History EarlyInstallmentWeirdness / TVShowsGToO

** Munch being partnered first with Cassidy and later with Jefferies in Season 1 can be a little off-putting for those who are used to seeing him partnered with Fin.

** The show's much lower budget is evident in early episodes, which show Adam and Jamie having to go to sometimes considerable trouble to obtain a single car or enough weather balloons and helium to lift a lawn chair.

** Until the Build Team was instituted, a lot of time was also devoted to getting the weird props and supplies for the myth. Eventually the support staff and budget (and the addition of the Build Team to have more parallel experiments) grew large enough to make these interludes unnecessary.

For children's shows, see EarlyInstallmentWeirdness/ChildrensShowGToO

* ''Franchise/KamenRider''
** Right off the bat, the name Kamen Rider was originally solely referring to Takeshi Hongo's heroic namesake. Even when Hayato Ichimonji came in to temporarily replace him, he is still labeled as Kamen Rider. It didn't become a "title" for succeeding Kamen Riders until ''[[Series/KamenRiderV3 V3's]]'' debut where they would affix 1 and 2 at them to distinguish the two.
** Early episodes are more sci-fi horror ([[{{Narm}} or]] [[SpecialEffectsFailure at]] [[NoBudget least]], they were meant to be) than the conventional toku we know today. The famous Rider Kick hadn't even been established yet, and thus Hongo would defeat his enemies with really anything, including a "Rider Throw". (That is, ''tossing your opponent off of a roof to go 'splat.''') The Rider Kick wouldn't show up until episode 4

** Another thing you'll be surprised to not see when you start the original series: the old-school Shocker Soldiers don't get their familiar design for a very long time. We start with guys in funny beret-like hats. Then they get facepaint. Then a MonsterOfTheWeek from Mexico comes with his MaskedLuchador-based grunts in the same two-parter that introduces Hayato Ichimonji. They look almost like the ones we know, but lack the ribcage-like design on their chests. That design you probably think of as the "original" KR {{Mooks}}, a favorite at most every recent teamup? Yup, it's the ''fourth version.''

** Also, every pre-hiatus Rider was a HollywoodCyborg. Either they were kidnapped and altered like Hongo, or [[WeCanRebuildHim upgraded to save them from near-fatal injury]] and fight the bad guys who did it. The sole exception was Series/KamenRiderAmazon, magically infused with his powers rather than operated on (though they did make sure to call it a "magical operation" on multiple occasions because a Rider who didn't get his powers via an operation was ''that'' unheard of; if you're gonna do the ''unthinkable'' and have a Rider whose career didn't begin on the operating table of an organization that's an {{Expy}} of Shocker, you gotta HandWave like ''hell.'') Even Kuuga and Agito had their powers as part of them somehow; you don't get the traditonal "TransformationTrinket I can stick in my back pocket, or be screwed 'cause it got knocked away or stolen" until Ryuki.

** [[Series/KamenRiderGaim Gaim]] and [[Series/KamenRiderDrive Drive]] actually somewhat avert this; Gaim's EarlyBirdCameo was actually in the last two episodes of ''Wizard'', when most of the stuff that he displayed became finalized[[note]]if you wanna get technical, you ''could'' count him joining Wizard in a double Rider Kick as such, since Rider Kicks aren't used as much in the show, although they were present[[/note]], and Drive had no pre-series cameo whatsoever, since [[spoiler: the only way a Rider could be more powerful than a ''PhysicalGod'' would be if they were a god themselves at the start of their series]].

'''TV's Son of TV's Frank/Max''': Well, lots of shows don't get good until the fifth episode[[note]]this appears to be a direct reference to ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'', whose fifth episode, "Man on the Street", featured Creator/PattonOswalt, who plays Max, and was and is widely noted for a huge jump in quality from the previous episodes[[/note]], so you spend your life watching, waiting to see why your friends love it so much, and sometimes it never happens!

** The differences aren't quite as noticeable as other examples, but watching a current episode back to back with one of the first few episodes can be a little jarring - the director isn't a major part of the activities, making just a couple of appearances over the course of season one, Gibbs is a little more... sociable, there's the mysterious [[HeroesWantRedheads redhead]] he occasionally hitches a ride with, Tony's regularly the sole butt of jokes (no [=McGee=] for him to pick on), Abby's voice is a little huskier, Ducky's assistant is a man named Gerald, and, most jarring of all, Tony does ''not'' constantly make movie references, even being confused by one made by a guest character. By the end of the first season, though, things have just about settled in to something close to what we get now.

* Creator/{{Nickelodeon}} was significantly different in its early years. It didn't have commercials and its programming was more educational (with a low budget Sesame Street clone called ''Series/{{Pinwheel}}'' being their flagship series). Its ratings were dead last among cable channels, so it rebranded itself in 1984. It started airing commercials, changed its logo to the now-iconic "orange splat" logo, and changed its programming to give it a more "kids only" feel, changes that helped make it a household name.

* ''Series/TheNoddyShop'':
** In Season 2, the toys and Johnny can now speak to Truman. Noddy is also promoted to a main character in the shop and talks to Truman as well (represented by a superimposed Noddy, similar to the part in the theme song that Planet Pup sings). Episodes prior to this season usually contained at least one song; in Season 2, it's common for an episode to have at least two.
** The official website posted song lyrics from the various episodes, some of which referred to characters by their original names. [[http://web.archive.org/web/20010501042043/http://www.pbs.org/kids/noddy/theater/activities/s102.html "Too Much Monkey Business"]] uses "Swami" instead of "Gaylord", and both [[http://web.archive.org/web/20010118230600/http://www.pbs.org/kids/noddy/theater/activities/s101-2.html "A What If World"]] and [[http://web.archive.org/web/20010215011939/http://www.pbs.org/kids/noddy/theater/activities/s110.html "Partytime"]] use "Crockodile" instead of "Gertie".
** [[http://www.gstatic.com/tv/thumb/tvbanners/453163/p453163_b_v7_ab.jpg An early promotional picture of the show]] depicts Warloworth in a jacket which he never wears.

* ''Series/MelrosePlace'' is a classic example. The early episodes reflect the show's original intention to be a realistic drama about the lives of young twentysomethings who lived in the same apartment complex. There are no hints of the PrimetimeSoap it grew into.

* In ''Series/TheMandalorian'' Chapter 5: "The Gunslinger", Din Djarin communicates with some Tusken Raiders silently, through sign language. Beginning with the Season 2 premiere, Chapter 9: "The Marshal", Djarin and the Raiders communicate with both signs and verbal grunting.

** The first two seasons used "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and the Comets as its theme (in lieu of Pratt and [=McClain=]'s "Happy Days," which incidentally became a hit in its own right).

** Ralph himself wasn't initially a cowardly jokester; in fact, he seemed to be one of the more popular kids at the high school, and occasionally indulged in pranking, without his trademark "I still got it!" line.

** Fonzie appeared far less often and was less essential to the plots. The show was more focused on the Cunninghams, Richie in particular. Fonzie also didn't have his leather jacket, instead wearing a light beige windbreaker, due to ExecutiveMeddling at Creator/{{ABC}} (they felt that a leather jacket made Fonzie come off as a hoodlum). Early on, Fonzie was also much more of a jerk than most people know him to be, and only became the all around good guy after becoming a major character. Possibly explained/retconned in a later episode detailing how Richie met him.

* ''Series/HorribleHistories'' didn't introduce the memorable pastiche songs until series two. Furthermore, there's much more toilet humour than in later series (yes, even more people caked in excrements) and the presumably lower budget is also quite visible. A somewhat odd type of sketch featured the imaginations of the Rattus the rat, which was phased out after series two.

** At the start of the series, the protagonists were [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Jerks with Hearts of Gold]], similar to (but somewhat toned down from) the movie. As the show went on, the heroes became more and more moral as the series itself became more and more serious. A case in point is the show's portrayal of adultery. In the first season, it was implicit that all the men on the show were married and cheating on their wives back home. The only thing which made Frank different was that he was a hypocrite about it. The exception was Hawkeye, who was only "engaged" (because the network censors wouldn't let him say that he was "married" while hitting on Lt. Dish in the pilot). After the pilot, Hawkeye never mentions being engaged again and thereafter appears to be single. As early as the second season, an episode was dedicated to Henry Blake getting feelings for another woman and ultimately choosing to stay faithful to his wife -- despite the fact that in the first season, he gave no apparent thought to cavorting with various nurses. Following the departure of Trapper at the end of the third season, Frank was the only cheater left on the show. At this point, adultery started being portrayed as something which only a horrible villain like Frank would do.

** Radar, notable for being the "kid" character who preferred grape Nehis over beer, was seen drinking gin and brandy in earlier episodes.

'''TV's Son of TV's Frank/Max''': Well, lots of shows don't get good until the fifth episode[[note]]this appears to be a direct reference to ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'', whose fifth episode, "Man on the Street", featured Creator/PattonOswalt and was and is widely noted for a huge jump in quality from the previous episodes[[/note]], so you spend your life watching, waiting to see why your friends love it so much, and sometimes it never happens!

* In the pilot of ''{{Leverage}}'' all of the characters, but particularly Parker, start off as more well-rounded, vs. Later episodes where Parker can't grift and Hardison can't do do lifts

** Marcy was a StepfordSmiler yuppie Republican who was mildly disgusted over Al's misogyny and tried to explain to Peg everything wrong with how Al thinks. Later episodes had Marcy as a man-hating StrawFeminist who actively tried to destroy Al's life (though this can be explained away as Marcy's personality changed because she got demoted from her bank job, Steve left her, she accidentally got married to a handsome, but lazy conman [Jefferson], and she lives next door to the Bundys).

* ''Theatre/TheOddCouple'':