What I am talking about are TV shows that started off kind of serious with laughs but turned into ridiculously funny shows. Shows that grew away from their original format. I know quite a few but will not answet right away. I want to give you guys an opportunity to try.

"Married With Children" started out as a pretty starightforward sitcom about a disfunctional family, but by the end of the run the show was a big cartoon. Slapstick galore.

Don't get me wrong, I actually like the show a lot better in the later seasons. The jokes and gags were flying a mile a minute!

At the moment, all I can think of is Family Matters.

Originally posted by Brian Damage
At the moment, all I can think of is Family Matters.

Definitely Family Matters. Originally, the show was just about, as the name implies, family - and how much all the characters cared for each other. It also dealt with a subject that we have all probably experienced in our lives - unrequited love, and how truly painful it could be. Then, the plots just started getting silly - with episodes about robots, transformaton machines, shrinking rays, and cloning. A great show with alot of potential became nothing more then a saturday morning cartoon.

Okay, this is a drama but it became cartoonish by its end:

The Avengers

When it began it was a regular police/detective kind of drama starring two men. One of them was the character "John Steed." He was the only character to remain throughout the run of the series.

He was soon paired with various female partners, but once "Emma Peel" was added the show began having more humorous themes. By the time it ended, with "Tara King" and "Mother" it had really become a farce, a spoof, if you will, of its original format.

I agree, MWC became really cartoonish in the 10th and 11th seasons. But those two seasons were my favorites. I have 249 episodes of MWC on tape and im a few episodes away from having the whole series. :)

Originally posted by ThomasE
TV shows that started off kind of serious with laughs but turned into ridiculously funny shows.



The only show I think of is The Facts of Life, I think it was supposed to be serious and funny at the same time. They dealt with drugs, suicide, drinking, divorce, death in the family, they were doing some major serious topics. I think FOL really changed in it's 7th season. They no longer did the serious episodes and everything was funny.

kung fu the legend continues went from drama to cartoon in 8 seconds flat. :)

No one has mentioned "Roseanne". Have you noticed the storylines in later years:

1992: Arnice(Tom Arnold) was abducted by aliens.
1994: Roseanne blows up the house as a Halloween prank.
1995: Roseanne puts herself in charge of a cartoonish gay wedding.
1996: she is visiting health spas and stopping train robberis and and chatting with ritzy rich people with out of context storylines. There is more and more but this is all that I can think of.

Family Matters and Married With Children kind of turned into parodies of themselves. Sad, really.

Family Matters. Roseanne is a good example to, but i still liked it.