Shows that had atmosphere changes

Also about Seinfeld,the first season or so seemed like a regular sit com but by the end a lot of surreal like stuff seemed to be going on.

 

and the winner is? LOST IN SPACE...

 

One of the odd things about Seinfeld is how Elaine did a 180° from being a sassy librarian type to an abrasive bitch. Not since Samson has a change in 'do had such an effect. But after Larry David left the show just got more outlandishly sitcommy and less based in realism all around.

 

True. Her tone was such that nearly everything she said made her sound condescending.

 

I think Happy Days changed a lot when they went from a laugh track to a live audience. With the laugh track, the show had a certain small-town feel to it, just a bunch of kids trying to struggle through the 50's like every teenager who ever lived. It had a bit of poignancy mixed in with the good times. It was heartfelt and cerebral, not unlike The Andy Griffith Show, and with having Ron Howard involved, it wasn't surprising that the show had that same kind of feel. When they went to a live audience, the show became another pastiche riding the nostalgia wave of the 70's. It became much more outrageous and less gentle and thought-provoking. I thought it really hurt the quality of the show and the writing became much more simplistic, but the ratings went right through the roof, so what do I know?

 

MANNIX changed its atmosphere after the first season. In that first year, Joe Mannix worked for Intertect and it had almost a man-against-machine or man-against-corporate vibe to it. Starting with the second season, Joe was out on his own, answering to no-one.

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE morphed from battling world crises to battling the "syndicate" after Martin Landau left. There were still some international stories, but they avoided them due to costs of trying to make the Paramount lot look exotic.

 

I was just a very casual watcher of The Drew Carey Show, but it seemed like increasingly toward the end there was an ‘anything goes’ vibe, and I wasn’t sure if they’d run out of ideas or had too many ideas.

 

I think most classic shows that lasted multiple seasons made changes at the years went by. Even going back to the 3 Stooges the 40's espisodes dealt more with the WWII era themes. Many changes are brought about in respose to ratings and public comments. Also the same-o same-o gets old after a while. As Sanford and Son went along things changed a bit. More and more scenes are outside of the house and out in public. Also the creation of Sanford Arms added more characters and situations. The same for All In The Family. Mike and Gloria moved away, Jefferson "moved up", the Bunkers adopted Stephie, Archie got into running the bar, Edith died, and so on.

 

Agreed. Even I LOVE LUCY sort of became a different show with the change from the apartment life to the country house.

 

Like others have posted, any show that lasts more than a couple of seasons will change as casts and show runners come and go. Bewitched certainly had it's share of cast changes but I'd posit that it's atmosphere or feel changed between seasons 2 and 3 and not just due to the switch from b&w to color. The show moved at a slower pace and seemed like it had more of a movie style to it's stories and acting. Once season 3 got underway, it became more like a television sit-com in delivery and style.

 

First season of The Odd Couple was filmed movie style with a laugh track. Thankfully that didn’t last long. (Happy Days too. I’m just not sure what season they switched).

The black and white episodes of The Adventures of Superman were much darker (not just literally).

I remember noticing Sanford and Son switching to some kind of laugh track later on....And All in the Family also stopped using an audience after a certain season too.

 

I would have liked to have seen what a season 7 would have brought with the location in Connecticut. However, if most of the hour long shows are any indication it’s best they ended when they did.

 

Nice Avi. When do you think ALl in the Family went down a bit?

 

If this thread proves anything it’s that people hate change. I think much of the atmospheric and other changes many of these shows went through were a breath of fresh air and enjoyable. The only show changes I actually dislike are ones where it literally became a complete show. The Doris Day Show and The Lucy Show come immediately to mind in terms of a show changing to the point where it is literally a completely different show by the end.

 

The Joey Bishop Show, as well, underwent a radical transformation after the first season. Ostensibly the same character, in season two he became a Johnny Carson-style talk show host in a different locale and the entire supporting cast (with the exception of Joe Besser, who was promoted to series regular) was replaced.

 

I preferred the first season, because the plots were less predictable. Forcing Mannix into a bureaucratic structure was more interesting than what came after.

Problem was, Mannix was too strong a character to believably need Intertect. But Seasons 2-6 got formulaic very quickly. Peggy wasn't really necessary either. Nearly every show ended with Mannix fighting the bad guys and the police coming to make arrests.

Interestingly, the show became more experimental in the last couple of seasons. I'm wondering if that was a response to Rockford Files and other newer shows. More variety, and Mannix wasn't always right anymore.

 

The Sopranos.

The early seasons featured a lot of sunny days and light, but as the series went on, the storylines got darker and so did the cinematography, to where it almost seemed like most of the scenes were being filmed on a cloudy day.

 

When Mike and Gloria moved out of the house across the street. The series had a lot of writers move on and “new” for the series ones came, Milt Josefberg being one. They turned the series into more a standard sitcom and a “dramedy” depending on the week. What worked for Jack Benny, Bob Hope and Lucille Ball did not exactly translate to a successful script for the Bunkers. The episodes that feature the stars’ names above the title is where I feel I sometimes lose interest. I feel like the audience laughter doesn’t even sound as “live” as the earlier seasons did. It’s still good but not nearly as biting as it was. To me the birth of Joey should have been a memorable occasion, Archie becomes a grandp! No one talks about it because they basically stole the I Love Lucy premise with Archie in the Ricky Ricardo role. Instead of dealing with issues and putting focus on them in a humorous manner the show begins to feel more preachy. I feel the series should have ended when Mike and Gloria moved to CA. The biggest conflicts to Archie are gone, Archie is becoming successful with his business, a child in the house, and a show taped to an empty studio just killed the series - all aspects that the Archie of 1971 was anything but.

 

With the obvious exception of Frank Burns, who got written out of the show because a.) Larry Linville had grown weary of playing him and b.) he was so one-note he didn't really fit the show's tone or character ensemble anymore.

 

What would your examples of shows that changed for the good be?

 

MTM changed after Rhoda left at the end of season 4. Season 5 was a transition period where we still saw her apartment life but once she moved in season 6, it became more of a workplace comedy, probably because they never found the right character to fulfill the best friend role.

 

They mention that in the DVD extras. As they series became more popular and they had more money to spend they came up with bigger things to spend it on.

 

The bitter thing is, the modern political Simpsons episodes are too often giant no-brainer jokes that consist of few more than simple name-dropping or wannabe-radical statements about, say, Bin Laden or Boris Johnson. Earlier episodes that handled political topics were far more elegant in their execution, had a much more critical and intelligent tone to them and therefore were/are far more successful than the newer ones (favorite examples: Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington (Season 3), Last Exit to Springfield (season 4)).

 

Miami Vice got brilliantly dark during the second season and things got, like, REALLY bitter during the fourth. I know lot of viewers hate the last two seasons, but to me, they're brilliant and very memorable.

 

I kind of felt that The Flintstones changed in tone after Pebbles & Bam-Bam were inserted.