Rebecca in Cheers started out as a relatively intelligent, competent businesswoman, but by the end of the series, as she never ceased to moan, she was just a “big ol’, dumb ol’ loser.” It was difficult to watch. Cliff also started out eccentric and funny and turned into a certifiable lunatic by the end of the series.
As to the OP, I liked Margaret Houlihan at the beginning, and hated here at the end, but I think that’s just me. She didn’t slowly turn into a moron, like so many sitcom characters – she just became too much like Hawkeye for my taste.
Cite? I doubt that. Every season was set in a different time period and always at least some of the mainm characters died in the last episode. If there had been another season it would have been set in a more modern time. hearsay has it they were considering stories about a pop band called The Blackaddr Five. More likely they decided to call it a day pretty quickly and never seriously planned any further seasons.
In one early episode, Homer fears that Marge will get drunk and embarrass the family at a company picnic. Am I the only one who sees something a little bit off about this?
Nothing I can link to on the net, I’m afraid- it was something I recall hearing on a documentary/retrospective type show airing on ABC or SBS a few years ago.
Rowan Atkinson himself has said he wanted to do a Blackadder set in Colditz during WWII if they ever got around to a 5th series… I’ve heard the Blackadder Five pop band idea before (with a drummer called Bald Rick). Personally, I’d like to see Blackadder as Prime Minister, but it would probably end up being too similar to Blackadder II.
The first character that jumped to mind was Kelly (Christina Applegate) in “Married With Children.” At the beginning of the series she was a typical dumb blonde teenager; within five seasons she was essentially retarded and the biggest slut in Chicago.\
But then I got to thinking, and realized that was true of all the characters on that show. Ed starts out as a bitter sub-middle-class jerk, and ends up kind of a nut case. Bud starts out an irritating jerk and ends up a sex maniac. Peggy just becomes even Peggyer.
And then I thought some more and realized almost all sitcom characters are like that. I think you will find in the majority of cases - not all, but better than 50% - main charaters on sitcoms become even more extreme versions of themselves. I think that’s partially a case of the writers really getting into the swing of things, partially that they have to reply on the characters more as the initial jokes dry up and they need to come up with more jokes, and mainly because if the sitcom lasts, the audience wants more of what makes the show appealing.
Spike, on Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. Started out as one of the most interesting “little bads” in the series (with some of the best lines, too, whether appearing on Buffy or Angel), and ended up as an uninteresting, defanged, lovesick annoyance. Spike was great when he occasionaly burst onto the scene; however, once they made him a permanent character, they had to flesh him out a bit (thus ensuring his blandness), devise a silly reason for hanging around Sunnydale—keeping that obsessive, puppy-love charade going more than its one, possibly two, episode’s worth—and in the process oversaturated the series with Spike to the point where he was a parody of his original self.
To a lesser degree, same goes with Willow. Her sudden and unintentionally comical repudiation of anything male was pretty poor writing, but it was certainly better than the “Just Say No” magical monkey they chained to her back. Plus, you know, Kennedy. Can’t forgive her for making that choice.
Luanne from “King of the Hill” started off as a somewhat complex character, an airhead with a hidden talent for auto mechanics that she often sublimated behind her failed attempt at conforming to a profession girls are “supposed” to do well at, cosmetology, along with some serious anger issues relating to her family and upbringing. She used to be the most interesting character on the show. Now she’s just an idiot.
Rom from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. For his first few appearances, he was a rather normal Ferengi working for his brother Quark. For whatever reason, the actor or writers suddendly decided to give him a goofy voice and a childish naïveté bordering on stupidity. He had a rebound of sorts later in the series when it was revealed that his apparent stupidity was actually just a consequence of his lack of self-confidence and his brother’s domineering behaviour.
It was inevitable but seeing Uncle Junior deteriorate was not fun. It made the arc of The Sopranos more believable, of course, as did the loss of menace that Paulie went through and the fading of Christopher, but Junior used to be so much fun and all the jokes were writtien for him. The final season it was hard to watch Junior.
I guess Big Pussy was another one that hurt to see fade, but we all saw that coming for weeks or longer.
Well, how can you ignore his sister Monica? IMO her transition was the worst. She went from a somewhat normal clean-freak with flesh on her bones to a neurotic, screechy, harpy who is an over the top OCD clean-freak, control freak, over-competitive walking skeleton. I did not understand how that woman was supposed to raise children.
I think Tina on The L Word takes the freaking cake.
In the first season, she’s this sweet, loving, understanding woman, occasionally exasperated with Bette’s controlling nature but always ready to kiss & hug & forgive.
And then suddenly from the second season through most of the fourth, she’s a poisonous bitch! No tolerance for any sort of disagreement with Bette, just snappy and moody and vindictive and in general devoid of redeeming qualities. I understand her being sick of Bette’s shit, and wanting to assert her independence or whatever, but good god woman, can you leave her head on occasionally when you speak to her??
This has started to change in later episodes, conveniently enough, as the writers seem to be ready to consider a reunion. But man, it was just shitty of them to make her character so totally unsympathetic for so long just because those two weren’t together.
Another MWC devolution was Marcy, who started as a demure newlywed with undercurrents of sexual depravity, capable of sudden violent thoughts, to being mostly defined towards the end of the run as an overt sexual being capable of sudden violent acts. Amanda Bearse always kept her interesting, though, and if I was saddled with the Peg clone Jefferson it certainly would bring out the worst in me too.
BTW, I saw her first ex, David Garrison, play his last performance as The Wizard at WICKED yesterday. A two and half year high-paying gig (tour and NY) on the hottest show on Broadway shows that he made the right decision leaving TV. He looked and sounded great, and was got his own special round of applause and lots of hugs from the rest of the cast.
