Every so often, a television show undergoes a bizarre Gremlins-like metamorphosis, where it changes dramatically from it’s original style. For examples:
Lost In Space. First season attempted to be serious SF-adventure. By the second season, camp had taken over.
Ditto Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. First b&w season leaned towards Cold War, spy drama. Later seasons introduced the rubber Giant Sea Monster.
Or the show’s main stars depart, and it has to be rebooted:
Sanford & Son/ Sanford Arms
Battlestar Galactica/ Galactica 1980
Or … WTF?? They just decide to chuck it all and start over:
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (third season)
Josie & the Pussycats/ The Pussycats in Outer Space.
A few other shows (usually cartoons) underwent the “…in Outer Space” transformation, including The Partridge Family.
The Flintstones went that-a-way when they got their new neighbors, freshly ripped off from The Addams Family (What was their name? The Creepies? The Ghoulies?), and then when Pebbles and Bam-Bam grew up, but everyone else stayed the same age.
All in the Family went through some rough changes (Gloria and Meathead left, Stephanie came and went, Edith died, various whacky neighbors came and went, Archie opened up a bar, etc.) before finally being put out of its misery.
two years ago (When i was still a care-free late night student) after late night poker there used to be a really dodgy martial arts Mortal Kombat series - all fighting and cardboard cutout characters.
but…
the last series (at least it was the last one they showed in this country) actually made me sit up and take notice - it actually gained an interesting and reasonably complex plot! I hate to say it, but i was actually disappointed when it went off air…
One of my favorite cartoons- Voltron. All of a sudden there was a second Voltron series (running at the same time as the first) with cars and such instead of the Lions. WTF?
As I recall, Battlestar Gallactica made some massive changes to the series towards the end (its weird seeing clips of it during the cheesy Radio Shack commericals).
Year one := 2001: A Space Odyssey – Epic production values. Fabulous British guest stars (Lee, Cushing, Geeson, Blessed, Leighton, Glover, Collins et al). Understated performances. Metaphysical storylines with a touch of horror.
Year two := Lost In Space (late) – Puny recycled sets. Low-budget rubber alien of the week. Shatner-style overacting. Absurdist storylines featuring rebellious vegetables and sadistic boulders.
One of the original Fox shows was called something like “Second Chance”, where Matthew Perry was given a second chance to get into heaven.
Then, for no apparent reason (well, besides that it was a pretty bad show) they renamed it “Boys Will Be Boys”, got rid of the angel, and made it into a totally generic sitcom. Same cast playing the same characters, only no overriding plotline about getting into heaven.
I think they may have done the same thing to some of their other early shows.
Unrelated-- the second one sure looked like Voltron. Or unrelated in time? Or did they take Friends and Seinfeld (as it were) and combine them with new dubbing into the same show. BTW, I like the car one better. I still remember the episodes were it destroyed like 15 ro-beasts in a row while attacking some giant base. Ah, good times. . .
There were cross-references between the two. Remember the little runt who piloted Green Lion? There was a similar-looking character in the vehicle-Voltron who was said in one episode to be his cousin, and there was some sort of correspondence between them (i.e., letters). And I seem to recall hearing that the vehicle thingy was Voltron-1, the lions were Voltron-3, and there was also a Voltron-2 which we in the States never got to see.
RE-Similiar looking characters
Check out Battle Of The Planets/G-Force as well
All 3 shows had
Studly leader guy
Hot chick who may or may not be leader’s love interest
Short geeky kid with glasses
Fat guy who was always eating
New title sequences would have been no problem. Since they were replacing the Japanese dialogue with English anyway, adding references to a cousin and calling the robot Voltron would have been easy as well.
RE-Similiar looking characters
Check out Battle Of The Planets/G-Force as well
All 3 shows had
Studly leader guy
Hot chick who may or may not be leader’s love interest
Short geeky kid with glasses
Fat guy who was always eating
New title sequences would have been no problem. Since they were replacing the Japanese dialogue with English anyway, adding references to a cousin and calling the robot Voltron would have been easy as well.
Well, didn’t Valerie Harper have a TV sitcom built around her? But then she quit, in some kind of dispute with the network.
Ordinarily, you’d think a show built around one star would be finished when that star left. But instead, they renamed the show “Valerie’s Family,” and kept it on the air. Later, they replaced her with Sandy Duncan, and renamed the show “The Hogan Family.”
Well, I’m going to take the controversial route and say The Simpsons. The change wasn’t overnight, and the changes need not even be considered all bad (Heck, I still watch it), but it’s certainly a VERY different series today than when it started. It’d be like having Outlaw Star turn into Rocky and Bullwinkle, or some even more apt comparison. Sure, they might be able to pull it off, maybe even do a pretty good job at it, but it’s still quite a change.
And don’t get me started on Deep Space Nine’s transformation into “Amazing War Stories.”
One show that changed over time was The Andy Griffith Show. Early episodes were a slapstick rural comedy, later ones seemd to be more character driven warm and fuzzy. with hardly a guffaw line in sight.
