For whatever reason I was thinking about MAS*H the other day and the character of Radar O’Reilly came to mind. Radar is an example of a TV character who changes for no reason.
At the beginning of the series, Radar was a sneaky, clever little weasel who was mailing himself a Jeep and coming up with sneaks and scams all the time. But that changed, and the character became a naive, innocent little boy. There wasn’t any explanation for this and it wasn’t part of a character arc, it just happened because I guess they wanted Radar to be different.
A slightly less extreme example is Homer Simpson, who began the series as a standard grumpy Dad and eventually become something of a mental deficient.
Any other examples of characters changing just because, NOT due to a story or character arc?
Andy Taylor went from being devilish to strictly by the book. In the B&W episodes Andy would “bend” a few rules and laws, to suit him or to make a point. Never too far out of line, but enough. By the end Andy was strictly by the book.
Fonzie and Potsie on “Happy Days” changed a lot as the series went on. Fonzie got more responsible and less realistic and Potsie went from being Richie’s cool friend to a doofus.
Sometimes character changes can’t be helped. Valarie Harper went from being extremely funny as the zoftig Rhoda to much less funny as the beautiful Rhoda. Sure Rhoda was still funny but not nearly as when she was fat and insecure. But that was a result of Harper losing weight in real life.
The reverse was true with “Designing Woman.” Delta Burke went from very beautiful and bitchy to fat and funny. But again that wasn’t inexplicable but merely a real life change in the actor
Ned Flanders went from a guy who was annoying to Homer because he was better than him in all sorts of ways - successful enough to open his own business, able to afford a house with a beer tap and pool table in the basement, and respected by his wife and children, to a guy who has no characteristics other than being a religious zealot (and who it is hard to imagine as drinking or playing pool).
Harry Sullivan on Doctor Who was originally supposed to be a competent man of action, but he quickly became a comic sidekick and the butt of friendly derision.
Spock in the original Star Trek pilot (“The Cage”) was abrupt and tended to speak as though barking orders to everyone. After Jeffrey Hunter was replaced by Shatner, Spock became far more softspoken. Leonard Nimoy said he had to change his acting style to mesh with that of Shatner, who had a different style than Hunter.
On the first season of The Big Bang Theory, Leslie was noted for her remarkably low sexual appetite: A few times a year was plenty for her. By the second season, though, she was noted for her remarkably high sexual appetite, to the extent that she was willing to use Howard for his body (he was fine with that, of course). I guess the writers just figured that sex was more interesting than no-sex.
I don’t know if it’s really inexplicable given the nature of the shows but I found Wesley Wyndam-Pryce’s transformation remarkable and satisfying. He progressed from a bumbling, pompous ass in Buffy to a complete bad-ass in Angel.
There’s the ever-popular transformation that Elaine on Seinfeld underwent. In her first year on the show (she wasn’t in the pilot), she was a cute, perky, fun and gainfully employed. Then the writers - and presumably some audience members - began asking “why the hell is a girl with so much going for her hanging out with these obnoxious losers?”
Presto change-o, Elaine goes from being the “nice girl next door” to a caustic, man-eating bitch. Comedy gold!!
Troy on Community was basically just a dumb jock character in his first few episodes. He quickly changed into the childish nerdy character everyone loves. Part of this was character development, but it was mostly just the writers letting Donald Glover do his thing.
On 30 Rock, Tracy Jordan started off as cagey and manipulative and the most obvious model for the character seemed to be Martin Lawrence. Over time he became more naive and childlike, and more Tracy Morgan-like in general. Other elements of the character stayed the same - he’s self-centered, lives in his own world and doesn’t have much education - but they softened the character around the time he shaved off his goatee.
The same thing happens with Sunny Dee in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. In the first few episodes, she’s the voice of reason foil to the boys’ antics. Pretty soon, the writers decided that women can be just as horrible as men.
Dr Zachary Smith on “Lost in Space” went from being an evil but competent saboteur/potential murderer into a bumbling, cowardly, self centered, egotist that we all love. I don’t think there was any real explanation except that his character was supposed to be killed off after six weeks (he and the robot weren’t in the pilot) but fan mail forced Irwin Allen to keep him and even boobs like the Robinsons wouldn’t put up with someone trying to murder them.
the early episodes of “Star Trek” (The mantrap, Where No one has gone before) had Spock as someone quite r=willing to kill a creature or human turned into a mutant to save the ship. Very quickly he became opposed to violent solutions.
On Family Guy - Cleveland Jr. is a hyperactive kid with A.D.D., always bouncing around (see the episode where Peter gets him to be a golf partner and at the end Jr. suddenly switches to soccer - “I’m Pele!”)
But on The Cleveland Show, which is Cleveland’s spin-off from Family Guy (or as Stewie says: “HE gets his own show?!”) Cleveland Jr. is big, fat, slow, and dim-witted. It’s the polar opposite of his Family Guy character.
I reconcile it in my mind by figuring that they put the poor kid on Ritalin.
