Spongebob's earlier episodes feel almost like a slice of life show with how calm they are compared to the rest of the series.
>inb4 Helluva Boss
Also an example of this, but I want to see other cases of this happening.
ITT: Shows that changed premise during their run
Season 1 SpongeBob was far more down to Earth, sentimental, and explores the ocean setting more. There's still elements of this in early Season 2, but they eventually went into a more absurdist element with the stories (though I say more absurdist as opposed to absurd). It also became a tad more cynical in season 3, and the ocean setting exploration was replaced with a faux 50s vibe ala Ren and Stimpy.
These aren't bad, just different. Season 1 SpongeBob is comfy, but season 3 SpongeBob is hilarious
This
NUTS!
HAA! GOT HIM!
When someone on Cinemaphile years ago pointed out how some of Season 3 felt like Season 4 it blew my mind. The House Party episode feels so obviously out of place because of how cynical it was that it's absurd I never realized it. I didn't start to hate that episode or anything but it really does just feel like an alright Season 4 episode.
People don't realise how much the Spongebob change of direction was gradual. Even the classic seasons had quite the shift, and the first movie has a lot in common with season 4.
what's cynical about it
sometimes words just need to be framed and displayed somewhere because there cant be anything more truthful about its subject
don't think too hard, spongebob is one of the longest running shows for a reason.
TPBP
what happened?
What DIDN'T happen?
my point is that I have never watched the show but I'm curious
So basically the premise the intro presents of the ghost being tormented by the little girl who obliviously thinks they're friends lasts three episodes before they genuinely become best friends and within a few episodes after that they'd literally take a bullet for each other. The curse that binds them together stops being relevant after the first episode and is lifted entirely before the end of the first season. The ghost having to scare people for the evil ghost council and being in danger of being sent to Hell if they find out he's friends with the girl only lasts the first season before the girl singlehandedly destroys Hell and kills the evil ghost king, which is never brought up again afterwards. Also he's not really a ghost, he's a living human man.
>he's not really a ghost, he's a living human man.
Not quite, he was the soul of a human that waa currently living soulless.
>he's not really a ghost, he's a living human man.
>Not quite, he was the soul of a human that waa currently living soulless.
Is this another case of "no, you can't actually imply that ghosts are dead people" like with Danny Phantom?
I don't think either were really that since Danny Phantom both had dead ghosts and weird ayy ghosts. This both has dead ghosts and loser ghosts.
The earlier seasons of Rugrats honestly feel really different from the later seasons. They had a really satirical vibe to them where as the later seasons kind of lost the "edge" I guess of the earlier seasons. It's hard to explain
The team slipped in a lot of shots at yuppie lifestyle trends whenever the show focused on the parents. People always mention Dr. Lipschitz, but there were less obvious examples, like Stu and Didi desperate to be the best recyclers in their neighborhood so they can be on the local news and act smug about it.
How many people realized that Lipschitz is jist a workaround playword on Dipshit
>One deleted/extended scene in the fiest movie gives him a song and he wears diapers.
I thought it was a joke on how he spoke nothing but bullshit.
I get it, earliers seasons wheren't exclusively for kids.
its because Arlene Klasky didn't like how mean spirited earlier seasons were, that's why the babies were more baby-like and Angelica was less of a hell-b***h in later seasons.
It wasn't just art style or the change in tone, it was different music too, I don't remember the original episodes having that weird tuba they played since the revival.
South Park S1-S2 where aiming to be like The X-Files
A lot of happened but it happened right out the gate with Bloo
Morel Orel
First two seasons mostly follow the formula of "Morel misunderstands a moral and hijinks ensue", but everything is mostly played for laughs. Then shit gets dark
It slowly morphed into a therapy session for Dino to work through his childhood angst of being forced to go to church
Does that make it bad though? I mean the series does an interesting work
not really. Season 2 did the slice of life far better.
none of those are slice of life episodes except the snowball wars one
Rocko's Modern life. While the show's majority still focuses on Rocko some stories later started to focus on Heffer and Filbert or Mr. Bighead. Not bad since they were fun episodes but I supposed it does count as the most tolerable example of breaking away from focusing on the title character.
The Simpsons went from portraying the main characters as a struggling lower-middle class family barely making ends meet to wealthy socialites who regularly hang out with A-list celebrities and travel to another country every week.
Blame pic related
It wanted to be "NOT LIKE THOSE TGIF SHOWS" but was not handled very well, S1 really made me feel sorry for Homer but not take a like on his family, S2 and earlt S3 toned down the offputting vibe, but it wasnt until mid S3 when the show got retooled into the comedy satire that was good up until the bigshit 3 (El Viaje Mistico de Nuestro Homero, the Real principal skinner episode and the Frank Grammies episode), then Mike Scully took over and frick up the show.
I remember at the start of the show when Homer wasn't able to provide for his family so he planned to commit suicide.
When everyone thought he was going to die and it was treated in a heartfelt depressing way with him caring about everyone and "dying" on the chair before the lighthearted ending.
When he was upset that Marge (not the other way around!) did something he felt was awful (losing a chance at a lot of money, iirc) and thought he stopped loving her for it. She meets him at the bar and he thinks about it before realizing he still loves her and apologizes for scaring her.
Then it became "poor sympathetic smart women are burdened by their moronic male counterparts: the series"
Movie series instead of show, but I feel that way about Ice Age. The first movie sure still was a movie about talking animals but it felt grounded, the color palette had a lot of brown and muted colors, the stakes were down to earth. I don't remember Ice Age 2 to say the changes started from there, but from Ice Age 3 for sure the movies became more over the top.
Ice Age might be the most extreme case of sequel escalation I've ever seen. How the frick did it happen?
Ice Age was always my favorite childhood movie series (I enjoyed 2 and 3 and the ones after sucked ass.) I was super amped to see the sequel back in 2006, and while I loved it I could tell the vibe was entirely different. It was more colorful, the humor was a lot more goofy, etc.
The weirdest thing to me about Ice Age is that in the first one, they're preparing for the Ice Age itself. There's concern from all of the characters about it. Then in the second one, the Ice Age is immediately coming to an end. The entire plot is about everything melting. Not only that, but the first movie had the characters in an open world. The second one does some sort of soft reboot where they're living in a community enclosed by ice like a bowl. No one has ever talked about that and it pisses me off.
Adventure time had one of the most severe course direction changes I've seen in a show, to the point it doesn't even feel the same franchise anymore if you compare the beginning and the end. Though it was not a sudden transition.
It should've stayed as a episodic series instead of muh lore.
I'd say King of the Hill. First season the premise seems to be that Hank is an overly rigid conservative, and he is therefore the butt of jokes and derision when he encounters anything somewhat progressive that challenges him. However, beyond this, things seem to flip. The world around Hank becomes more obviously absurd and he is portrayed as a more reasonable, level-headed character, often the only voice of reason. While his conflict with the absurd is still a centre-point of the show's comedy; he is no longer framed as being unreasonable in his staunchness and the viewer is positioned more to sympathise with Hank.
Take his relationship with Khan for example. When they first meet in season one the Khan family is normal and down-to-earth. It's Hank so is a jerk, playing out the whole "are ya Chinese or Japanese bit?". But in subsequent seasons Khan is an overly obnoxious and annoying butthole and Hank's contention with him is usually on reasonable grounds.
Ted (2024) went from being about a boy and his animated bear doing dumb things in the 90's to being about the outspoken constantly cussing liberal cousin's delimas really fast in the span of its 7 episodes. Like it was almost bait to trick people into watching yet another typical modern sitcom with political writing.
I don't care about politics at all. I just wanted to see a teddy bear magically come to life and dick around with his friend in the 1990's. Those scenes were great. The father and the cousin were fricking insanely awful. It makes it all the more surprising they snuck in a message about how sometimes it's ok to be a selfless housewife who lives for everyone else if that's the personality she happens to have. Somehow in this show where the cousin is constantly cussing up a storm about everyone and everything putting women and any race that isn't white down, and being treated as sympathetic for it, they let a mom be gentle. They even let the mom vaguely tell Blair to frick off for trying to force her way. Out of all of Seth's projects this is probably the only one since original Family Guy to be that way with one of the mother characters. It made the whiplash of episode 5 to episode 6 all the more disappointing. I don't know if I'll bother finishing 6 and 7.
Probably record time for a show to feel like it missed its own point.
Morel Orel