I was watching an early Andy Griffith show and noticed how his character changed over the years. He used to play the character of the sheriff as a real huckleberry. Later he was practically a sophisticate that just happened to be trapped in a small town situation.
Then I thought of other evolved characters and something interesting occurred to me. Practically the exact opposite happened to Mr. Drysdale in the Beverly Hillbillies. When the Clampett’s first came to town Drysdale was an urbane counterpoint to the hick family, but in later years he overacted and mugged like a spastic buffoon.
Can anyone else remember a television character who underwent such drastic changes?
Well, there is Willow from Buffy who went from being a shy and insecure straight girl to a lesbian witch with more power than almost anything else in the Buffyverse.
My daughter is a big fan of the TV show Boy Meets World, which shows in endless reruns on the Disney Channel. It’s a cute show, you know, if you’re a kid. The show centers on a kid named Corey. Corey has an older brother named Eric. At the start of the show’s run, Eric was a typical TV older brother - a little smarter and savvier than his kid brother, doing nothing much more than occasionally handing out pointless advice like, “You’ll see when you get older.” As the show progressed, Eric got dumber and dumber, until, when the series ended, he was nothing but a walking joke. I think it’s kind of a shame, actually - the kid who played the role was cute and really isn’t a bad actor, but I think he’ll play dingbats for the rest of his life. (He was in a couple Disney Channel movies and now does the voice of Ron Stoppable for the cartoon Kim Possible.)
One could argue that years of exposure to the Clampetts had tranformed the formerly intelligent and sophisticated man into a gibbering idiot. It has been decades since I watched the show but wasn’t he always trying to cheat them out of their money and being bested by them?
I character that underwent a similar transformation was Rebecca Howe, the Kirstir Alley character on “Cheers”.
Also on Boy Meets World, Topenga started out as the freak that no one wanted anything to do with. All of a sudden she was a main character that Corey was dating.
One big shift that I noticed was back when Full House was on. Uncle Jesse was orginally Jesse Cochran, he was a bug exterminator with his father. The next season he was Jesse Catsopolis (sp?) the suave greek musician.
You have that completely backwards. The Clampetts were the Commerence Bank’s biggest depositors. They were always trying to give their money away and Drysdale was always trying to discourage them to protect the bank’s (and his) interests.
Edith: meek, passive doormat to semi-modern woman who eventually would stand up for herself
George Jefferson: successful businessman who didn’t like but could barely tolerate bigots like Archie to buffoonish foil on his own show[/QUOTE]
The first of these could be attributed to character development that’s in line with real life, esp. real life as it was happening in the early '70s. It’s highly plausible that Edith would have had her consciousness raised during the period covered by the show.
Your second example seems to me to be more in line with what the OP was looking for – a character that fundamentally changed for reasons outside the logic of the character, but more for “comic possibilities” [sic]. (I’m horrified, in retrospect, to meditate on exactly how many episodes of the Jeffersons I’ve seen.)
He went from a witty, intelligent nerdy type to a complete insecure buffoon. I don’t know if it was an intentional progression from his three failed marriages, but when I watch the early episodes and then watch the new shows on NBC, I cringe at how stupid Ross is now. The leather pants episode? The teeth whitening episode? What a shame.
Wesley Wyndam-Pryce—From insufferable boob on BtVS (and a great counter to Giles, though still an insufferable boob) to Rogue Demon Hunter on AtS, to the scorching hot Scruffy Wes—he really grew into himself. I’ve always loved Wes, even when he was the boob, but I just adore him on AtS.
Spike, aka William the Bloody–(What? You’re surprised). From the Little Bad with a soft spot for his Dark Beauty to the Chipped Wonder to the Fool For Love, to the second vamp with the soul, to redemption and Buffy’s Champion and the man who saved the world (which isn’t a big surprise, given his action in Becoming 1 & 2). I’m particularly interested in his story on AtS now, since it’s all about finding his place in the world again (and if there’s enough room for two Souled Vampires…)
Thinking about it, Jethro Bodine could be added to this list. He went from an Ozarks hillbilly with a fifth grade education, to graduating sixth grade and becoming a brain surgeon, international playboy and double naught spy.