Mozenrath
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Post by Mozenrath on Sept 27, 2021 1:36:07 GMT -5
I don't know if this counts as a format change, but I didn't like Sabrina The Teenage Witch nearly as much when Sabrina started going to college. Honestly, almost any show with highschool jumping to college, it tends to go badly pretty quick. I'm sure some stuff has survived the jump, but even things that stayed watchable like Boy Meets World still took a quality hit.
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Post by Feyrhausen on Sept 27, 2021 5:23:54 GMT -5
Cursed totally could have sustained its concept for 5 to 7 years. A sitcom about a guy being cursed with bad luck by a gypsy writes itself. Changing to the Weber show was a big mistake.
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dav
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Post by dav on Sept 27, 2021 6:03:50 GMT -5
I think a question with a smaller pool of possible answers might be, When did a format retool on an actively running show actually make it better? Have I Got News For You For over ten years it was hosted by the same guy, Angus Deayton. He was eventually let go due to certain aspects of his private life being reported in the tabloids (he survived the first round of stories but when more revelations came out, he had to go) and they were at the start of a new series so decided to use guest hosts for the rest of that series and look for a permanent new host once they’d reached the end of it. They eventually made the decision that having a different host each episode rather than a permanent one would help keep the show fresh. Nearly twenty years later and with Series 62 starting soon, they made the right call. I doubt the show would still be around had Deayton not been so allegedly fond of drugs and prostitutes. I remember the episode that they did after the stories came out. Was very much the embodiment of:
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Post by crashmatsbazz on Sept 27, 2021 7:48:51 GMT -5
I think a question with a smaller pool of possible answers might be, When did a format retool on an actively running show actually make it better? Have I Got News For You For over ten years it was hosted by the same guy, Angus Deayton. He was eventually let go due to certain aspects of his private life being reported in the tabloids (he survived the first round of stories but when more revelations came out, he had to go) and they were at the start of a new series so decided to use guest hosts for the rest of that series and look for a permanent new host once they’d reached the end of it. They eventually made the decision that having a different host each episode rather than a permanent one would help keep the show fresh. Nearly twenty years later and with Series 62 starting soon, they made the right call. I doubt the show would still be around had Deayton not been so allegedly fond of drugs and prostitutes. Fantasy Football League changing from actually being about fantasy football to just lets take the mick out of Football was another good example of this, especially as the first series had franks "song" kick off the show every week.
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Post by James Fabiano on Sept 27, 2021 8:13:52 GMT -5
We escaped one as it didn't make beyond pilot, but Truth or Consequences being brought back...as a Fear Factor wannabe. (ask our own Sigma about that one, as she covers it on Game Show Garbage). On that topic...Card Sharks returns...only there's one row of cards to call and you have to predict hidden camera segments. 1996's Dating Game and Newlywed Game reboots which barely resembled the original formats. The next season the classic versions were restored (and Bob Eubanks even came back for NG!) Play the Percentages goes from survey question format to another Barry-Enright Q&A with a gimmick. (saved only by Geoff Edwards being there still) The short-lived second season or so of All-American Girl. They got rid of Margaret Cho's family, which was the point of the whole show, and had her move in with her friends. Only they kept the grandmother because comic relief. Some of you may say....NXT 2.0. As it is, how about WCW Monday Nitro ala Vince Russo? Moreso the first time, as the New Blood era started out somewhat interesting. This was just taking WCW and making another Raw (some people called Russo-booked Nitro "Nitraw" in fact) Superstars and Worldwide end their lives as recap shows. Laverne...Where's Shirley? Subverted, kinda sorta, when Video Power became a game show. Then again, it was a mediocre cartoon show becoming a mediocre game show saved only by the teen dreams of a show where you could grab any video game you wanted. But I missed The Power Team! BEAST MACHINES. Animaniacs becomes the Warners and Slappy Show, all shoot promos against everyone, all the time. aka the Kids' WB era. In the long run it kept the franchise going, but....Scooby-Doo with half the gang left (including Scrappy-Doo) in comedy shorts where the monsters are real. I liked it, but understand if others don't: Prime Time Wrestling becomes a talk show. (14 year old me DIDN'T like it when it went from talk show to the panel discussion show!) Family Matters becomes the Sci-Fi Wacky Adventures of Steve Urkel.
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Post by James Fabiano on Sept 27, 2021 8:20:31 GMT -5
I just reread this. Now, I was tuning out of the Bergeron HS at this time anyway, as Caroline Rhea left the show to do her short-lived talk show. But Hollywood Squares being more about the game and about big money (hey, what big money Q&A'er was popular then? Surprised they didn't make the set darker and full of girders and dramatic lights too!) It reminds me of...the complaints of why Mark Goodson's take on the format, as part of Match Game/Hollywood Squares, didn't work. Except that was more about cutting what Merrill Heatter considered comedy for the show with no zingers and bluffs pre-prepared for the celebrities. Oddly enough, it also matches...no pun intended...what the 1990 version of Match Game was like. As Goodson tried to put more game into that too (the two Match-Up! rounds) If we are talking about format changes that truncated what people liked about the original gameplay, how about the 400 point goal in Family Feud? www.gameshowgarbage.com/ind080_feud400point.html
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Post by James Fabiano on Sept 27, 2021 11:06:19 GMT -5
Okay I've got an example from Spanish television:
Lente Loco.
Started out as a hidden camera show with host segments in between. Also had recurring comedy segments.
One season they stripped that all away and just pretty much made it an AFV type program with two hosts as themselves, not playing characters.
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Post by Hit Girl on Sept 27, 2021 11:34:38 GMT -5
seaQuest
Oh dear. The first season was superb, then it went to shit.
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Post by James Fabiano on Sept 27, 2021 11:56:53 GMT -5
You knew I'd try to shoehorn this in, but...
The Raccoons when the series dropped the human bookending that carried over from the specials and made the Evergreen Forest the default "real" world of the series. As an example of a GOOD change.
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Post by burdette25159 on Sept 27, 2021 12:16:11 GMT -5
I just reread this. Now, I was tuning out of the Bergeron HS at this time anyway, as Caroline Rhea left the show to do her short-lived talk show. But Hollywood Squares being more about the game and about big money (hey, what big money Q&A'er was popular then? Surprised they didn't make the set darker and full of girders and dramatic lights too!) It reminds me of...the complaints of why Mark Goodson's take on the format, as part of Match Game/Hollywood Squares, didn't work. Except that was more about cutting what Merrill Heatter considered comedy for the show with no zingers and bluffs pre-prepared for the celebrities. Oddly enough, it also matches...no pun intended...what the 1990 version of Match Game was like. As Goodson tried to put more game into that too (the two Match-Up! rounds) If we are talking about format changes that truncated what people liked about the original gameplay, how about the 400 point goal in Family Feud? www.gameshowgarbage.com/ind080_feud400point.htmlSoeaking of the Feud and format changes www.gameshowgarbage.com/ind161_ffbullseye.htmlIn the summer of 1992 CBS decided to do to Feud what they did to The Price Is Right: make it an hour long show and revamped it as the Family Feud Challenge, as part of the retooling into a hour format, they added a time wasting Bullseye round, that Bullseye round got incorporated into the syndie version in the fall of 1992, back to the F.F.C. Bullseye should have been used only for the 1st half (The #1 contenders match) and the championship match should have been first to 400 (the feud used a single/double/triple/triple format once Bullseye debuted) by 1993, Feud was yanked off the air by CBS (many CBS affiliates stopped airing the Feud once the show's cancellation was announced) but would stay in syndication with the Bullseye round kept though
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Post by James Fabiano on Sept 27, 2021 13:29:32 GMT -5
I just reread this. Now, I was tuning out of the Bergeron HS at this time anyway, as Caroline Rhea left the show to do her short-lived talk show. But Hollywood Squares being more about the game and about big money (hey, what big money Q&A'er was popular then? Surprised they didn't make the set darker and full of girders and dramatic lights too!) It reminds me of...the complaints of why Mark Goodson's take on the format, as part of Match Game/Hollywood Squares, didn't work. Except that was more about cutting what Merrill Heatter considered comedy for the show with no zingers and bluffs pre-prepared for the celebrities. Oddly enough, it also matches...no pun intended...what the 1990 version of Match Game was like. As Goodson tried to put more game into that too (the two Match-Up! rounds) If we are talking about format changes that truncated what people liked about the original gameplay, how about the 400 point goal in Family Feud? www.gameshowgarbage.com/ind080_feud400point.htmlSoeaking of the Feud and format changes www.gameshowgarbage.com/ind161_ffbullseye.htmlIn the summer of 1992 CBS decided to do to Feud what they did to The Price Is Right: make it an hour long show and revamped it as the Family Feud Challenge, as part of the retooling into a hour format, they added a time wasting Bullseye round, that Bullseye round got incorporated into the syndie version in the fall of 1992, back to the F.F.C. Bullseye should have been used only for the 1st half (The #1 contenders match) and the championship match should have been first to 400 (the feud used a single/double/triple/triple format once Bullseye debuted) by 1993, Feud was yanked off the air by CBS (many CBS affiliates stopped airing the Feud once the show's cancellation was announced) but would stay in syndication with the Bullseye round kept though So we're going down the game show rabbit hole, eh? How about...the numerous bonus game changes to Sale of the Century? I mean, none stunk, but they got further away from the shopping element and took away the anticipation of seeing if the champion could make the next plateau and such. The Winner's Big Money Game was a BIG deviation from the rest of Sale's format in particular.
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Post by James Fabiano on Sept 27, 2021 13:30:09 GMT -5
Sesame Street: 30 minutes. That is all.
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Post by Muskrat on Sept 27, 2021 13:40:57 GMT -5
ABC should have just let them officially make it a spinoff. a weak spinoff is better than people pretending your nine-season tv show really only has eight season My ex-wife watched this show for the first time on the Interns season and was like “Why are you so obsessed with this show?” I didn’t have a good answer, although little Franco was pretty funny from what I remember
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Wardlow on Wardlow 54
Wade Wilson
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Post by Wardlow on Wardlow 54 on Sept 27, 2021 16:22:07 GMT -5
Was that before or after the network switch to the WB? After. Seasons 1-4 were on ABC. Seasons 5-7 on WB. Season 5 is when she started college Wait, there were three years of her in college?? I had convinced myself it only last two seasons before ending. The show went through so many retools anyway. Replacing Jenny with Val, Libby and Val leaving and being replaced by Brad (that was the witch-hunter's name, right?) and Dreama, Mr. Pool being phased out and Mr. Kraft added, then of course, the addition of Josh. And all of that was before the show even left ABC.
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Post by Cyno on Sept 27, 2021 16:25:40 GMT -5
I don't know if this counts as a format change, but I didn't like Sabrina The Teenage Witch nearly as much when Sabrina started going to college. Honestly, almost any show with highschool jumping to college, it tends to go badly pretty quick. I'm sure some stuff has survived the jump, but even things that stayed watchable like Boy Meets World still took a quality hit. I ended up liking the College seasons of BMW a lot. Probably because not a whole lot changed in the setting. Even Mr. Feeny made the transition to college professor.
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Vampiro138
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Post by Vampiro138 on Sept 27, 2021 17:01:02 GMT -5
I mean SNL 1980 getting rid of everybody, and going cheaper production wise, and also a format change of the skits due to this budget cut has to be up there right?? like by the end the only member left of the season premier was Joe Piscopo, and then Eddie Murphy who showed up during episode 4.
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Wardlow on Wardlow 54
Wade Wilson
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Post by Wardlow on Wardlow 54 on Sept 27, 2021 17:02:21 GMT -5
I don't know if this counts as a format change, but I didn't like Sabrina The Teenage Witch nearly as much when Sabrina started going to college. Honestly, almost any show with highschool jumping to college, it tends to go badly pretty quick. I'm sure some stuff has survived the jump, but even things that stayed watchable like Boy Meets World still took a quality hit. I think I've said it before, but Boy Meets World's final season is fascinating to watch, for how surreal it is. They were originally only picked up for, I think, 13 episodes, so the first half of the season is very fast-paced: 1. Topanga dumps Cory after her parents' divorce, Angela then dumps Shawn. Jack and Eric move out of the apartment so Angela and Topanga can live with Rachel. 2. Cory and Shawn try to get Topanga's parents back together, to save their own relationships. Eric and Jack challenge Rachel, Topanga and Angela to a wrestling match for the apartment, with Mankind as the guest referee. The girls win, starting a short-lived storyline where Eric wants revenge on Topanga for making him submit. 3. Angela's father returns to town, Shawn trains for the army with him, and ultimately gets back together with Angela. Eric hunts down Topanga for revenge, unsuccessfully, while Cory has equal results with trying to get back together with her. 4. Cory gives up on getting back together with Topanga, then her dad reveals he cheated on her mom. Her mom convinces her to get back with Cory. Eric and Jack bet on a football game. *I'm including the Eric/Jack plots to hammer home the bizarreness of the season* 5. Eric and Jack run the student union together and hijinks ensue. Meanwhile, Shawn and Cory invade Rachel's personal space, until she turns the tables on them. *I never even knew this episode happened until years later when I watched it on Disney. It could've been a season 6 episode and who would've been any wiser?* 6. Cory and Topanga recount the hell of planning their wedding, before revealing the wedding will take place in the next episode. 7. Cory and Topanga get married, Shawn and Cory are fighting because Cory doesn't understand Shawn's concerns about their friendship after the wedding. Episode ends on a cliffhanger with the police breaking up the reception, because Eric got a heiress's wedding pushed forward and stole their ceremony. 8. On their honeymoon, Cory and Topanga are arrested, concluding the cliffhanger from last week. They later get a proper honeymoon, which they almost never end. And Eric spies on the honeymoon and almost gets cooked alive by cannibals... 9. Cory and Topanga, now married, must struggle with where to live. Shawn has moved in with Angela and Rachel, and Jack and Eric have taken Cory and Shawn's old room. They move into the filthy married dorms... 10. Cory and Topanga try to find a place to live, only to end up making the best of living in the married dorms. Shawn, Eric and Jack move back into the apartment, while Angela and Rachel move into the dorms. Then... it gets weird. We get an episode where Eric and Jack have to dress up as women to avoid a criminal, while in the b-plot, Topanga and Cory have differing opinions on how to decorate their dorm. We get Alan's birthday party and a Shawn-centric plot that feels like it should've happened in season 4 or 5, followed by Cory and Topanga fighting because Cory feels inferior to her, while in the B-plot, Eric finds a lucky penny. Next episode, Eric and Alan have a father-son episode that feels like a rehash of season 3 or 4, while Cory has hypochondria. The next two episodes are the infamous "Prank War" two-parter, with the bad future flash-forward where the gang aren't happy and no longer friends. Following that, the remaining few episodes before the finale get more surreal. Topanga thinks she's fat and goes on a diet, which causes Cory and Shawn to think she's pregnant. She lets the lie go up to the point that they throw her baby shower, before she tells the truth and Cory tells her she's beautiful (because of course a character played by DANIELLE FISHEL would have to be convinced that she's gorgeous...). This is also the final time the entire original cast is together in one episode. Then, Cory and Topanga, convinced they're an "old married couple" try to throw a party, while Eric gets struck by lightning and becomes psychic. After that, another episode that feels more in line with an earlier season, as the two pairs of brothers try to bond. Then, Topanga dreams that she's in Casablanca. Then we get the final three episodes. In the first, Angela moves to Europe with her dad, Jack's stepdad cuts him off, and in a cliffhanger to set up the finale, Topanga lands an internship - in New York. The two-part finale then sees Jack and Rachel decide to join the Peace Corps, while Shawn and Eric decide to move to New York along with Cory and Topanga. And we end in Mr. Feeney's classroom: "I love you all, class dismissed." It just feels like they had a plan, then got ten extra episodes, so they recycled ideas from earlier seasons and mixed them with planned stories... with weird results.
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Post by burdette25159 on Sept 27, 2021 18:19:23 GMT -5
I mean SNL 1980 getting rid of everybody, and going cheaper production wise, and also a format change of the skits due to this budget cut has to be up there right?? like by the end the only member left of the season premier was Joe Piscopo, and then Eddie Murphy who showed up during episode 4. Ahh the infamous 6th season of SNL, Jean Duomanian takibg over the ship causing all but one writer to leave the show, she had to find the new cast and writers in 10 weeks, somethibg Lorne Michaels took a year to do before the show started in 1975 and to cap it all off, Charles Rocket said the F-Word on live tv terribletvshows.miraheze.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Live_(Seasons_6,_11,_and_20) Doctor Who changing format from 25 minute episodes to 45 minute episodes and back to 25 during the Colin Baker era (Colin's 1st had 45 minute episodes while his 2nd and last reverted to the 25 min ones) and Colin's last season had a slight format change: Season 23 was the Trial of a Time Lord, each story was a part of the Trial
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Mozenrath
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Post by Mozenrath on Sept 27, 2021 19:10:44 GMT -5
Honestly, almost any show with highschool jumping to college, it tends to go badly pretty quick. I'm sure some stuff has survived the jump, but even things that stayed watchable like Boy Meets World still took a quality hit. I ended up liking the College seasons of BMW a lot. Probably because not a whole lot changed in the setting. Even Mr. Feeny made the transition to college professor. I like them, too, it just got a bit more and more cartoonish as it went, Eric Matthews being the most obvious example. I still love it, it's just weird.
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Mozenrath
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Post by Mozenrath on Sept 27, 2021 19:16:04 GMT -5
Honestly, almost any show with highschool jumping to college, it tends to go badly pretty quick. I'm sure some stuff has survived the jump, but even things that stayed watchable like Boy Meets World still took a quality hit. I think I've said it before, but Boy Meets World's final season is fascinating to watch, for how surreal it is. They were originally only picked up for, I think, 13 episodes, so the first half of the season is very fast-paced: 1. Topanga dumps Cory after her parents' divorce, Angela then dumps Shawn. Jack and Eric move out of the apartment so Angela and Topanga can live with Rachel. 2. Cory and Shawn try to get Topanga's parents back together, to save their own relationships. Eric and Jack challenge Rachel, Topanga and Angela to a wrestling match for the apartment, with Mankind as the guest referee. The girls win, starting a short-lived storyline where Eric wants revenge on Topanga for making him submit. 3. Angela's father returns to town, Shawn trains for the army with him, and ultimately gets back together with Angela. Eric hunts down Topanga for revenge, unsuccessfully, while Cory has equal results with trying to get back together with her. 4. Cory gives up on getting back together with Topanga, then her dad reveals he cheated on her mom. Her mom convinces her to get back with Cory. Eric and Jack bet on a football game. *I'm including the Eric/Jack plots to hammer home the bizarreness of the season* 5. Eric and Jack run the student union together and hijinks ensue. Meanwhile, Shawn and Cory invade Rachel's personal space, until she turns the tables on them. *I never even knew this episode happened until years later when I watched it on Disney. It could've been a season 6 episode and who would've been any wiser?* 6. Cory and Topanga recount the hell of planning their wedding, before revealing the wedding will take place in the next episode. 7. Cory and Topanga get married, Shawn and Cory are fighting because Cory doesn't understand Shawn's concerns about their friendship after the wedding. Episode ends on a cliffhanger with the police breaking up the reception, because Eric got a heiress's wedding pushed forward and stole their ceremony. 8. On their honeymoon, Cory and Topanga are arrested, concluding the cliffhanger from last week. They later get a proper honeymoon, which they almost never end. And Eric spies on the honeymoon and almost gets cooked alive by cannibals... 9. Cory and Topanga, now married, must struggle with where to live. Shawn has moved in with Angela and Rachel, and Jack and Eric have taken Cory and Shawn's old room. They move into the filthy married dorms... 10. Cory and Topanga try to find a place to live, only to end up making the best of living in the married dorms. Shawn, Eric and Jack move back into the apartment, while Angela and Rachel move into the dorms. Then... it gets weird. We get an episode where Eric and Jack have to dress up as women to avoid a criminal, while in the b-plot, Topanga and Cory have differing opinions on how to decorate their dorm. We get Alan's birthday party and a Shawn-centric plot that feels like it should've happened in season 4 or 5, followed by Cory and Topanga fighting because Cory feels inferior to her, while in the B-plot, Eric finds a lucky penny. Next episode, Eric and Alan have a father-son episode that feels like a rehash of season 3 or 4, while Cory has hypochondria. The next two episodes are the infamous "Prank War" two-parter, with the bad future flash-forward where the gang aren't happy and no longer friends. Following that, the remaining few episodes before the finale get more surreal. Topanga thinks she's fat and goes on a diet, which causes Cory and Shawn to think she's pregnant. She lets the lie go up to the point that they throw her baby shower, before she tells the truth and Cory tells her she's beautiful (because of course a character played by DANIELLE FISHEL would have to be convinced that she's gorgeous...). This is also the final time the entire original cast is together in one episode. Then, Cory and Topanga, convinced they're an "old married couple" try to throw a party, while Eric gets struck by lightning and becomes psychic. After that, another episode that feels more in line with an earlier season, as the two pairs of brothers try to bond. Then, Topanga dreams that she's in Casablanca. Then we get the final three episodes. In the first, Angela moves to Europe with her dad, Jack's stepdad cuts him off, and in a cliffhanger to set up the finale, Topanga lands an internship - in New York. The two-part finale then sees Jack and Rachel decide to join the Peace Corps, while Shawn and Eric decide to move to New York along with Cory and Topanga. And we end in Mr. Feeney's classroom: "I love you all, class dismissed." It just feels like they had a plan, then got ten extra episodes, so they recycled ideas from earlier seasons and mixed them with planned stories... with weird results. God, I remember all of this, but had no idea it was this condensed. No wonder I remember it so oddly. Like, I still loved the show at this point, the moving pieces of the show and the cast were good enough to where they kind of get away with it, but it's still so very strange.
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