# From 'hot' to 'not' over the course of the show?

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 5, 2008, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129 "2008-03-05T02:03:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2008, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/1 "2008-03-05T02:03:13Z")

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What t.v. characters started off the series being the ‘hot’ one, and then, over the course of the series grew old, or fat, or ‘not hot’ somehow?

I can think of a good one. Mrs. Brahms on “Are You Being Served?”. She started the series with a character that was supposed to be ‘the hot one’. Over the course of the series, which lasted many years, she was no longer able to really pull off being the hot one.

Are there any other good ones?

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### Author: ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2008, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/2 "2008-03-05T02:07:32Z")

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Ross on \*Friends \*was hot in a confident, geeky, anthropology doctor sort of way. After his third divorce, he got just plain annoying (the Holiday Armadillo was cringetastic.)

I always wondered if the writers did that on purpose, to show Ross’s relationship failures affecting his self-esteem.

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### Author: ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2008, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/3 "2008-03-05T02:17:08Z")

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“Facts of Life” inflation.

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### Author: ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2008, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/4 "2008-03-05T02:19:29Z")

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[QUOTE=Nzinga, Seated]  
Are there any other good ones?  
[/QUOTE]

Dana Scully.

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### Author: ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2008, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/5 "2008-03-05T02:20:39Z")

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[QUOTE=DrFidelius]  
“Facts of Life” inflation.  
[/QUOTE]

Blaire? Was she the ‘hot’ one? I think she was just the rich one.

See, I want the character to have supposed to have been the ‘hot’ one.

I don’t want to just think up hot actors that lost their looks over time…the character has to have been ‘the hot one’ in the cast.

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### Author: ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2008, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/6 "2008-03-05T02:24:05Z")

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I used to think when “Friends” started that Courtney Cox was fairly pretty and at least normal sized.  
By the end (until she was pregnant) she was painfully thin.

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### Author: ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2008, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/7 "2008-03-05T02:26:00Z")

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[QUOTE=Poysyn]  
I used to think when “Friends” started that Courtney Cox was fairly pretty and at least normal sized.  
By the end (until she was pregnant) she was painfully thin.  
[/QUOTE]

Damn. That’s two votes for ‘Friends’, and we are only 6 posts in.

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### Author: ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2008, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/8 "2008-03-05T02:29:08Z")

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Loretta Swit’s “‘Hot Lips’ Houlihan” in **M_A_S\*H**? The original movie character was a sex symbol; I’m not so sure how hot Swit was (or was supposed to be) when she started playing the character, though.

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### Author: ![Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea666f/32.png) [@Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_and_a_Half_Inches_of_Fun)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2008, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/9 "2008-03-05T02:34:06Z")

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Delta Burke on _Designing Women_.

Fonzie on _Happy Days_.

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### Author: ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2008, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/10 "2008-03-05T02:39:03Z")

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[QUOTE=Two and a Half Inches of Fun]  
Delta Burke on _Designing Women_.

Fonzie on _Happy Days_.  
[/QUOTE]

Delta Burke is a _good_ one! Fonzie? Did his looks change significantly over the course of the show?

**The Scriviner** , I had heard that about Hot Lips before, and I never was a M.A.S.H fan. I decided just now to google some pics. Wow…that is quite the transformation she underwent.

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### Author: ![Frostillicus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2008, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/11 "2008-03-05T02:41:00Z")

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Christa Miller (Jordan on Scrubs) has had some serious plastic surgery over the course of the show. It has NOT improved her looks.

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### Author: ![Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ea666f/32.png) [@Two\_and\_a\_Half\_Inches\_of\_Fun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Two_and_a_Half_Inches_of_Fun)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2008, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/12 "2008-03-05T02:50:34Z")

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[QUOTE=Nzinga, Seated]  
Fonzie? Did his looks change significantly over the course of the show?

[/QUOTE]

Henry Winkler had to switch to a black TV shirt to try to hide his increasing gut. It did not work. Winkler was never right for that part, but it became painfully obvious by the end.

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### Author: ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2008, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/13 "2008-03-05T03:38:45Z")

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Maybe not “hot”, but Dana on SportsNight, perhaps. By the end of the show, she was pretty much irrelevant in the romantic context of the show.

Not to hijack, but the classic opposite example of this: Steve on Family Matters (even if you don’t count Stefan).

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### Author: ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2008, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/14 "2008-03-05T03:46:36Z")

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A classic example is Miss Kitty from Gunsmoke. She was pretty attractive at the beginning of the series but by the time it ended she was looking a little worse for the wear.

Marc

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### Author: ![Nzinga\_Seated](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b5ac83/32.png) [@Nzinga\_Seated](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nzinga_Seated)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2008, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/15 "2008-03-05T03:55:07Z")

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[QUOTE=Garfield226]  
Maybe not “hot”, but Dana on SportsNight, perhaps. By the end of the show, she was pretty much irrelevant in the romantic context of the show.

Not to hijack, but the classic opposite example of this: Steve on Family Matters (even if you don’t count Stefan).  
[/QUOTE]

Whaaaa?? Steve Urkle was not hot! Neither was Stephan…I don’t think. I had stopped watching alltogether by then. But, no. He wasn’t hot. You cut that out.

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### Author: ![tremorviolet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@tremorviolet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tremorviolet)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2008, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/16 "2008-03-05T04:03:07Z")

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Jonathon Frakes as Riker on Star Trek: TNG started out as the younger “hot” guy, obviously intended to be the Lothario of the series. But he really chunkified over the course of the series and definitely became less attractive.

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### Author: ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2008, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/17 "2008-03-05T04:03:47Z")

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[QUOTE=Nzinga, Seated]  
I had stopped watching alltogether by then.  
[/QUOTE]

Depending on what you mean by “by then”, that could be the problem. Steven first turned himself into Stefan in season 5, and Steve only turned into what Laura wanted in the last season. Probably not typically “hot”, though, just a transformation from completely undesirable to desired.

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### Author: ![Indygrrl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@Indygrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Indygrrl)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2008, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/18 "2008-03-05T04:07:06Z")

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Megan Mullally from _Will and Grace_, and Leah Remini from \*King of Queens \* are two who come to mind immediately. I’m sure I can think of some more.

Oh, Donal Logue from \*Grounded for Life \* seemed to get worse, but he was always hot to me so I guess that doesn’t count.

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### Author: ![CaerieD](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/da6949/32.png) [@CaerieD](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaerieD)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2008, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/19 "2008-03-05T04:19:27Z")

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Never mind. I let the window sit too long and posted after it was no longer relevant. :smack:

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### Author: ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)
#### Post date: [March 5, 2008, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/20 "2008-03-05T04:19:36Z")

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[QUOTE=Indygrrl]  
and Leah Remini from \*King of Queens \*  
[/QUOTE]

Holy crap you aren’t kidding. She was totally edible early on, but became a chunker later.

I’m going to thrown in Candace Cameron from Full House. As a younger guy, I thought she was the shit…then she got fat.

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