Oh. I guess I thought she was faking to throw everyone off. 
Not really at the end Screech was accepted into Duke University; Emerson College; Clemson University; University of California, Berkeley; the California Institute of Technology; Emory University; University of Southern California; Washington & Jefferson College; and Princeton University and The Barbizon School of Modeling and Acting. 
He did get more stupid, but he was still portrayed as a brain. How Zach got into Yale is a mystery, considering he skipped classes all the time and “B-S’d” his way through high school
On Green Acres for the first five episodes or so, it was Oliver that was dumb and it was Lisa that had the brain. If you recall Lisa was bargaining down Mr Haney and was on to him right off. This later was reversed.
As a matter of fact the whole town of Hooterville, including the physical layout as well as the same characters were a lot different in Green Acres than on Petticoat Junction.
Homer Simpson also went through the first season as a relatively caring and as the centered parent. Remember how it was he, who wanted to sell the TV to go to a Dr Marvin Monroe’s counseling so the family would get along better. Among other things. Homer progressively got dumber and stopped caring as Marge became the centered parent.
Mr Drysdale on the Beverly Hillbillies was changed from a normal banker-businessman to an money obsessed freak. About midway through the series Drysdale seemed to forget all about the fact Jed was just a hayseed that fell into oil money. We see plots of Jed saying to buy something and Drysdale thinks Jed is shrewed. Drysdale originally paid his employees a decent wage and was overall fair and didn’t mind spending a buck to make one. Then he developed in a cartoon of himself.
The worst example was Lucille Carmichael on the Lucy Show, after it changed locations to California. The Lucy character was written all over the place. One show she was totally incompetent and couldn’t even type, the next show she’s shown as a competent overworked secretary. Her character varied depending on who was writing the script.
In the original book and movie, Frank Burns was a relatively minor character, and only one of the villains that Hawkeye, Trapper and Duke (who was written out for the show) battled. So his character really had no “wiggle room” in which to grow or mature.
Charles, on the other hand, was inserted as a foil for Hawkeye and B.J., but I suspect was always intended to be a fuller, more complex character. While he was arrogant and pompous, he was also intelligent and honest. As Larry Gelbart et al. developed his character, Charles lost some of his Boston Brahmin pretension, and became strong enough to carry a storyline on his own, rather than always and only serving as antagonist to Hawkeye and B.J.
Zach got a 1502 on the SAT. Which admittedly will not get you into Yale on its own, and I assume his grades were nothing special, but that was the explanation they gave us. On a completely unrelated note, I wasted my childhood.
Some of my very favorite MAS*H storylines shiw this: Charles working with the young soldier that stuttered, for example, or with the pianist who injured his hand. Brilliant!
You folks are missing the real M.A.S.H. turnaround – Radar O’Reilly. He started out as a savvy, slick operator. He was stealing a jeep from the Army, mailing it home piece by piece.
For some reason they started changing his character to a goofy retrogressed home kid who still slept with his teddy bear and promised Father Mulcahy that he wouldn’t swear. I do like the “new” Radar, but he started out very differently.
And he’s the only character in the TV show played by the same actor from the movie!
(Well, General Hammond did, too, but who the hell remembers him – only in 3 episodes. Timothy Brown was in both, but not the same character.)
If by “you folks” you mean you, and by missing you mean “not reading post #17”, then yeah, you’re right.
Good Lord, I gotta always do a Search anymore. On a quick scan through I missed that.
Fastest ever: In the Star Trek episode “Who Mourns for Adonais?”, Kirk spends the entire time fighting Apollo. He refuses to accept that he is really a god and refuses to accept anything about him.
But after he leaves, he immediately says they probably should have humored Apollo a little bit.
Runner up: Doctor Who “Warriors of the Deep” – very similar. The Doctor is doing everything in his power to wipe out the Silurians/Sea Devils, coming up with one deadly scheme after another. He even becomes convinced that genocide is the only answer (after first not wanting to go along with genocide). Finally, when he succeeds in the genocide he wholeheartedly joins in with, he says, “There should have been another way.”
In both cases, my reaction was: “Why the hell didn’t you think of that sooner?”
The character of Emily in Friends was presented as a shrew. Then, in the second half of the episode it was shown that she was just having a bad day. Then she was sweet,and finally ended up being a shrew.
on the simpsons, i thought that Flanders had a pretty big slide too. he went from perfect neighbor next door to biblethumping zealot. i mean, the guy had a rumpus room with a full bar in the beginning of the series. it was invoked again in the cult episode, but for the most part, neddy was a prohibitionist.
also, JD’s slide in Scrubs was so frustrating. it could have been just as funny if JD played the straight man in a madhouse of a hospital but instead they made him one of the inmates.
also, i’ve railed against Kevin’s steady retardation on the Office with much regularity. his WSOP (world series of poker) bracelet, his band (scrantonicity II), and his fiance stacy were supposed to signal that he’s got a full life outside of the office, and his drudging was an effect of the soul crushing cubicle life. Now, his gambling has turned him into a degenerate, his band a joke, and his fiance left him. also, he’s quick to eat out of the garbage, soak his feet in an ice machine, and scream at breasts to see lactation. oh yeah. he was mistaken for legally retarded. why? none of those jokes were half as funny as the reveal that he was a WSOP winner.
How does the OP stand when the personality changes are the point of the show?
Breaking Bad has Walt - its lead character - spin through personality revolutions faster than a gyroscope, in more than one direction. Often more than once per episode.
Seriously, he thumps through violent personality changes like Hamlet after a motivational course on proactivity and the best point of the show is that the actor can make it all somewhat sympathetic and believable.
How about Luke Spencer on “General Hospital”? First he was portrayed as the rapist of Laura Webber, but within months they’d become a couple!
Well, the reason he can do it so well is because he’s Bryan Cranston. I’ve always said he’s done a wider range of acting just in Malcolm in the Middle then many actors have done in their entire career. Also, like you said, it’s the point of the show, and IMHO, all his changes have been ‘organic’ and still well within the realm of what we know about him. It would be one thing if he was a bumbling idiot one episode and then a few weeks later he was making super high grade meth in a camper. But Walt was diagnosed with cancer and now his wife is leaving him, so I think the changes that’s he’s gone through are pretty normal.
Dr Smith on Lost in Space changes from sabateur to comic relief and steals the show.
Scrantonicity II really let me down. I was really really really really hoping they’d be amazing. I so wanted Kevin to be one of those people that’s an idiot at work and socially retarded, but not all around stupid.
I think the biggest, fastest change would have to Trance Gemini from Andromeda. In a single episode, she went from being cute, bouncy, and purple to being serious, fairly ruthless… and yellow.
No, I did not care for the change, personally.
I would think not; the corresponding character in an evil universe is a different person.
Leslie on The Big Bang Theory changed very abruptly between seasons 1 and 2, at least with regards to her libido. In season 1, she has one wild night with Leonard, but then breaks it off, since “knowing my sex drive, I’m good at least until New Year’s”. In season 2, though, she’s “a recognized expert in the field of general sluttiness”, a title she herself does not dispute, and stoops so low as to sleep with Howard.