Sitcoms making unpopular dramatic changes after Season 1 or 2

[TMC]

Are there any sitcoms that made dramatic changes in cast and in rare cases, tone after the first or second seasons that you actually liked before the big changes. To put it in another way, either you liked the show better before the changes, or even like them equally, or just thought before the same changes, it was still watchable.

[Dave_L]

Originally Posted by TMC

Are there any sitcoms that made dramatic changes in cast and in rare cases, tone after the first or second seasons that you actually liked before the big changes. To put it in another way, either you liked the show better before the changes, or even like them equally, or just thought before the same changes, it was still watchable.

Two shows come immediately to mind:

Mork & Mindy - They got rid of Mindy's father and grandmother after Season 2. To replace them, they added 2 characters who ran a deli and gave Mindy a cousin. The cast changes, along with a timeslot change, really hurt the show and ratings. The show eventually dropped those 3 failed new characters, brought back Mindy's father as a regular, and had Mindy's grandmother make occasional appearances. I've read in the past that Robin Williams wasn't pleased with all the changes, and was only really happy again once they brought Jonathan Winters on in the 4th season. The show was never as successful as it was in its first year. I felt there was still some good stuff in those middle years, but the 1st year and final year were the best of the 4, as Williams seemed much more into it during those years.

Happy Days - After the 1st 2 years, they dropped the Chuck character and started doing the show in front of a live audience. The ratings actually went up after this, but the tone, pace and look of the show definitely changed. I never cared about Chuck, but I thought it was silly that the show chose to pretend like the character had never existed as opposed to just making even a passing reference to Chuck leaving town or something similar. Also, with the change in look/tone, the show was starting to move closer to becoming more Fonzie-centric and getting sillier. It held on somewhat while Ron Howard was still there, but once he left, it became all about superhero Fonz and his idiot cousin Chachie, and the heart of the show was pretty much gone, with only a handful of really good episodes in the later years.

[tlc38tlc38]

Family Matters: Urkel became a main character in season 2. Uriel is awesome but I sometimes felt they used him way too much.

Newhart: The whole look and feel of season 1 was a bit off, yet still enjoyable.

Mama's Family: Obviously when the show went into syndication at the beginning of season 3, many changes were made. I'm not going to say the hanges were for the better or for the worse because I enjoyed both the NBC and syndicated versions just the same...although the character of Iola Boylan is one of my all-time favorite TV characters.

[SitcomsOffline]

Valerie / The Hogan Family - The series was intended to center more so around Valerie Harper's characters, but due to a contract dispute, she was replaced with Sandy Duncan in Season 2 and the show focused on the entire family.

Even in reruns, they changed the Valerie title card to The Hogan Family.

[treky]

HAPPY DAYS-after the first season when they started doing the show in front of a live audience to improve ratings (an idea Gary Marshall got from THE ODD COUPLE) gave the Cunninghams a different living room with no explanation (again; just like the apt. on THE ODD COUPLE) made every episode "the Fonzie show" made the episode sillier and sillier (and in some cases just plain stupid) and made the audience SO ANNOYING!!! (they would scream and cheer every time Fonzie would give his "thumbs up" and shout "COOL IT!!!" or something, every time he'd threaten someone, every time someone would say"sit on it!", every time Mrs. Cunningham would "stand up" to her husband (something that was funny the first 1 or 2 times it happened but then they kept doing it), .....sometimes every time Fonzie just walked in the room they'd scream and applaud for 5 minutes!!!

[Yong Fang]

So true about Happy Days. It started out as a FILMED series, with sort of a Wonder Years theme with Richie as the center of the show. Then it turned into the Fonzie Show. Slowly, but quickly, the supposedly 1950's show had a lot of 1970's creeping in (for you younguns, there was a lot of nostalgia in the 1970's for the 1950's).

I do not like Happy Days. I do like Henry Winkler a lot (and nice to see that he is getting work as an older guy and that we are far enough into the future than Happy Days and Fonzie is a relic of time), and Ron Howard is a national treasure who deserves the millions he earned. But the show was bad. Don't get me going about Laverne and Shirley either (although Penny Marshall has done great work as a director, sort of the female Ronnie Howard) and the parents were cool (the lady who was Eileen Lorenzo on All In the Family and the Italian pizza maker guy). Lenny and Squiggy sucked balls, but I liked Michael McKean (who played Lenny) in other things, he is a great actor..Spinal Tap baby!

[comedyfreak]

Bosom Buddies comes to mind:
Season 1 Two guys dress as women to live at a Hotel for Women only.
Season 2 The guys identities are discovered and don't dress as women anymore, and the two open their own advertising agency. The show went downhill after this and was canceled by the end of the season.

[tlc38tlc38]

Originally Posted by comedyfreak

Bosom Buddies comes to mind:
Season 1 Two guys dress as women to live at a Hotel for Women only.
Season 2 The guys identities are discovered and don't dress as women anymore, and the two open their own advertising agency. The show went downhill after this and was canceled by the end of the season.

BB should've been a one-and-done, IMO. Fun concept for a show, especially for its time, but the thrill wears off after awhile.

[mets82]

I thought Charles in Charge made some dramatic changes. Remember when the Pembrokes moved and the Powells came in?


I kind of understand about Happy Days. The first 2 seasons was almost like a film, kind of a quaint show but when it moved to a studio audience, it seemed like the show got bigger, the audience got bigger. I'll be honest, I like the episodes up until Richie left and then it just went downhill. Some of the episodes flimed in front of an audience are laugh out funny, especially the one where Richie tries to act tough"DONT EVER GRAB ME AGAIN!!""