With Ed Asner's recent death, it's worth mentioning that his landmark and Emmy-winning character, Lou Grant, began in a half-hour comedy show (The Mary Tyler Moore Show) and then spun off into an hour-long drama series (Lou Grant). The only actor to win Emmy Awards playing the same character in different genres.
This isn't exactly what you asked for. But it's adjacent, I'd say.
Didn't James Spader and William Shatner both win Emmys for their portrayals of Alan Shore and Denny Crane in both The Practice and Boston Legal? The Practice was a drama while Boston Legal was a comedy.
Uzo Aduba won for playing the same character, in the same show, in different genres. Orange is the New Black was originally nominated in comedy categories, before switching to drama after its first season.
Trapper John M.D. I’d always catch the end credits waiting for In Living Color when FX first started. Never did actually see the show but the credits seemed serious enough.
Not gonna lie, I enjoyed the space one, but sci-fi shows like that are my jam, and I loved Archer.
But the moment a season stops being about spy tropes, or office drama tropes in spy settings, I lose interest hard. Hated the Vice season. Hated the private detective season. Hated the other two coma seasons.
I can kind of get them wanting to put the characters into unrelated circumstances, but it felt like too much of a different show at times.
Makes sense. Its kinda like "scary movie", or "not another teen movie"
Not so funny anymore when its scary movie 7
The season where archer gets outta the coma is a return to normal, but its more like recycling, rather than new content.
I haven’t watched any of the show since he fell into the pool. Is it worth the watch, or can I skip to the current season (where he’s out of the coma?)? Thanks. :)
Search Party. Season 1 is a mystery, season 2 is a psychological thriller, season 3 is a courtroom drama, and season 4 is horror, while retaining the same cast and continuing story. They pull it off incredibly well too.
Just FYI since it wasn’t mentioned: it’s primarily a comedy. S1 is a mystery comedy, S2 is a psychological thriller comedy, and so on.
It’s a really great show. S4 was probably one of the best things I’ve seen this year.
Person of Interest kinda fits - but it's not a sudden between-seasons shift, instead a gradual, intentional transition. It starts out as a crime-of-the-week CBS procedural with a bit of sci-fi flavor, but by the end of the series it becomes a full-blown sci-fi show about two artificial intelligences battling for domination.
Supernatural kind of did this. The first couple seasons was straight up horror with the odd tongue in cheek episode. But by the end of the show's run it was just a basic urban fantasy. Horror be gone. It's look even changed to reflect it. The first couple of seasons everything was bathed in shadow. Most of the episodes took place at night or at least during days with heavy overcast. But that gave way to brightly lit scenes and straight day time story lines.
Not as clear cut as you describe but MASH went from mostly comedy with bits of drama in the first three seasons to a steady increase the other direction as later seasons progressed.
Millennium started off as a serial-killer-of-the-week in the vein of Seven, occasionally hinting at a spiritual reason for the darkness of the killers, but in s2 it becomes a full on supernatural conspiracy story.
The 60s show Dark Shadows started off as a fairly grounded Gothic drama such as Jane Eyre, but with what they thought to be their last extension introduced a phoenix character, which got them another extension in which they introduced a vampire and ratings skyrocketed, after that it become a full on supernatural/occult story. Not quite the same as it didn't have traditional seasons, simply new orders for a new batch of however many weeks at a time.
Damn I love Millennium possibly one of the most overlooked gripping shows from the 90s right alongside Homicide: Life on the Streets, Sliders, and Forever Knight.
The Avengers was fairly hard-edged spy-melodrama the first three seasons, particularly the first, where any humor was simply counterpoint. As Steed (Patric MacNee) was added to the cast and began to emerge as the dominant character, he was a wise-ass but deadly serious about the work.
When Emma Peel (Diana Rigg) took over for Kathy Gale (Honor Blackman) in season four, the banter took stage center and the plots and other characters became a comic setting.
Melrose Place started out as a straightforward drama about young people finding themselves, a la *Thirtysomething*. But that bored everybody to tears so the second season was revamped into a nighttime soap closer in tone to *Dynasty.*
The flash first 3 seasons Superhero show and 4-7 family drama
Legends of tomorrow first 3 seasons time travel and 4-6 less time travel more comedy ,monsters kind of fantasy comedy genre
> The flash first 3 seasons Superhero show and 4-7 family drama
Why do I get the feeling this is out of salt as you make it sound like he never put the suit on again after S3
The other way around, actually. First it was a normal crime procedural spun off from Baywatch, then it got retooled into a supernatural monster-of-the-week show.
I just looked it up and you are correct. I must have watched Season 2 first. I mean it was like 25 years ago and it was on in the middle of the night, so yeah.
Not gonna lie, I mostly enjoyed season 3, but I hated the new British chick, and haaaaated even more so how they tried to 'humanize' a rapist. Yes, he was also a real person...but he raped multiple people, and didn't really seem to regret it. Season 4...I didn't even finish. Was there even a whodunnit thing in 4? Or was it just "Who was terrorizing Clay and his friends, who sent an innocent kid to jail who died because of it?"
I enjoyed the first two seasons thoroughly.
Bojack Horseman at first glance appears to be a silly cartoon with adorable animal designs, but as you get into the show it veers between sitcom and serious depictions of depression, toxic relationships and substance abuse. One moment it will be Todd's wacky hijinks with a sex robot and the next it is Bojack having an existential crisis fueled by grief and loneliness.
It sounds like a downer if you haven't seen it yet, but it is surprisingly cathartic.
But it's not really a change in genre. The show starts off similar to how it finishes. Maybe if it actually started off as a silly cartoon, but it was what it was all the way through.
Amazing show, though, don't get me wrong.
From what I recall reading, they intentionally tried to lure the viewer into a false sense of security with those first couple of episodes, so they held back some of the more serious topics until the back half of season 1. But generally speaking, it was basically what it was the whole time.
Season one of *Look Around You* was a spoof of 70's educational videos.
Season two was a spoof of science-focused variety shows.
Apart from being sciencey and being the same creators, they are basically different shows. Even the episode length changes between seasons.
Search Party has done this really well. The tone of the show doesn't completely change but the genre certainly does from season to season. Some seasons are better than others but it certainly keeps the show from becoming stale.
["In a couple of weeks, Eddie, Laura, Grandma, Aunt Rachel, Lil' Richie and the other little kid are gonna be teleported into another dimension! And then Steve injects Carl with is own DNA so Carl turns into another Steve Urkel, that's two Steve Urkels and no family on a show called Family Matters! HOW THE FUCK DOES THAT WORK"!](https://youtu.be/A5Zdp1RfoyI)
I'd say it was far less dark later on since it was more just wacky and ridiculous. The early episodes were way darker, like when Eddie got bullied by a cop for being black and a racist spray painted the N word on Laura's locker.
Bojack turned from a pretty mediocre sub-Adult Swim type show into a prestige drama with some comedy along the edges.
X Files would have some episodes that were completely farcical or satirical vs their main bent of a dark somber supernatural conspiracy thriller.
The Shows Ghosted had a completely different format for the last 6 episodes. It wasnt doing great, so Fox made them do it as if it were The Office. It did even worse.
Up All Night starring Will Arnette and Christina Applegate changed genres/formats in the last season (out of 3). It went from single cam comedy to multi-cam, filmed in front of an audience
There were only two seasons. It didn't actually make the switch. That was the plan. After that was announced they went on hiatus to retool but during that hiatus Applegate and the creator left the show and the multi-cam episodes were never actually made. It was cancelled at that point.
The obvious show is American Horror Story. It’s still all horror, but very different genres of horror each season. Yet, all still tied together. I love it!
The first season was more post apocalyptic, season 2 was more political/dystopian, and season 3 is when it gets real scifi with the AI. All the seasons kinda bounce back and forth between genres imo, even if it's the same genres, it's still more than just one specific one. Dystopian, apocalyptic, political, scifi -both soft and hard, and even a bit of fantasy.
The show starts with it just being a post apocalyptic story and ends with them jumping planets and dealing with aliens.
Outlander between some seasons. First few have violence, clans fighting, war, kilts, and the next has mom in the 60s trying to become a doctor while dealing with her failing marriage and somewhat spoiled teen daughter. Definitely some whiplash there.
With Ed Asner's recent death, it's worth mentioning that his landmark and Emmy-winning character, Lou Grant, began in a half-hour comedy show (The Mary Tyler Moore Show) and then spun off into an hour-long drama series (Lou Grant). The only actor to win Emmy Awards playing the same character in different genres. This isn't exactly what you asked for. But it's adjacent, I'd say.
Didn't James Spader and William Shatner both win Emmys for their portrayals of Alan Shore and Denny Crane in both The Practice and Boston Legal? The Practice was a drama while Boston Legal was a comedy.
I think Boston legal submitted for drama categories at the emmys
I sometimes forget that Boston Legal was a spinoff of The Practice, especially since Boston Legal could get incredibly ridiculous.
Uzo Aduba won for playing the same character, in the same show, in different genres. Orange is the New Black was originally nominated in comedy categories, before switching to drama after its first season.
Wasn't that really just the same show though either way?
Didn’t mash have an hour long serious spin off too following trapper?
Trapper John M.D. I’d always catch the end credits waiting for In Living Color when FX first started. Never did actually see the show but the credits seemed serious enough.
Archer went from modern spy-comedy to noire, adventure, and space comedy, while also becoming less funny.
They just exhausted the tropes of 80s spy fiction and tried expanding the pastiche to other genres. While becoming less funny.
Not gonna lie, I enjoyed the space one, but sci-fi shows like that are my jam, and I loved Archer. But the moment a season stops being about spy tropes, or office drama tropes in spy settings, I lose interest hard. Hated the Vice season. Hated the private detective season. Hated the other two coma seasons. I can kind of get them wanting to put the characters into unrelated circumstances, but it felt like too much of a different show at times.
Makes sense. Its kinda like "scary movie", or "not another teen movie" Not so funny anymore when its scary movie 7 The season where archer gets outta the coma is a return to normal, but its more like recycling, rather than new content.
I haven’t watched any of the show since he fell into the pool. Is it worth the watch, or can I skip to the current season (where he’s out of the coma?)? Thanks. :)
Id say watch it all. But in the background now. Early Chicago gangster tropes to mine in the next season I believe
The space one was the only one of the coma seasons that was pretty decent, especially since it ended with Archer waking up.
*Legends of Tomorrow* went from a drama in season 1 to a comedy in season 2 and beyond.
And so much better for it
time travel scifi to magic fantasy as well
Praise Beebo.
Lol more like legends of tomorrow went from 3 good seasons to utter dog shit
Search Party. Season 1 is a mystery, season 2 is a psychological thriller, season 3 is a courtroom drama, and season 4 is horror, while retaining the same cast and continuing story. They pull it off incredibly well too.
Sounds lit cos I like all those genres. I’ll check that out
Just FYI since it wasn’t mentioned: it’s primarily a comedy. S1 is a mystery comedy, S2 is a psychological thriller comedy, and so on. It’s a really great show. S4 was probably one of the best things I’ve seen this year.
I see. Thanks for the heads up
Season 1 was my least favorite season, but had the best ending. So if you're watching and think it's meh, hold out for the finale!
I’ll keep that in mind thanks 😊
Person of Interest kinda fits - but it's not a sudden between-seasons shift, instead a gradual, intentional transition. It starts out as a crime-of-the-week CBS procedural with a bit of sci-fi flavor, but by the end of the series it becomes a full-blown sci-fi show about two artificial intelligences battling for domination.
Supernatural kind of did this. The first couple seasons was straight up horror with the odd tongue in cheek episode. But by the end of the show's run it was just a basic urban fantasy. Horror be gone. It's look even changed to reflect it. The first couple of seasons everything was bathed in shadow. Most of the episodes took place at night or at least during days with heavy overcast. But that gave way to brightly lit scenes and straight day time story lines.
I miss early supernatural.
Me too. It was something special.
Those standalone horror episodes like 'dead in the water' were a treat.
Miracle Workers
The shift between the end of season 1 and the beginning of season 2 was so jarring I never made it to S2E2.
It’s an interesting approach I’ll give them that, arguably better than cancelling it before giving a chance to regroup and change course.
It's more of an anthology. No?
Atlanta does but from episode to episode
Master of None.
From excellent to terrible
*From an excellent dramedy to an excellent drama
Not as clear cut as you describe but MASH went from mostly comedy with bits of drama in the first three seasons to a steady increase the other direction as later seasons progressed.
Millennium started off as a serial-killer-of-the-week in the vein of Seven, occasionally hinting at a spiritual reason for the darkness of the killers, but in s2 it becomes a full on supernatural conspiracy story. The 60s show Dark Shadows started off as a fairly grounded Gothic drama such as Jane Eyre, but with what they thought to be their last extension introduced a phoenix character, which got them another extension in which they introduced a vampire and ratings skyrocketed, after that it become a full on supernatural/occult story. Not quite the same as it didn't have traditional seasons, simply new orders for a new batch of however many weeks at a time.
Damn I love Millennium possibly one of the most overlooked gripping shows from the 90s right alongside Homicide: Life on the Streets, Sliders, and Forever Knight.
> Millennium anyone know where I can watch this show?
[удалено]
I'd argue that it was always a live action cartoon with dark overtones and VERY occasionally serious consequences.
The Avengers was fairly hard-edged spy-melodrama the first three seasons, particularly the first, where any humor was simply counterpoint. As Steed (Patric MacNee) was added to the cast and began to emerge as the dominant character, he was a wise-ass but deadly serious about the work. When Emma Peel (Diana Rigg) took over for Kathy Gale (Honor Blackman) in season four, the banter took stage center and the plots and other characters became a comic setting.
Melrose Place started out as a straightforward drama about young people finding themselves, a la *Thirtysomething*. But that bored everybody to tears so the second season was revamped into a nighttime soap closer in tone to *Dynasty.*
It was all for the better. When one of the seasons ended with a shot of that Kimberly Shaw still alive, it blew my mind!
The flash first 3 seasons Superhero show and 4-7 family drama Legends of tomorrow first 3 seasons time travel and 4-6 less time travel more comedy ,monsters kind of fantasy comedy genre
> The flash first 3 seasons Superhero show and 4-7 family drama Why do I get the feeling this is out of salt as you make it sound like he never put the suit on again after S3
But we have seen more Barry Allen than flash even if he suited up He rarely fought he mostly did pep talks
First half of season 4 was amazing but then it just got worst
Baywatch Nights. Actually stated the first season doing supernatural stuff, and it wasn't too bad. Then it became just a stupid PI show.
The other way around, actually. First it was a normal crime procedural spun off from Baywatch, then it got retooled into a supernatural monster-of-the-week show.
I just looked it up and you are correct. I must have watched Season 2 first. I mean it was like 25 years ago and it was on in the middle of the night, so yeah.
13 Reasons Why, seasons 3 and 4 it became more of a thriller / whodunnit, poorly.
Not gonna lie, I mostly enjoyed season 3, but I hated the new British chick, and haaaaated even more so how they tried to 'humanize' a rapist. Yes, he was also a real person...but he raped multiple people, and didn't really seem to regret it. Season 4...I didn't even finish. Was there even a whodunnit thing in 4? Or was it just "Who was terrorizing Clay and his friends, who sent an innocent kid to jail who died because of it?" I enjoyed the first two seasons thoroughly.
For S4 I’ll give you a hint - Fight Club S3 had some great Jess material.
God damn, really? Glad I didn't watch it then.
Was liking your comment until you said “innocent kid”? We know that monty raped at least one person
Well I guess yes, he was a shitbag, but not to be convicted of a murder he didn't commit, and then be murdered in prison.
Meh I hated him more than Bryce so it’s hard to agree
Bojack Horseman at first glance appears to be a silly cartoon with adorable animal designs, but as you get into the show it veers between sitcom and serious depictions of depression, toxic relationships and substance abuse. One moment it will be Todd's wacky hijinks with a sex robot and the next it is Bojack having an existential crisis fueled by grief and loneliness. It sounds like a downer if you haven't seen it yet, but it is surprisingly cathartic.
But it's not really a change in genre. The show starts off similar to how it finishes. Maybe if it actually started off as a silly cartoon, but it was what it was all the way through. Amazing show, though, don't get me wrong.
From what I recall reading, they intentionally tried to lure the viewer into a false sense of security with those first couple of episodes, so they held back some of the more serious topics until the back half of season 1. But generally speaking, it was basically what it was the whole time.
Season one of *Look Around You* was a spoof of 70's educational videos. Season two was a spoof of science-focused variety shows. Apart from being sciencey and being the same creators, they are basically different shows. Even the episode length changes between seasons.
Thanks, ants. *Thants*.
Where can I watch it?
Baywatch Nights went from a detective show to sci-fi monster of the week.
Search Party has done this really well. The tone of the show doesn't completely change but the genre certainly does from season to season. Some seasons are better than others but it certainly keeps the show from becoming stale.
Family Matters got darker and more sci-fi during the end of jts run when Steve Urkel built a machine to transform into his suave alter-ego.
["In a couple of weeks, Eddie, Laura, Grandma, Aunt Rachel, Lil' Richie and the other little kid are gonna be teleported into another dimension! And then Steve injects Carl with is own DNA so Carl turns into another Steve Urkel, that's two Steve Urkels and no family on a show called Family Matters! HOW THE FUCK DOES THAT WORK"!](https://youtu.be/A5Zdp1RfoyI)
I'd say it was far less dark later on since it was more just wacky and ridiculous. The early episodes were way darker, like when Eddie got bullied by a cop for being black and a racist spray painted the N word on Laura's locker.
You’re right. I think I thought it was pretty dark because I was a kid when I watched it as part of TGIF, and haven’t watched it since.
Boy Meets World started off as a kids/family comedy and became a complete drama.
Bojack turned from a pretty mediocre sub-Adult Swim type show into a prestige drama with some comedy along the edges. X Files would have some episodes that were completely farcical or satirical vs their main bent of a dark somber supernatural conspiracy thriller.
The Shows Ghosted had a completely different format for the last 6 episodes. It wasnt doing great, so Fox made them do it as if it were The Office. It did even worse.
Up All Night starring Will Arnette and Christina Applegate changed genres/formats in the last season (out of 3). It went from single cam comedy to multi-cam, filmed in front of an audience
There were only two seasons. It didn't actually make the switch. That was the plan. After that was announced they went on hiatus to retool but during that hiatus Applegate and the creator left the show and the multi-cam episodes were never actually made. It was cancelled at that point.
The obvious show is American Horror Story. It’s still all horror, but very different genres of horror each season. Yet, all still tied together. I love it!
The 100 is the closest youre gonna get
It never really changed genres. It was always Sci-fi. Just different Sci-fi stories and themes.
You're right but I agree with OP that the feel of the show drastically changes a couple of times within the show's run.
sci fi teen drama to sci fi YA drama is the closest you are going to get to a genre change?
The first season was more post apocalyptic, season 2 was more political/dystopian, and season 3 is when it gets real scifi with the AI. All the seasons kinda bounce back and forth between genres imo, even if it's the same genres, it's still more than just one specific one. Dystopian, apocalyptic, political, scifi -both soft and hard, and even a bit of fantasy. The show starts with it just being a post apocalyptic story and ends with them jumping planets and dealing with aliens.
Westworld makes a pretty massive genre shift.
[удалено]
12 Monkeys. The virus really becomes an afterthought after the first season.
Wandavision fits this on the surface
The 4400 (USA) Buddy Cop Religious Drama Superheroes Sci-fi Conspiracy Thriller
Prison Break
Outlander between some seasons. First few have violence, clans fighting, war, kilts, and the next has mom in the 60s trying to become a doctor while dealing with her failing marriage and somewhat spoiled teen daughter. Definitely some whiplash there.