Yesterday I went back to watch some Season 1 episodes of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and I was surprised at how different the characters were then compared to now. While the show has remained consistently funny throughout its 4 seasons, I've noticed that the characters have gotten more and more retarded as the seasons pass.

I've also noticed this with JD on Scrubs. Let's also not forget to mention how his and Turks relationship has also gotten more gay as seasons go on.

I think the biggest offender of this is Michael Scott on The Office. Although his retardedness was terrible in season one, it got better in season 2 and 3 but he's back to being a real dimwit lately.

Randy in My Name is Earl is another offender. His journey into the mentally challenged only serves as an annoyance to me and IMO is a reason why the shows quality has declined.

Any one notice this phenomena with other shows? Is this a new trend or does this go back in sitcom history?

I noticed that at the beginning of season 4, I think the show is suffering because of it.

Joey on Friends also got more and more dumb as the series went on, though he never was the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree.

Chrissy on Three's Company got WAY dumber after Season 1.

Eric on Boy Meets World
Ross on Friends

Kelly Bundy on Married With Children is the best example I can think of.

I'm surprised no one brought up Homer Simpson. Hell, even the Simpsons writers have brought up this fact on one of the clip shows. Both George Costanza and Kosmo Kramer became dumber as well especially from they way they were portrayed in season 1.

Yep! I think I remember on one of the early season DVD commentaries where they said they lowered his IQ 5 points every seasons.

As for IASIP, they always wrote Charlie as mentally challenged. I am disappointed how the rest of the cast as regressed in intelligence over this current season as the plots have gotten more outrageous.

Also, I think the Drew Carey show had an odd change as the seasons progressed. One of his male sidekicks got dumber while the other got smarter.

Everyone on Heroes.

Randy Disher on Monk.

I was going to say Pheobe on Friends, but now I may just go with "Everyone" on Friends.

I think Phoebe actually got smarter. Not a whole lot, but a little.

I'd agree with this. Early in the show she was just a quirky airhead, but the character developed a sharp sarcastic wit in later seasons. Joey, on the other hand, transitioned from your typical meathead to a cartoonish buffoon.

Especially Peter, Claire and Mohinder.

I think she got more "realistic" as time went on (she was like... a cartoon the first couple of seasons), maybe that's why I thought she seemed dumber.

I do not know if he became "dumber". But I never liked the transition Fraiser went through in his series. His character was a shadow of his former self on Cheers.

Mallory on Family Ties

I always thought they should have revealed that she worked for the CIA in the last episode.

Peter Griffin from Family Guy was never a bright guy, but lately they've turned him from stupid and absurd into a complete retard with the brain of a child (like when he's invited to see Disney on Ice).

Kelly from The Office. 1st season, she hadnt developed her ditzy-ness. Then, the 2nd and 3rd season she is a complete dummy. She's actually not quite as ditzy this season though.

Am I spelling ditzy right?

Easy answer:

Meredith Grey and Izzie Stevens from Grey's Anatomy.

Honarable Mention:

Mohinder Suresh from Heroes.

This is actually fairly common on sitcoms. Take a character, who initially isn't very bright, like Joey (Friends), Kelly Bundy, or Chrissie (Three's Company), and as time goes, the writers make them dumber and dumber in order to make them the butt of jokes or foils for the other characters. You start out with someone who isn't terribly sharp to begin with, and by the time the show is near its end, they're borderline retarded.

This also applies to other character traits as well, for expample, a person shown to be lazy will get lazier and lazier as time goes on.

Just use "Friends" as an example, notice how Monica got more OCD as the show dragged on. Ross got creepier. Chandler got more awkward. Joey got dumber. Rachel and Phoebe, on the other hand, seemed to actually grow as people and become more mature as the years went by.

Samuel "Screech" Powers.

He went from being a misunderstood, geeky smart kid in junior high/early high school to a complete and total moron by the time he graduated.

You could almost say he was a complex character through the episode where he tutors Kelly Kapowski (contrasting his understanding and ability to communicate the complexities of science with his geeky love of insect rodeos). Later we just got voice cracking idiocy. What a tragic fall to a character that had great potential.

Yeah, but they literally made him retarded and actually stuck with it (he mentions he's technically retarded when they move to Texas). It's one of the few examples of consistency on the show

Reminds me of the Simpsons clip show where Troy McClure did the montage of Homer getting dumber each season.

As MASH went along Radar got much more innocent and naive. This is a character that was mailing home a jeep piece by piece in season one.