I have vague memories of a TV show ditching the live audience and going to single-camera during its run, but I’ll be damned if I can think of it.
Has this ever happened?
Happy Days started out as single-camera, no audience, and a laugh track. After testing filming before a live audience for a Season 2 episode, the show was then filmed three-camera, with a live audience, from Season 3 on.
The Odd Couple did the same thing.
And so did the show Up All Night decades later.
But I can’t find an example of the opposite; a show that started multi-camera and switched to single-camera. From what I’m reading, multi-camera is easier, so it’s unlikely for a show to change to make it harder (my speculation).
I know they’re not exactly the same show, but Young Sheldon was shot single camera and the follow-up series George and Mandy’s First Marriage (which is essentially Young Sheldon without Sheldon or his dad) is your typical three camera sitcom with laugh track.
The Drew Carey Show switched from multi-cam to single-cam in it’s final season.
According to this article, it was only parts of some episodes in the final season, the show itself didn’t completely change.
Producers had a little fun, took some chances. Parts of some episodes were shot in a single-camera format, without an audience, instead of the three-camera format before a live audience seen on most sitcoms.
But still, that’s a pretty good example, because prior to that they were solidly a three-camera show, and decided to switch it up a bit near the end of the run.