GuessWho

Some examples of what I mean, shows that changed their theme/concept based on a certain character getting more famous than others or certain storylines being more well-liked.

This is NOT a jump-the-shark phenomenon where they run out of ideas and get desperate; but instead here the changes usually happen after only a handful of episodes.

HAPPY DAYS
Family sitcom became in essence The Fonzie Show

FAMILY TIES
Easily seen in the early episodes, the parents-who-still-act-like-60s-hippies were to be the main focus as they clash with their modern day, conservative kids. The hippie-ness was dropped fast and all the conservatism was concentrated into Alex P Keaton, who then stole the show.

GROWING PAINS
Meant to focus on the adults as a "Mr Mom" ripoff as the mom goes to work while the dad stays home (he had a home office), but Kirk Cameron quickly became the focus instead. The stay-at-home-dad-doesnt-know-how-to-run-a-house theme was dropped.

WHO'S THE BOSS
Meant to be a role reversal show about a male housekeeper fitting in a women's world, but eventually the fact that Tony was the housekeeper was practically dropped, as the will-they-or-won't they romance of Tony & Angela became the running theme.

fujishig

Wow, I watched most of those shows since the beginning, and with the exception of Happy Days barely noticed the change in concept.

In Family Matters, i think the focus changed from the family and onto Urkel as soon as he became popular. Not that I would admit to watching that show or anything...

The Simpsons has changed, though I don't think I could articulate exactly how. Homer's become much more of a caricature of a bad father than a simpleton who lost his temper, and the shows seem more based on ridiculous situations now then they ever were before.

Alias, of course, had it's whole premise changed, but that wasn't really due to audience reaction as it was to try to make the storyline less convoluted and easier for a new viewer to get into.

Burnt Alive

You could say the same thing about The Simpsons becoming "The Homer Show".

Pistol Pete

Melrose Place

The first season was a drama about twenty-somethings. At the time it seemed like a TV version of the movie Singles. By the second season it had degenerated into an over-the-top soap opera.

riley_dude

Aren't all Soaps over the top?

flagstone

Dark Shadows.

wendersfan

First show I thought of when I saw this thread.

wendersfan

Actually, I think you've got it backwards. From what I understand it was supposed to be more about Homer than the rest of them, but then Bart got so popular it became "The Bart Show" for a while, and eventually reverted back.

Jason

Family Matters: Steve Urkel was supposed to be a one-time joke, but he ended up being the focus of the series.

Dansize

ER - Julianna Marguiles was supposed to die in that first (or 2nd) episode as a result of her suicide attempt. TPTB chose to go in another direction after shooting it that the audience clearly supported given the strength her character developed over the following seasons.

Charlie Goose

Good Times went from a show about a struggling black family in the projects to the J.J. dyno-mite goofiness. John Amos and Esther Rolle both left the series because of it, but Rolle returned a season later.

Verbal Gorilla

I remeber that Urkel was actually one of the writers or producers name that they used as a riff for the ultimate nerd. Since it was a one time appearence, sounds like a nice little joke, but ended up being the most famous character for a few years and the real Urkel had to deal with all that now went with the name. Any truth?

NitroJMS

Angel was originally designed to be a more episodic series based around stand-alone detective stories. This switched midway though the first season and started to be more like its sister show, Buffy. They dropped most of the stand alone episodes and then featured long story arcs.

DRG

Yeah, I remember the early hype was that it would "practically be an anthology show", where the Angel gang would just intervene in these stories but wouldn't be the focus. That idea was never fully realized, and thankfully the show turned away from that angle completely.

If reality shows count, I'd have to say Big Brother ended up having a change like this. The original season is about 90% different from what we have now. It was originally about the audience voting the houseguests out, and the competitions were mostly pointless. Seeing as the viewers hated this, they wisely changed things up in the later seasons.

Goldberg74

Crossing Jordan... her focus was her mom's murder. Then the took a 180 and we have a great show!

Thrush

Millennium

Started out as basically an episodic police procedural show. Where Frank was brought in to find the killer of the week. It then turned into a convoluted conspiracy laden Xfiles clone with............................ I really cant describe it well since I bailed when it changed direction.

JP5683

<html> This is all I could find about the 'real' Steve Erkel. Yes, with an 'E'. Click me!

I can't think of other shows that have changed their focus. Family Matters and Happy Days were the two that came to my mind when I saw this thread, but of course they've already been mentioned.

JP

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JP5683

sorry for the html error i forgot the < /a >. I can't edit my posts, I cannot see any buttons there to do so.

JP

Roto

The Christopher Lowell Show turned gay

fujishig

I think Roseanne deserves a mention because of how radical a change it was, although the show had already jumped the shark. It was originally a show about a family just barely making it, and in the final season or so morphed into a show about that family having won the lottery or something like that. I remember I stopped watching it for a while, and then caught one of the later episodes and was very confused...

Shannon Nutt

No one's mentioned Lost In Space yet? It originally was supposed to be a serious "Swiss Family Robinson" type of deal featuring the whole family with Guy Williams as the lead star, and quickly turned into a high-camp comedy starring Jonathan Harris and Billy Mumy

Groucho

Boomtown originally was about crimes from a "different point of view" (a la Rashomon). This confused viewers, so it degenerated into a standard cop drama. However, it got a lot better in the second season, only to be summarily cancelled.

Groucho

It's the button marked "Edit."

lisadoris

Did Boomtown confuse the viewers or the network execs? I don't remember hearing anything about the audience complaining but I could be wrong.

Jobronie

Hill Street Blues: original end of the pilot had Hill and/or Renko dying in the shoot-out. Test audiences LOVED the characters, so it was rewritten for them to survive.

Coach, at least part of it.

Research showed that the audience hated or couldn't relate to the daughter, so they had her husband IIRC leave her or run away with another woman. In wrestling, it's called 'cheap heat'.....