I do see your point, but the presenter is badly looking a it as a person from the UK. Here we leave school at 16 and go to study at a college. At college we leave at 18 to go to university. He was right in the mind of someone from the UK but because this is California he was badly wrong
Dollhouse only ran 2 seasons and there were only two post-apocalyptic episodes, the last episode of each season. The second season did expand the universe, showing there were multiple dollhouses and there was a big power struggle within the larger structure.
yeah felt like whoever put this together was scrapping a reddit list of replies to this topic, and hadn't actually seen the show. The flash forward episodes weren't an effort to save the show, that was Joss getting a chance to show how he would have ended it if he'd had the rest of the seasons he expected. That was always the ending, he just had to jump right there.
Yeah, I didn't really see how the story ramping up to a big finale meant that the series completely changed. In that case, Harry Potter and many other stories did the same thing.
Why are they surprised that every sci-fi show starts as a case-of-the-week show and then reveals longer plots? That's literally how most storytelling works. You can't go heavy that early, because you want to gain viewership and introduce audiences to the characters, themes, etc.
I assume they are too accustomed to the era of streaming shows, which usually combine the monster of week and main season arc, with a far heavier focus on the latter.
Minor correction: Buffy doesn't graduate from college. She's only a couple of years in, in fact, when she has to drop out because she, y'know, died, and then when she was resurrected she had to get a job because her *mother* also died, and she needed to be able to support herself and her younger sister.
Whedon was told Dollhouse was going to be cancelled after season 2 and he was hell bent on not leaving the fans hanging the way Fox had just done with Firefly... so he rushed through the whole story he had planned for years of a show in order to complete the story. There should have been seasons of that apocalypse actually going down. F-ing Fox screwing over decent to great sci-fi series. 🤬
I don't think he was told that he was being cancelled after season one, but he wrote the season one finale with the same mindset because he had been burned before by networks not telling him that his shows had been dropped until too late to write something that works as an ending. He felt like he was already tempting fate by working with FOX again.
@@manaash4316 Where is he admitting that he was writing for a paycheck and saying he was told mid-season. Because at the time he was saying he was working for the chance to work with Eliza Dushku again and he wasn't sure if they were going to be picked up when he decided to write Epitatph 1 as the finale and that he wrote it just to make sure that he was covered either way. Its possible he knew by the time midseason was released, but he had already prepped with Epitaph 1.
@@plothole181 totes makes sense on epitaph 1. The writing for a payvheck was a quote from an article after cancellation, so 2010-ish? Where he said after the first few episodes his heart wasn't in it and he was having trouble finding inspiration.
Fringe. Started out as a procedural "freakout of the week," ended with time travel, the Observers taking over a post-apocalyptic world, and a rebellion.
The beginning procedural "of the week" episodes were always part of the larger story. They weren't separated from the main story. Shows like Buffy had monster of the week stories but if Fringe had any they were very few. It was always phenomenon that was caused by the trials Walter and Bell did or something to do with the bleed between universes.
Melrose Place went from a kind of realistic drama show kind of like the original Beverly Hills 90210, but with slightly older characters, centering on a group of friends/neighbors - to full on soap, where people where hiding their real personas, trying to kill their spouses, faking illnesses, etc. The biggest change is the character Michael, who in the beginning is just a regular guy, but then suddenly turns evil villain.
Moral Orel is one of the most fitting number ones ever. It makes Breaking Bad's gradual shift from dark comedy drama to just straight-up dark drama without the comedy look like a very mild shift in tone by comparison to Moral Orel's careening headfirst into the bleak, harrowing, and somehow not nihilistic and actually quite heartfelt after a handbrake turn and squeling tyres crash straight into harsh territory abruptly in the season 3 finale and onwards. People watching it to have a good time laughing at edgy comedy probably weren't all on the same level of being okay with being sucker punched with depression instead, even if it's heartfelt and not nihilistic and if anything it gets slightly less mean spirited... 😆
I feel like whoever wrote this script hasn't actually seen Dollhouse There are only 2 seasons, and it's only the season finales that are post-apocalyptic Iirc Whedon did that as a way to show where the story was ultimately heading in the event that the show got cancelled like Firefly
I feel like they confused Dollhouse with Fringe. Sure, Dollhouse went post apocalyptic, but only in the last episode. Fringe took an entire final season into the future.
What happened, if I remember correctly, was that they were pretty sure they were cancelled, but Joss had enough time to put together a "let's hastily wrap up the loose ends so they at least get something of a series finale" episode. Then at the last minute they found out they weren't cancelled. Whoops! Retcon time, another season comes out, and then they *do* get cancelled. But with another season to work with, they were able to do a more satisfying finale.
between completly missing the point and how the end of Dollhouse went down, and referring to JD as "John" (come on, *no one* does that, he's JD), I'm pretty sure this list was put together by someone reading a reddit post of shows that changed at the end, and never actually watching the shows.
Family Matters is conspicuous by its absence here. You can track precisely how the creatives trying to do a grounded, socially aware show about an African-American family doing its best lost a tug-of-war with the accountants demanding that next week's episode be about Urkel's time machine malfunctioning.
Person of Interest - similar to Dollhouse on the list it started as a detective case of the week show with a sci-fi element. The first few seasons the two leads investigate people based on an AI prediction that the 'person of interest' will be the victim of or commit a violent crime. The last two seasons finds the team trying to stop a rival AI from taking over the world.
Yup, and the last two seasons were the ones where Person of Interest lots its way. There are gazillion "evil AI takes over" stories, turning the show into one was a truely terrible idea. It could've been one single, maybe even a bit longer storyline, but not more. And the most infuriating thing about it, there were at least two or three moments BEFORE the last season where they could've given a decent finale to this storyline, but instead of that they kept increasing the stakes until the point where not only they entirely killed the premise that made the show succesful, they wrote themselves into a corner where there was no coming back from without major plotholes.
@stevensauer8539 I know, the apocalypse stuff was always the plan, the original pilot was grounded in the apocalypse stuff with the modern day scenes being flashbacks
The original run of Roseanne should have been on this list. Went from being about a working class family with real problems to a fantasy filled adventure time due to a lottery win in the final season.
Ok, the reason season 9 of scrubs was so different was because it was a spinoff series. Titled scrubs: med school. It’s weird that since it premiered and ran as a different series under a different title that it has been lumped into the original series run, but that was more than likely done to enhance its DVD sales. And now it just stays lumped with it.
Weird to hear Scrubs' main character just referred to as "John" rather than "J.D." (even if it isn't inaccurate). However, a thing that I will mention as no one else ever seems to notice it (even when it was currently on the air) is that Scrubs did end at Season 8. It then had a spin-off sequel series called "Scrubs: Med School" that was cancelled after one season (and yes, that was the onscreen title). It was only after the cancellation that Med School was then retroactively called Scrubs Season 9, but that was not the intention.
I watched it when it first aired, it was listed as Scrubs in the guide and the Med School subtitle was only added after the creator's name, not in the title drop.
@@Mingo_Slickgrin Are you saying that just because it says "Scrubs" for a moment first and then "Med School" (which comes up briefly before "Created by Bill Lawrence" but stays on the screen during the rest of the opening titles) that it is inaccurate to say that the title was "Scrubs: Med School" and that it was a spin-off show, with season eight being the final season of "Scrubs" even though creator Bill Lawrence confirms all of this?
Moral Orel's change in tone was directly requested by Adult Swim executives. It is a good case of "Be careful what you wish for", because they got exactly what they asked, and cancelled the show halfway in because now it was too depressing. They allowed the creator to finish the season out and wrap it up.
Absolutely the first two seasons were among the best YA dystopian and/or post apocalyptic products ever presented on screen. While the quality was on steady decline, it was still pretty decent until seasons 6. Season 6 was passable, but not good by any means. While season 7 was so bad, disjointed and illogical, it made Acolyte creators look Quentin Tarantino.
"The A-Team", where soldiers of fortune are hired by the downtrodden to protect them from those bullying them to working for one person who sends them on Mission Impossible style cases.
I would have put Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda on the list. It changed so much that the showrunner of the original begged them to remove his name from what they had made.
Andromeda was originally written as a star trek series where a ship in a civil war battle of the federation trys to restore the federation from the ashes of the collapse.
As an American, I started watching Doctor Who when it came back with Eccleston (I watched classic who as a kid with my dad). I also watched Torch wood when it came out.
@@Darapsa When it returned in 2005, it was not broadcast in the US, so a lot of us had to download the shows often using questionable sites. I don't know when they started broadcasting them in the US on the same day as the UK.
As for seismic shifts, I posit two shows for at minimum Honorable Mentions: “How I Met Your Mother” and “The King of Queens”. Also, “The West Wing” had a significant seismic shift in S4. And, of course, and where we all thought this list would end: “Game of Thrones”.
Shameless - the first seasons were about the Gallaghers doing whatever they could to make ends meet while putting up with Frank's debauchery. It turned into a zany show with weird plots and subplots with goofy one-dimensional characters
100% agreed. All the characters went from very resourceful in the first couple seasons to characters that just put themselves into situations that dumbed them down.
@@donnywilliamson5807definitely, they could have also held off on the season finale For covid to be over with. That rushed and bleak ending was a let down. Frank and Fiona needed their last good bye. It was bittersweet to see him calling out to her in his final moments
If you think the American version of Shameless went off the rails, you should try the original British version where the focus went from the Gallaghers to their nemesis family.
Dollhouse didn't go post apocalyptic until the final episode of the series, though they did have an unaired episode at the end of season 1 that was only released on the home release. The show didn't have some gradual change as the series progressed nor did it have a bunch of episodes that took place in the future. If you want to mention a show that went from a mostly procedural sci-fi show to post-apocalyptic, look no further than Fringe, whose entire final season takes place in a post apocalyptic future.
I kinda think Dinosaurs deserves an honorable mention here... I mean, I barely remember the show except for "not the mama" gag, but I've seen how it ends, and jesus that ending...
Dude, what you described in Avatar is literally just excellent character development, a bigger budget, and the plot naturally evolving to its endpoint; stopping the fire nation and defeating Ozai. That’s all. That’s what any great story does!
couple entries to add for the "commenter edition". Weeds: going from quirky pot-dealing-soccer-mom to on-the-run-from-burning-down-an-entire-city-drug-cartel-leader-soccer-mom, is a pretty dramatic shift. and Archer: changing from a procedural CIA comedy to a more anthology style in the later seasons. also by the time you guys make the commenter edition the Rick and Morty anime should be out and would probably aslo apply.
@@kirielbranson4843 I could be wrong, but I think with Matt, they started simulcasting the episodes on the same day. I had to download torrents to see Eccleston's season. Scifi then started airing it, six months later, but a lot of US folks already watched it. I believe there were delays with 10's first couple of seasons in the US too.
@@piper998877 Doctor Who was already getting traction in the US during Tennant's era (I was watching during Eccleston, but I don't know if others were), but they did make a much bigger push for the US viewers during the Matt Smith era, most notably during his second series.
Agents of SHIELD starts as a procedural "generic government law enforcement agency" style show with a twist of being set in a Marvel universe (i'm not going into the convoluted nature of if it's canon to the MCU or not but it is _a_ Marvel universe). Even by the end of season 1 the course was shifted by Winter Soldier's HYDRA twist, it later pulled off fugitive/underground hero stuff, Supernatural mystery, robot uprising, The Matrix meets Secret Empire and by the end it was basically Doctor Who
Am I the only 1 that thought Buffy the vampire slayer the movie was awesome and original and creative?? Sure it was cheesy but I thought it was really cool!
It was self aware campy. "That" death scene alone proves how unserious the movie took itself and I'm pretty sure that "tone" is why the series got made, to "correct" JW's vision of the script he wrote.
My wife and I recently rewatched it (last watched when it came out)with low expectations. We loved it. Great fun. Not fair to compare it to the tv show, which is on the all time greatest ever series list.
@@Mingo_Slickgrin i hear ya, i grew up with the movie, plus i thought luke perry was super cool, and i was like wow rutger haer and pewee herman! Plus ben affleck, david arquette, hilary swank, etc :) also am a big fan of the movie MY BOYFRIEND'S BACK !!!
I actually watched Torchwood: Miracle Day long before I watched a single episode of Doctor Who and didn't even realize they were connected until years later. For some reason, that one season just grabbed my attention and I never bothered looking any further into it.
There was a show in the 1980s, "The Adventures of Superboy." It had Clark Kent and Lana Lang going to college in Florida. The last season had the two working for the the Bureau of Extranormal Matters.
Can someone explain to me what happens with whatever accent the narrator has when saying the word idea. In the first line of the video he says "Ideer" but then a few seconds later he pronounces it "I-dea". Why is this a thing? Kind of reminds me of the whole British accent being lost when singing thing.
Prison Break started as simply what it sought out to be followed by a second season tracking the characters as they try to stay off the radar. The show kept pushing though and became a spy thriller show to take down a secret organization hell bent on reshaping the world. They did a revisit season that I tried to watch but haven't got that far.
The movie was rendered non-canon once the show was created. While it shares the basic premise and title character, nothing that occurred in the movie is canon to the show.
Oooooh, I was confused why you included Scrubs in the intro monologue. I completely forgot about the non-existent season 9... which I dropped roughtly after watching 1.5 episode of it.
Clone Wars went from JarJar cures cancer and Anakin has an annoying apprentice to amazing mo-cap and choreography telling Ahsoka's side of what happened during Revenge of the Sith
Baywatch Nights was a spin off of Baywatch. They were 2 separate shows. Baywatch ended 4 years after Baywatch Nights, and they were still very much a beach focused show.
Dollhouse was only apocalyptic for 2 episodes and one of the episodes was after the show was cancelled also the fact that the Image on the front of this video was from dollhouse was the only reason I watched it
As an American I was a big fan of doc who before Matt smith. Yes he did become my favorite, however I loved the story line of Jack and his timeline. I didn’t watch Torchwood much though.
*Honorable Mention:* _One Piece_ "Honorable" because 1) It hasn't actually ended yet. 2) It is an adaptation of a manga that _also_ has not yet ended. 3) In a _weird_ way, all the crazy changes make sense once you stop and think about it... or watch enough UA-cam videos explaining how we got from A to B to Q. XD
"The Facts of Life" significantly changed over it's nine-year run. "The Superfriends" is completely unrecognizable from its first season to its last when they completely ditched any hint of comedy for grittier action. "War of the Worlds" was a different looking show it's second/last season.
The final season of Scrubs should have been a spin off it might have worked better. Torchwood was great in its first two series the third one was decent but the fourth series they ruined making it too state side. I loved Angel and I think it got better with each season loved the dynamic with Angel and Spike wish it had just one more but we got closure in comics.
Maybe it's cuz I also grew up along with the show, but I feel like Boy Meets World could fit this list. It started off as a lighthearted sitcom and got into more mature, heavier topics as the show went on.
One thing I hated about scrubs season 9 is that Jo is somehow an attending. She was an intern in season 8 and still had a residency to complete but a year later she's an attending..?
Actually, the ending of Avatar the Last Airbender was known from the beginning. Yes some details were created as it went on, but according to the art book, the general idea of Aang defeating Ozai nonviolently was known.
The one I hate is "DC's Legends of Tomorrow". It started its first season as a bunch of heroes and 2 villains from flash and arrow going through time to fight Savage. It ended as just random people no more DC characters or superheroes fighting robots in the past cause there was no time travel.
I don't get it. Even his dad called him JD in the show... "John Dorian" was only really used by Kelso, from what I recall, which was very in character.
Veep- a show about the vice president. then in season three the unseen president steps down. selina meyer became president. lost the election. then show was about the post meyer presidency.
I would say earth final conflict, each season changes cast, characters switch sides and personalities, and the "big bad" totally changes. And each season got progressively worse too.
Veronica Mars didn't end with that college season... sorta. I mean it eventually got revivied with a other season and a movie (lt least? I can't remember).
What do you mean the US didn't care about Dr. Who until Matt Smith?? Plenty of my friends at least were in from the beginning of the rebirth but it seemed to really hit with Tennant -no surprise. What makes you think the Matt Smith years were the trigger? From my states-side perspective most Americans were drawn in to the newer series with Tennant, just as in the previous run we were drawn in with Tom Baker. And I wish to death you'd just say "Venture Brothers."
"... there are only so many stories that you can tell on the California beach line, ... *apparently*." Say you don't agree with the change in direction, by not saying you don't agree with the change in direction.
"The L Word", starts off as a romantic comedy love drama about lesbian couples navigating relationships, careers and family life, and turned into a sex-triangle murder mystery. The first few episodes were optimistic, sexy-sweet-plqyful. The last few episodes were dark, shocking "who dunnit". I started wondering if the whole cast had wandered off the set of their love boat and onto the set of Dexter.
@@screenwriterjohn I particularly didn't understand Buffy being on the list. The show had 7 seasons, obviously it needed to progress and slowly introduce more adult themes as the episodes went by, which is what it did. However, the essence and feel of the show remained the same from start to finish. I just felt like calling a show's inevitable and natural progression "a change that manes it unrecognisable" is really reaching 😂
What are you talking about, Dollhouse was great. And just having the set be a legal office, didn't make Angel a legal procedural. And finally, how TF did you bottle the easy N1 that should've been Once Upon a Time?
Buffy didnt graduate college she dropped out to take care of Dawn and get a job
Writer didn't watch series they just counted seasons and made assumptions.
She made the ultimate sacrifice... Working at a fast-food restaurant.
As a huge Buffy fan, they got a lot wrong with the entry.
I do see your point, but the presenter is badly looking a it as a person from the UK.
Here we leave school at 16 and go to study at a college. At college we leave at 18 to go to university.
He was right in the mind of someone from the UK but because this is California he was badly wrong
One correction, while Baywatch’s 1st season was in 1989, Baywatch was a show of the 90’s.
Yeah “essentially 80s” yet 90% of it was filmed in the 90s…
Dollhouse only ran 2 seasons and there were only two post-apocalyptic episodes, the last episode of each season. The second season did expand the universe, showing there were multiple dollhouses and there was a big power struggle within the larger structure.
Yeah, and the original pilot began with the apocalypse stuff, the modern day scenes were intended as flashbacks showing how we got here.
Dollhouse was basically Joe 90 but with less strings.
Dollhouse was a great show. I wish it went longer. I still worry one day answering a phone will do that to us.
@@andrewj1754 there are three flowers in a vase...
yeah felt like whoever put this together was scrapping a reddit list of replies to this topic, and hadn't actually seen the show. The flash forward episodes weren't an effort to save the show, that was Joss getting a chance to show how he would have ended it if he'd had the rest of the seasons he expected. That was always the ending, he just had to jump right there.
Riverdale deserves a mention as it started as a fairly normal teen drama, and ended with all sorts of time travel and alien cult stuff
Avatar The Last Airbender has a classic hero's journey narrative.
Of course, that characters will end differently at the end.
Yeah, I didn't really see how the story ramping up to a big finale meant that the series completely changed. In that case, Harry Potter and many other stories did the same thing.
Why are they surprised that every sci-fi show starts as a case-of-the-week show and then reveals longer plots? That's literally how most storytelling works. You can't go heavy that early, because you want to gain viewership and introduce audiences to the characters, themes, etc.
I assume they are too accustomed to the era of streaming shows, which usually combine the monster of week and main season arc, with a far heavier focus on the latter.
Minor correction: Buffy doesn't graduate from college. She's only a couple of years in, in fact, when she has to drop out because she, y'know, died, and then when she was resurrected she had to get a job because her *mother* also died, and she needed to be able to support herself and her younger sister.
The actual villain of the show? The Watchers’ Council for not having provided their Slayer a generous stipend.
@austintrousdale2397 True. They literally risk their lives on a regular, and you cheap assholes couldn’t even pay them.
She dropped out because her mom was sick and she had to help out at home. She tried to go back after she died, but it didn't really work out.
Whedon was told Dollhouse was going to be cancelled after season 2 and he was hell bent on not leaving the fans hanging the way Fox had just done with Firefly... so he rushed through the whole story he had planned for years of a show in order to complete the story. There should have been seasons of that apocalypse actually going down. F-ing Fox screwing over decent to great sci-fi series. 🤬
He also admitted that for the first season he was just writing for a paycheck and wasn't passionate about the project at all
I don't think he was told that he was being cancelled after season one, but he wrote the season one finale with the same mindset because he had been burned before by networks not telling him that his shows had been dropped until too late to write something that works as an ending. He felt like he was already tempting fate by working with FOX again.
@@plothole181 he's said that he was told mid-season
@@manaash4316 Where is he admitting that he was writing for a paycheck and saying he was told mid-season. Because at the time he was saying he was working for the chance to work with Eliza Dushku again and he wasn't sure if they were going to be picked up when he decided to write Epitatph 1 as the finale and that he wrote it just to make sure that he was covered either way. Its possible he knew by the time midseason was released, but he had already prepped with Epitaph 1.
@@plothole181 totes makes sense on epitaph 1. The writing for a payvheck was a quote from an article after cancellation, so 2010-ish? Where he said after the first few episodes his heart wasn't in it and he was having trouble finding inspiration.
Agents of SHIELD
A fun grounded spy show living in a superhero world.
to
A weird & wacky show with multiple main characters that have superpowers :).
Fringe. Started out as a procedural "freakout of the week," ended with time travel, the Observers taking over a post-apocalyptic world, and a rebellion.
Yes in all but the last season when you saw a character at the start of an episode
you knew they would die soon. In last season way fewer people died.
That was one of the best shows. .... and at the end the beginning made sense
The beginning procedural "of the week" episodes were always part of the larger story. They weren't separated from the main story. Shows like Buffy had monster of the week stories but if Fringe had any they were very few. It was always phenomenon that was caused by the trials Walter and Bell did or something to do with the bleed between universes.
It was a copy of The X Files that didn’t do well in its original season so they added Spock and made it entirely about parallel worlds fighting
@@dearthditchpeople are always entitled to their own opinions.
Unhappily Ever After Became More Tiffany Malloy centric while earlier seasons were more Jack Malloy and Mr. Floppy focused
Melrose Place went from a kind of realistic drama show kind of like the original Beverly Hills 90210, but with slightly older characters, centering on a group of friends/neighbors - to full on soap, where people where hiding their real personas, trying to kill their spouses, faking illnesses, etc. The biggest change is the character Michael, who in the beginning is just a regular guy, but then suddenly turns evil villain.
Moral Orel is one of the most fitting number ones ever. It makes Breaking Bad's gradual shift from dark comedy drama to just straight-up dark drama without the comedy look like a very mild shift in tone by comparison to Moral Orel's careening headfirst into the bleak, harrowing, and somehow not nihilistic and actually quite heartfelt after a handbrake turn and squeling tyres crash straight into harsh territory abruptly in the season 3 finale and onwards. People watching it to have a good time laughing at edgy comedy probably weren't all on the same level of being okay with being sucker punched with depression instead, even if it's heartfelt and not nihilistic and if anything it gets slightly less mean spirited... 😆
No Smallville. Direct Superman prequel in a rural town with a "kryptonite freak of the week" to "MCU expanded universe prototype" by the final season
SeaQuest and The Burning Zone should have been on the list.
The 100 went from post-apocalyptic survival to sci-fi end of the world
Riverdale went from murder mystery to witches and superpower shenanigans
I feel like whoever wrote this script hasn't actually seen Dollhouse
There are only 2 seasons, and it's only the season finales that are post-apocalyptic
Iirc Whedon did that as a way to show where the story was ultimately heading in the event that the show got cancelled like Firefly
I feel like they confused Dollhouse with Fringe. Sure, Dollhouse went post apocalyptic, but only in the last episode. Fringe took an entire final season into the future.
Here I was wondering if it got finished somewhere, I had thought i had seen the entire thing.
What happened, if I remember correctly, was that they were pretty sure they were cancelled, but Joss had enough time to put together a "let's hastily wrap up the loose ends so they at least get something of a series finale" episode. Then at the last minute they found out they weren't cancelled. Whoops! Retcon time, another season comes out, and then they *do* get cancelled. But with another season to work with, they were able to do a more satisfying finale.
between completly missing the point and how the end of Dollhouse went down, and referring to JD as "John" (come on, *no one* does that, he's JD), I'm pretty sure this list was put together by someone reading a reddit post of shows that changed at the end, and never actually watching the shows.
I've yet to Finish Dollhouse, I do own the 2 seasons on Blu-Ray, just got to sit down and watch.
Baywatch nights wasn't the same show as baywatch. Baywatch nights was a spin-off that was cancelled before Baywatch was.
This people are to stupid to known that.
Yes, thank you.
So stupid that they don't know the difference between Baywatch and Baywatch Nights
Family Matters is conspicuous by its absence here. You can track precisely how the creatives trying to do a grounded, socially aware show about an African-American family doing its best lost a tug-of-war with the accountants demanding that next week's episode be about Urkel's time machine malfunctioning.
Yeah. The shows theme song set the tone for the Show but then Mr. "Did I Do that" showed up and the show when full on wacky from there on.
The Baywatch one is just wrong. Baywatch Nights was a spinoff show while Baywatch was still airing.
Person of Interest - similar to Dollhouse on the list it started as a detective case of the week show with a sci-fi element. The first few seasons the two leads investigate people based on an AI prediction that the 'person of interest' will be the victim of or commit a violent crime. The last two seasons finds the team trying to stop a rival AI from taking over the world.
Yup, and the last two seasons were the ones where Person of Interest lots its way. There are gazillion "evil AI takes over" stories, turning the show into one was a truely terrible idea. It could've been one single, maybe even a bit longer storyline, but not more. And the most infuriating thing about it, there were at least two or three moments BEFORE the last season where they could've given a decent finale to this storyline, but instead of that they kept increasing the stakes until the point where not only they entirely killed the premise that made the show succesful, they wrote themselves into a corner where there was no coming back from without major plotholes.
Well. They completely missed the point on Dollhouse.
@stevensauer8539 I know, the apocalypse stuff was always the plan, the original pilot was grounded in the apocalypse stuff with the modern day scenes being flashbacks
@@Mingo_Slickgrin It was always headed there. They just cut out the middle and went straight for the end.
The original run of Roseanne should have been on this list.
Went from being about a working class family with real problems to a fantasy filled adventure time due to a lottery win in the final season.
with REAL problems in the final season actually :D
Ok, the reason season 9 of scrubs was so different was because it was a spinoff series. Titled scrubs: med school. It’s weird that since it premiered and ran as a different series under a different title that it has been lumped into the original series run, but that was more than likely done to enhance its DVD sales. And now it just stays lumped with it.
Weird to hear Scrubs' main character just referred to as "John" rather than "J.D." (even if it isn't inaccurate). However, a thing that I will mention as no one else ever seems to notice it (even when it was currently on the air) is that Scrubs did end at Season 8. It then had a spin-off sequel series called "Scrubs: Med School" that was cancelled after one season (and yes, that was the onscreen title). It was only after the cancellation that Med School was then retroactively called Scrubs Season 9, but that was not the intention.
Yeah, I thought the John thing was weird
Thank you.
This is not brought up enough.
I watched it when it first aired, it was listed as Scrubs in the guide and the Med School subtitle was only added after the creator's name, not in the title drop.
@@Mingo_Slickgrin Are you saying that just because it says "Scrubs" for a moment first and then "Med School" (which comes up briefly before "Created by Bill Lawrence" but stays on the screen during the rest of the opening titles) that it is inaccurate to say that the title was "Scrubs: Med School" and that it was a spin-off show, with season eight being the final season of "Scrubs" even though creator Bill Lawrence confirms all of this?
Med School is still considered season 9
Moral Orel's change in tone was directly requested by Adult Swim executives. It is a good case of "Be careful what you wish for", because they got exactly what they asked, and cancelled the show halfway in because now it was too depressing. They allowed the creator to finish the season out and wrap it up.
The 100 should be on here. Watch seasons 1 and 2 then watch seasons 6-7 and besides the characters, are almost 2 different shows.
Why did you not Watch season 3 4 and 5??
Absolutely the first two seasons were among the best YA dystopian and/or post apocalyptic products ever presented on screen. While the quality was on steady decline, it was still pretty decent until seasons 6. Season 6 was passable, but not good by any means. While season 7 was so bad, disjointed and illogical, it made Acolyte creators look Quentin Tarantino.
Wild how many shoes on the CW you could describe with "the first 2 seasons were the best shows on tv"
"The A-Team", where soldiers of fortune are hired by the downtrodden to protect them from those bullying them to working for one person who sends them on Mission Impossible style cases.
I would have put Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda on the list. It changed so much that the showrunner of the original begged them to remove his name from what they had made.
Ah, remember that. I'd say it was always similar.
Andromeda was originally written as a star trek series where a ship in a civil war battle of the federation trys to restore the federation from the ashes of the collapse.
I like the early seasons of Andromeda, I stopped watching after season 2.
As an American, I started watching Doctor Who when it came back with Eccleston (I watched classic who as a kid with my dad). I also watched Torch wood when it came out.
Exactly the same here!
@@Darapsa When it returned in 2005, it was not broadcast in the US, so a lot of us had to download the shows often using questionable sites. I don't know when they started broadcasting them in the US on the same day as the UK.
As for seismic shifts, I posit two shows for at minimum Honorable Mentions: “How I Met Your Mother” and “The King of Queens”. Also, “The West Wing” had a significant seismic shift in S4. And, of course, and where we all thought this list would end: “Game of Thrones”.
And, of course, “8 Simple Rules”.
We can say everything about Joss Whedon, but that guy knew how to make characters grow
Shameless - the first seasons were about the Gallaghers doing whatever they could to make ends meet while putting up with Frank's debauchery. It turned into a zany show with weird plots and subplots with goofy one-dimensional characters
100% agreed. All the characters went from very resourceful in the first couple seasons to characters that just put themselves into situations that dumbed them down.
It didn't help when Fiona left. The show should have ended there.
@@donnywilliamson5807definitely, they could have also held off on the season finale For covid to be over with. That rushed and bleak ending was a let down. Frank and Fiona needed their last good bye. It was bittersweet to see him calling out to her in his final moments
If you think the American version of Shameless went off the rails, you should try the original British version where the focus went from the Gallaghers to their nemesis family.
I really wish Shameless ended better
Wait, so are we overlooking the Veronica Mars movie and fourth season? Because this video only mentioned up to season 3.
There was nothing wrong with season 3 either.
Very weird of them to talk about Scrubs for having a failed revival and then not say that about Veronica Mars having a heavily-criticised Season 4.
Dollhouse didn't go post apocalyptic until the final episode of the series, though they did have an unaired episode at the end of season 1 that was only released on the home release. The show didn't have some gradual change as the series progressed nor did it have a bunch of episodes that took place in the future.
If you want to mention a show that went from a mostly procedural sci-fi show to post-apocalyptic, look no further than Fringe, whose entire final season takes place in a post apocalyptic future.
I kinda think Dinosaurs deserves an honorable mention here... I mean, I barely remember the show except for "not the mama" gag, but I've seen how it ends, and jesus that ending...
0:57 10 - Buffy the Vampire Slayer
1:56 9 - Dollhouse
2:47 8 -Avatar: The Last Airbender
3:49 7 - Scrubs
4:43 6 - Veronica Mars
5:44 5 - Torchwood
6:57 4 - Baywatch
8:01 3 - Angel
9:07 2 - The Venture Bros.
10:21 1 - Moral Orel
clearly they forgot GRIMM
Dude, what you described in Avatar is literally just excellent character development, a bigger budget, and the plot naturally evolving to its endpoint; stopping the fire nation and defeating Ozai.
That’s all. That’s what any great story does!
5:13 Veronica didn't set up her own PI thing. She just worked for/with her PI Dad.
@@justfadingaway yeah! It so has that vibe and it's not a good look
Season 3 of AVATAR was my favorite.
couple entries to add for the "commenter edition". Weeds: going from quirky pot-dealing-soccer-mom to on-the-run-from-burning-down-an-entire-city-drug-cartel-leader-soccer-mom, is a pretty dramatic shift. and Archer: changing from a procedural CIA comedy to a more anthology style in the later seasons. also by the time you guys make the commenter edition the Rick and Morty anime should be out and would probably aslo apply.
Doctor Who didn't have any traction until the Matt Smith era???
Someone obviously wasn't around for Tumblr's SuperWhoLock takeover.
I believe they were talking about US traction. For some odd reason, when Matt Smith joined, it did become a bigger hit in the US.
I didn't notice this since I started with Eccleston but then this video got a lot wrong.
@@kirielbranson4843 I could be wrong, but I think with Matt, they started simulcasting the episodes on the same day. I had to download torrents to see Eccleston's season. Scifi then started airing it, six months later, but a lot of US folks already watched it. I believe there were delays with 10's first couple of seasons in the US too.
@@piper998877 Doctor Who was already getting traction in the US during Tennant's era (I was watching during Eccleston, but I don't know if others were), but they did make a much bigger push for the US viewers during the Matt Smith era, most notably during his second series.
The lifecycle of a doctor:
Medical student
Intern
Resident
Teacher
Where's the tone shift in that?!?
I was watching to see if Beverly Hills 90210 was listed. The initial, wholesome high school show became a trashy, exploitative soap opera...
But I loved every minute of it.
Question: when was it ever “wholesome”?
Agents of SHIELD starts as a procedural "generic government law enforcement agency" style show with a twist of being set in a Marvel universe (i'm not going into the convoluted nature of if it's canon to the MCU or not but it is _a_ Marvel universe). Even by the end of season 1 the course was shifted by Winter Soldier's HYDRA twist, it later pulled off fugitive/underground hero stuff, Supernatural mystery, robot uprising, The Matrix meets Secret Empire and by the end it was basically Doctor Who
Am I the only 1 that thought Buffy the vampire slayer the movie was awesome and original and creative?? Sure it was cheesy but I thought it was really cool!
I found it fun but mediocre. Which did you watch first?
It was self aware campy. "That" death scene alone proves how unserious the movie took itself and I'm pretty sure that "tone" is why the series got made, to "correct" JW's vision of the script he wrote.
My wife and I recently rewatched it (last watched when it came out)with low expectations. We loved it. Great fun. Not fair to compare it to the tv show, which is on the all time greatest ever series list.
@@Mingo_Slickgrin i hear ya, i grew up with the movie, plus i thought luke perry was super cool, and i was like wow rutger haer and pewee herman! Plus ben affleck, david arquette, hilary swank, etc :) also am a big fan of the movie MY BOYFRIEND'S BACK !!!
@@Baccory i can see that definitely
what about person of interest shift?
One Tree Hill and Criminal Minds needs to be on this list too
what was wrong with final season of scrubs? 8 seasons and out very well done.
this happened a lot with shows that started in the early 90s and ended in the late 90s lol
I actually watched Torchwood: Miracle Day long before I watched a single episode of Doctor Who and didn't even realize they were connected until years later. For some reason, that one season just grabbed my attention and I never bothered looking any further into it.
There was a show in the 1980s, "The Adventures of Superboy." It had Clark Kent and Lana Lang going to college in Florida. The last season had the two working for the the Bureau of Extranormal Matters.
Can someone explain to me what happens with whatever accent the narrator has when saying the word idea. In the first line of the video he says "Ideer" but then a few seconds later he pronounces it "I-dea". Why is this a thing? Kind of reminds me of the whole British accent being lost when singing thing.
Oh god thank you for mentioning Scrubs. That Book of Love song will be how I'll remember it ended.
Writing a story without an ending makes the story unique. The audience never expect what's coming next if not even the maker knows it at that point.
Prison Break started as simply what it sought out to be followed by a second season tracking the characters as they try to stay off the radar. The show kept pushing though and became a spy thriller show to take down a secret organization hell bent on reshaping the world. They did a revisit season that I tried to watch but haven't got that far.
That quick shot of the host of this video threw me...he looks strange without the iconic beard from his D&D channel.
The weird thing about Buffy is...they were talking about "Senior prom" in the movie. They were seniors.
the movie and the TV show are not the same
The movie was rendered non-canon once the show was created. While it shares the basic premise and title character, nothing that occurred in the movie is canon to the show.
The 2000s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (my all-time favorite series) had a pretty big shift when it switched to Fast Forward...
Oooooh, I was confused why you included Scrubs in the intro monologue. I completely forgot about the non-existent season 9... which I dropped roughtly after watching 1.5 episode of it.
Clone Wars went from JarJar cures cancer and Anakin has an annoying apprentice to amazing mo-cap and choreography telling Ahsoka's side of what happened during Revenge of the Sith
Baywatch Nights was a spin off of Baywatch. They were 2 separate shows. Baywatch ended 4 years after Baywatch Nights, and they were still very much a beach focused show.
The American audience of the Doctor Who revival originally fell in love with David Tenant long before Matt Smith came along.
Airwolf ended without the original cast having Dominic's neice and Stringfellow's suddenly reappeared brother
Lost, once (upon a time) and Steven Universe
Dollhouse was only apocalyptic for 2 episodes and one of the episodes was after the show was cancelled also the fact that the Image on the front of this video was from dollhouse was the only reason I watched it
You should have included seasons 6 and 7 of the 100. I still today have no idea what went down
As an American I was a big fan of doc who before Matt smith. Yes he did become my favorite, however I loved the story line of Jack and his timeline. I didn’t watch Torchwood much though.
In Veronica Mars, the teen detective went from savvy and self-sufficient hero to clueless and bumbling damsel in distress.
Supernatural,once of an upon,original charmed and arrow many others.
*Honorable Mention:* _One Piece_
"Honorable" because
1) It hasn't actually ended yet.
2) It is an adaptation of a manga that _also_ has not yet ended.
3) In a _weird_ way, all the crazy changes make sense once you stop and think about it... or watch enough UA-cam videos explaining how we got from A to B to Q. XD
"The Facts of Life" significantly changed over it's nine-year run. "The Superfriends" is completely unrecognizable from its first season to its last when they completely ditched any hint of comedy for grittier action. "War of the Worlds" was a different looking show it's second/last season.
The final season of Scrubs should have been a spin off it might have worked better. Torchwood was great in its first two series the third one was decent but the fourth series they ruined making it too state side. I loved Angel and I think it got better with each season loved the dynamic with Angel and Spike wish it had just one more but we got closure in comics.
It was a spinoff.
Maybe it's cuz I also grew up along with the show, but I feel like Boy Meets World could fit this list. It started off as a lighthearted sitcom and got into more mature, heavier topics as the show went on.
Search Party could have topped this list, it changes genre every season
Heroes
One thing I hated about scrubs season 9 is that Jo is somehow an attending. She was an intern in season 8 and still had a residency to complete but a year later she's an attending..?
Actually, the ending of Avatar the Last Airbender was known from the beginning. Yes some details were created as it went on, but according to the art book, the general idea of Aang defeating Ozai nonviolently was known.
I pretend the last season of Scrubs doesn't exist.
What do you mean? Series 8 was great. ;)
The one I hate is "DC's Legends of Tomorrow". It started its first season as a bunch of heroes and 2 villains from flash and arrow going through time to fight Savage. It ended as just random people no more DC characters or superheroes fighting robots in the past cause there was no time travel.
Did he just call JD "John"?
I don't get it. Even his dad called him JD in the show... "John Dorian" was only really used by Kelso, from what I recall, which was very in character.
Am I the only one who thought "I-Zombie" seeing the title? An investigation show turning into à drama about zombie freedom...
They didn't rename Torchwood 'children of earth', Chilren of Earth was a limited run special. Does whatculture have no script editors??
Veep- a show about the vice president. then in season three the unseen president steps down. selina meyer became president. lost the election. then show was about the post meyer presidency.
I would say earth final conflict, each season changes cast, characters switch sides and personalities, and the "big bad" totally changes. And each season got progressively worse too.
Veronica Mars didn't end with that college season... sorta. I mean it eventually got revivied with a other season and a movie (lt least? I can't remember).
2 glaring omissions - community and riverdale
What do you mean the US didn't care about Dr. Who until Matt Smith?? Plenty of my friends at least were in from the beginning of the rebirth but it seemed to really hit with Tennant -no surprise. What makes you think the Matt Smith years were the trigger? From my states-side perspective most Americans were drawn in to the newer series with Tennant, just as in the previous run we were drawn in with Tom Baker.
And I wish to death you'd just say "Venture Brothers."
Baywatch was a 90s show. Pretty sure most of its time on air was the early 90s
"... there are only so many stories that you can tell on the California beach line, ... *apparently*."
Say you don't agree with the change in direction, by not saying you don't agree with the change in direction.
Riverdale.
First Season: Archie Comics.
Final Season: What... the... F*CK?!
Buffy dropped out of college after her mom pasted away.
"The L Word", starts off as a romantic comedy love drama about lesbian couples navigating relationships, careers and family life, and turned into a sex-triangle murder mystery. The first few episodes were optimistic, sexy-sweet-plqyful. The last few episodes were dark, shocking "who dunnit". I started wondering if the whole cast had wandered off the set of their love boat and onto the set of Dexter.
Unrecognisable?
Baywatch and Baywatch Nights ran at the same time it did not leave the beach and get canceled
Wait is that Will from @DnDShorts and without his epic beard and with hair? What is happening?
Is this list just a dunk on Joss Whedon's projects? 😂
...no.
Oh, that's right! three shows! But Buffy and Angel were actually good to great.
@@screenwriterjohn I particularly didn't understand Buffy being on the list. The show had 7 seasons, obviously it needed to progress and slowly introduce more adult themes as the episodes went by, which is what it did. However, the essence and feel of the show remained the same from start to finish. I just felt like calling a show's inevitable and natural progression "a change that manes it unrecognisable" is really reaching 😂
What are you talking about, Dollhouse was great. And just having the set be a legal office, didn't make Angel a legal procedural.
And finally, how TF did you bottle the easy N1 that should've been Once Upon a Time?
2:15 I never could get into this show. The characters were so boring.