The moment when a character completely changed, for better or worse

Can we limit it to shows that were good to begin with?

Oh, you mean the moment where Danerys Targaryan goes from a brilliant military strategist to a complete idiot, and uses her dragon to torch innocent civilians in a city she wants to rule, while the enemy queen whose death would mean the end of the war stands watching peacefully from an open tower?

Fucking beat that.

When Randy Taylor became a teen whore on Home Improvement.

For the Worse: Melissa Cooper, from The OC, becoming a college-try style "lesbian". No one believed that crap and the two to three episode relationship was painful to sit through. A rating hail mary if there ever was one.

When Felicity cut her hair.

Jodie on [italic]Soap[/italic] sleeping with Maggie Chandler after finding the baby he conceived after guilt-sex with Carol and then turning into an old Jewish man because of a hypnotherapist.

Don visits Peggy in the hospital.

When Chrissy Snow adopted that side pony and ridiculous pigeon toed stance. She went from Southern California breezy to full on mental patient.

When Julie McCoy did one to many lines of blow.

When Loretta Swit stopped being Hot Lips and started being Margaret.

Jackie Harris, Season 7, Episode 1

Michael (Ted Danson) on The Good Place, at the end of Season 1.

When the kid playing Bruce Wayne in Gotham had that one acting lesson.

When Mike Seaver went from cocky, semi-rebellious teen to pious, do-gooder young adult on Growing Pains.

When Gladys Kravitz stopped being Alice Pearce and started being Sandra Gould.

Angela and Andy's engagement on The Office.

One change for better: when Megan Mullally came up with the Karen voice a few episodes into Will & Grace.

When Mrs. Cunningham and Potsie began their progressive descent into mental retardation, once Happy Days began filming in front of a studio audience.

r17 but it was countered by Debra's increasingly lazy performance.

[quote]but it was countered by Debra's increasingly lazy performance.

Hi, Megan!

Kate making them get rid of the train set on [italic]Silver Spoons[/italic] after she finally became Mrs. Stratton.

I can't see how the diffident and skinny "Endeavour" morphs into the curmudgeonly and beefy "Inspector Morse."

When Delta Burke gained weight. The character of Suzanne really came alive after that.

Walter White

When Felicity got that hair cut.

[quote] When Julie McCoy did one to many lines of blow.

Oh, dear!

Couldnt read all the way to R5, could you R25? There's lazy, then there's you.

When Klinger stopped whering dresses and Hawkeye went from irreverent to preachy.

R3: What....what episode was that, dear? As an aside, I watched that show as a gayling for the boys, although Terrance Noah Smith didn't get my attention until the later seasons when he actually hit puberty. But in hindsight, that show was AWFUL!

The cliche is season 5 of the Golden Girls when they all become concept sketches as opposed to fully fleshed out characters. There, none of you bitches can bring that up now.

I'd also say Are You Being Served?, Mr. Humphreys goes from the 'is he, isn't he' Mama's Boy to the 'oh she totally is' Camp Queen as the show progressed.

When Sheriff Andy Taylor went from easygoing and friendly Southern boy, to taking on an almost bitter tone during the last couple of seasons of The Andy Griffith Show.

When Chuck Cunningham went up those stairs and never came down again.

"Whering dresses"

Biggest Oh Dear yet on DL...

When Rhoda married Joe.

Dont worry R32, I oh deared myself. I hate having to use my phone for this.

I second that, R11--Jackie was such a wonderfully rare, fully realized character and then it was like Roseanne had her lobotomized or something. It happened to the whole show, of course (especially to Roseanne herself), but somehow it was the most unfortunate with Jackie. And sadly the reboot hasn't much returned her to the remarkable reality she once displayed.

Steve Urkel becoming Stefan Urquelle. With that, whatever thin thread connected [italic]Family Matters[/italic] to reality snapped for good.

When Barnabas became the good guy.

[quote] I second that, [R11]--Jackie was such a wonderfully rare, fully realized character and then it was like Roseanne had her lobotomized or something. It happened to the whole show, of course (especially to Roseanne herself), but somehow it was the most unfortunate with Jackie. And sadly the reboot hasn't much returned her to the remarkable reality she once displayed.

I blame Disney for that. The original show was already getting old, but when they got into the mix by buying ABC, everything wrong got worse. They indulged her but handled Ellen DeGeneres with kid gloves when she wanted to come out. But Ellen looks like she's getting one more chance with her talk show while Roseanne was made into a total pariah.

[quote][R3]: What....what episode was that, dear? As an aside, I watched that show as a gayling for the boys, although Terrance Noah Smith didn't get my attention until the later seasons when he actually hit puberty. But in hindsight, that show was AWFUL!

I didn't think it was terrible but I didn't feel like watching every week. I was about their age when it was on but I liked Zachery Ty Brian better than JTT whom everybody seemed to be obsessed with post-[italic]Lion King[/italic]. I remember they got into Very Special Episode territory without any irony even after [italic]Blossom[/italic] went off the air and it had become a punchline. Randy getting a biopsy was one such example.

Whatever moment they had Malcolm Gets fall in heterosexual love with Caroline in the City.

Pretty much every character on Glee, but Sue was the worst. She was a great villain for about half a season and then they had her change to being on their side and back off their side and her character no longer made any sense. I still remember the first moment they humanized her when she went to see her sister who had Down's and lived at a special home. It was very moving and a great way to give her depth and humanity. She was still the main villain, but it showed that she was capable of being a good person.

Every now and then, Ryan Murphy will hit a home run and come up with an episode or two that has a weird emotional power. That episode all about Pepper on American Horror Story was another beautiful hour of television that seemed to come out of nowhere.

I agree that Delta Burke's Suzanne came to life after she gained the weight. The idea of a former beauty queen gaining weight was so much more interesting and it had a way of humanizing her and giving her a lot of vulnerability. It lead to that great high school reunion episode, too, where Delta did some of her best work in that speech scene.

Carrie on Sex and the City changed at some time when SJP became an executive producer. For a few seasons, she was a relatable woman looking for love and making a lot of mistakes. Even when she seemed stupid or self-sabatoging, it always seemed like we were supposed to learn from Carrie's mistakes. Then, she became the fashion icon and spokeswoman for a whole generation of women and was seen as something to aspire to become. The show became less gritty and real and more into a cheesy, high key rom com where Carrie makes mistake after mistake and never learns and still gets her dream man. In a better, more thoughtful and realistic show, Carrie would eventually learn that Big was never that into her and it was never going to happen for them and move on. By making Carrie into some sort of perfect heroine, it sent out some really weird messaging.

When Dr Kerry Weaver became a lesbian. After that the writers decided she should be angry all the time and completely devoid of a sense of humor.

R41 Well, other than the lesbian part that pretty well describes Laura Imnes when I knew her in college.

Innes not Imnes, dammit!

Laura Palmer, from dead and wrapped in plastic, to alive in the form of her identical cousin a la The Patty Duke Show.

Then dead again.

Cordelia and Angel both ruined in season 4 after the stupid romance storyline

Vaughn ruined after marrying Lauren

Oliver Queen when he was forced to be in love with Felicity because fangirls demanded it.

Jessica Fletcher when the moved her to NYC, put her in Hillary Clinton pants suits. She lost all her down home charm. Even when she visited "old friends" you never got the sense she even knew them because she came across as cold not warm like in earlier seasons.

Rhoda Morgenstern, when she lost weight. And that happened when she was still on the MTM show. She became simply insufferable in her obsession with her new looks, IMO. Also I think Mary herself changed when she moved from her cute studio apartment to that generic one that was much bigger but had zero style.

When Samantha dyked out.

When Samantha Kanisky grew out her hair and started wearing makeup and dresses.

When Agrestic burned down and Nancy (Mary Louise Parker) went from frau selling weed to make ends meet - which was a good story line that a lot could be built off - to getting involved with cartels, powerful politicians, etc. They should have kept the focus narrower and kept her and the family in Agrestic or nearby.

R51 Absolutely.

And as soon as they sidelined Elizabeth Perkins, I started to lose interest.

Don Draper - went from flawed hero to useless asshole

When did that happen, R53. Would you say when he married Megan?

Nate from Six Feet Under when he married Lisa!

I always figured Nate's change was more because of the baby and the baby was really why he married Lisa. Geesh I hated Lisa. Maggie was annoying too.

I'd forgotten about Weeds. What a great show that was during the Agrestic years. Once Perkins left, the show took a major nose dive. Didn't they end up leaving her in a forest somewhere where it's implied that she was killed or something? It's been awhile, but it really pissed me off.

I don't remember Celia dying. She got roughed up at one point. I don't remember exactly how she exited the show. She did show up at some point after they had left Agrestic, but her arc and importance to the show was nothing like it was before when she was a great main character.

Rory Gilmore in the Gilmore Girls reboot, when she went from a very smart, accomplished young person, to an idiot who constantly made stupid decisions.

The old Rory would have said, "I didn't tell you about the baby because I got an abortion -- of course!"

On Dynasty, when Krystle first confronts Alexis. We hadn’t really seen that side of Krystle before, and Linda Evans is so good in the scene. Krystle stops being the secretary who made good and wed a famous man, and becomes Madam Carrington. Not only Krystle, but television itself would never be the same.

(For argument’s sake, let’s pretend Dynasty kept the amazing momentum it had in season 2.)

Valerie Cherish, about 17 minutes into the series finale of The Comeback. Any fan of the show (and there are many on here) knows exactly what I am talking about. It sent an already great show into the stratosphere of best ever. And it wasn't that she had changed. It was that we, her audience, suddenly saw who she really was. Perhaps who she had been all along.

When Lucinda became friends with Holden after they got drunk together in the wine cellar at Fairwinds (ATWT).

[quote]Don Draper - went from flawed hero to useless asshole

R53 R54 I remained engaged with the rest of the characters but Don was the first one who jumped the shark. The rest of them slowly turned to powder. It had to be the writing - as if the writers just gave up towards the end.

Celia was kidnapped by her daughter in mexico, came back, during the beach season, and got together all of Nancys' old allies to go into the dealing business with her.

Then Perkins asked for more money, I think,.....and was never seen again.

Better: When Young Ricky became Pop Singer Ricky Nelson.

R61, can you remind us, for those of us who haven’t seen it in a while?

[quote]Not only Krystle, but television itself would never be the same.

That made me laugh.

Rewatching BAD GIRLS (1999-3006, ITV), and I recall now why I struggled more with Season Three as compared with the previous two. The hero Nikki Wade, a morally-righteous insurgent prisoner characterised as an intelligent soft-butch with a vocal political streak and a touchy side, falls deeply in love with her gaoler and subsequently becomes uncharacteristically quite meek and placid and doesn’t do much to advance the plot besides pursue her love interest. This is explained in-plot as Nikki’s attempt to keep in her lover’s good-books and to improve her standing in the eyes of the prisoner reform board so that she may get an early parole & release, but came off as lazy writing as well as a cop-out way to write the character into the background (and then off the show altogether, as she left after Season Three).

This wasn’t necessarily an ill-thought out or negative change in terms of story and it did make sense. Sadly though, thereafter the character seemed less important and appealing in the strident way she had before. The Nikki that viewers got to know and grew to love was very cool and confident and outspoken, and not easily cowed by authority or by emotional manipulation.

The actress Mandana Jones even gave the same criticism in AfterEllen interviews some years later, implying that the change reinforced her decision to leave the show. She also said that she didn’t like having to wear so much obvious make-up to play the role, because she felt it rang false to the character (and I agree). A quote:

[quote] MANDANA: Nikki became more peaceful, basically. She was keeping her head down and keeping her nose clean, but I still think there was room for perhaps a little bit more privately, where we could have seen how difficult that was for her to swallow what she wanted to come out with. But it didn’t seem like she had the same urgency to say things; it didn’t seem like it caused her the same inner strife it had in the past. I felt that by the time the third series came about, Nikki wasn’t so militant. She was essentially a lover; her identity was that she was in love with Helen. I felt in Series 1 and 2 that you saw a much more rounded picture of the woman and all her attributes, but there’s a gradual weaning away from it. I actually missed her in Series 3 [INTERVIEWER?: The sharp-tongued, rebellious, political Nikki?] Exactly. A less....layered onion was presented come Series 3. I found I’d look in the mirror and just think that’s not how I saw her. If this is a person who is so clear about what she is and what she believes, why is she wearing a mask at six o’clock in the morning? I just didn’t feel like I was being real. I didn’t feel right.

Valerie made the choice to go see her dear friend, Mickey, in the hospital instead of go to the awards show. It was a beautiful moment.

I've never understood why many found Valerie so unlikable throughout the show. I never thought she was in the wrong. She could be needy at times, but she always seemed like she had a good heart. Kudrow was magnificent in that role.

R68 Bad Girls was the fucking bomb.

OP, does it have to be one specific character?

Because the entire cast of The Big Bang Theory qualifies.

R71: That show proved that it is indeed possible to turn stereotypes into even bigger stereotypes.

In what ways are you talking about R71? The only big changes I saw were Sheldon and Bernadette.

R70 wasn’t it, just? (er, well, most of it - we do not speak of season eight...)

Most of the characters remained very consistent and developed naturally over the entire run, which is why Nikki’s strange awkward volume adjustment stood out so much and didn’t entirely work. The only other major longrunning BG character who changed in a similarly unnatural and pointless way was unfortunate Wing Governor Di, who for some reason became an NPC and didn’t even get a plot resolution offscreen. Otherwise, the show kept up fantastic character writing all around, even if a few bits here and there were cribbed from PRISONER CELL BLOCK H...(but who’s counting, eh?)

Might resurrect the most recent thread to share the love, and see if anyone watched while in lockdown.

R73, really?

Howard turned into a loser with women who made sexist remarks into a married father of two?

Penny went from being an out of work actress and waitress to a pharmaceutical salesperson and suddenly gains wisdom for all sorts of circumstances.

The list goes on and on and on.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s one of my favorite shows and I have the box set, but the changes became ridiculous.

When Dwight Schrute set off smoke in the office . Up until that point he was still *somewhat* believable as a kind of uptight nerdy aspie. But he suddenly became a straight up nut who simply would not have remained employed. And it contradicted the entire character who had previously been the ultimate rule follower.

R75 I guess I always saw Howard as more bluster and just a horny straight guy. I always felt he had a decent core. Penny was never that dumb but the pharm job was definitely suspension of belief. Sitcom fantasy land like the Friends huge NY apartment.

I like the show too and am rewatching on HBOMax. It gets lots of hate on DL.

Rewatching it though reminds me of how Johnny Galecki kisses like he's sucking the kissee's face off. Yuck.

Buffy was never the same after her mum died.

Better: when Willona adopted Penny on Good Times. It let Ja’net DuBois exercise more of her acting chops and let us see a character navigate being a great dater and becoming a parent.

They should’ve spun Willona and Penny off.

I don’t remember, did Edith change much after the rape?

Edith’s voice went down an octave during the attempted rape.

I love you r2

[quote] I don’t remember, did Edith change much after the rape?

I should say so; she died!

[Quote] Buffy was never the same after her mum died.

I wouldn't be if Dawn was my sister.

On Cheers, when Rebecca cried on Norm’s shoulder and we got to see her human, vulnerable side for the first time.

Unfortunately, the writers then had so much fun making her a wreck that she became too pathetic by the end of the series.

When Deanna Troi put on the standard science officer uniform instead of the catsuit with a plunging neckline.

I'd say Buffy did change after her mother died and she had to take care of that brat, BUT I think the real change is in "Anne" when she realizes that her duty as the slayer is unavoidable.

Side note: The REAL change on that show was SMG after S4. She was CLEARLY over it.

[Quote] Side note: The REAL change on that show was SMG after S4. She was CLEARLY over it.

But now has no problem milking it on social media.

Totally R89. It's kinda pathetic. BTW, have you seen what Nicky Brendon is up to? WOW.

I preferred Rebecca on Cheers as a fat and total wreck, r86. And Kirstie excelled at it.

She always looked like she was three seconds away from a crying jag.

Good: Rosalind Shays' " Goodbye" to LA Law.

I was going to mention Randy Taylor, not the part about being a $10 whore. But he went from being a wisecracking smart ass to a socially conscious teen. And to the person above, the useless brother is Taran not Terrence.

It's been ages and I don't remember details but Michael Beach's character change on Third Watch was a huge disappointment.

Well there was an episode called The Puppy Episode...

Speaking of dogs…

The closeted gay cop on The Shield....whose story line promptly vanished

Bonnie Franklin quit [italic]One Day at a Time[/italic] because getting remarried undermined the point of the show, which was her trying to make it without a husband.

Ricky Gervais in "After Life."

Season 1: In the first five episodes, he is a funny asshole who doesn't give a shit about anyone else. In the sixth episode, he is going around trying to make everyone love him.

The show went from a wicked comedy so something on the Hallmark channel in one episode. I think the mawkishness can be attributed to Gervais wanted desperately to be liked. He's lost his nerve to be consistently horrible, like on the Office.

[quote]Bonnie Franklin quit One Day at a Time because getting remarried undermined the point of the show, which was her trying to make it without a husband.

I guess she didn't make it after all.

Neither did I, apparently.

R91 I completely agree that Kirstie was excellent at playing pathetic, and they were wise to melt the ice queen demeanour she had early on. I just felt they went a bit overboard making her a wreck, especially in the last two seasons. It’s like they had too much fun treating her like a chew toy. Not that Kirstie wasn’t fantastic at playing both sides of the character..

Scrappy was the downfall of Scooby.

R90 oh he's been a mess for a while now. No one wanted anything to do with him for the EW reunion.

I think the prize goes to Camille Grammer.

After she saw how she came across as a total bitchy cunt on Season 1, she came back for Season 2, as a bland, boring, syrupy pollyanna who never had a bad word about anyone. zzzzzzzzz

I was written out of the show the moment I grew my first pube.

Danny looks remarkably like Mary Fran there, r107. She'd even wear that sweater to show off her tits.

Was he supposed to be Judith Light’s biological child?

Jonathan was a dweeb. I wasn't the most popular kid in school, but even I would have shoved him in a locker. Why couldn't they recast the role with someone who could act? They recast Philip on [italic]Maude[/italic] and the two actors who played that part look nothing alike.

When they made Chandler Bing straight in Friends. He and Monica are one of the worst TV couples ever.

Tell me about it.

Sometimes the character's change irreversibly ruins a show - as is reflected in many of your above replies. Notable moments for me were Bobby Ewing showing up in the shower on Dallas and Sue Heck cutting her hair on the The Middle. Two very different shows were both ruined for good after the fact - if not for very different reasons.

After what seemed like continual recasting of two of the three daughters on "Petticoat Junction" (the producer's daughter, Linda Kaye Henning, played Betty Jo throughout), their personalities were ultimately were switched. Originally, Bobbie Jo (Pat Woodell, later Lori Saunders for the majority of episodes) was the "sensible" one and blond Billie Jo was the ditz. When Meredith MacRae became the third Billy Jo, she was the wise one and Bobbie Jo was ditzy.

Family’s days were numbered when Aileen Quinn showed up.

That was Quinn Cummings. You can't blame me this time.

When Judy Winslow went upstairs to her room and disappeared from the show for good.

Aileen was Quinn’s cousin from Anaheim and was in the unaired final episode, hence the final days.

She was from Pennsylvania. Nice try, though.

Did Family only film in Pasadena or wasn’t set there?

Nellie falls in love.

Petticoat fucking Junction.

Wow.

When in EastEnders c.2011-12, hardnut and lesbian-adjacent pub landlady Shirley Carter inexplicably fell for shaved ape Phil Mitchell, and in a complete character 180 turned into his fawning wife-to-be.

Shirl would have been more believable and more drama-friendly going after her son’s wife Linda, in true soap-style. The writers broke her relationship with Phil after a few years, mercifully, but even with their best efforts and with the talents of the actress (Linda Henry) they couldn’t write Shirley back to her former full strength. She just became an insipid moaning bore like every other senior woman on the show. A waste.

[quote] was going to mention Randy Taylor, not the part about being a $10 whore.

Why, he made an excellent $10 whore!

Married With Children. Marcy Rhoades goes from uptight yuppie when married to Steve, to straight up slut desperate for any man after Steve leaves her (like the parsley on a plate at a truck stop diner).

I always wished for Quinn Cummings to fall off that swing and break her homely little face. If she had to be there at least wire her jaw shut.

Pamela Sue Martin became Emma Samms. Fallon Carrington has a personalty transplant! Worst recast ever!

R127 Well heaven knows those Stephen Carrington actors were interchangeable with their low key non-performances.

Losing Big Rosie Greenbaum on Laverne and Shirley. The show never felt complete after that.

I don't think R129 understood the question.

My co-star bitched and popped her pills through the reboot. Once it was obvious, our ratings tanked quicker than the economy.

When Brandon bottomed.

Commander Will Riker grows a beard.

When Jeannie started wearing mod street clothes. Even her tone of voice changed. She was no longer a bumbling genie 🧞‍♀️ with too much power, but a conniving, jealous husband hunter with too much power.

Crazy ross was better than jealous stalker Ross.

[quote] Pamela Sue Martin became Emma Samms. Fallon Carrington has a personalty transplant! Worst recast ever!

Same can be said about when deliciously evil and trashy Brendad Ickson became smart, conniving power broker Jess Walton as Jill in Y&R. Except that the talent flow was reverse, meaning Walton is a much better actress and not as cuckoo as Ickson. Still, the character was much more fun when Brendad played it.

[quote]One change for better: when Megan Mullally came up with the Karen voice a few episodes into Will & Grace.

Similarly, Dan Castellaneta changed Homer Simpson's voice after the first season of The Simpsons.

R111

When Maynard G Krebs stopped talking in his “jazzman” tone of voice, stopped using beatnik terms like Big Daddy, stopped talking about jazz music, stopped having a short front-brush haircut, stopped giving Dobie decent advice, lost most of the holes in his shirt (and washed the early dirt off of it) & turned into a retarded fantasy figure doing stuff like dinking magic potions that turned him into a werewolf.

When Larry on Curb Your Enthusiasm went from portraying his reaction to the absurdities of every day society to being a provocative, argumentative dick who caused pointless problems so he could yell a lot.

Bubba Higgins was adorable at first. He was a goofy, dumb, but sincere kid. After the fourth season of Mama’s Family, he became a boring, goody two shoes.

AND he stopped wearing his cut-off shirt and sweat pants that hugged his little ass.

When Emma on Falcon Crest went from completely cuckoo to having a hot trucker boyfriend.

When Samantha straightened her hair, lost her bangs & started wearing miniskirts she became too hip looking to pass for a suburban mom (who also happened to be a witch), married to a bug-eyed bumbling, hysterical husband ..... who somehow mysteriously morphed into a stern, strict, joyless gay man.

[quote]Bubba Higgins was adorable at first. He was a goofy, dumb, but sincere kid. After the fourth season of Mama’s Family, he became a boring, goody two shoes.

I watched this a couple of years ago, and I caught how Bubba was a bit more high strung and even had some Eunice like traits his first year. He definitely became more of a generic hunk (but he was likable) as the series went on -- although while he lost the sweat pants his jeans and shirts kept getting tighter. The real crime was that while he was on the swim team -- there was not only no speedo shot (it was the 80's - it would have been possible) there was no swim suit shot period.

Naomi shifted from being more of a true foil to Mama to being more of an empty headed dumb blonde. Mama herself went from a true monster to a somewhat cranky, but ultimate soft-hearted woman who actually cared for her family (some of which was probably necessary for a weekly sitcom).

When Daphne got together with Niles in Frasier. She lost the quirky offbeat quality that was so endearing in earlier seasons (“I’m a bit psyyyychic”) and became more generic as Niles’ girlfriend/wife

Maybe too nerdy for you sophisticates, but on Farscape John Crichton was never really the same after getting tortured. His PTSD is always lurking and sometimes barely under control.

Straight haired, miniskirted Samantha Stevens.

This is from the late 60s early 70s TV sitcom school of “Must match your characters’ costumes to their surroundings”

R146 I LOVED Farscape. Some of the best sci-fi ever made. To be sure, when John got tortured, Scorpius actually implanted himself into his psyche causing John’s gradual descent into insanity. And also made for the great ‘Harvey’ scenes.

r98, I dunno. They played out his story line. Getting married and seeing men on the down low. I didn't think the story line vanished. He changed a lot. The actor is in prison for murdering his wife.

Carrie Bradshaw comes to mind. Once Sarah Jessica Parker became a producer on the show, the show's tone changed and we were all of a sudden supposed to love Carrie and think of her as some sort of aspirational manic pixie dream girl. In the early seasons, she was a flawed woman who made bad choices, but there was a maturity to the way they handled it. You still didn't hate her and you hoped she'd get her shit together one day. The Carrie in the later seasons and two movies is like a monster from a horror movie who destroys everything in her path and you get the feeling we're supposed to love her for it. I don't know what they were thinking.

When Fonzie went from being a quiet greaser (and minor character) on "Happy Days" to some kind of '50s superhero with magical powers, and the star of the show. His character grew increasingly absurd until he literally jumped the shark.

Well hello, R148! Farscape was great! I thought it was clever how they externalized John's trauma with the chip, so that it could really drive the plot and not just be navel-gazey. But ultimately IMHO it was about John's pain and how it shaped him (often for the worse.) I appreciated Farscape's willingness to let their big manly lead show vulnerability, and for the characters to change over time.

It's funny, in a not-really kind of way, that Crichton suffered so many metaphorical rapes that his actual rape barely registered.

When Mike Seaver went from typical '80s annoying big brother type to preachy holier-than-thou jerk and having the actress who played Julie fired. Kirk Cameron continues this role to this day.

When Jennifer Keaton went from cute and chubby faced to wannabe punk rocker.

When Jack became a nurse *and* a talk show host. WTF?

Laura Ingalls went from nice, but perhaps mentally arrested 15 year old, who still acted like she was a an 11 year old boy to a shrewish crab once she stopped wearing braids and started wearing her hair up in a bun. Add a bit of creepiness when this 15 year old who seemed like she was emotionally 11 or twelve started stalking a 30 year old man and was together with him once they decided she was an adult with the grown-up hair style.

Ryan and Andy in The Office. I preferred Ryan once he became a mega asshole in Season 4 (though his return to the Scranton office after he was fired didn’t make any sense). On the other hand I thought Season 3 Andy was great - total suck up and office jerk. Once they reformed him he became one of my least favorite characters.

I always hated Andy.

When Thelma Frye went from demur daddy's girl to wacky, obsessed daddy's girl. That's when "Amen" finally got funny.

R158 Yeah! She loved herself some Deacon.

When Blair started caring for people other than herself.

And on that same note, when Jo started pretending to like boys.

When that girl from Suits married Prince Harry.