# From 'hot' to 'not' over the course of the show? **URL:** \ **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:** 4
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/61 "2008-03-06T01:40:47Z")
[QUOTE=TLDRIDKJKLOLFTW] Leah Remini is the reason for this thread. She went from TINY and adorable to HUGE and hideous, and never recovered even though she slimmed down somewhat after she had the baby. Absolutely awful…some of those episodes where they’re literally having her stand behind furniture and wearing robes and stuff to try to hide her corpulence are just horrifying. [/QUOTE] Leah Remini? Do you, by any chance, mean [Leah Rimini?](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0718957/) Or is there an actress named Leah Remini? I’ll assume the latter, because otherwise your comments make no sense. Edited to correct my coding. ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/62 "2008-03-06T02:05:20Z")
[QUOTE=KneadToKnow] Dana Scully. [/QUOTE] _gasp_ Lies! Filthy, horrible, unbearable lies! (Unless you mean from season 8-9, because I stopped watching after season 7 finished.) My personal vote: Goren from _Law and Order: Criminal Intent_ (oddly enough, his looks have deteriorated for me, but his personality’s become more appealing). ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/63 "2008-03-06T02:29:31Z")
[QUOTE=Fiver] Warrick Brown, played by Gary Dourdan, is the “hot black guy.” I’m unsurprised you didn’t know that, because obviously you’ve never seen the show if you don’t think [Marg Helgenberger](http://www.blazinbeauties.com/pages1/marg_helgenberger/marg_helgenberger_9.jpg) is attractive. I think she’s stunning, and I hope I look half as good when I’m her age. Whether you find her attractive or not, I don’t get the hostility in your post. “Syphilitic”? That’s way over the line. Did she shoot your dog or something? [/QUOTE] Yah, I was a bit taken aback by that post as well! Obviously Marg isn’t 20 any more, but she’s still quite a beautiful woman. Some of the costume choices make her look like a 'ho, but I don’t find that diminishes her prettyness. However, I have an irational hatred of Melanie Griffith and think she’s horrible to look at for no particular reason - I don’t think she’s aged well, but when she was younger, some people thought she was quite a fox, apparently so YMMV. Oops - I forgot the OP! Chandler Bing from friends started out being pretty cute, but by the end he was rather unappealing. Bloated, drug addled, bad shape. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/64 "2008-03-06T02:31:40Z")
The girl who played Topenga, on Boy Meets World. Over the course of the show, she was the one true love of the Boy (who’s name escapes me…Fred Savage’s little brother). Over the course of the show, it got harder and harder to believe. Interestingly, I saw her recently featured in ad spread in a magazine for some diet pills; the ad was her story about overcome problems with her weight. Even in the pics, I don’t think she looked all that great. ---
**Author:** ![Ragiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6de8d8/32.png) [@Ragiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ragiel)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/65 "2008-03-06T02:51:54Z")
[QUOTE=Baldwin] Leah Remini? Do you, by any chance, mean [Leah Rimini?](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0718957/) Or is there an actress named Leah Remini? I’ll assume the latter, because otherwise your comments make no sense. Edited to correct my coding. [/QUOTE] **Baldwin** , your link goes to a page featuring an actress whose name is most clearly spelled Remini, repeatedly. I seem to remember the triple-i spelling myself, though. Color me puzzled. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/66 "2008-03-06T05:57:51Z")
[QUOTE=shy guy] \ On the other side of the coin - Angel put on a _lot_ of weight between Buffy season 1 and Angel season 5, but Dave Boreanaz pulled that off pretty well. He looks better on Bones than he did at the end of Angel, I think. [/QUOTE] I’ve thought so too. I’ve watched him on “Bones” and thought - “This show is years after “Angel” - shouldn’t he be looking older and worse now, instead of looking even hotter?” He is definitely aging well. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/67 "2008-03-06T06:14:49Z")
Kirstie Ally on Cheers used to be _smoking_ hot. Then she gained weight. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/68 "2008-03-06T07:54:41Z")
Betty Aberlin in Mr. Rodgers. Quite cute in the earlier shows, aged quite a bit in the later ones. Hey, you need something to look at when your kids insist on watching. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 8:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/69 "2008-03-06T08:27:08Z")
> [@](#): > > **Baldwin** : guess my vote would be for Bob Newhart on “The Bob Newhart Show”. He started out as a hot young stud, about 6’4", rippling with muscles and radiating sex, but by the end of the show he was a neurotic, middle-aged, balding little guy. Odd. You are my kind of person. Thanks for making this thread worthwhile. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/70 "2008-03-06T12:16:30Z")
[QUOTE=Atomicktom] The girl who played Topenga, on Boy Meets World. Over the course of the show, she was the one true love of the Boy (who’s name escapes me…Fred Savage’s little brother). Over the course of the show, it got harder and harder to believe. [/QUOTE] I find these comments sort of sad - you can buy a “one true love” story (or obsession in the case of Urkel) only if the girl is physically attractive enough to justify it? And in the event that she’s attractive/one true love early on, and loses that attractiveness, then clearly she’s not a plausible one true love anymore, even if the relationship has been developing over years… ---
**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 6, 2008, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/71 "2008-03-06T13:21:50Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] Kirstie Ally on Cheers used to be _smoking_ hot. Then she gained weight. [/QUOTE] You know what I noticed about the change in her looks? Not her weight, but her hair. On Cheers, she had this really thick, wavy dark hair. It looked positively heavy with healthy shine and body. Then, she got that show, Victoria’s Closet, I think it was called. Her hair was died some brassy shade of blond, and it was stick straight. I didn’t like it. Also, I agree with SenorBeef. I mean, not to say that I find it sad, but I do find it strange that people don’t buy that the ‘less attractive’ girl gets the boy. I’ve seen that play out many times in real life. I remember certain social circles that I have witnessed where there is a top dog (male or female) that is wanted by all the others in that circle, even though he or she is not the most physically attractive. There are other attributes that make a person sexy, and sometimes the ‘pudgy’ one has that in spades. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/72 "2008-03-06T14:17:36Z")
Marg Helgenberger is the reason I don’t watch that show anymore. And it’s not nothing to do with hot or not. I initially thought she was attractive and enjoyed the show. Then they came back from the summer break and her face looked weird. Bad plastic surgery, botox? Don’t know, don’t care. Ever thereafter instead of listening to the dialog and following along with the show, if her mug was on the screen, my brain was busily trying to figure out what exactly was off with her features? What is it? My mind can tell it’s something unnatural by looking at her face I couldn’t tell you whether it was a nose or eyebrow job or what. If I was the producer of this show I’d be pissed. And that’s not the only show where this has happened. There is a talk show filmed in Toronto with a female who I used to enjoy. Then I realized I was spending my time looking at her face wondering what she had done to it and couldn’t hear a word she was saying. Never watched again. They may believe that if I can’t tell; nosejob? browlift? botox? that it’s been a successful surgery. The truth is that if you look so unnatural that my brain can’t help but focus on what’s not right here, rather that what you’re performing or saying, I’m done with your show. Melanie Griffith, won’t even lay eyes on her, Mary Tyler Moore, same, it creeps me out too much! ---
**Author:** ![shy\_guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a6a055/32.png) [@shy\_guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shy_guy)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/73 "2008-03-06T15:24:43Z")
[QUOTE=elbows] Marg Helgenberger is the reason I don’t watch that show anymore. And it’s not nothing to do with hot or not. I initially thought she was attractive and enjoyed the show. Then they came back from the summer break and her face looked weird. Bad plastic surgery, botox? Don’t know, don’t care. [/QUOTE] She definitely had something done, because it bugged the Hell out of me, too. In the early episodes she looked like an extremely attractive woman who was aging quite gracefully. Then she decided to get work done (whatever it was) for god knows what reason, and now she just looks weird. Her lips, in particular, are sometimes _way_ overdone and look vaguely disturbing. Unfortunate, really, because she was quite stunning. That said, I tend to have issues with any kind of immediately-noticable plastic surgery. I don’t know if it’s just that the general idea squicks me out (which it does) or that I simply don’t like the way it looks, but I can’t think of a single time when I’ve thought, “I can tell that person has had plastic surgery, and s/he looks so much better now!”\* Thinking about Angel made me think of another example of the complete opposite: Wesley Windham-Pryce. From the 3rd season of Buffy to the 5th season of Angel, his transformation from stuffy Watcher to stubbly badass served him _very_ well. \*Edit: Of course, I mean plastic surgery done for the purpose of looking younger, not surgery undertaken to correct some sort of deformity/scar/burn :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/74 "2008-03-06T17:28:35Z")
I third (fourth? whatever) the idea that cosmetic surgery done for aging purposes is just plain stupid. Maybe I’m biased because I’m an aging woman myself (41, thanks), but I look at the older women around me, and they just look beautiful (well, if they’re beautiful to start with - wrinkles don’t turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse). Crow’s feet, saggy eyes, saggy chins, so what? I’m starting to look at fresh-faced young things and think they look sort of unfinished. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/75 "2008-03-06T17:59:52Z")
[QUOTE=SenorBeef] I find these comments sort of sad - you can buy a “one true love” story (or obsession in the case of Urkel) only if the girl is physically attractive enough to justify it? And in the event that she’s attractive/one true love early on, and loses that attractiveness, then clearly she’s not a plausible one true love anymore, even if the relationship has been developing over years… [/QUOTE] I was referring to the OP’s query, > [@](#): > > 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? All the kids in that show started out, IIRC, as pre-pubescent. Still, the girl who played Topenga was clearly very pretty - I believe she was intended to be cast as the love interest character from the get-go. As she developed, however, she also became fat - exactly what the OP wanted examples of. I’m not saying he couldn’t continue to love her, but in a show in which she is cast as the idealized pretty girl, her size eventually belied her role. I don’t mean this as a commentary on weight, or on the desirability of heavy people. If it is sad that gaining weight makes one less hot, then perhaps the OP, which posited becoming fat as becoming less hot, is sad, too. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/76 "2008-03-06T18:05:07Z")
I wouldn’t say Danielle Fishel (Topanga) become all that fat. In the last couple of years, she did put on weight (they even did an episode where they sort of alluded to it, where she and Eric go on a diet) but for most of the show, she was fairly slender, if not reed thin. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/77 "2008-03-06T18:56:41Z")
[QUOTE=featherlou] I third (fourth? whatever) the idea that cosmetic surgery done for aging purposes is just plain stupid. Maybe I’m biased because I’m an aging woman myself (41, thanks), but I look at the older women around me, and they just look beautiful (well, if they’re beautiful to start with - wrinkles don’t turn a sow’s ear into a silk purse). Crow’s feet, saggy eyes, saggy chins, so what? I’m starting to look at fresh-faced young things and think they look sort of unfinished. [/QUOTE] I can see why an actress would have “work” done. Older women have a hard enough time in Hollywood. But–just an occasional nip or tuck. Not “17 Forever.” And–find a **really good** surgeon. (Apparently, society ladies here in Houston are planning their second surgery by 41. And I’m even more “behind schedule” than you!) ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/78 "2008-03-06T18:59:46Z")
[QUOTE=Diomedes] I thought Frakes did his job perfectly: he was supposed to be a second Kirk…and was dedicated enough to follow Shatner’s paunchification perfectly. 🙂 [/QUOTE] That’s OK. We still had Patrick Stewart. Guess TPTB were wrong when they thought a bald guy couldn’t be sexy. And, of course, smart girls always liked Spock more than Captain Kirk… ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/79 "2008-03-06T19:02:35Z")
[QUOTE=Sweetums] Put me down in the Laura Prepon column. I read an interview with her after she went blond that said that she was getting hit on **by me** more as a blond than she had as a redhead. [/QUOTE] Freudian? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [March 6, 2008, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129/80 "2008-03-06T19:09:38Z")
Not a TV show, but a comic strip – Hiram “Hie” Flagston of **Hi and Lois** started out as a REALLY handsome, square-jawed character who looked as if he stepped out of one of those “reality” adventure strips, like Mark Trail. Over time, as drawn by Dik Browne, he gradually got rounder and lumpier, ending up as the cartoony hubby we have today (even though he’s now drawn by his son) Reference (which has the pictorial proof) Mort Walker’s **Backstage at the Strips**. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/from-hot-to-not-over-the-course-of-the-show/440129.md?page=5)