What TV shows dramatically changed thematically/tonally as time went on?

[TMC]

Some shows just don't find their feet to begin with and it takes a while for them to know what they're about. Others go for a completely different path half way into the show. What are the best examples?

[dee2364]

Little House on the Prairie. It started out as this very uplifting family show and then turned into this trashy show that used shock value for ratings. The show went so much in the opposite direction that it started contradicting its own positive messages from earlier on in the series.

For example, when Mary went blind, there were entire episodes based around her having to cope with her disability and teaching the audiences that blind people were just as capable as raising children as anyone else. Then when the show went in full shock value mode, it had Mary stupidly abandon her baby during a fire when all she had to do was scoop it up in her arms before leaving the house. And then her husband magically restores his vision and gets to live a happy, fulfilled life as a sighted person when he was the one who taught Mary how to accept her blindness.

[Chocolate Moose]

Happy Days, a family show was set in the 50's, had an alien land!!! That's pretty much off the story line.

[treky]

MASH-it started out as a sitcom set in a medical unit during the Korean war but went on waaay too long and became "oh we're doctors..and we're nurses...and we're so good because we save lives...and death is such a bummer...and war is hell..." and on and on and on...

[Edward216]

Originally Posted by treky

MASH-it started out as a sitcom set in a medical unit during the Korean war but went on waaay too long and became "oh we're doctors..and we're nurses...and we're so good because we save lives...and death is such a bummer...and war is hell..." and on and on and on...

OK we get it, you hate M.A.S.H.

Ed.

[treky]

Originally Posted by Edward216

OK we get it, you hate M.A.S.H.

Ed.

I don't hate it, I like the first 3 seasons, 50% of seasons 4-7 and about 4 or 5% of seasons 8-11 Like the scene in the finale when Hawkeye saw a dead chicken and went crazy

[Edward216]

Originally Posted by treky

I don't hate it, I like the first 3 seasons, 50% of seasons 4-7 and about 4 or 5% of seasons 8-11 Like the scene in the finale when Hawkeye saw a dead chicken and went crazy

It wasn't a dead chicken, he was repressing a horrific memory...but if I have to explain it to you forget it.

Ed.

[treky]

it should have been cancelled after season 7 when Radar left.

[treky]

Originally Posted by Edward216

It wasn't a dead chicken, he was repressing a horrific memory...but if I have to explain it to you forget it.

Ed.

well whatever; it was still ridiculous.

[Edward216]

Originally Posted by treky

well whatever; it was still ridiculous.

I forget the exact circumstances now (Because I haven't seen the final MASH episode in several years) but for some reason they had to evacuate the camp (invading enemy soldiers I think). And they were all hiding out somewhere with some native South Koreans like on a bus. One of them was a young woman with a very young and crying baby. And if the enemy soldiers found them they were all going to be shot and killed. So Hawkeye gets really annoyed and upset with the baby crying and he gets angry at the young mother and tells her to make the baby stop crying, something like will you shut that damn baby up! And the young mother knows that if enemy soldiers are nearby and can hear her baby crying they will be found and killed. So she intentionally smothers her baby to death in order spare everybody else from possibly being murdered. And Hawkeye's so ridden with guilt over it believing it was all his fault she smothered her baby to death, that's why he had the mental breakdown and had repressed the memory and substituted a chicken for the baby in his mind. If that's not horrifying to you well then you're just a really really cold person that I wouldn't even want to know!

Ed.

[Edward216]

This one (at least for me) isn't so much the whole show (Everybody Loves Raymond) as it is one character. In the beginning Debra's really likable and relatable and by the end of the series the writers and producers had turned her into this shrewish nag that I couldn't even stand. I don't understand why they did that but I think they sure ruined Debra.

Ed.

[Wawwie]

Originally Posted by dee2364

Little House on the Prairie. It started out as this very uplifting family show and then turned into this trashy show that used shock value for ratings. The show went so much in the opposite direction that it started contradicting its own positive messages from earlier on in the series.

For example, when Mary went blind, there were entire episodes based around her having to cope with her disability and teaching the audiences that blind people were just as capable as raising children as anyone else. Then when the show went in full shock value mode, it had Mary stupidly abandon her baby during a fire when all she had to do was scoop it up in her arms before leaving the house. And then her husband magically restores his vision and gets to live a happy, fulfilled life as a sighted person when he was the one who taught Mary how to accept her blindness.

Don't forget about the addition of that annoying, bratty little twit "Albert" who didn't even exist in real life. I'll never know WHY the writers chose to add that twerp. I couldn't stand him. The show sometimes deviated quite a bit from Laura Ingalls Wilder's real life books. "Adam" also did not exist in real life. In real life, Mary never got married and she never had children. She became a burden on her sister Carrie and lived with her for years. So the whole story about Mary abandoning her baby during the fire was fiction. None of that ever happened for real.

[Edward216]

Originally Posted by Wawwie

Don't forget about the addition of that annoying, bratty little twit "Albert" who didn't even exist in real life. I'll never know WHY the writers chose to add that twerp. I couldn't stand him. The show sometimes deviated quite a bit from Laura Ingalls Wilder's real life books. "Adam" also did not exist in real life. In real life, Mary never got married and she never had children. She became a burden on her sister Carrie and lived with her for years. So the whole story about Mary abandoning her baby during the fire was fiction. None of that ever happened for real.

Albert was played by Matthew Laborteaux, and his brother Patrick Laborteaux was a regular on the drama series JAG, but I can't remember his character's name. Also if I remember as a boy, Patrick guest starred on a couple of episodes of Little House On The Prairie too. Also in the show the Oleson family Harriet, Nels, bratty Nelly and her bratty brother (I can't remember his name right now either) never existed in real life either.

Ed.

[treky]

Originally Posted by Edward216

I forget the exact circumstances now (Because I haven't seen the final MASH episode in several years) but for some reason they had to evacuate the camp (invading enemy soldiers I think). And they were all hiding out somewhere with some native South Koreans like on a bus. One of them was a young woman with a very young and crying baby. And if the enemy soldiers found them they were all going to be shot and killed. So Hawkeye gets really annoyed and upset with the baby crying and he gets angry at the young mother and tells her to make the baby stop crying, something like will you shut that damn baby up! And the young mother knows that if enemy soldiers are nearby and can hear her baby crying they will be found and killed. So she intentionally smothers her baby to death in order spare everybody else from possibly being murdered. And Hawkeye's so ridden with guilt over it believing it was all his fault she smothered her baby to death, that's why he had the mental breakdown and had repressed the memory and substituted a chicken for the baby in his mind. If that's not horrifying to you well then you're just a really really cold person that I wouldn't even want to know!
sorry you feel that way, but as my fathers old college professor used to say "Well, great minds differ!" Or; something my mother used to say: "Everyone to their own opinion said the woman as she kissed the cow." LOL






I used to work with a guy who said everyone has a different opinion and that's what makes the world go round!
Ed.

[TSMIV]

Albert was played by Matthew Laborteaux, and his brother Patrick Laborteaux was a regular on the drama series JAG, but I can't remember his character's name.

Patrick was Bud Roberts on JAG and both the Laborteaux brothers were on Little House. Patrick played Andrew Garvey.