My How You've Changed! Sitcom Characters That Changed During Their Show's Run

[Retro4Life]

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

[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.

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

[comedyfreak]

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

[James]

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.

[megamanj2004]

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.

[Rosslover]

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

[biffbronson]

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

[robyrob]

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

[jimpickens]

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.

[TMC]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...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.ph...cterDerailment

[browneyes106]

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.

[factsoflife]

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.

[MikeLutton]

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

[70s show watcher]

Originally Posted by factsoflife

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

[factsoflife]

Originally Posted by MikeL

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.