Sitcoms that Soon Lost Sight of its Original Premise - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

TMC · 03-30-2002, 04:21 AM

For some reason I want to use Family Ties as an example. I was very young when the show was original on and I'm now rediscovering it on Nick @ Nite (so I maybe a little bit off the mark so to speak). From my best understanding, the original point of Family Ties was to have liberal minded parents tackle with their more conversative minded kids over current social issues and such (sort of like an All In the Family for the 1980s). But the end product that I at the very least have received, is a relatively generic family oriented program (sort like other family centric sitcoms like The Cosby Show, Full House, Diff'rent Strokes, and Growing Pains for example) with the occasional run of the mill, moralistic "special episode" (e.g. Tom Hanks trying to prove that he's a "serious" actor even though Busom Buddies was still fresh in are minds as drunk Uncle Ned, an episode in which the Keaton's new neighbors suffer harrassment simply because they're black, and an episode that I saw tonight in which Michael J. Fox's character gets hooked on speed), with Fox's character as the only real establishment of the initial point of Family Ties.

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Freakzilla · 03-30-2002, 10:37 AM

One sitcom that definitely did lose sight of it's original premise was Family Matters. Originally it about a family and the matters that they dealt with every week. Then they added Steve Urkel and by season 3 he had completely taken over as the star of the show. But that wasn't really that bad because the original show was so bland.

FamilyTiesFan · 03-30-2002, 01:30 PM

I completely agree about Family Ties. After the first season, the parents became a lot more moderate and the entire focus of the show shifted. Actually, it seems like from the beginning Jennifer was supposed to be liberal like the parents. This is apparent even in the first season episodes such as No Nukes is Good Nukes where she stands up for the parents protesting. In addition, I think the characters all became much more caricatured (except Elyse and Jennifer). That's why I liked the show a lot better during the first season.

TMC · 03-30-2002, 11:31 PM

A far more recent example is the short-lived NBC show Cursed starring Steven Weber. The show was originally advertised as an endless serial and or pseudo fantasy (a la Bewitched and I Dream of Jeanie), in which Weber's character struggled to live a normal day without stumbling into bad luck. But after like one episode, the whole hex storyline was dropped and the show retooled itself into I guess you can say generic vehicle simply called The Weber Show.

mstewart · 03-31-2002, 03:25 AM

I wholeheartedly agree with the postings on Family Ties. I personally thought the first season and a half was great. But when it degenerated into the Michael J. Fox sitcom it should have been called Alex not Family Ties. In previous postings the show was supposed to be Meredith Baxter's vehicle only to have it taken along with the original premise of the show by Michael J. Fox by having nearly every episode focusing on Alex. I thought the series was about parents who were hippies during the 60s raising conservative children. The premise immediately went out the window.

TJL · 03-31-2002, 11:32 AM

That usually happens with the "family" sitcoms. The show is supposed to star the "parents" but since younger viewers watch the show, they gravitate to the kids, write more fan mail, create a buzz, and soon the producers are giving then what they want, more storylines about the kids than the parents.

Another example would be "Growing Pains."
While Alan Thicke and Joanna Kerns thought they were the stars, Kirk Cameron was the breakout star of that show, and his character got most of the attention.

James · 03-31-2002, 03:08 PM

Even though it's technically not a sitcom, I'll chip in with the 1972-81 CBS drama "The Waltons". It may have focused on the parents and gravitated towards the children later as was mentioned in this thread about other family sitcoms, but by the end of the show both the Walton parents had left the show, and a relative of the mother (Rose Burton, who IMHO should have been in less episodes than Sonny St. Jacques was during the California episodes of "Laverne & Shirley") had taken over parental duties for the last couple of seasons.

DJM77 · 03-31-2002, 04:36 PM

Happy Days is the best example that I can think of.

FamilyTiesFan · 03-31-2002, 05:18 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by TJL
That usually happens with the "family" sitcoms. The show is supposed to star the "parents" but since younger viewers watch the show, they gravitate to the kids, write more fan mail, create a buzz, and soon the producers are giving then what they want, more storylines about the kids than the parents.

Another example would be "Growing Pains."
While Alan Thicke and Joanna Kerns thought they were the stars, Kirk Cameron was the breakout star of that show, and his character got most of the attention.

Actually, I read somewhere that unlike Growing Pains and Happy Days Michael J. Fox had more storylines later on because they discovered that he was a really good actor, while he had been relatively unknown before, not because of fann mail. But I don't think that it really became the Michael J. Fox Show until season five.

TJL · 03-31-2002, 10:36 PM

A good example would be "The John Larroquette Show" (1993-1996).
The show started out as a "black comedy" with some pretty dark but interesting subject matter (alcoholism, prostitiution, race relations) but in an attempt to bring the ratings up, they changed things around and dropped a lot of the elements that made the show good. The whole theme of John's alcoholism was dropped, Carly the prostitute "quit the business" to run the bar, they brought in a girlfriend for John... and they killed the show!

TMC was right about "Cursed." They totally dropped what was an interesting premise and made it into another "Single Guy."
And we know how friggin wonderful that show was.
Plus, they totally wasted the talents of Chris Elliot...
What a horrible mistake that show was.

Chocoholic · 04-01-2002, 12:47 AM

ER has gone from being a fast paced, hard-hitting medical drama to a boring, pathetic nighttime soap opera, IMHO. I really hate how the show has become. Yet, guess where I am every Thursday night at 10 PM? I'm pathetic

I thought Wings sorta broke from its origional premise when Joe and Helen got married. It seemed to go from an ensemble show about friends who work at an airport to a show about a couple who work at an airport and their friends are in the background. As much as I love the show, I have to admit that the last 2 seasons were pretty bad.

TMC · 04-01-2002, 01:35 AM

Another recent example is Two Guys & a Girl which started out with the far less generic title (as well as theme music) of Two Guys, a Girl, & a Pizza Place. But sometime either after or during the second season, the writers apparently got lazy and dropped the pizza place setting altogether as the show eventually became just another buddy/relationship show.

James · 04-01-2002, 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by James
Rose Burton, who IMHO should have been in less episodes than Sonny St. Jacques was during the California episodes of "Laverne & Shirley

No offense to Sonny, of course! I thought he was appropriate for the "Laverne & Shirley" set, even though he only was in four episodes.

About Rose Burton, she probably could have been in a couple of episodes of "The Waltons". The show was not the same with her in lieu of Olivia Walton, who was in a sanitarium in Arizona for the last couple of seasons.

This comes from someone who didn't find anything wrong with Cousin Oliver on "The Brady Bunch"!

Superbatboy · 04-01-2002, 01:30 PM

Family Matters for sure.

Sitcomwriter · 08-25-2002, 01:12 AM

I have a feeling the upcoming "Less Than Perfect",A show about a character played by Sara Rue will most likely become "The Andy Dick Show" by mid-season!

03-30-2002, 04:21 AM	#1
TMC Member Forum Idol Join Date: Jan 09, 2001 Posts: 126,858	Sitcoms that Soon Lost Sight of its Original Premise For some reason I want to use Family Ties as an example. I was very young when the show was original on and I'm now rediscovering it on Nick @ Nite (so I maybe a little bit off the mark so to speak). From my best understanding, the original point of Family Ties was to have liberal minded parents tackle with their more conversative minded kids over current social issues and such (sort of like an All In the Family for the 1980s). But the end product that I at the very least have received, is a relatively generic family oriented program (sort like other family centric sitcoms like The Cosby Show, Full House, Diff'rent Strokes, and Growing Pains for example) with the occasional run of the mill, moralistic "special episode" (e.g. Tom Hanks trying to prove that he's a "serious" actor even though Busom Buddies was still fresh in are minds as drunk Uncle Ned, an episode in which the Keaton's new neighbors suffer harrassment simply because they're black, and an episode that I saw tonight in which Michael J. Fox's character gets hooked on speed), with Fox's character as the only real establishment of the initial point of Family Ties. http://www.geocities.com/tmc_132000/...dventures.html http://www.geocities.com/tmc_132000/...ends_Game.html http://www.geocities.com/tmc_132000/..._Bar_Site.html http://www.geocities.com/tmc_132000/..._to_Worse.html http://www.geocities.com/tmc_132000/...Meets_CBS.html

03-30-2002, 01:30 PM	#3
FamilyTiesFan Member Frequent Poster Join Date: Nov 21, 2001 Location: WA Posts: 142	I completely agree about Family Ties. After the first season, the parents became a lot more moderate and the entire focus of the show shifted. Actually, it seems like from the beginning Jennifer was supposed to be liberal like the parents. This is apparent even in the first season episodes such as No Nukes is Good Nukes where she stands up for the parents protesting. In addition, I think the characters all became much more caricatured (except Elyse and Jennifer). That's why I liked the show a lot better during the first season.
	Last edited by FamilyTiesFan; 03-30-2002 at 01:32 PM.

03-31-2002, 11:32 AM	#6
TJL Suburbanite Extrordinaire Forum Star Join Date: Dec 29, 2001 Location: New Jersey - the cradle of civilization Posts: 16,588	That usually happens with the "family" sitcoms. The show is supposed to star the "parents" but since younger viewers watch the show, they gravitate to the kids, write more fan mail, create a buzz, and soon the producers are giving then what they want, more storylines about the kids than the parents. Another example would be "Growing Pains." While Alan Thicke and Joanna Kerns thought they were the stars, Kirk Cameron was the breakout star of that show, and his character got most of the attention.
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03-31-2002, 04:36 PM	#8
DJM77 Member Forum Veteran Join Date: May 15, 2001 Location: Missouri Posts: 5,566	Happy Days is the best example that I can think of.
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04-01-2002, 01:30 PM	#14
Superbatboy The Brandon Show Forum Regular Join Date: Feb 25, 2002 Location: California..USA Posts: 793	Family Matters for sure.
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03-30-2002, 10:37 AM	#2
Freakzilla Member Forum Regular Join Date: May 23, 2000 Location: Portage, Michigan, United States Posts: 556	One sitcom that definitely did lose sight of it's original premise was Family Matters. Originally it about a family and the matters that they dealt with every week. Then they added Steve Urkel and by season 3 he had completely taken over as the star of the show. But that wasn't really that bad because the original show was so bland.

03-30-2002, 11:31 PM	#4
TMC Member Forum Idol Join Date: Jan 09, 2001 Posts: 126,858	A far more recent example is the short-lived NBC show Cursed starring Steven Weber. The show was originally advertised as an endless serial and or pseudo fantasy (a la Bewitched and I Dream of Jeanie), in which Weber's character struggled to live a normal day without stumbling into bad luck. But after like one episode, the whole hex storyline was dropped and the show retooled itself into I guess you can say generic vehicle simply called The Weber Show.

03-31-2002, 03:25 AM	#5
mstewart mstewart Senior Member Join Date: Jan 25, 2002 Location: California Posts: 1,780	I wholeheartedly agree with the postings on Family Ties. I personally thought the first season and a half was great. But when it degenerated into the Michael J. Fox sitcom it should have been called Alex not Family Ties. In previous postings the show was supposed to be Meredith Baxter's vehicle only to have it taken along with the original premise of the show by Michael J. Fox by having nearly every episode focusing on Alex. I thought the series was about parents who were hippies during the 60s raising conservative children. The premise immediately went out the window.

03-31-2002, 03:08 PM	#7
James Member Forum Veteran Join Date: Jan 07, 2001 Location: Dayton, Ohio, USA Posts: 6,370	Even though it's technically not a sitcom, I'll chip in with the 1972-81 CBS drama "The Waltons". It may have focused on the parents and gravitated towards the children later as was mentioned in this thread about other family sitcoms, but by the end of the show both the Walton parents had left the show, and a relative of the mother (Rose Burton, who IMHO should have been in less episodes than Sonny St. Jacques was during the California episodes of "Laverne & Shirley") had taken over parental duties for the last couple of seasons.

03-31-2002, 10:36 PM	#10
TJL Suburbanite Extrordinaire Forum Star Join Date: Dec 29, 2001 Location: New Jersey - the cradle of civilization Posts: 16,588	A good example would be "The John Larroquette Show" (1993-1996). The show started out as a "black comedy" with some pretty dark but interesting subject matter (alcoholism, prostitiution, race relations) but in an attempt to bring the ratings up, they changed things around and dropped a lot of the elements that made the show good. The whole theme of John's alcoholism was dropped, Carly the prostitute "quit the business" to run the bar, they brought in a girlfriend for John... and they killed the show! TMC was right about "Cursed." They totally dropped what was an interesting premise and made it into another "Single Guy." And we know how friggin wonderful that show was. Plus, they totally wasted the talents of Chris Elliot... What a horrible mistake that show was.

04-01-2002, 12:47 AM	#11
Chocoholic Member Forum Star Join Date: Dec 01, 2000 Location: Between a rock and a hard place. Posts: 11,235	ER has gone from being a fast paced, hard-hitting medical drama to a boring, pathetic nighttime soap opera, IMHO. I really hate how the show has become. Yet, guess where I am every Thursday night at 10 PM? I'm pathetic I thought Wings sorta broke from its origional premise when Joe and Helen got married. It seemed to go from an ensemble show about friends who work at an airport to a show about a couple who work at an airport and their friends are in the background. As much as I love the show, I have to admit that the last 2 seasons were pretty bad.

04-01-2002, 01:35 AM	#12
TMC Member Forum Idol Join Date: Jan 09, 2001 Posts: 126,858	Another recent example is Two Guys & a Girl which started out with the far less generic title (as well as theme music) of Two Guys, a Girl, & a Pizza Place. But sometime either after or during the second season, the writers apparently got lazy and dropped the pizza place setting altogether as the show eventually became just another buddy/relationship show.

08-25-2002, 01:12 AM	#15
Sitcomwriter Member Forum Veteran Join Date: Feb 27, 2001 Posts: 7,356	I have a feeling the upcoming "Less Than Perfect",A show about a character played by Sara Rue will most likely become "The Andy Dick Show" by mid-season!