Where the premise of the show takes a sudden 90 degree turn, with a almost complete cast change, or a massive situation change, or a change from a comedy to a serious drama (or vice versa) etc.
For example, the one hour drama “Tattingers” was about a high class restaurant. This lasted for eleven episodes…then it changed to a half-hour comedy titled “Nick And Hillary”. Same setting, but the owner, who had been shot and retired to France after selling the restaurant, returns to run the place in the revamp. This lasted for four more episodes, then it all got shot down.
What have you got?
I don’t know if it’s a 90 degree turn, perhaps just a 45-er.
Barney Miller. It was originally intended to be titled “The Life and Times of Captain Barney Miller” and the plan was to split the focus about 50/50 between Barney’s home life and his work life.
This lasted just half a season when it became clear that focusing on only his work environment was the way to go.
Barney’s wife, played by Barbara Barrie, initially received second billing, after only Hal Linden (Barney). She ended up appearing in about half of the first season episodes, and then only in two of the Season 2 episodes. She later appeared just once, in Season 5, and then never again.
mmm
Definitely a change in premise.
Laverne & Shirley moved from brewery bottlers in Milwaukee, WI to department store employees in Burbank, CA. This shift introduced new CA based characters and de-emphasized some of the supporting cast. Cindy Williams also wasn’t in the final season.
Not sure if the animated Laverne & Shirley in the army with Fonzie and eventually Mork & Mindy counts.
No, not really.
“Walker, Texas Ranger” went from a gritty cop show to a kid-friendly show shortly into season 5.The last gritty episode revolved around a veritable Josef Mengele working in a nursing home whereas the first really kid-friendly episode revolved around an orphan and his supercomputer best friend.
They eventually tried to do the same thing with Wojo and a backdoor pilot. Didn’t go anywhere, thankfully.
But that really wasn’t a change in the original show, though.
How about the final season of I Love Lucy during which the Ricardos and the Mertzes move to suburban Connecticut from a Manhattan apartment building? I remember an article about the move in a Westport, Connecticut newspaper (Westport was the location of the new house) that this move was supposed to be similar to the moves made by many real people at the time from cities out to the suburbs.
That was quite a change in venue, situation and characters, to be sure.
The Doris Day Show went from her being a widow with two sons in seasons 1-3, to being a single woman in seasons 4-5.
Andromeda went from a pretty decent Science Fiction show to .. something.
Brian
Valerie killed off its title character after Valerie Harper left the show, replacing her with Sandy Duncan as her sister-in-law under the title Valerie’s Family: The Hogans and later The Hogan Family.
A pretty much forgotten sitcom called Jesse starring Christina Applegate did a total revamp in its’ second season going from the title character working in a bar to becoming a nurse and the whole rest of the cast changed.
Search Party.
The first season was a search for a missing person.
The second season was an attempt to cover up a killing.
The third season was a courtroom trial.
The fourth season was a zombie apocalypse .
DO NOT read spoilers for season four if you have any interest at all in ever watching the series.
The original premise of It’s About Time was two astronauts who got sent back in time to prehistoric times, where they met a family of cavemen days. 18 episodes in they switched the premise, and brought the cavemen to the present. 8 episodes later the show was cancelled.
Welcome Freshmen started as a sketch comedy series, then became a sitcom in Season 3.
In 1982-1983, there was a show called “Teachers Only.” The first season was set in Millard Fillmore High School, and starred Lynn Redgrave. There may be a bit of romance between her and Norman Fell who was the school principal, and whose wife nags him a lot. The rest of the cast was filled out with character actors playing teachers and staff.
In Season 2, the school changed: we’re now at Woodrow Wilson High. Most significantly, however, the only cast members who remained were Redgrave and Fell. Redgrave’s job changed from English teacher to guidance counsellor, Fell’s wife is dead, and he’s romancing his secretary instead of Redgrave. Everybody else in the cast was new.
It occurred to me that Angel contains what has to be a rare example of an actual revamp. (Or actually, two.)
The first few episodes of Aqua Teen Hunger Force had the main characters as detectives who solved crimes for money. That premise was quickly dropped and it just became a surreal comedy that put the characters in random situations. Supposedly the detective thing was just to appease Cartoon Network executives, who didn’t want a show about fast food items just doing random things.
Cougar Town, a post-Friends vehicle for Courtney Cox shifted from a show about her character dating younger men to more of an ensemble of friends hanging out and drinking.
Baywatch Nights started out as a detective series but the ratings were never good so they tried switching it to a science-fiction series a la The X-Files.