I wouldn't have expected much about Reagan in S5 because it ended in the spring and the campaign didn't really heat up until the fall.

    The spring just featured the primaries, so the show didn't really need to get into Reagan until the fall of 1980...
     
  14. R79

    R79 Forum Resident

    Location:
    39629
    SNL's 1980 premiere (from the Jean Doumanian era) aired right after the 1980 election, so their "political" sketch portrayed Jimmy Carter (played by Charles Rocket) as a complete wreck after he lost. Meanwhile, Rosalyn (played by Ann Risley) thought they could use the loss as an excuse to re-kindle their sex life. Carter finally said that now he could do what he always wanted to do, grabbed a gun, and called up Billy and told him to meet in the rose garden. Pretty much described the failure that that season was.
     
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  15. JediJones

    JediJones Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    My only exposure to the 1970s SNL was on the Nick at Nite Best of episodes. All I remember about Ford on SNL is Chevy Chase doing the pratfalls, falling down while hanging the Christmas lights and such. I remember Aykroyd doing Nixon talking to David Frost and even that just seemed to go for making fun of the way he talked, referencing his dog and things like that. I remember the least about Carter, other than Aykroyd doing the impression.

    The only time I remember SNL getting overtly political in the '80s was when A. Whitney Brown would appear on Weekend Update.

    Just like on Johnny Carson, if a President or candidate did something that could be seen as silly or stupid, they would make fun of it. They would make fun of politicians for who they were and what they said, not for what their policies were. There's a big difference between Carson saying Reagan is old, takes naps, forgets things, etc. vs. someone else saying Reagan is ruining the country with this or that policy.
     
    Last edited: Apr 23, 2021
  16. boyjohn

    boyjohn Senior Member

    Wasn't it kind of the joke though on SNL, that Reagan was pretty much destroying the country, but that he was such a loveable doofus that he was getting away with it. I know that is how I saw it at the time.
     
  17. HGN2001

    HGN2001 Mystery picture member

    To some degree, all of the Irwin Allen 60s sci-fi series became different from their origins. The classic case is VOYAGE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA. It lasted four seasons, but there are differences, to varying degrees along the way. The first season was essentially based on the movie of the same name, and took itself rather seriously. There were a number of cold war stories about enemy countries attempting nefarious activities and it was up to the Seaview to thwart those actions. The show was in black & white that first season, and it had a more "noir" look about it. But both Irwin Allen and the network spotted the fact that any show that dealt with a sea monster of any kind always got the highest ratings.

    So Season Two was retooled a little bit. First off, it started filming in color and added some tech with the flying sub. Early on in the season, there were a few espionage-type stories often involving some glamorous female spies, but later in the season, the monster effect began to take over, and the stories became more outlandish.

    Third season continued the trend of the monster of the week format with some truly ridiculous stories about leprechauns, puppets, and clowns. Through it all though, stars Richard Basehart and David Hedison maintained their very serious personas in spite of it all. And Irwin gave an edict that there were to be no more female guest stars. They apparently took too long in their dressing rooms!

    Fourth season attempted a return to the more serious stories, but it too devolved into a number of monster of the week stories. And still, those monster stories garnered the higher ratings. And Irwin threw in all sorts of science-fiction elements of stories on Venus and time traveling. It was a very different show from the way it started.

    LOST IN SPACE has been discussed above. It started out somewhat seriously and quickly devolved into the triumvirate of Smith, Will, and the Robot and their misadventures. Again, those got the highest ratings.

    THE TIME TUNNEL only had one full season on the air, so it didn't have too much time to change, but it still managed to do just that. About halfway through the season, Irwin managed to throw in some silver colored aliens in the old west. There were still some good historical episodes to go, but it was a signal that some of the LOST IN SPACE costumes could save some costs on THE TIME TUNNEL too. After 24 episodes, the show changed its opening just a little bit. Instead of us following the travelers in time to their new adventure, instead we started the show back at the complex where the staff watched and reacted to where the travelers were going. A small change, but one that altered the show a bit. Gone was the weekly Dick Tufeld narration too. And the remaining stories had four or five of the silver-alien type stories, some set in the future, some in other galaxies! This was probably a sign of where the show would have gone in a second season. But the network wanted to cut the budget; Irwin didn't like that idea; and the show was cancelled.

    LAND OF THE GIANTS probably changed the least, but it did manage to change. The show started with the giant aliens speaking slowly and in a foreign language, but after just an episode or two, they were speaking normally and in perfect English. There were stories early on that the giants' planet was somewhat behind technologically from Earth, but later on, they seemed to have all sorts of futuristic gadgets.
     
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  18. DankFridge

    DankFridge Forum Resident

    Location:
    Seattle, WA
    The 1988-1990 War Of The Worlds series comes to mind. The first season is a fun and campy, and extremely gory, 80s follow-up to George Pal's 1953 film. It's the perfect 80s cheese show. In the second season they drastically retooled it into a grim cyberpunk story, starting by killing off two of the core 4 cast members. The aliens themselves became a different race who could stay in human bodies (and I assume accommodate budget changes). Far too ambitious and confusing for most viewers. It feels like a third season with unseen some great war between it and the first season.
     
  19. ed carter

    ed carter Forum Resident

    Location:
    Los Angeles
    "As Time Goes By" started as the resumption of a romance between two people after being separated for 38 years, then settled into a fairly straightforward (but still great) extended-family sitcom.
     
  20. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    probably the biggest shocker was Lost In Space, but I loved every minute of it anyway! still do...
     
  21. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    I loved all of those shows! watched them in real time and have no regrets on any avenue they took...great TV great memories of a time that can never be equaled in my opinion...
     
  22. JediJones

    JediJones Forum Resident

    Location:
    Pennsylvania
    There's the story of how the Brady Bunch became the Bradys...a.k.a. Brady-Something.

     
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  23. swedwards1960

    swedwards1960 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Canton OH
    They have to hold (or come close to holding) their smiles during the end credits.
     
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  24. Spastica

    Spastica Run aground on the floor for you....

    Location:
    Modesto, CA
    While I do love that first season, I understand why they decided on retooling the cast. Leslie came across like a second Joanna, had nothing to do, and her only reason to exist was to have someone for Kirk to drool over.

    Kirk got old fast.

    The huge change happened later in the series when they made the whole town full of eccentric characters....and the cherry on top is when they made both Joanna and George as dumb as a box of rocks.

    The last season is almost unbearable. I just want to scream when baby Steph owns the TV station.




    I began to realize that they were just making it all up as they went along and there was no method to the madness.

    Then I stopped watching.
     
  25. wolfram

    wolfram Slave to the rhythm

    Location:
    Berlin, Germany
    The 3rd season of "Master of None" was radically different from the first two. It went from comedy to a Dogma-ish Arthouse project, where the former main character only has two short guest appearances in the whole season. A pretty bold move.
     

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