I can think of a few. Most of these are cases of natural and welcome growth; you can't have a character stay a caricature for very long or it gets old and unrealistic.

1) The Fonz - He was a rougher, less sentimental character during the first season and by the end of the run he was practically the show's moral center.

2) Margaret Houlihan - Margaret evolved from a more or less unsympathetic "by the book" controlling harpy to a woman of deep conviction and extreme loneliness and pressure by the story's end. She was still recognizable as "Hot Lips" but she'd grown quite a bit.

3) Jack Tripper - In the early days, Jack was more devil may care and insensitive, but he fairly quickly became more sympathetic, and by the show's end there wasn't much left of the old "love 'em and leave 'em" persona.

4) Archie Bunker - Ol' Arch retained an edge to the end, but he was no longer the man who spouted racial epithets without a second thought like he did in the early days. He had African American friends, a liberal son in law, (whom he grew to love, despite himself), a somewhat more liberated Edith to contend with (not to mention Billie and Stephanie at the end, who didn't always agree with him) and a somewhat softer heart when it came to some of his former social taboos.

5) Ted Baxter - Still an incompetent and narcissistic boob, Ted did mellow a bit with his marriage to Georgette and the addition of two sons.

And a couple who never really mellowed...

1) Louie DePalma
2) Frank Burns

The characters of Full House are kind of obvious... especially DJ, Stephanie and Michelle, since they literally grew up. However, Stephanie was the worst. I really didn't like her character at all toward the end of the series. She was so rebellious and "un-Tanner like" as a teenager. Very sad, since I liked her a lot in the beginning.

Seinfeld's Kramer changed from being pretty mellow in the beginning to being the "life of the show" toward the end.

George Jefferson softened as the show went into later seasons on The Jeffersons.

On The Wonder Years Kevin went from being lovable at the beginning to rebellious at the end, and Winnie went from sweet to nasty. Compare the first 3½ seasons (1988-91) to the last two (1991-93) after Neal Marlens and Carol Black, the original writers, quit.

Rebecca (Cheers) - She started off as kind of an cold, ice-queen who usually disdained Sam. But shortly afterwards she became more of the naurotic person people saw her as.

Vint (Mama's Family) - He started off as a slightly smarter person during Mama's Family's NBC years. But as the show went on he became more dim-witted, especially during the syndie years.

Klinger (M*A*S*H) - In most of his earlier seasons, he always tried to dress p as a woman to get deployed. But towards the end of M*A*S*H he stoppeed dressing up as a woman.

Denise (The Cosby Show) - went from a wild child to a somewhat more reasonable person.

Rachel from FRIENDS She was a spoiled little rich girl who in ten years went from being a waitress to an exec at RL ,and a single mother.

Chandler feared commitment and then he became the first friend to get and stay married.

Joey went from sleeping around to wanting commiitment

Phoebe went from being a free spirit to being married

Samantha on SOTC went from being sex crazy to loving one man Smith

Miranda went from caring more about her career to caring about a family and moving to Brooklyn

Charlotte became Jewish

and Carrie and Big and Ross and Rachel stopped being stupid and got together for good

Bobbie Jo Bradley on Petticoat Junction: Originally studious, serious-minded and even bookish, her character later became less intellectual and even a bit of an air-head -- and much more outgoing in personality (a change of actresses brought about different interpretations).

Jethro Bodine on The Beverly Hillbillies: Originally sweet, respectful, and polite, like a big teddy bear on the earliest episodes, Jethro gradually became belligerent, angry, and more and more wild.

Milburn Drysdale on The Beverly Hillbillies: Originally serious-minded and ordinary on the earliest episodes, he later became a wild caricature of a miser and skinflint, embracing a "Super-Banker" character and going into a panic whenever the Clampetts wanted to spend a significant amount of their own money or at the hint of their wanting to make withdrawals or bank elsewhere. He also was depicted as working his employees for meager salaries, where originally there was no evidence of such treatment.

Robbie Douglas on My Three Sons: As he grew up, Rob went through about three personalities or stages: 1) Frantic and quick-to-react, fairly immature 2) New role as oldest brother, more even-keeled and authoritative (though girl-crazy and still not really mature) and 3) Husband and then also father, focused on forming his own family

Potsie on Happy Days went from being the worldy bad influence on Richie to being a complete moron with a negative IQ by the end of the series

Ralph on Happy Days went from being one of the cool kids to become a spineless fraidy cat alternating between maudlin comedy bits and overly sappy sentiment

Kelly Bundy went from being a mean juvenile delinquent to a complete moron - she got steadily dumber as the series progressed

DR. Smith went from being a serious helpful character in the earlier episodes to a lazy cowardly buffoon as the show progressed. Bud Bundy went from being the smart one to being a booty chasing sleazy con artist of a knucklehead. Al Bundy went from being a poor mans Ralph Cramdon to a poor mans Daffy Duck. Jefferson D'Arcy went from being a suave con man to being a gold digging loafing pretty boy to him possibly being connected to the CIA as the series ended. Festus went from being a rough around the edges former wolf hunter to being Marshal Dillon's right hand man and a pillar of the community.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Flanderization

The act of taking a single (often minor) action of a character or event within a work and exaggerating it more and more until it's huge and cartoonish and almost entirely consumes the character or work in question. Sitcoms and Sitcom characters are particularly susceptible to this, as are peripheral characters in shows with long runs.

This can become very annoying if the character's aspects were originally unique and subtle, only to become more stereotypical as the story progresses, to fit the requirements of more cliche plots. Especially dangerous if executives think doing this will appeal with their demographic better and boost ratings.

However, Flanderization is not necessarily a bad thing. In some cases, viewers may find the over the top version of a character more entertaining than their original, subtler version.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CharacterDerailment

Eric Matthews on Boy Meets World during the early seasons seemed like a level headed person but in the later seasons he was a moron.

Blair Warner on "The Facts Of Life" started off as a snobby rich girl who hated Jo because she was poor but as the series progressed Blair became more caring and less judgemental and her and jo became best friends.

Monica on "Friends" started off as a level headed person but eventually became a one-note shrew.

a m actually her last name was warner but u r right bout the charactor. changing through the years

Blair Cramer on "The Facts Of Life" started off as a snobby rich girl who hated Jo because she was poor but as the series progressed Blair became more caring and less judgemental and her and jo became best friends.

Monica on "Friends" started off as a level headed person but eventually became a one-note shrew.i agree about monica she grew down right irratating in later years

a m actually her last name was warner but u r right bout the charactor. changing through the years

you are so right. my mistake. i was watching "one life to live" when i wrote that and accidently was thinking about OLTL's Blair Cramer.

oh well it happens blair warner is sexy her n Jo make good friends

Karen Walker on "Will and Grace" went from being a sarcastic, wealthy socialite to a total substance abusing simp.

[QUOTE=Schmoopie]The characters of Full House are kind of obvious... especially DJ, Stephanie and Michelle, since they literally grew up. However, Stephanie was the worst. I really didn't like her character at all toward the end of the series. She was so rebellious and "un-Tanner like" as a teenager. Very sad, since I liked her a lot in the beginning.

I'm so glad someone else noticed this too. I know Stephanie had to "grow up", but she really did turn into an unlikable brat towards the end of the show. I didn't like her much, but I will say that I still love to watch Full House reruns alot. :)

[quote=Schmoopie]The characters of Full House are kind of obvious... especially DJ, Stephanie and Michelle, since they literally grew up. However, Stephanie was the worst. I really didn't like her character at all toward the end of the series. She was so rebellious and "un-Tanner like" as a teenager. Very sad, since I liked her a lot in the beginning.

I'm so glad someone else noticed this too. I know Stephanie had to "grow up", but she really did turn into an unlikable brat towards the end of the show. I didn't like her much, but I will say that I still love to watch Full House reruns alot. :)

see Stephaine was always my favorite of the tanner girls, i felt she was the most real. DJ was too much of a goody-goody and michelle was such an annoying tattle tale that i couldn't stand her.

It's currently running but American Dad seems to be changing, all the good writers are now working on Cleveland Show. In the past two weeks, American Dad has had two of the weakest episodes I've ever seen in the show's history, the one about Francine turning ugly and the one about Stan's sudden obsession with My Morning Jacket, which only seemed to act like an advertisement for My Morning Jacket.

Bobbie Jo Bradley on Petticoat Junction: Originally studious, serious-minded and even bookish, her character later became less intellectual and even a bit of an air-head -- and much more outgoing in personality (a change of actresses brought about different interpretations).

Jethro Bodine on The Beverly Hillbillies: Originally sweet, respectful, and polite, like a big teddy bear on the earliest episodes, Jethro gradually became belligerent, angry, and more and more wild.

Milburn Drysdale on The Beverly Hillbillies: Originally serious-minded and ordinary on the earliest episodes, he later became a wild caricature of a miser and skinflint, embracing a "Super-Banker" character and going into a panic whenever the Clampetts wanted to spend a significant amount of their own money or at the hint of their wanting to make withdrawals or bank elsewhere. He also was depicted as working his employees for meager salaries, where originally there was no evidence of such treatment.

Robbie Douglas on My Three Sons: As he grew up, Rob went through about three personalities or stages: 1) Frantic and quick-to-react, fairly immature 2) New role as oldest brother, more even-keeled and authoritative (though girl-crazy and still not really mature) and 3) Husband and then also father, focused on forming his own family

Yes, excellent observations... I watched "My Three Sons" as a kid, but only caught the show during the last few seasons. By the time I started watching it, Robbie was the oldest son and was pretty level-headed. (In fact, it was years before I even knew that Tim Considine had played the oldest son and then left the show). Anyway, we've recently watched some season 1 episodes on DVD, and I couldn't believe what an obnoxious, hot-headed, loud-mouthed jerk Robbie was during that season. He'd blow his stack at the drop of a hat. :lol:

Most of the characters on Nurses, definitely come to mind.

Nurse Sandy - she went from slightly sarcastic to flat-out mean.

Gina - went from a woman having a thick Spanish accent to a normal American woman.

Paco - went from somewhat lovable orderly to a more feisty, fighter-type oderly once Jack Trenton came along.



Empty Nest

Carol - wasn't as neurotic in the very early seasons as opposed to the later seasons.

Laverne - went from a southern girl nurse with a somewhat tough-talking persona to a southern girl nurse with a more bumbling persona once Maxine joined the cast.

Charlie - became less of a womanizer towards the very end of the run.



Night Court

Bull - started off as a slightly smarter big guy to the more goofier, dim-witted big guy.

Dan - went from a sleazy, sex-driven pervert with a heart to a guy with a heart who was sometimes a pervert towards the end of Night Court's run.

Jackie from Rosanne went from being one of the show's most level headed characters (except when it came to men) to pretty much a complete moron by the show's end. I really hated this development.

I can think of a few. Most of these are cases of natural and welcome growth; you can't have a character stay a caricature for very long or it gets old and unrealistic.

1) The Fonz - He was a rougher, less sentimental character during the first season and by the end of the run he was practically the show's moral center.

2) Margaret Houlihan - Margaret evolved from a more or less unsympathetic "by the book" controlling harpy to a woman of deep conviction and extreme loneliness and pressure by the story's end. She was still recognizable as "Hot Lips" but she'd grown quite a bit.

3) Jack Tripper - In the early days, Jack was more devil may care and insensitive, but he fairly quickly became more sympathetic, and by the show's end there wasn't much left of the old "love 'em and leave 'em" persona.

4) Archie Bunker - Ol' Arch retained an edge to the end, but he was no longer the man who spouted racial epithets without a second thought like he did in the early days. He had African American friends, a liberal son in law, (whom he grew to love, despite himself), a somewhat more liberated Edith to contend with (not to mention Billie and Stephanie at the end, who didn't always agree with him) and a somewhat softer heart when it came to some of his former social taboos.

5) Ted Baxter - Still an incompetent and narcissistic boob, Ted did mellow a bit with his marriage to Georgette and the addition of two sons.

And a couple who never really mellowed...

1) Louie DePalma
2) Frank Burns
Actually, Ted and Georgette had a boy and a girl. They adopted the boy (played by the notorious Robbie Rist). Mary and Lou delivered the girl, which inspired the Baxters to name her - Mary Lou.

^ Ack, you're right! Senility setting in already it seems! ;)

Blair Warner changed a lot between the first and second seasons of The Facts of Life. I think this was mainly due to the fact that the writers didn't really have the character down yet during the first season. In the first episode "Rough Housing", Mrs. Garrett mentions that Blair smokes, but this was never brought up again. The episode "The Fscts of Love" has Blair considering having sex for the first time, though later on in the series Blair states that she will not be sexually active until marriage. I'm sure Lisa Whelchel's Christain views played a major part in this change.

Also, during season one Blair like the other female characters dressed in jeans and short-shorts. In season two, Blair's style of dress became much more classy and dressy. During seasons 2-4, while not in school uniform, Blair often wore long skirts with high heel boots. During seasons 5 and 6, Blair worse skirts with high heel shoes or high heel boots. In seasons 7-9, she worse dresses and skirts with high heel shoes. During the last three seasons she also worse dressy pants with heels.

^ Ack, you're right! Senility setting in already it seems! ;)
Happy I could help!

Happy I could help!

With the senility?? :lol: :crazy:

With the senility?? :lol: :crazy:
Touche! :lol:

The most memorable transformations for me:

1. On Roseanne, Mark went from Becky's cool, rebellious boyfriend to Becky's overly idiotic husband.

2. On Martin, Martin went from a sensitive, romantic, and slightly corny disk jockey to an abrasive, cocky, and more mean-spirited talk show host.

3. On Married With Children, Peg went from a loving wife and concerned mother to a TV-addicted, bon-bon eating, self-absorbed, lazy and insulting housewife and mother.

4. On The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Will went from a laid-back, intelligent youth to a goofy fool, who schemed his way into trouble.

5. On Saved By The Bell, Slater went from Zack's formidable rival as King of the School and for Kelly's affections to Zack's buddy and loyal accomplice to Zack's schemes.

6. On Boy Meets World, Topanga went from a precocious free spirit to a trendy, gum-chewing, boy-obsessed teen.

7. On Leave It To Beaver, Eddie went from a trouble-making youth to a suave wiseguy.

8. On Three's Company, Janet went from a sweet, girl-next-door type to an uptight, overreacting prude.

9. On Sister, Sister, Roger went from the little, annoying, and desperate next-door neighbor to a good looking, smooth, ladies man.

10. On Mama's Family, Bubba went from a dim-witted, unkempt, juvenile delinquent to a mature, well-groomed, goal-oriented college student.

A Different World

Ron - he went from a dedicated loyal guy to females to a more sleazy no-good womanizer.

Dwayne - he went from the typical residential college nerd on campus to a more mature guy he became in the final few seasons.

Winifred/Freddie - went from the very free-spirited-like hippie-child person to a more serious and somewhat less loose person.

1. On Petticoat Junction, Betty Jo went from a tom-boy to a housewife.

2. On Three's Company, Larry became a more mature person.

On The Dukes of Hazzard, Rosco P. Coltrane was originally a more serious, bitter man. Then they made him goofy, which really worked in his scenes with Boss Hogg. They were the Laurel & Hardy of their time. :lol:

On the same show, Deputy Enos Strate was originally much more naive than he was at the end. But I think it made sense because they spun him off into his own show in LA, and it's logical that he would've grown up a bit in the big city and away from Hazzard. When he came back to the Dukes, he was still goofy and a bit naive, but Enos had grown up quite a bit before the show ended. I just wish they had married him and Daisy.

I don't know - I might have preferred that Daisy remain "available"... :eyes:

Stephanie Tanner was a sweet little girl in the beginning and towards the end of the show, she was a teen b*tch.

Naomi from Mama's Family was more level headed in the beginning. When the show went into syndication, she acted real stupid.

Stephanie Tanner was a sweet little girl in the beginning and towards the end of the show, she was a teen b*tch.

Naomi from Mama's Family was more level headed in the beginning. When the show went into syndication, she acted real stupid.

The exact same can be said for Buddy Lembeck from Charles in Charge.

On Family Matters, during Season 1, before it became the "Urkel" show; Eddie was dumb. They had him looking and acting like a fool.
Later when it became the Urkel show, they had Eddie be a cool, suave, ladies man and introduced his friend Waldo who was the dumb one. I really hated that transition.:mad:

Family Matters-Urkel was not as Nerdy at the end of the show as he was in season 1

The Jeffersons- I think everybody was different by the last season. Even Florence and George were nicer to each other by the 11th season(The Insults are not as mean as mean as they once were) Bentley was more laid back by that point.


Most of the Characters on The Cosby Show and A Different World

Barney Stinson on How I Met Your Mother stopped being a pig and started having feelings for Robin

and David Schwimmer's Ross went from being the loving , romantic fool in the early seasons to being the buffoon in later ones...he would do more stupid things in the last four seasons

I think Maj. Winchester, in some of the later, more serious episodes of M*A*S*H*, began to show some empathy for others.

I Dream of Jeannie-The character Captain Tony Nelson,(Larry Hagman)(with the exception of "My Hero?"and "Get Me to Mecca on Time" and a couple of others)acted kind of J.R.Ewing-like,not very nice towards Jeannie in the first season .But when he became Major Nelson later on in the black and white first season,and up until the end(in color),he became a lot nicer towards Jeannie.

And I forgot two more:1-On The Golden Girls,Sophia was at first,always grumpy and mean,but as the series progressed,the character mellowed out.2)"Get Smart"-In the NBC seasons,Larabee was more serious,but when it moved to CBS .it's as if Larabee and Max had traded places personality wise-By this,I mean Larabee was the dimwitted one not Max.After all,it was "Get Smart"-not "Get Larabee".

And finally,these :On"The Dick Van Dyke Show",at first,Mel was kind of no-nonsense ,and not the way he was at the end,and Alan Brady was kinda nice at the beginning,and not like he was at the end. 2)On Green Acres,Lisa,in the beginning,was dead set against living on a farm,and wanted to go back to New York City,but as the series progressed,she got used to it,and liked it. 3)"Sanford and Son"-Fred and Lamont went through a personality change.By that,I mean that in the beginning,Fred was the nice one,and Lamont was the grumpy one.Later on,the situation reversed,and Fred became grumpy,and Lamont was the nice one.4)On "F Troop",in the very early episodes Sgt.0'Rourke was not very nice,but became nicer as the series progressed.And finally,on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show",Lou Grant was not very nice,at first,but as the series progressed mellowed out considerably,and became likable.

Kimberly Shaw- She was real nice in the beginning. Then she turned into a phycho-path. Then she turned warm hearted again before dying. (MELROSE PLACE)

Michael Mancini- He was the "go to guy" in the beginning, then he turned into a super creep. ( MELROSE PLACE)

Whitley Gilbert- She was a snobbish prude in the beginning, then turned a sympathetic ear towards the end of the series. (A DIFFERENT WORLD).

Marcy D'Arcy- She was real sweet in the beginning. As the show progressed, she would resort to crummy tactics to get revenge (especially on Al). (MARRIED WITH CHILDREN).

And one more:Uncle Arthur on "Bewitched" liked Darrin at first somewhat,but grew to dislike Darrin.

Cathy Lane of The Patty Duke Show - A shy, quiet, and smart Scottish girl with a sensible hairstyle and superconservative clothes. By the last season she became British and had a fashionable wardrobe and hairstyle.