Television Spin-Offs that changed their characters

Spin-offs are common in Television and continuity isn't one of them. When a character is popular off one show, they are given their own show, a spin-off. In this post, I discuss how the character might have changed in their new show than in their original incarnation.

 

 

Cleveland Brown in "The Cleveland Show"

Original show: Family Guy

He started out as Peter Griffin's slow talking Deli Owner friend and neighbor. When the show was canceled and returned, his personality became more vibrant. Most fans are surprised to find out the actor (Mike Henry) that does his voice is White and not black. Before he gained his own show in 2009, his personality was slightly getting more brash but on the show itself he is more outgoing, dropped the slow voice and he is much more sexual and violent. Various flashbacks give conflicting histories of his speech patterns. His show was canceled in 2013 and he has since returned to "Family Guy" in which he is not the main focus but has been more or less the same but slightly reduced.

 

Rhoda Morgenstern in "Rhoda"

Original Show: Mary Tyler Moore Show

Rhoda was Mary's friend and neighbor on MTMS and then she got her spin-off. She starts out single, then meets the character Joe and they get married, but then ratings dropped. Producers thought fans didn't like to see her happy. In season 3, they decided to have them divorce which split fans apart and made them much more mad. Ratings dropped even further in seeing Rhoda unhappy. Upon moving to her own show, the mention of Rhoda’s Jewish religious and ethnic background faded. While on the parent sitcom, Rhodawas explicitly Jewish. During the first season of Rhoda, the representation of Rhoda Morgenstern altered from her parent show to fit a more mainstream audience: she was trimmer, more confident, and less "Jewish."

Captain Jack Harkness in "Torchwood"

Original Show: Doctor Who

The character's introduction served to posit him as a secondary hero and a rival to the series protagonist, the Doctor, simultaneously paralleling the Doctor's detached alien nature with Jack's humanity and "heart". Jack's original appearances in Doctor Who were conceived with the intention of forming a character arc in which Jack is transformed from a coward to a hero, and John Barrowman consciously minded this in his portrayal of the character. In Torchwood, Jack is re-introduced as a changed man, reluctantly immortal, having spent years on Earth waiting to reunite with the Doctor. Jack returns with a lighter attitude in the second series. Within Doctor Who, Jack's personality is relatively light-hearted, although this changes in Torchwood's first series, where he becomes a darker character.

 

Joey Tribianni in "Joey"

Original Show: Friends

"On Friends, Joey was a womanizer, but we enjoyed his exploits. He was a solid friend, a guy you knew you could count on. Joey was deconstructed to be a guy who couldn't get a job, couldn't ask a girl out. He became a pathetic, mopey character. I felt he was moving in the wrong direction, but I was not heard." —Kevin S. Bright on the reason for Joey '​s cancellation.

 

Sam Puckett and Cat Valentine in "Sam & Cat"

Original Show: Cat from "Victorious" and Sam from "iCarly"

In iCarly, Sam was a wild card, a criminal, morally ambiguous, angry and crass. She wasn't the man character obviously. In "Victorious," Cat was flightily, dreamy, soft voiced and loony. I was against the idea of pairing these two. Because in the original show "The Odd Couple," Felix is straight and neat while Oscar thinks out of the box and is sloppy. You need your 'straightman.' In this case, neither of these characters were the 'straightwoman.' "iCarly" had ended as the main actress wanted to move on and "Victorious" was forced to end in order to pull off the spin-off. Both are wild cards. Sam is now a biker-chick but still criminally-minded and crass. Cat is the same, soft-voiced and flightily. But somehow they tried to wedge Sam into the straightwoman position, reigning in the insanity of Cat but it did not quite gel. The show was popular but it was not canceled because of that but conflicts behind the scenes with the actresses.

 

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhoda

 



Best and Worst episodes of Family Guy Characters Part 2

You can agree or disagree a bunch of times on the quality of Family Guy. It can be considered pandering to the lowest common denominator. Funny part is that Seth Mcfarlane finds himself cultured and loves show tunes and has smart references. Anyway, I like the show or liked the show, I can't stand the characters now, they are completely nonredeemable now. I decided to dissect them by characters. Notice how most 'redeemable' episodes are from earlier seasons and 'nonredeemable' are from recent seasons.

Brian's Top Seven Best Episodes

 7. The Perfect Castaway

When Peter is thought to be dead, Brian and Lois marry. When Peter returns and Brian sees how much Lois misses him, he decides to break it off.

 

6. Brian Does Hollywood 

Brian leaves his family to become a porn director and finds out what was missing in his life was his family.

5. 'Brian: Portrait of a Dog'

Not a great episode, a little trite but Brian shows his intellgence.

4. "Saving Private Brian"

Brian joins the army thanks to Stewie, he finds it hard but he sees it through. 

3. "Brian goes to College"

Brian goes back to college after dropping out, he doesn't cheat and fails, but he says he learned his lesson, the family doesn't agree.

 2. 'Brian in Love'

Brian has urination problems because he loves Lois.

1. "You may now kiss the guy"

Brian defends his cousin Jaspar to make gay marriage legal in Quahog.

Brian's Top Ten Worst Episodes

 10. 'Brian the Bachelor'

Not the first instance, but Brian starts going crazy. He stalks the bachelorette. 

 

9. 'Back to the Pilot'

Stewie and Brian go to the past where Brian fights the terrorists on 911, preventing 911 with jackass quips.

 8. '420'
Stewie and Brian attempt to legalize marijuana. Lois' father Carter makes Brian sell out by making his book real but it doesn't sell a copy.

 7. 'Play It Again, Brian'
He finally makes his play on Lois.

 6. 'Brian Griffin's House of Payne'
Brian sells out on a crappy sitcom.

 5. 'Tiegs for Two'
Quagmire and Brian battle it out for Cheryl Tiegs and looses both her and Jilian.


 4. 'Brian's Play'
Brian's confidence is shaken when he reads a play Stewie wrote that's much better than his


  3. 'Brian Writes a Bestseller'
Brian becomes full of himself when he writes a self-help book that is a bestseller and gets ripped a new one by Bill Myer.

2. 'Brian's Brand New Bag'
Brian cheats on his older girlfriend.

 

1. 'The Blind Spot'

Brian lies to a blind woman.. twice.

Stewie's Top Five Best Episodes

 5. 'The Courtship of Stewie's Father'
Stewie and Peter bond and he makes a cute motion when he finds out he is going to Disneyworld.

 4. 'Sibling Rivalry'
 Stewie battles Bertram for playground supremacy.

 3. 'Stewie Loves Lois'
Stewie starts to love Lois.

2. 'Emission Impossible'

Stewie cutely tries to stop from his parents having sex.

1. 'From Method to Madness'

Stewie endears us with falling in love.

Stewie's Five Worst Episodes

   5. 'The Hand that Rocks the Wheelchair'

Evil Stewie is way too brutal for TV.

 

 4. 'Chick Cancer'

Stewie seemingly kills two other babies, this one that she married.  I know he has killed kids before but he is a douchebag here.

  3. 'Stewie Kills Lois' / 'Lois Kills Stewie'

It is all a dream but Stewie goes real evil.

 2. 'The Man with Two Brians'

Stewie kills new Brian in a brutal manner.

1. 'Brian and Stewie'

It was great that they did an episode with no cutaways but there is so many disgusting and deplorable moments, I just can't sit through the episode again. Especially with Stewie trying to convince Brian to eat his poop and then being mean to him.

Peter's Top Five Best Episodes

 5. 'Mr. Saturday Night'

Peter endears us with becoming a knight and fighting his idol who turns out to be a dick.

4. 'A Fish Out of Water'

Peter and his friends go after Daggermouth.

 3. 'Petarded'

We find out Peter is special but we still find him endearing.

2. 'Peter's Daughter'

Meg winds up in the hospital in a coma, Peter is very protective of her, so he drives cute intern Micheal away. But when Meg reveals to the family that she is pregnant, Peter forces them to get married. 

 1. 'Meet the Quagmires'

Peter goes to the past, messes up his chances with Lois and returns to the present to find that Lois married Quagmire. In this fun episode, he corrects things in a "Back to the Future" manner.

Peter's Five Worst Episodes

 5. Any time Peter is mean to Meg

People know the family is mean to Meg but they might forget that Peter was the first one to be mean to her, forgetting her name or how she looked like. And even thinking she was a house cat.

 

4. 'The King is Dead'

Peter ignores Lois and ruins her play.

 

3. 'Family Gay'

This episode makes no sense! They make Peter gay and he leaves the family. Then when the serum wears off, he's straight again.

2. 'April in Quahog'

He tells the kids he hates them but then fixes it with just promising to buy a X-Box?

1. 'Big Man on Hippopotamus'

Peter looses his memory, cheats on Lois and is just a jerk.

Related: http://spanengrish.blogspot.com/2013/09/redeemable-and-nonredeemable-episodes.html

Best and Worst episodes of Family Guy Characters Part One

You can agree or disagree a bunch of times on the quality of Family Guy. It can be considered pandering to the lowest common denominator. Funny part is that Seth Mcfarlane finds himself cultured and loves show tunes and has smart references. Anyway, I like the show or liked the show, I can't stand the characters now, they are completely nonredeemable now. I decided to dissect them by characters. Notice how most 'redeemable' episodes are from earlier seasons and 'nonredeemable' are from recent seasons.

Lois' Top 5 Best Episodes

5. "Running Mates"

Lois had high moral grounds back in the early seasons, competing against Peter for school board or some piece of crap.

4. "A Very Special Family Guy Freaking Christmas"

Yes she goes crazy in this episode, well this is not exactly 'redeemable' but it is a fun episode of hers. She represented what moms would really want to do in the holidays... freak out.

3. "One if by clam, one by sea"

Lois doesn't believe Peter when he says that the new British guy is framing him until late but she manages to save the day and get her husband out of jail.

2. "Prick Up Your Ears"

 Lois believes kids should knew about safe sex, teaches a class and is kicked out. She then fights to make sure kids know to use condoms.

1. "It Takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One"

Lois regains her political edge in running for mayor against Adam West to stop toxic waste dumping.

Lois' 5 WORST Episodes

5. 'Boys Do Cry'

Lois has a misguided notion that moving to Texas will give her family 'good moral values' and finds out the hard way that it is not the place for religious tolerance.

 4. "Breaking Out is hard to do"

Lois becomes a clepto, goes to jail and then breaks out. This begins her irresponsible behavior.

 3. 'Brian's Got a Brand New Bag'

It is a Brian episode but Lois is really rude about Brian's new girlfriend's age. In fact, the whole family is. Also, she is very critical of any of Brian's girlfriends. Funny enough in an early episode where he falls for an older woman, she doesn't say a thing, probably because the writers got more cynical by this point.

  2. 'Whistle While Your Wife Works'

When Brian introduces Jilan, Lois makes fun of Brian for being with a dumb chick when she is married to an IDIOT who cut his fingers off and had to work for him.

1. 'Quagmire's dad'

Lois has just become a bitch and very critical of everything. She represents narrow minded people in this episode when Quagmire admits his father is transfemale and Lois says 'gay' over and over, not knowing anything about transgender people. Also, she repeatedly is rude to Ida, wanting her to pee outside and throws away any food she makes.

Top Five Chris' Best Episodes

5. 'Jungle Love'

Chris runs away to the jungle and marries a girl but learns he can't run away from his own problems.

4. 'Moving Out'

He has great chemistry with Carl.

3. 'Deep Throats'

This surprises fans when Chris was actually smart, he informs Lois and Peter about Marijuana.

2. 'To Love and Die in Dixie'

Chris is actually likable in this one with his first love.

 

1. 'No Chris Left Behind'

I like the stand Chris took to leaving a rich high school academy because his parents had to work so hard for the money.

Top Five Chris' Worst Episodes

 

5. Tied: 'Halloween on Spooner Street' and 'Stew-Roids'

 Chris and Meg make out and he says "I was a kissing a bitch, who cares?" Also when Chris became popular at school, he was real mean to Meg.

 

4. 'Long John Peter'

Chris falls for vet intern Ana and totally brutalizes Brian (knocking his nose right off) in order to see her.

 3. 'Trading Places'

Chris trades places with Peter and takes his job and things get strange with wanting to see his parents have sex while he watches.

 2. 'Space Cadet'

His parents call him an idiot, he goes to space camp and ends up taking them into space. Enough said.

  

1. 'Hannah Banana'

Chris meets the evil monkey and just a whiny whiny guy with his father. 

Meg's Top 5 Best Episodes

5. 'Dial Meg for Murder'

Meg grows a new pair against the family when she goes to jail for harboring a fugitive.

4. 'Not All Dogs Go to Heaven'

Meg becomes religious and gets the whole town against Brian for being Atheist. But he makes her see the light... sort of.

 3. 'Let's Go to the Hop'

Meg's teen angst at best.

2. 'The Kiss Seen Around the World'

Meg is an intern and falls for Tom Tucker but finds out he is a jerk.

1. 'Seahorse Seashell Party'

Meg totally rips a new one for all the family. She then comes to the conclusion that she must be the black sheep to keep the family together.

Meg's 5 Worst episodes

 5. 'The Hand that rocks the wheelchair'

Meg takes Bonnie's place in Joe's family and tries to get with him. She even breastfeeds the baby. eww.

4. 'Meg and Quagmire'

Really Meg? Really? Quagmire? Desperate!

3. 'Stew-Roids'

Chris comes to High School and Connie makes him popular and is mean to Meg. Meg then shows signs that she might be a lesbian with thinking of Connie in the shower. Eww. 

2. 'Go, Stewie, Go!"

Meg finds out Lois kissed her boyfriend and shows her dark side. She even rips out of a tooth.

1. 'Barely Legal'
This is the first instance of her loosing it but here she goes psycho for Brian.

Next is Peter, Brian and Stewie.
http://spanengrish.blogspot.com/2013/09/best-and-worst-episodes-of-family-guy.html