Yep. That’s why I skipped it. Pacey does XFiles. Years later I really got into the plot, only to have the syndicating network cut it off near the end 😠
@mcentepede. Never watch X-Files. Didn't know X-Files had Parallel Worlds and Time Travel. Can you point out the time travel episodes? I love scifi w/ time travel.
iZombie started out as a young woman solving crimes while hiding the fact that she was a zombie. By the end of the show, zombies had taken over Seattle and formed their own government.
Deep Space Nine - Started out with the station focused on restoring the Bajoran people after the Cardassian occupation, then turned into a prolonged war with the Dominion from the Gamma quadrant.
What you say is very true. But I feel like the real shift was how pre war, the show was a traditional episidic status quo show show where you could catch an episode regardless of the season, and get 98% of it, into more of an ongoing soap opera that needs to be watched in order to appreciate half that episode. The odd episode here and there not with standing, of course. Like season 6s Time's Orphan. WTF! 😂
I thought that "Friends" changing its premise made sense, as the characters naturally evolved from carefree twentysomethings, to settled thirty somethings, as is wont to happen in real life.
true, but this video did not state "good or bad" merely what happened. And it did change its premise, much like real life does for most people. Thats the problem with going on for 11 years. You either have to mix it up, or the series stagnates. Thats what happened with MASH. 11 years in a 3 year war. Kinda stupid. They tried to keep it fresh by getting more serious and replacing characters, but eventually they had to concede it just went on too damn long.
Dollhouse's change was forced upon them. It was cancelled, but they were given the opportunity to "wrap up" the storyline with the remaining episodes. That's why it felt so sudden of a change.
Another show would be “Family Matters.” The show was a spin-off from “Perfect Strangers” about the life of Harriet Winslow who worked with Larry and Balki. Then, the series turned into the Urkel Show much like Fonzie taking over Happy Days. Steve was just the nerdy neighbor who was in love with Laura and annoyed everyone.
_Fringe_ introduced the alternate universe near the end of season 1 and the reveal about Peter was in the season 1 finale. The only major premise shift after that was in season 5 (or the flashforward episode of season 4 technically).
To be fair it did lose its procedural 'monstor of the week' formula and focussed more on the serial story In my head it starts when olivia turns out the lights in the building....so good. Thats when it gripped me anyway. It was a little dull up until that. Its only after that you find out about peter, which was foreshadowed even in the pilot but you werent looking for it becuse it appeared as just a procedural. So good though.
Mike Post wrote a lot of really great theme songs/tunes. The one that sticks in my head the most is _The Rockford Files_ theme tune (no words, all instrumental).
@@whiskeyvictor5703 You mean the season with Angels son ? I hate that guy and thats by far the worst season. But in the following season it gets sooo much better when they now are working in the Wolfram & Heart building and ... the best .. Spike joins the team 👍👍
@@whiskeyvictor5703 My family generally skips that season. I sometimes play with the Faith episodes from that season (and possibly a couple others I forgot were in THAT season), but mostly I just skip from season 3 to season 5.
For some unknown reason about a week ago I had the theme of Laverne & Shirley in my head for a couple of days. Finally got it out and I read your comment @CaritasGothKaraoke. Thanks 😂. And for my 2 cents, Friends is likely the most catchy but as a child of the 80’s I’m not mad at the Cheers choice. However, the best is a toss up between Game of Thrones (and all he remixes it spawned) and Buffy.
I have watched MANY series and this happens on ALL of them. Be it Grimm, Once Upon A Time, Legends of Tomorrow, Arrow, The Flash, Stargate SG-1, Sliders, Wynonna Earp, Lost Girl, Under the Dome, Killjoys, Dark Matter, and many more.
I got into Being Human (UK). I rather enjoyed it. Then America got it's own version. It was alright (I like the cast) but the UK version was the better one to me
Gotham. It started as a fairly straightforward police procedural focusing on a rookie Jim Gordon and chronicling The Penguin's rise to power. Then about 2/3 of the way through the first season it shifted gears, eventually becoming a full blown comic book show and Batman origin story To this day I'm still torn on whether I think it was a good move or not. I loved the original premise and wish I could have seen what the did with it, but I also love the wacky mess it became. Some of the best live-action portrayals of Batman characters can be found in that show
Their Penguin and Riddler are my favorite version of both characters. Their Joker(s) is tied with Heath Ledger and below only Mark Hamill. That said, the stories were crap and I had to wonder how any of these supervillains were going to be a threat to Batman if Jim Gordon could take them all.
Followed, I believe, by Bat-apocalypse and time-travel road trip. Or did Bat-apocalypse come before Agents of SHIELD: In Space? I know time-travel road trip was the final season.
The “others” seemed like primitive people in raggedy clothes who kidnapped Walt. In season3, they became people brought to the for scientific research like Juliet.
Greatest themes: original Battlestar Galactica and Rockford Files. Say I’m not wrong! If you want songs with lyrics Cheers and Greatest American Hero , unavoidably hummable
Fringe" was one of the best shows ever. I wish "Lost" and "The X-Files" had wrapped up their shows with the same panache. As much as I love "Fringe," I always fear it will be rebooted if we express our love of it too much. Please don't mess with perfection! 🙏
"I'm not the kind to kiss and tell, but I've been seen with Farah." Especially cool because it was sung BY Lee Majors, Farah's ex husband (well, they were separated when the show premiered and divorced the next year).
"The A-Team". Went from the original premise of four soldiers of fortune and fugitives who get hired to protect people from thugs who want to kick them off their land, out of business etc, all the while doing it while hiding from the military police, to the fifth season them working for one man who sends them out on missions.
I don't so much think that Fringe changed its premise, as changed the angle from which you got to see the premise. At first its all about "Fringe" science..but eventually you find out there are things behind those sciences that widens the world view of the show, and then eventually the universe view of the show. So, its not so much that it changed, as it expanded..
Big Bang kept flipping characters which often changed the shows focus. One season we get episodes how poor a character is then we find out his family is wealthy. One is always nice for season then we find out she is mean for the next season. Penny is poor then she gets a good job. Friends. "Except Joey". He did well on a soap opera for a season.
Melrose Place. Beverly Hills 90210 spin off centered around episodic young adult drama grounded in reality turned into a sexy prime time soap opera with far out unbelievable plot twists.
Family Matters... Started as a basic sitcom about a working class family in Chicago. Then, Steve Urkel showed up. By the end, the Winslow family hardly mattered as Urkel completely took over.
Archer Loved This Show But Once The Premise changed It kinda ruined the cartoon It's lucky It lasted 14 years just can't wait til' Fox gives Bob's Burgers the axe but H. Jon Benjamin probably needs that "Disney" paycheck to keep the lights on at home so I'm not counting on that anytime soon
You forgot "Family Matters" 😂 Couldn't agree more about "Fringe", though, which is great because (!) it ends up going in such an unexpected direction (but (!) properly built up and foreshadowed, fitting the genre and themes established in the first season after all!!)
I MISS the classic Who historicals! Sad that a few are missing. I'd love to actually see the Marco Polo one, but I've only been able to listen to the audio.
Supernatural---First 5 seasons were a brothers road trip hunting monsters and ghosts. Season 6 abd beyond, it developed more like angels and demons and was drama like. Still good though
The pure monster-of-the- week period was over before the end of the first season, when it had become an episodic drama about the quest for revenge against the yellow eyed demon - “the thing that killed Mom.” That turned into the effort to defeat the devil and stop the apocalypse, which culminated in Season 5.
@@fuelledbylattes adjective 1. exceeding what is needed or useful; superfluous: 2. characterized by unnecessary words or repetition; verbose: 3. serving or added as a backup; extra: 4. having one or more extra or duplicate parts or features
@@fuelledbylattes Wow. You just tried to cram that one in there, didn't ya'. The "no longer needed" as redundant is used, means that function, position or purpose is already covered.
@@fuelledbylattes In the series premiere, Sabrina turned 16 and discovered she was a witch. The show then ran for 7 seasons, which would have made her around 23ish when the show ended. They should have changed the title to just Sabrina after the first few seasons
Surprised you didn't include the show Miracle Workers, which starred Daniel Radcliffe and ran on TBS from 2019 - 2023, each season of the show had a different setting and premise, but the same cast, which also included Steve Buscemi! Season 1 dealt with angels in heaven trying to fulfill the wishes of humans on Earth, Season 2 is set in the Dark Ages, Season 3 took place on the Oregon Trail and had Radcliffe as a priest and Buscemi as an outlaw, and the final season was a Mad Max - Post Apocalypse scenario.
I loved Fringe. But I think it was less a change of premise as much as it was a gradual leading you into the more complex parallel universe storylines. They had to introduce certain concepts to establish what was going on in the “normal” universe. They used David Robert Jones as the vehicle for that introduction, and that led to William Bell, all in the first season. The rest of the show was unveiling the many complexities of the parallel universes and each character’s place in it. It was extremely entertaining and thought provoking with great characters brought to live by a great cast.
I think you missed one CW the flash. The first Season was its best and went down hill from there. The first Episode was about the CSI side of Barry Allen and after season one the investigative science died to change into freinds with powers. I feel they really missed out because a superpowered CSI going around to the worse crime seens putting the puzzle together was a great concept
You forgot when Fringe *completely* change its premise in the final season. The alternate universe completely faded into the background, and now it was a sci-fi show about a resistance to an alien invasion, only the aliens were future humans. And the resolution made no sense.
The tv shows mentioned throughout the comments were all great. What about one from your home nation and one that endured a change due to the main character growing up, Young Dracula? The final season was a dramatic change to the original premise which was about coming of age in the vampire world. There were so many shows like Two and a Half Men, which evolved over time and you happened to name some of my favourite ones
You did touch on Alias, but I can't think of a series that managed to change their premise as often as Alias did. It was kind of commedia del arte in that each season included pretty much all of the same character archetypes, but it was always different characters in the roles when they came back from hiatus. This was even to the extent that by Season 4, the villain from the first three seasons, Arvin Sloane, is now the head of the organization the rest of the case now belongs to. Essentially they reshuffled the deck every season. It was always spies and covert ops, but the organizations doing the spying and the relationships between the characters were different each season.
Second Chances/Boys Will Be Boys starring Matthew Perry. Season 1 had a dead spirit going back to his teenage self. Season 2 dropped the angelic part and just had an uptight guy living with a large Italian lumox.
Smallville had to change their premise. It was too popular to finish, so they had to extend it. That's why the original Leverage series was so great. 5 seasons and closed out the narrative arcs, but left the possibility to continue as a different show. Which they later did. Smallville became an alternate Superman show because that's what the audience wanted, but the producers did not. Doomsday, Darkseid, Supergirl, Lex clones, the JLA, the JSA, Smallville had everything, BUT Superman. So Clark is running back and forth from Kansas to Metropolis EVERYDAY so the show didn't have to change their name. So much was done to maintain the original premise of Clark Kent before Superman.
Plenty more better theme songs than Friends:- M.A.S.H. Perfect Strangers. M.A.S.K. Growing Pains. Family Ties. The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air. Greatest American Hero. Gilligan's Island.
Better TV theme songs…Sopranos. Andy Griffith Show. Room 222. Sanford and Son. The Office. Hawaii 5-0 . Chico and the Man. Freaks and Geeks. The Jeffersons. The Simpsons. Monday Night Football. Barney Miller. Curb Your Enthusiasm. And probably 100 more that are better than the Friends theme
Dr Who was never about reincarnation or regeneration, it was the mechanism of continuity for the show, but a very minor aspect of a long running show misinterpreted for the American market.
_Picket Fences_ was a very odd show, which seemed to be an entirely different kind of show each season it was on, despite featuring the same cast in the same small town.
The theme from Friends is maybe in the top 30, but closer to the top 50. There are many themes that outrank it. Most of the action or adventure shows from the 1980s have better themes. And there is the theme from MASH ("Suicide is Painless") or Cheers ("Everybody Knows Your Name"). Friends' theme is stuck in the 1990s, while the others are timeless. EDIT: if cartoons are included, the theme from Friends gets pushed to the bottom of the top 100, perhaps even lower.
Fringe was awesome. Make more shows like that, please!
I got a tattoo of the white tulip drawing
I love it when people remember and talk about Fringe, it was soooo gooood!!
Supernatural?
First season: We gotta find dad.
Final Season: We gotta box God.
We all put our fathers in a box.
You mean to say “We gotta *gank* God”.
Fringe was an awesome series one of the best we got
Watching it again, it all stands the test of time. Exceptional series with a great ending.
@@jd190d I Agee 100percent
@@jd190dwell except for the watchers dystopia.
Fringe is fantastic. I think a lot of people that saw the first season just thought it was an X-Files knockoff.
Fringe was good. But basically it was an X-files knockoff yo
Yep. That’s why I skipped it. Pacey does XFiles. Years later I really got into the plot, only to have the syndicating network cut it off near the end 😠
@mcentepede. Never watch X-Files. Didn't know X-Files had Parallel Worlds and Time Travel. Can you point out the time travel episodes? I love scifi w/ time travel.
@@slimjimnyc270 I'm sure someone on UA-cam somewhere probably did this already. Yeah time travel sci-fi is kinda cool.
iZombie started out as a young woman solving crimes while hiding the fact that she was a zombie. By the end of the show, zombies had taken over Seattle and formed their own government.
Great series get buried all the time by shock series. Like Game of Thrones. Yes it was a series built for nothing but shock and aw.
Deep Space Nine - Started out with the station focused on restoring the Bajoran people after the Cardassian occupation, then turned into a prolonged war with the Dominion from the Gamma quadrant.
What you say is very true.
But I feel like the real shift was how pre war, the show was a traditional episidic status quo show show where you could catch an episode regardless of the season, and get 98% of it, into more of an ongoing soap opera that needs to be watched in order to appreciate half that episode. The odd episode here and there not with standing, of course. Like season 6s Time's Orphan. WTF! 😂
I thought that "Friends" changing its premise made sense, as the characters naturally evolved from carefree twentysomethings, to settled thirty somethings, as is wont to happen in real life.
they grew up with the audience
true, but this video did not state "good or bad" merely what happened. And it did change its premise, much like real life does for most people. Thats the problem with going on for 11 years. You either have to mix it up, or the series stagnates. Thats what happened with MASH. 11 years in a 3 year war. Kinda stupid. They tried to keep it fresh by getting more serious and replacing characters, but eventually they had to concede it just went on too damn long.
It was an interesting choice for "Friends" to change the premise to "Enemies" and have 6 people trying to murder each other in a giant free for all.
“Fringe” is a parallel universe version of “he X-Files” that managed to stick the landing.
Dollhouse's change was forced upon them. It was cancelled, but they were given the opportunity to "wrap up" the storyline with the remaining episodes. That's why it felt so sudden of a change.
a studio is physically able to cancel a show in a way that allows for wrapping up of loose ends? I thought it was only a myth
It was always just a poor man's Joe 90 anyway.
Another show would be “Family Matters.” The show was a spin-off from “Perfect Strangers” about the life of Harriet Winslow who worked with Larry and Balki. Then, the series turned into the Urkel Show much like Fonzie taking over Happy Days. Steve was just the nerdy neighbor who was in love with Laura and annoyed everyone.
_Fringe_ introduced the alternate universe near the end of season 1 and the reveal about Peter was in the season 1 finale. The only major premise shift after that was in season 5 (or the flashforward episode of season 4 technically).
To be fair it did lose its procedural 'monstor of the week' formula and focussed more on the serial story
In my head it starts when olivia turns out the lights in the building....so good. Thats when it gripped me anyway. It was a little dull up until that. Its only after that you find out about peter, which was foreshadowed even in the pilot but you werent looking for it becuse it appeared as just a procedural. So good though.
Best theme song, although from a Ridiculous series, was 🎶Believe It Or Not🎶 from the Greatest American Hero.
You know a TV theme passed the test of time when it is played on the radio today. Believe It Or Not (It's Just Me) gets plenty of airtime.
Mike Post wrote a lot of really great theme songs/tunes. The one that sticks in my head the most is _The Rockford Files_ theme tune (no words, all instrumental).
@@PaulVandersypen Believe it or not..., George isn't at home,
Person of interest, Dark Angel, Legends of Tomorrow
...and yet Angel's 5th season was its best one. Still some of my favorite 22 episodes of television.
They lost me when they made Cordy evil.
@@whiskeyvictor5703 You mean the season with Angels son ? I hate that guy and thats by far the worst season. But in the following season it gets sooo much better when they now are working in the Wolfram & Heart building and ... the best .. Spike joins the team 👍👍
@@whiskeyvictor5703 My family generally skips that season. I sometimes play with the Faith episodes from that season (and possibly a couple others I forgot were in THAT season), but mostly I just skip from season 3 to season 5.
"Cheers" had a better theme song than "Friends"
Better, not more catchy. Much better at that.
So did Laverne & Shirley
For some unknown reason about a week ago I had the theme of Laverne & Shirley in my head for a couple of days. Finally got it out and I read your comment @CaritasGothKaraoke. Thanks 😂.
And for my 2 cents, Friends is likely the most catchy but as a child of the 80’s I’m not mad at the Cheers choice. However, the best is a toss up between Game of Thrones (and all he remixes it spawned) and Buffy.
Does anyone remember Sanctuary? It sort of did that too...
Loved that show
Fringe was one of the very best sci Fi shows ever 😅
I was like, Fringe better be number 1. That show changed every season
I have watched MANY series and this happens on ALL of them. Be it Grimm, Once Upon A Time, Legends of Tomorrow, Arrow, The Flash, Stargate SG-1, Sliders, Wynonna Earp, Lost Girl, Under the Dome, Killjoys, Dark Matter, and many more.
The show that changed maybe the most from season to season, in my opinion, was "The 100".
@@wolftitan I forgot all about Legends of Tomorrow. That show really lost it's way
@karmabum21 I loved it. Legends of To-Meow Meow (someone gets it) was great. It wasn't supposed to take itself seriously.
Being Human UK mention!!! I wish more people knew about this show: it had some great moments and a fantastic cast ❤
I got into Being Human (UK). I rather enjoyed it. Then America got it's own version. It was alright (I like the cast) but the UK version was the better one to me
You missed Sliders.
Oh yeah, once Jerry and his brother left, the show just wasn't the same.
Jerry O'Connell should've been mcu mister fantastic 😂
First Season: We gotta get home
Last Season: We gotta get to Remmy's home
Surprised not to see Person of Interest on here. From crime procedural to dystopian war of the AIs
Gotham. It started as a fairly straightforward police procedural focusing on a rookie Jim Gordon and chronicling The Penguin's rise to power. Then about 2/3 of the way through the first season it shifted gears, eventually becoming a full blown comic book show and Batman origin story
To this day I'm still torn on whether I think it was a good move or not. I loved the original premise and wish I could have seen what the did with it, but I also love the wacky mess it became. Some of the best live-action portrayals of Batman characters can be found in that show
Their Penguin and Riddler are my favorite version of both characters. Their Joker(s) is tied with Heath Ledger and below only Mark Hamill.
That said, the stories were crap and I had to wonder how any of these supervillains were going to be a threat to Batman if Jim Gordon could take them all.
@@AustynSN Yes to both Penguin and Riddler! Anthony Carrigan's Zsasz is also ICONIC
Marvel's Agents of Shield changed radically when for a whole season all of a sudden, the crew was in space and in the future.
Followed, I believe, by Bat-apocalypse and time-travel road trip. Or did Bat-apocalypse come before Agents of SHIELD: In Space? I know time-travel road trip was the final season.
@@plothole181 It went Inhumans, Ghost Rider, In Space, Bat-apocalypse, and then Time Travel Road Trip
@@Tim.Stotelmeyer So, I was right the first time.
Mention Fringe but didn’t mention the neck yanking complete change in sub genre for its final season 🧐
"Lost" changed its premise with every season. It's hard to remember what the show was even about by the end.
I think it was about not being "lost" anymore
That's so you could forget all those mysteries they didn't have answers to.
The “others” seemed like primitive people in raggedy clothes who kidnapped Walt. In season3, they became people brought to the for scientific research like Juliet.
Red Dwarf is the best sitcom theme for me. Just like the Friends theme it's an actual proper song in a way.
Fringe was deeply underrated. It was an excellent show
Greatest theme tune...hmm...Gilligan's Island? Mary Tyler Moore? Instrumental themes, Twilight Zone, Star Trek (TOS).
M.A.S.H. Perfect Strangers. M.A.S.K. Growing Pains. Family Ties. The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air.
Barney Miller
Ballad of Jed Clampett, when people were *impressed* when someone was worth $65 million dollars. Closely followed by the Andy Griffith Show.
Greatest themes: original Battlestar Galactica and Rockford Files. Say I’m not wrong! If you want songs with lyrics Cheers and Greatest American Hero , unavoidably hummable
Greatest TV show tunes? The Flintstones, the Jetsons, Scooby Doo, Jonny Quest?
Everyone knows the greatest theme tune ever is from Ulysses 31.
no no
Well, I DID forget that I remember that song.
I think the "Laverne & Shirley" theme song is the greatest ever.
Fringe" was one of the best shows ever. I wish "Lost" and "The X-Files" had wrapped up their shows with the same panache. As much as I love "Fringe," I always fear it will be rebooted if we express our love of it too much. Please don't mess with perfection! 🙏
Greatest TV theme song is "The Unknown Stuntman", from The Fall Guy.
"I'm not the kind to kiss and tell, but I've been seen with Farah." Especially cool because it was sung BY Lee Majors, Farah's ex husband (well, they were separated when the show premiered and divorced the next year).
"The A-Team".
Went from the original premise of four soldiers of fortune and fugitives who get hired to protect people from thugs who want to kick them off their land, out of business etc, all the while doing it while hiding from the military police, to the fifth season them working for one man who sends them out on missions.
Buffy and Angel made the list. Nice!
i didn't like the season of Sabrina that didn't have harvey in it
I don't so much think that Fringe changed its premise, as changed the angle from which you got to see the premise. At first its all about "Fringe" science..but eventually you find out there are things behind those sciences that widens the world view of the show, and then eventually the universe view of the show. So, its not so much that it changed, as it expanded..
I find it funny how few changes would need to be made to the description of Angel to describe Supernatural. Same for Happy Days and Family Matters.
Big Bang kept flipping characters which often changed the shows focus. One season we get episodes how poor a character is then we find out his family is wealthy. One is always nice for season then we find out she is mean for the next season. Penny is poor then she gets a good job.
Friends. "Except Joey". He did well on a soap opera for a season.
Greatest TV theme tune of all time? Airwolf.
Greatest title song: Whèn Things Were Rotten. 😂
It would be weird if friends would have the same characters after 10 years and in their 30s
Melrose Place. Beverly Hills 90210 spin off centered around episodic young adult drama grounded in reality turned into a sexy prime time soap opera with far out unbelievable plot twists.
Family Matters... Started as a basic sitcom about a working class family in Chicago. Then, Steve Urkel showed up. By the end, the Winslow family hardly mattered as Urkel completely took over.
Archer Loved This Show But Once The Premise changed It kinda ruined the cartoon It's lucky It lasted 14 years just can't wait til' Fox gives Bob's Burgers the axe but H. Jon Benjamin probably needs that "Disney" paycheck to keep the lights on at home so I'm not counting on that anytime soon
I had to force myself to watch the last couple seasons. Same thing with the original Venture Bros.
I immediately thought of Cougar Town. It changed so much that they considered renaming it in later seasons.
You forgot "Family Matters" 😂 Couldn't agree more about "Fringe", though, which is great because (!) it ends up going in such an unexpected direction (but (!) properly built up and foreshadowed, fitting the genre and themes established in the first season after all!!)
I MISS the classic Who historicals! Sad that a few are missing. I'd love to actually see the Marco Polo one, but I've only been able to listen to the audio.
Supernatural---First 5 seasons were a brothers road trip hunting monsters and ghosts. Season 6 abd beyond, it developed more like angels and demons and was drama like. Still good though
The pure monster-of-the- week period was over before the end of the first season, when it had become an episodic drama about the quest for revenge against the yellow eyed demon - “the thing that killed Mom.” That turned into the effort to defeat the devil and stop the apocalypse, which culminated in Season 5.
Theme song? The Wire…and the fact they changed artists/style each season…
"Sabrina the Teenage Witch: the self-explanatory title became redundant in the last couple of seasons..."
That's not what "redundant" means...
Redundant: not or no longer needed or useful. She wasn't a teenager anymore.
@@fuelledbylattes
adjective
1. exceeding what is needed or useful; superfluous:
2. characterized by unnecessary words or repetition; verbose:
3. serving or added as a backup; extra:
4. having one or more extra or duplicate parts or features
@@fuelledbylattes Wow. You just tried to cram that one in there, didn't ya'.
The "no longer needed" as redundant is used, means that function, position or purpose is already covered.
@@fuelledbylattes In the series premiere, Sabrina turned 16 and discovered she was a witch. The show then ran for 7 seasons, which would have made her around 23ish when the show ended. They should have changed the title to just Sabrina after the first few seasons
Surprised you didn't include the show Miracle Workers,
which starred Daniel Radcliffe and ran on TBS from 2019 - 2023,
each season of the show had a different setting and premise,
but the same cast, which also included Steve Buscemi!
Season 1 dealt with angels in heaven trying to fulfill the wishes of humans on Earth,
Season 2 is set in the Dark Ages,
Season 3 took place on the Oregon Trail and had Radcliffe as a priest and Buscemi as an outlaw,
and the final season was a Mad Max - Post Apocalypse scenario.
Fringe, what a show. Still hate that it's cancellation ended up giving us that slapped together story in the last season to end it.
Person of Interest:
Started as a mystery of the week, and grew into a battle of AI super-intelligences, with the fate of humanity in the balance.
Greatest theme tune ever-a toss up between Hill Street blues and cheers
I loved Fringe. But I think it was less a change of premise as much as it was a gradual leading you into the more complex parallel universe storylines. They had to introduce certain concepts to establish what was going on in the “normal” universe. They used David Robert Jones as the vehicle for that introduction, and that led to William Bell, all in the first season. The rest of the show was unveiling the many complexities of the parallel universes and each character’s place in it. It was extremely entertaining and thought provoking with great characters brought to live by a great cast.
I think you missed one CW the flash. The first Season was its best and went down hill from there. The first Episode was about the CSI side of Barry Allen and after season one the investigative science died to change into freinds with powers. I feel they really missed out because a superpowered CSI going around to the worse crime seens putting the puzzle together was a great concept
Fringe is just so good. Literally just finished a rewatch a couple days ago.
You forgot when Fringe *completely* change its premise in the final season. The alternate universe completely faded into the background, and now it was a sci-fi show about a resistance to an alien invasion, only the aliens were future humans. And the resolution made no sense.
The theme to “Laverne and Shirley”
The tv shows mentioned throughout the comments were all great. What about one from your home nation and one that endured a change due to the main character growing up, Young Dracula? The final season was a dramatic change to the original premise which was about coming of age in the vampire world. There were so many shows like Two and a Half Men, which evolved over time and you happened to name some of my favourite ones
You did touch on Alias, but I can't think of a series that managed to change their premise as often as Alias did. It was kind of commedia del arte in that each season included pretty much all of the same character archetypes, but it was always different characters in the roles when they came back from hiatus. This was even to the extent that by Season 4, the villain from the first three seasons, Arvin Sloane, is now the head of the organization the rest of the case now belongs to. Essentially they reshuffled the deck every season. It was always spies and covert ops, but the organizations doing the spying and the relationships between the characters were different each season.
Greatest theme? hands down 'Welcome Back Kotter', with an honorable mention to 'Miami Vice' and 'NYPD Blue'.
Barney Miller is the best theme song
s1 and s2 of fringe was class, it just went all over the place after that
Harvey wasn't Sabrina's "crush." He was her boyfriend for most of the show and her literal soulmate.
What about Baywatch Nights? It went from a normal detective drama to the X-Files.
Cougar Town should have been there. Not only the serie took a completely different path but the title of the serie was completely irrelevant then.
The Sopranos had a great theme song.
Second Chances/Boys Will Be Boys starring Matthew Perry. Season 1 had a dead spirit going back to his teenage self. Season 2 dropped the angelic part and just had an uptight guy living with a large Italian lumox.
Dynasty (1981)
Season 1: Boring as hell drama
Season 2: enter Joan Collins and soap opera slap fests
Yes, they turned up the camp factor once season 2 began and Joan added tremendously to that
I swear blind that "Thats So Raven" started out without her having psychic powers, and it was just some standard teen sitcom.
Alias? Mentioned in passing, but one of the most crazy transitions...
Chibnell tried to bring back the educational element of Doctor Who and was shot down for it …
Lost in Space. Began as family interstellar adventure and quickly became the Dr. Smith ham-it-up show.
Smallville had to change their premise. It was too popular to finish, so they had to extend it. That's why the original Leverage series was so great. 5 seasons and closed out the narrative arcs, but left the possibility to continue as a different show. Which they later did. Smallville became an alternate Superman show because that's what the audience wanted, but the producers did not. Doomsday, Darkseid, Supergirl, Lex clones, the JLA, the JSA, Smallville had everything, BUT Superman. So Clark is running back and forth from Kansas to Metropolis EVERYDAY so the show didn't have to change their name. So much was done to maintain the original premise of Clark Kent before Superman.
Sanford and Son has the greatest TV show theme song of all time.
The question of nr 10 was directly answered with nr 9.
ER was initially a comedy show if I remember.
Best theme song? I like the one from Farscape the best. It is THE Sci-fi tune for me and it fits the show perfectly.
One Day At A Time is my favorite TV theme
Literally rewatching Fringe for the 5th time LOL! If only it didn't get cancelled
Plenty more better theme songs than Friends:-
M.A.S.H. Perfect Strangers. M.A.S.K. Growing Pains. Family Ties. The Fresh Prince Of Bel Air. Greatest American Hero. Gilligan's Island.
Agents of SHIELD the show started with the tag line its all connected but by season 3 they stopped doing crossovers with the movies
UK Being Human was far superior to the US version. Fringe and Doll House were awesome.
Cagney and Lacey theme was pretty good
Cheers is the King of Opening Theme Songs!!!
Greatest TV Theme song - "Cheers"
Greatest TV show theme song is from “Perfect Strangers”!
I would have included Orphan Black. It began as a great mystery, but later series morphed into gobbledygook.
The show that changed the most from its premise: VEEP. She literally becomes President during the series.
Best theme song?
duh-duh-duh-duh, snap, snap
duh-duh-duh-duh, snap, snap!
duh-duh-duh-duh
duh-duh-duh-duh
duh-duh-duh-duh, snap, snap!
Better TV theme songs…Sopranos. Andy Griffith Show. Room 222. Sanford and Son. The Office. Hawaii 5-0 . Chico and the Man. Freaks and Geeks. The Jeffersons. The Simpsons. Monday Night Football. Barney Miller. Curb Your Enthusiasm. And probably 100 more that are better than the Friends theme
Cave Kids is the best TV theme. Uggabugga boo
Dr Who was never about reincarnation or regeneration, it was the mechanism of continuity for the show, but a very minor aspect of a long running show misinterpreted for the American market.
_Picket Fences_ was a very odd show, which seemed to be an entirely different kind of show each season it was on, despite featuring the same cast in the same small town.
The theme from Friends is maybe in the top 30, but closer to the top 50. There are many themes that outrank it. Most of the action or adventure shows from the 1980s have better themes. And there is the theme from MASH ("Suicide is Painless") or Cheers ("Everybody Knows Your Name"). Friends' theme is stuck in the 1990s, while the others are timeless. EDIT: if cartoons are included, the theme from Friends gets pushed to the bottom of the top 100, perhaps even lower.
Angel didn't have season long story arcs and big bads. That's literally how it was different than Buffy. How did you miss that?