This is always talked about in Big Bang theory threads. The main complaint seems to be Sheldon is always an asshole and never changes.

Which had me thinking and I can't think of many characters in a sitcom that have changed or grown substantially. One that comes to mind was Ellen Degeneres character when she came out of the closet. The other was Roseanne's family when they

This seems to be rare thing to happen. Can anyone name other sitcoms where this happened?

The first thing that came to my mind was Archie Bunker.

You must not have ever seen the finale.

Ditto

Major Margaret "Hotlips" Houlihan.

Her change happened somewhat gradually and started when she met and quickly married behind Frank Burns' back. She went from a total authoritative bitch to someone who was still strong, yet human and caring.


Probably not in the same vein, but character changes happen often - but not for reasons of growth. Many shows "tweak" their characters to make the show more likeable.

Parks/Rec did it with Leslie who use to be a total idiot the first season, and also with Andy who was a little dumb and turned into a retarded person.

Good answers. Ironically, they get a lot less funny when they 'grow.'

What's substantially?

One could argue about the characters in M*A*S*H*, but that's caused by their circumstance.

After 6 seasons of being a mute around the women of The Big Bang Theory, Raj can now talk in front of them and to them directly.

Just about every child on a sitcom ever (generally not for the better).

It's been my experience that pretty much all characters on well established sitcoms get dumber as the show goes on b/c the writers run out of ideas so they get more outlandish. I'll use Friends as an example. By the end, all of the show's smart characters were basically idiots, especially Ross. As a counter weight the dumb characters end up having almost mystical powers of perception.

The journey of Steve Urkel to Stefan Urekele comes to mind.

That's the best post you've ever made.

I always wished that Phoebe had joined Joey on his show. They had such good chemistry together.

And I don't think Ross was ever dumb, but he was socially awkward. Now, Chandler, on the other hand, went from the sharply funny guy to the dumb guy who thought he was funny. There was even a whole episode about how everyone is pretending to laugh at his bad jokes. I hated that change.

Theo Huxtable - The Cosby Show
Jackie Burkhart - That 70's Show
Dwayne Cleophus Wayne - A Different World
Whitley Gilbert - A Different World
Freddie Brooks - A Different World
Niles Crane - Frazier

They all were substantially different and more mature (or confident) from their first episode to their last. It doesn't happen often. There's the potential to add Barney and Robin from HIMYM depending on how it plays out.

Homer Simpson. He just gets stupider every season.

Uncle Jesse was the cool uncle that later just became a pansy douche.

That goes moreso for Full House than Dukes of Hazzard.

Positive change:

By the end of the series, Uncle Phil would have picked Will up at the airport.

The Fonz. By the end of Happy Days, the character was NOTHING like he was in the earlier seasons.

Still cool though. The Fonz was always cool.

Al Bundy was much smarter and meaner in the first season compared to everything that followed. They turned him into Homer Simpson more and more as the show progressed.

I find that the longer sitcoms run, the more they tend to play up the characters quirks until they turn into self-parody.

So a character who may not be especially bright (ie, Joey on Friends, Kelly on MWC) will be a complete moron after five or six seasons. Someone who is socially awkward will devolve into being a complete buffoon. Some who starts out clumsy won't be able to cross the room without doing a pratfall.

Andy from The Office. That dude was all over the place.

Moe Szyslak deals with disappointment and rejection in more healthy manners than he did in the first 10 or so seasons.

I get what you're saying, but it's an interesting comparison since Al Bundy's character existed before Homer Simpson.

Most of the MASH cast changed if they were on long enough. Hawkeye became a mirror of Alda's antiwar sentiment, Charles slowly lightened up and began to fit in more, Klinger got out of the dress, Potter lightened up a little. The short-term guys -- Burns, MacIntyre, Blake -- didn't change over time.

Theo Huxtable is a really good answer. One of THE defining moments of the first season was the Cliff and Theo "Monopoly money" exchange, and it was repeated again with the "house is the real world" episode. As the series progressed, Theo got smarter and Cockroach was added as the dim foil, and when the series ended with Theo's graduation from college, you came off with the feeling that he was going to be okay.

The punchline to the new Arrested Development series would demonstrate the change in George Michael.

But really, if you're going to take the other route and list shows where the characters grow stupider, you might as well name just about any show that got past 100 episodes.