TV Character Personality Changes

[caj]

Sometimes tv characters will go through complete personality changes over the years.

What are your favorite or least-favorite tv character personality changes?

[AndrewCrossett]

Homer Simpson, over the course of the first 2-3 seasons went from a grouchy Walter Matthau type to a complete idiot. (Of course, the idiot was funnier.)

Wesley Wyndam-Pryce on Angel.

[Jackalope89]

Margaret Houlihan from MASH. Went from being an accomplice of Frank's (though she was still a good nurse) to being an all around better person.

[Gaastra]

Cosmo from fairy oddparents went from slow witted but still somewhat smart husband to a complete dim wit to a complete evil jerk.

Fronz from happy days went from a one shot bad guy bully to the cool friend with a attitude.

[ChrisIII]

Does Doctor Who count?

[j9ac9k]

Wesley Wyndam-Pryce on Angel.

That's a good one. He really changed over the course of many seasons in a very organic way just through his experiences.

[Riv86672]

Archie Bunker became a lot more open minded and tolerant as time went on.

Fonzy went from taciturn loner to basically a family man by the end of Happy Days.
What's interesting is when we meet him he'd already gone through a change, quitting his street gang and getting a regular job. Interacting w. the kids at Arnold's helped him open up to ppl around him though, and try and achieve more than he already had by going straight.

Ned Flanders of course, to the point where he's the name of a character becoming a parody of themselves. Granted i like him the way he is now cuz its hella funny.

[AnakinFlair]

Willow on Buffy the Vampire Slayer- went from a wallflower to possibly the most powerful person on the show.

I enjoyed Thea's growth on Arrow, from spoiled socialite to vigilante to co-leader of the new League of Heroes. I've also liked seeing Caitlin Snow grow from emotionally shut-off doctor to bad-ass with ice powers.

[j9ac9k]

(should I mention Daenerys Targaryen...? No, mabye not. Nothing to see here...)

[AndrewCrossett]

That's a good one. He really changed over the course of many seasons in a very organic way just through his experiences.

Yeah, not many shows can do those long sweeping character arcs anymore because they don't last long enough. Willow, Spike and Cordelia are other good examples in the Buffyverse. You can do a lot more character development in 12 total seasons and ~300 episodes than you can in three 10-hour Netflix drops, which is the standard now.

[numberthirty]

Since long runs came up...

While it wasn't a particularly stark change, Jax Teller during Sons Of Anarchy.

Sort of starts out as a new dad attempting to have a family while being an outlaw, and ends it being a father of two who has realized that those two things cannot coexist.

[ChrisIII]

Regarding Doctor Who, even without the regenerations the Doctor's personality has changed a bit within incarnations.

-The fourth Doctor had three producers who kind of had their own take on the character. Tom's Fourth Doctor started off somewhat more serious but the middle of his run brought out more of his comedic talent, although his final season attempted to reign that in a bit. The Seventh Doctor kind of was the opposite, silly at first but much darker and manipulative later on. Capaldi's Doctor likewise started off as sort of rude and aloof (Like some of Capladi's other roles) but eventually evolved into one of the more compassionate Doctors, something it seemed like they were trying with for the Sixth Doctor but didn't have enough time. Even Tennant's Doctor sort of had a brief psychotic break.

[Somecrazyaussie]

Phil Mitchell from EastEnders.

He started out as the voice of reason/more cerebral, while his brother Grant was a loose cannon with a bad temper. Once Grant left, Phil morphed into a amalgamation of the two. He was still cerebral, but now he had Grant's hair-trigger temper. To be fair, these changes started when he went through a Alcoholism storyline.

Paul Robinson from Neighbours.

The guy was always a bit shady and a strict businessman. However, when he returned after a decade long absence, his minor villainous streak was amplified to the point he was utterly ruthless and evil. Even subsequent writers recognized this and explained it away as being the results of a brain tumor.

[GeekSmark]

Family Guy
Peter went from dumb but caring to complete @$$.
Brian from smart to kinda of a creep and jack@$$
Stewie from genius, matricidal to lol he's gay.
And just in general most of the characters turned into worst people.

[Panic]

Methos in Highlander.

In his first story he is less cynical, and willing to nobly sacrifice his own life to give Duncan a better chance of winning against Kalas, something that the cynical, selfish Methos of later stories would never do.

I guess this is kind of a cheat in that it's only in his first storyline that he is different - he was originally going to die in that story, so when they decided to change the plot so he could be a reoccurring character they changed his character to better work as a foil for Duncan. Fans have tried to reason that Methos never actually intended for Duncan to kill him, it was all just manipulation, but this is obviously a retcon just trying to make the big personality change make sense in-story.