# Series that essentially abandoned their original premise during their runs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 3, 2010, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-that-essentially-abandoned-their-original-premise-during-their-runs/545433 "2010-07-03T16:15:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-that-essentially-abandoned-their-original-premise-during-their-runs/545433/121 "2010-07-07T13:52:28Z")
When _The Rockford Files_ started Rockford, being an ex-convict who’d been wrongly imprisoned, only took on cases similar cases that had been wrongly closed by the police. That premise was quickly abandoned and soon Jimmy was taking any case he could get that would pay him his “$200 /day plus expenses.” That change actually made sense, because it gave him a wider variety of cases to solve. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-that-essentially-abandoned-their-original-premise-during-their-runs/545433/122 "2010-07-07T14:38:00Z")
> [@chorpler](#): > > I always found that scene bizarre, because it’s not like turning off a morphine drip for that long would put the guy in any immediate physical pain. At worst he would have just made the guy a little nervous that it might get left off for hours. I saw it differently: The face the criminal was making wasn’t a “OMG I’m in terrible pain right now!” face, it was a “OMG I’m _going to be_ in terrible pain in a little while, and I’m stuck in a room with this psycho who’s dead wife I helped kill!” ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-that-essentially-abandoned-their-original-premise-during-their-runs/545433/123 "2010-08-02T03:45:37Z")
Okay, normally I woulldn’t bump a month-old thread, but I have to in this case: Family Matters is still an example, even if you ignore that it was a spinoff. The original premise was about a sitcom family dealing with typical sitcom family situations. But a one-off character in the first episode, Stephen Q. Urkel, became popular enough that they made him a recurring character in the plots they’d already written. Only in later seasons did the show become the Urkel show. Still, they did keep some of the family aspect to the end–it just became the B plot. So I’d give it a 5 or so. ---
**Author:** ![JoelUpchurch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f05b48/32.png) [@JoelUpchurch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoelUpchurch)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-that-essentially-abandoned-their-original-premise-during-their-runs/545433/124 "2010-08-02T10:11:10Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > > [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > > > The Buck Rogers TV series. In the first season, it was Buck and the survivors of an Earth ravaged by war fighting off Princess Ardala and various attackers. . > > But they had Col Wilma Deering in that spandex outfit. ;)🆒 Who needs writers? While Erin Gray looked great in Spandex, she wasn’t on the same order of magnitude as Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine on Star Trek Voyager. [http://www.kribbs.com/dodge/Seven-of-Nine.gif](http://www.kribbs.com/dodge/Seven-of-Nine.gif) ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 11:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-that-essentially-abandoned-their-original-premise-during-their-runs/545433/125 "2010-08-02T11:00:02Z")
> [@JoelUpchurch](#): > > > [@DrDeth](#): > > > > But they had Col Wilma Deering in that spandex outfit. ;)🆒 Who needs writers? > > While Erin Gray looked great in Spandex, she wasn’t on the same order of magnitude as Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine on Star Trek Voyager. > > [http://www.kribbs.com/dodge/Seven-of-Nine.gif](http://www.kribbs.com/dodge/Seven-of-Nine.gif) Sci-Fi hotties don’t get better than [Athena](http://www.supernaturalcrime.com/Art/888/Maren.jpg) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-that-essentially-abandoned-their-original-premise-during-their-runs/545433/126 "2010-08-02T18:36:18Z")
> [@](#): > > An obscure example was a show called Duet, I think on Fox in the 80’s. Originally about a young couple, it turned into a show about a secondary character and gave Ellen Degeneris a jump into television. I remember this one. _Duet_ was a domestic sitcom about a couple Ben (Matthew Laurance) and Laura (Mary Page Keller). Their friends were a cynical married couple Richard (Chris Lemmon) and Linda (Alison La Placa). The show was supposed to be about Ben and Laura but the characters of Richard and Linda got better lines and were more popular. So they rewrote the show. They had Ben and Laura break up with Ben disappearing. Linda became the main character with Laura becoming a supporting character to her. Then they switched the setting to the real estate office where Linda and Laura worked and retitled the shoe _Open House_. ---
**Author:** ![It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/it_s_not_rocket_surgery/32/312_2.png) [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/It_s_Not_Rocket_Surgery)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-that-essentially-abandoned-their-original-premise-during-their-runs/545433/127 "2010-08-02T20:08:05Z")
Bloom County debuted in December 1980. Opus the penguin didn’t make his first appearance until June 1981, and then didn’t become a regular character until January 1982. By 1983 he was the focal point of the strip. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-that-essentially-abandoned-their-original-premise-during-their-runs/545433/128 "2010-08-02T20:18:40Z")
If you count development as a part of the run, you may consider _Another Ball Game_, pitched as a romantic comedy vehicle for real-life NFL star Alex Karras and his wife, Susan Clark. Somebody at ABC saw Emmanuel Lewis…and the rest is history. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-that-essentially-abandoned-their-original-premise-during-their-runs/545433/129 "2010-08-02T21:20:20Z")
> [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](#): > > Bloom County debuted in December 1980. Opus the penguin didn’t make his first appearance until June 1981, and then didn’t become a regular character until January 1982. By 1983 he was the focal point of the strip. Similarly, _Outland_ was to be a distinct strip from Bloom County, with new characters and Ronald Ann as the primary. It gradually cameoed in old Bloom County characters which took the spotlight from the new Outland characters and eventually became a redux of the older series. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-that-essentially-abandoned-their-original-premise-during-their-runs/545433/130 "2010-08-02T22:20:42Z")
> [@GargoyleWB](#): > > > [@It\_s\_Not\_Rocket\_Surgery](#): > > > > Bloom County debuted in December 1980. Opus the penguin didn’t make his first appearance until June 1981, and then didn’t become a regular character until January 1982. By 1983 he was the focal point of the strip. > > Similarly, _Outland_ was to be a distinct strip from Bloom County, with new characters and Ronald Ann as the primary. It gradually cameoed in old Bloom County characters which took the spotlight from the new Outland characters and eventually became a redux of the older series. And of course _ **Opus** _ survived briefly as a “where are they now?” series featuring Opus and Steve Dallas as [del]actors[/del] characters trying to reboot their [del]show[/del] strip after everyone else had moved on. ---
**Author:** ![Rrose\_Selavy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bcef8e/32.png) [@Rrose\_Selavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rrose_Selavy)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-that-essentially-abandoned-their-original-premise-during-their-runs/545433/131 "2010-08-02T22:49:05Z")
Star Trek - TOS Regularly abandons the Prime Directive - interfere in primitive “pre warp” culture" ? You bet! ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2010, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-that-essentially-abandoned-their-original-premise-during-their-runs/545433/132 "2010-08-02T23:12:40Z")
> [@Rrose\_Selavy](#): > > Star Trek - TOS Regularly abandons the Prime Directive - interfere in primitive “pre warp” culture" ? You bet! Was just thinking, in the greater scope, the Star Trek franchise went from being about exploration and discovering new cultures, to a story of transgalactic warfare and political intrigue (due, probably at least a bit, to Babylon 5 being a darker and grittier counterpart to Deep Space Nine when both shows were on the air) ---
**Author:** ![In\_Winnipeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a8b319/32.png) [@In\_Winnipeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Winnipeg)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2010, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-that-essentially-abandoned-their-original-premise-during-their-runs/545433/133 "2010-08-03T06:25:41Z")
Funny that no one mentioned _Happy Days_, which started out being about Richie Cunningham and his friends and family, but which, in short order, turned into more or less _The Fonzie Show_. Also, Rod Serling’s _Night Gallery_, which started out as an anthology show, but morphed into \*The Gary Collins Show \*with a series called “The Sixth Sense” interloping into the show. ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2010, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-that-essentially-abandoned-their-original-premise-during-their-runs/545433/134 "2010-08-03T06:38:40Z")
Aqua Teen Hunger Force. The first episode was about crime-fighting food (they tried to make the show without a premise but the executives wouldn’t accept a show that didn’t have a point). They completely abandoned that premise from then on. ---
**Author:** ![Irishman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b487fb/32.png) [@Irishman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Irishman)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-that-essentially-abandoned-their-original-premise-during-their-runs/545433/135 "2010-11-09T15:25:27Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > **Alias** was originally about a spy turned double agent trying to juggle her college and friends with the job, then they took down SD6 a year and a half into the run, and killed or wrote off the friends and college aspirations, and it was just a show about a spy. Yeah, they broke SD-6, mainlined Syndney and company to the real CIA (but a secret office), then discovered that what made the show work was the twisted nature of what Sydney had been doing. > [@DWMarch](#): > > The Practice Season 8 turned into a pilot season for Boston Legal with the last few episodes ignoring the established characters almost altogether in favor of James Spader, William Shatner and the shiny new crew of Crane, Poole and Schmidt. The Practice had long since gotten twisted. It started as a struggling small law firm dealing with interesting legal issues, but somewhere along the way went batshit crazy (come on, the serial killer boyfriend dressed as a nun?). > [@Sr\_Siete](#): > > “Melrose Place” started as a regular drama with episodic plots about the problems of young pretty californians. It suddenly became a batshit crazy soap opera parody. I was going to mention that one. First half season was reasonably interesting, but then it went soap opera. > [@nachtmusick](#): > > In the movie, Buffy was a Senior cheerleader in high school who was introduced to her destiny by her mysterious watcher, and eventually rode off. > > The series began with Buffy as a new Sophomore at Sunnydale who had had unspecified supernatural adventures during her Freshman year at an another high school, and already knew she was the Slayer. Giles was introduced as her “new” watcher. > > The series thus did abandon much of the premise of the movie, but invited the audience to mis-remember that the movie took place in her Freshman year. After that, the series progressed linearly. I think it was more loosely inspired by the movie than that. One of the episodes first season recreated the scenes where Buffy discovered her destiny. > [@vislor](#): > > Actually, season one starts in the middle of the school year, having had to move because of the fire she started in the gym back in LA. Apparently, Joss’ original script of the movie had her burning down the gym but someone else didn’t want that so they didn’t do that. He brought back that part of it in the show when he had more control. > > Not sure that the series abandoned its premise since she fights vampires. What it did abandon was the fact that she fights more than vampires, including demons, evil sorcerers, and amoral robots. I don’t think it abandoned that premise. The last half the last season, the big bad was The First - a power that could take the form of any dead person. They just were more focused on the story arc than individual episode plots - less demon of the week, more bring the main story to a head. The biggest change with Buffy is what every show revolving around kids/teens faces - they age. Buffy started as a high school show, but it couldn’t stay a high school show because Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Cordelia and company were growing up\*. So it had to shift to college. The bigger change was the end of season 5 and the channel move. That made season 6 insufferable largely because Buffy stopped being sympathetic at all, what with the whole low affect and rampant sex with Spike. I get what Whedon was doing, what with her returning from heaven so nothing could measure up, but it wasn’t fun to endure. > [@TBG](#): > > Yet they oddly got rid of Marissa Tomei, too. Well, yeah, you can’t have white students at a Black college. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-that-essentially-abandoned-their-original-premise-during-their-runs/545433/136 "2010-11-09T15:39:59Z")
A more recent example is _The Big Bang Theory_, originally supposed to be about Leonard and Penny (both played by proven TV actos), which is turning into _The Sheldon Cooper Show_ ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-that-essentially-abandoned-their-original-premise-during-their-runs/545433/137 "2010-11-09T15:59:17Z")
> [@TWDuke](#): > > Maybe exaggerating, slightly. > > He said something like, I never was as smart as you, so sometimes the only way I could win was to hit you. > > She replied, sometimes the only way I could win was to make you hit me. > > It’s been years and I could have the words all wrong, but I remember being disgusted by _something_ along those lines. That actually has a ring of truth to it. One of the weird things about a cycle of domestic abuse is that the abused person sometimes consciously chooses to trigger a violent episode by the abuser. Sometimes it’s because the abused person can see it coming and wants to get it over with; sometimes it’s to deflect the abuser from abusing a child. In that odd dynamic, the abused person might see it as a “win”. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-that-essentially-abandoned-their-original-premise-during-their-runs/545433/138 "2010-11-09T16:41:00Z")
Recently, the Fox sitcom “Till Death” started out as being about two couples, one newlywed, idealistic and in love, and one married for a long time who had gotten used to each other, with most of the humor being the way the two couples interacted. Then they dropped the newlywed couple altogether. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-that-essentially-abandoned-their-original-premise-during-their-runs/545433/139 "2010-11-09T17:15:33Z")
**Chuck** is just about there. The original premise involved an ordinary guy who gets a supercomputer’s worth of information dumped into his head, getting dragged into the spy business. Naturally, he has to keep this secret from his friends and family. Now, everyone knows he’s a spy, and he’s not a regular guy anymore, he’s a full member of the team who can take care of himself as good as or better than the best. Every week is another “hey, this person from your past is a spy as well!” It’s getting quite ridiculous. ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2010, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-that-essentially-abandoned-their-original-premise-during-their-runs/545433/140 "2010-11-09T17:30:39Z")
**These Friends of Mine** starred Ellen DeGeneres as a straight woman. It was later renamed **Ellen** and the premise was changed a bit. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-that-essentially-abandoned-their-original-premise-during-their-runs/545433.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/series-that-essentially-abandoned-their-original-premise-during-their-runs/545433.md?page=8)