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| 14 | * ''Series/OneThousandWaysToDie'' started out fairly good in Season 1, but starting in Season 2 there were noticeable changes in quality for the better. The show started using better audio effects, [[AssholeVictim most of the victims were less sympathetic]], the narrator, Creator/RonPerlman, developed from a blunt but fairly stiff narrator to a full blown DeadpanSnarker, the puns became a lot funnier, the deaths became a lot more in-depth and interesting to watch, and they put a lot more diversity into their segments with each one feeling noticeably different. |
| 15 | * ''Series/AgentsOfSHIELD'' started off with many one-off and very hit or miss episodes before finding its footing in the final third of the first season, starting (appropriately enough) with the episode "[[Recap/AgentsOfSHIELDS1E16EndOfTheBeginning End of the Beginning]]". Much of this is because the initial part of the show is effectively a ProlongedPrologue for ''Film/CaptainAmericaTheWinterSoldier''. When the release of the film became imminent, allowing them to bring in more serious and arc-based episodes, the show improved drastically. Funnily enough, this coincided with Grant Ward starting to grow a literal beard, just like the TropeNamer; it became an impressive BeardOfSorrow in-between seasons, he shaves it off near the midpoint of season 2, and ''then'' it's grown out again in the season's second half into a more fitting beard which he keeps into season 3 (as if solidifying the fact that yes, the show has truly matured and grown into itself). |
| 16 | * ''Series/Alice1976'': The first dozen episodes of ''Alice'' were an attempt to recycle ''Series/AllInTheFamily'' in a Phoenix diner (with the notable exception of "The Last Review"). The characters were more serious, and almost every single episode was a VerySpecialEpisode dealing with a finger-wagging moral of the day. For example, one episode dealt with Adam West as a Sex Education teacher. Mel Sharples, in a stunning example of EarlyInstallmentWeirdness, was very much opposed. He bemoaned the end of school prayer. About the fifteenth episode, "The Accident", the series turns definitively to more screwball comedy. This move was solidified in the second season, when ''Series/ILoveLucy'' writers Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll Jr. were brought in as producers. Regular customers Henry Beesmeyer and Earl Hicks were added to bring even more humour to the series. Finally, Mel himself went through some {{Flanderization}} to become laughably cheap and short-tempered. |
| 17 | * The first 14 episodes of ''Series/AmericanGladiators'' [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness felt like a completely different show]]. They started growing stubble when original co-host Joe Theismann left, and it had fully grown by the time Larry Czonka became co-host the next season. |
| 18 | * ''Series/{{Angel}}'': |
| 19 | ** Although it's arguable whether or not the first season is necessarily better or worse than the ones that follow, the show certainly experienced a shift following the initial season. The first season finale was the first to demonstrate a sense of the long MythArc storyline as opposed to the story arcs that usually lasted one or two episodes. Buffy was known for but was not restrained by the HalfArcSeason long BigBad story. |
| 20 | ** When it started out, the show was really just ''[[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer Buffy]]'', but in the grown up world. It stayed this course for a while until towards the end of season one, when Angel must perform a demon exorcism. This episode seemed to tell everyone that this show was gonna be dark, stay dark, and still be entertaining. |
| 21 | ** While some may cite the exorcism episode, more often the turning points for the series are noted to be the two-part Faith arc ("[[Recap/AngelS01E18FiveByFive Five By Five]]"[=/=]"[[Recap/AngelS01E19Sanctuary Sanctuary]]") and the re-introduction of [[spoiler:Darla]] at the end of Season 1 and throughout Season 2. |
| 22 | ** When Wesley stopped being so [[BeardOfSorrow clean shaven]], the show noticeably changed pace as it became heavily arc driven, a trait the show would have until the series finale. |
| 23 | * ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' had an above-average to good start, particularly thanks to its subversions of the expected plotlines with the reveal that Malcolm Merlyn was the Dark Archer. However, the show still had some very uneven footing, thanks in part to sometimes meandering flashback sequences (which are a major part of any episode's format), an episodic MonsterOfTheWeek format with subpar villains, and an unrelentingly serious tone. Towards the end of Season 1, an episode called 'The Odyssey' landed. It featured the first use of Diggle, [[BreakoutCharacter Felicity]], and Oliver as a FreudianTrio, and was a flashback heavy episode featuring [[EnsembleDarkhorse Slade Wilson]]. This started a trend of engaging Island stories, stronger characterization of the main cast, and a revamping of formerly lackluster villains. The beard was grown completely two episodes later, when Deadshot, thought dead, received a MidSeasonUpgrade and Malcolm's FreudianExcuse was revealed. |
| 24 | * The first season of ''Series/AshesToAshes2008'' had a lighter feel to it, with Alex (in over-the-top 80s outfits) often treating her situation with a kind of detached amusement and e.g. Ray and Chris often used just for comic relief. Things improved a lot when the show adopted a more gritty serious-police feel in season 2. It grows it again in season 3. The previous three ''[=A2A=]'' villains ([[spoiler:Tim Price, Supermack, and Martin Summers]]) are revealed to all be [[DiscOneFinalBoss Disc One Final Bosses]]. The ''real'' BigBad, [[MagnificentBastard Jim]] [[DevilInPlainSight Keats]] shows up, unanswered questions from ''Series/{{Life On Mars|2006}}'' begin driving the plot, and Gene himself comes under scrutiny by Alex. |
| 25 | * ''Series/TheAvengers1960s'' grew some stubble when John Steed was promoted to main character after a season of being the sidekick to Dr. David Keel and the amazonian Cathy Gale became Steed's partner, and a full beard when Emma Peel became his new sidekick. People tend to assume Steed and Peel were the only lineup the show ever had even though they weren't brought together until the fourth season and were dissolved after the fifth. Peel's arrival also coincided with the series moving to film production (allowing location shooting and higher budgets). Opinion varies widely among fans, but the arrival of Tara King after Peel's departure is often seen as the shaving of the beard. |
| 26 | * ''Series/BabylonFive'': The beard-growing started in the middle of season 1, when Morden first arrived and the arc started to kick in. The first season finale and Captain Sheridan's arrival at the start of season 2 kicks it up another notch. And the beard is indisputably fully grown by the end of ''[[Recap/BabylonFiveS02E09TheComingOfShadows The Coming of Shadows]]''. Sheridan doesn't ''literally'' grow a beard until he's taken prisoner near the end of season 4. |
| 27 | * The original ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica|1978}}'' didn't really find its stride until the last two episodes of the season, after the show had been officially cancelled. This is a large part of what spurred revival talk for so many years - the show was pulled ''right'' as it started to really find its feet. |
| 28 | * ''Series/BetterCallSaul'''s first season, while very well-received, got hit with some criticism about pacing issues; namely, the fact that certain episodes moved at a sluggish pace and weren't all that riveting. Apparently the writers were listening, because Season 2 was better received; each episode moved at a much smoother pace. Season 3, where the show brought back ''Series/BreakingBad'' ArcVillain Gustavo Fring as a main character, is seen as where the show really took off. |
| 29 | * ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': |
| 30 | ** It started off with a healthy amount of comedic charm but its stories relied a little too much on CringeComedy and was trying to be more risque than what felt natural for the show (which is something the writers even commented on). By the end of the first season the show managed to find its voice, but the episode that started to cement the characters was episode 6 "Middle-Earth Paradigm" where Penny throws a Halloween party and invites the guys over. That episode really highlighted the personality clash between the main characters and "normal" people. It also showed the first hints that Leonard's crush on Penny may not be a lost cause. |
| 31 | ** What's even ''more'' impressive about this is that the first season had to deal with the infamous Writer's Guild Strike of 2007, which cut down its potential length and saw an early mid-season break; that the season was able to use the remainder of its 17 episodes to develop a well-groomed beard, becoming a cultural phenomenon in coming seasons is nothing short of miraculous. |
| 32 | * Another literal Beard-Growing moment is ''Series/{{Blackadder}}'', where the titular character (or rather, the descendant also played by Creator/RowanAtkinson) gains one between season one and two, along with a ton of MagnificentBastard qualities. Of course, his once HyperCompetentSidekick Baldrick becomes a BumblingSidekick, but that was seen as a necessary part of the overall improvement. (Fortunately, Blackadder losing his beard in subsequent seasons -- being clean-shaven in ''The Third'' and having just a moustache in ''Goes Forth'' -- didn't affect the show's quality at all.) |
| 33 | * While the first season of ''Series/BlakesSeven'' doesn't have any episodes that are widely regarded as clunkers, it also doesn't have very many regarded as classics. Season 2, despite several episodes that misfired quite badly, started taking more risks, developed a more coherent overall storyline, and dropped the generally superfluous Gan in favour of the more memorable Orac. |
| 34 | * The first season of ''Series/BoyMeetsWorld'' was a standard teen dramedy with shallow humor. It hit off in season 2 as the characters started developing more and the themes got more and more mature with each season. Many argue that the final few seasons where the gang is in college are the best seasons. |
| 35 | ** Some fans even trace this back to late season 1 with episodes like "The Fugitive" and "I Dream Of Feeny" |
| 36 | * Season 2 of ''Series/BreakingBad'' was the point where the show really came into its own. The first season was undeniably good with a [[PlayingAgainstType shockingly strong]] [[SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct performance]] by Creator/BryanCranston and a unique premise. However, it was short and a bit slow, partly due to the Writers' Strike going on at the time. The second season increased the pace to a fever-pitch with half of the episodes feeling like {{Cliffhanger}}s at the end of a season and the writing and acting as a whole got much sharper. Characters other than Walt got much more development, particularly [[AntiVillain Jesse]] and [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold Hank]], and even [[VillainProtagonist Walter]] - who started out as a mildly complex character in the first season - received ''far'' more depth and layers, turning him into one of the most complex characters in the medium's history, eventually leading to him being commonly compared to many [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Shakespeare]] [[TragicVillain villains,]] such as Theatre/{{Macbeth}}, by many literary and television critics by the show's final season. Finally, it added the {{Breakout Character}}s [[AmoralAttorney Saul Goodman]], [[HitmanWithAHeart Mike Ehrmantraut]], and [[MagnificentBastard Gustavo "Gus" Fring]] who is now regarded as one of the best villains ever put on television. After that, it never looked back, eventually ending with one of the most critically acclaimed final seasons ever. |
| 37 | ** And oddly enough, the end of Season 2 coincided with Walter White having a fully grown BeardOfEvil. |
| 38 | * ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': |
| 39 | ** Spike and Drusilla's arrival in Sunnydale in "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS2E3SchoolHard School Hard]]" proved a noticeable upswing, but the true beard-growing moment was probably the resurgence of Angelus, cementing the shift from MonsterOfTheWeek episodes to a darkly comedic, character-driven series. TrueArtIsAngsty after all, right? |
| 40 | ** Season Two of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'' is widely regarded as one of the show's best from start to finish. IF there was any point the show had a beard growth moment, it was Season One finale "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS1E12ProphecyGirl Prophecy Girl]]" where that first season's villain is defeated and Buffy is drowned but revived -- the first episode to really deal with bravery and explore the impact such a great destiny had on what was essentially a scared teenage girl. The episode showed it was capable of a lot more than the previous episodes, despite some of them being much more deserving of praise than some fans give them. |
| 41 | ** One of the first near perfect episodes was Season Two's "[[Recap/BuffyTheVampireSlayerS2E17Passion Passion]]", which proved that Angel wasn't coming back any time soon because Angelus was responsible for the first major character death of the series. The show later became famous for them. |
| 42 | * ''Series/CharliesAngels'': The show grew its beard when [[Creator/FarrahFawcett Farrah Fawcett-Majors]] was replaced by Creator/CherylLadd in the second season premire episode "Angels In Paradise". |
| 43 | * ''Series/{{Charmed|1998}}'': |
| 44 | ** The beard-growing second season switched away from dealing with the Christian Church in Season 1 and into dealing with Wicca, started to grow the characters as both people and sisters and added the plotlines of Piper and Leo, Phoebe and college, and Prue's new power. |
| 45 | ** Some believe the show didn't fully hit its stride until the third season when it introduced Phoebe's first long term love interest in the half-demon/half-human Cole [[spoiler:a.k.a. Belthazor]], and The Source became the new primary new villain, making the show much more heavily arc driven. |
| 46 | * In its first season, ''Series/{{Chuck}}'' was a fun show, if occasionally uneven. The second season tightened up the spy plots, improved the action scenes, better-integrated the spy and non-spy elements of the show, and introduced MythArc elements, making it into a show capable of delivering 42 minutes of continual awesome. |
| 47 | * ''Series/{{Community}}'': |
| 48 | ** It started growing stubble in the first season with the ninth episode, [[Recap/CommunityS1E09Debate109 "Debate 109"]]. The beard, of course, became fully grown with [[Recap/CommunityS1E23ModernWarfare "Modern Warfare"]] (note: while [[Recap/CommunityS1E21ContemporaryAmericanPoultry "Contemporary American Poultry"]] aired two episodes before "Warfare" and was thus the show's first high-concept episode, it got considerably less press than its successor). |
| 49 | ** In the first episode of Season 3, Dean Pelton showed up for the new school year sporting a manly new beard and vowing that things were going to be different this year. By the end of the episode, his beard had been forcibly shaved off, and he was forced to sadly admit that this year was going to be the same as last year, but without money. Given the show's constant trope-awareness, this is assuredly a lampshading of this particular trope. |
| 50 | * ''Series/{{Conan}}'', an example of literal beard-growing. After being dumped from a short and frustrating stint on NBC's ''Tonight Show'', Creator/ConanOBrien returned with a late-night talk show on TBS -- far more relaxed, confident, creative, and funny than what he'd done before. And with a beard. |
| 51 | ** That wasn't his first beard-growing (figuratively). After becoming the host of ''Late Night'' in 1993 as a self-proclaimed "complete unknown," Conan struggled for his first few years as host before he found his voice and became a late night TV star. |
| 52 | * ''Series/CrazyExGirlfriend'' is an interesting one in that it's not so much that the beginning of the show is bad, but that it takes most people time to overcome the AudienceAlienatingPremise and see for sure how much of a {{Deconstruction}} it is. As a parody of RomCom cliches, early on the show treats Rebecca as a mostly straightforward (if extreme) plucky, dogged heroine, so if you're taking the title at face value, it's easy to view the show as a straight example, especially lacking in self-awareness and filled with FridgeHorror. However, as the show goes on, the ''real'' message - that women dealing with mental illness are treated very poorly, often carelessly stigmatised as 'crazy' - becomes more and more obvious. Many people cite "A Boy Band Made Up Of Four Joshes" (in which the heroine fantasises about her love interest as a number of certified therapists who will cure her depression and anxiety) as the first time they really got what the show was saying about her obsession with Josh, and if nothing else, "I'm The Villain In My Own Story" near the end of the first season makes it profoundly clear that Rebecca is ''not'' meant to be a flawless heroine destined to get the boy. |
| 53 | * ''Series/CurbYourEnthusiasm'' hit its stride mid-Season 2, and then again in Season 6 with the introduction of Leon as a main character. The divorce of Larry and Cheryl in series 8 may have done this again. |
| 54 | * ''Series/DadsArmy'' - While the first two seasons are pretty decent, it wasn't until series 3 that the show really became the classic it's now remembered as, with both writers and performers fully getting a handle on the characters and all EarlyInstallmentWeirdness being finally shooed out. Series 3 also marked the change to colour filming, and an increase in budget which allowed more location filming, which also helped. |
| 55 | * ''Series/TheDailyShow'': The show's run under Craig Kilborn was a standard news parody similar to "Weekend Update" on ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'', with a focus on absurd and trivial topics. Correspondents performed a parody of "human interest" segments by interviewing local eccentrics to mock them in a mean-spirited tone. When Creator/JonStewart took over the lead role from Kilborn, however, the focus shifted to biting satire of current political and world events. Correspondent segments also shifted to interviewing notable people involved in important issues, either to satirize their position or to launch [[StrawmanPolitical humorously flawed]] attacks at them. This led to increased participation by the correspondents and more segments performed in-studio with Stewart acting as a straight man. Creator/SteveCarell is often credited as spearheading the shift in the use of correspondents, and Stewart himself said that the 2000 recount was when the show found its modern voice. These changes ultimately turned ''The Daily Show'' from a mildly successful comedy show to a cultural institution. |
| 56 | ** When ''Series/TheDailyShowWithTrevorNoah'' started in February 2015, new host Creator/TrevorNoah struggled with living up to the legacy of his predecessor Jon Stewart. However he won over skeptics in his October 1, 2015 segment in which he compared then-candidate Donald Trump to African dictators for their incendiary rhetoric. When Trump unexpectedly won the presidency, many turned to Noah for his insights into systemic racism and demagogue leaders given how he grew up in Apartheid South Africa. |
| 57 | * The original ''Series/{{Dallas}}'' changed from a soap opera about a BigScrewedUpFamily to a major PrimetimeSoap after the premiere of its SpinOff, ''Series/KnotsLanding''. With "Who Shot J.R.?" it became ''the'' primetime soap of TheEighties. |
| 58 | * In the form that it premiered, ''Series/DarkShadows'' wouldn't be recognized by most. It later emphasized the supernatural elements, acquired a new main character in the form of Barnabas, and took on a darker tone. |
| 59 | * While supposedly [[BrokenBase this is not unanimous]], there is a general opinion that ''Series/ADifferentWorld'' became a distinctive show of its own with the second season, when Lisa Bonet left, severing the connection between the show and its (ahem) parent, ''Series/TheCosbyShow''. Debbie Allen took over and decided to {{Retool}} the show to make it better reflect the black-college experience as she had known it. The ratings went down, but that was more due to the change in timeslot, and the show had several good seasons. |
| 60 | * The ''Series/DoctorWho'' fandom is notoriously [[BrokenBase fragmented]] and hard-to-please. What one group might consider a Growing of the Beard might be a JumpingTheShark moment for others (and vice versa). Matters aren't helped by the show's longevity and varied cast, production teams and creative directions. Nevertheless, some commonly-argued examples of this trope include: |
| 61 | ** In retrospect, the first appearance of the Daleks in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E2TheDaleks the second ever story]] was a massive step up after [[Recap/DoctorWhoS1E1AnUnearthlyChild a mostly dull introduction serial featuring cavemen]]. At least, that's how it's viewed now. The caveman story was considered good when it was first shown, but it is overshadowed by what followed. |
| 62 | ** Some would argue that the introduction of the Second Doctor, who was somewhat younger and could do more than the First, and improvements in television production allowed for more dramatic stories with broader scope (since they could film outside). The Second Doctor also brought with him new writers and directors, who gave him snappier dialogue and pacing, and permanently codified the Doctor as being a character who is iconically comical and ignorant of social conventions. |
| 63 | *** A lot of people would call "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E1TheTombOfTheCybermen The Tomb of the Cybermen]]" this point for the Second Doctor, marking the point where the show definitively moved away from historical stories and focused more on monsters other than the Daleks, who by this point were [[JokerImmunity supposed to have been]] permanently killed off. |
| 64 | ** And then the introduction of the Third Doctor in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS7E1SpearheadFromSpace Spearhead from Space]]" coincided with the show's change to both colour production, a noticeable upward shift in its production value, and a shift to more mature storylines. |
| 65 | ** And the Fourth Doctor's era had further improvements in production design, special effects, and the Creator/PhilipHinchcliffe and Creator/RobertHolmes pairing brought the series to what many consider to be the creative and qualitative peak of its original run. The fact that Creator/DouglasAdams was a contributing scriptwriter and later Script Editor didn't exactly hurt. (Which still boggles the mind: How many shows reach their qualitative and creative peak starting in their '''12th''' season?) |
| 66 | *** Creator/TomBaker's first story, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E1Robot Robot]]", is a well-constructed and charming little story that shows greater thematic attention to detail than the Pertwee era ever did. But, because it's a BreatherEpisode to ease us into the new Doctor, it's based in the [[ArcFatigue same old UNIT plot template that even the Pertwee era had got long sick of]], and the tone is frothy and lighthearted. ''Then'', after four episodes of this, came "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E2TheArkInSpace The Ark in Space]]"; children bolted behind the sofa, watching a different and much better show with a genuinely chilling GothicHorror atmosphere and a CreepyGood, [[ByronicHero brooding]] Doctor who loved humanity but did not identify with it. Most fans will say that, although "Robot" is the first Tom Baker story, "The Ark in Space" is where the Tom Baker ''era'' starts (the fact that it was the first story produced by Creator/PhilipHinchcliffe certainly helps). |
| 67 | ** Fans often cite Season 25, and the 1988 serial "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS25E1RemembranceOfTheDaleks Remembrance of the Daleks]]", as the point where 1980s ''Doctor Who'' began demonstrating a fresher, more confident and mature approach after several years of muddling along in a rather wobbly (at best) fashion, particularly after the brief mid-eighties 'hiatus' and the less-than-well-received Seasons 23 and 24. Unfortunately, by this point the damage had been done, and it wasn't long after that it was cancelled. |
| 68 | ** The {{uncancel|ed}}lation of the series in 2005 after a sixteen-year hiatus (or a 'mere' nine if you count the 1996 TV movie, which was an abortive attempt at a new series which didn't get off the ground) -- it was the point where the show started gaining viewers and accolades for the first time since the 1970s, including two [=BAFTAs=] for the first new series. Since 2006 it's won 6 Hugo Awards for Best Dramatic Presentation, and had ''at least'' one nomination in that category ''every'' year as of 2015! |
| 69 | *** The 2005 season began with several "testing the waters" episodes, but the sixth episode, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E6Dalek Dalek]]" is often cited as the revival's "growing the beard" moment, in part because it reintroduced the franchise's signature enemy; up to this point some argued that ''Doctor Who'' didn't feel like ''Doctor Who'' without the Daleks. Prior to this, the show's villains were more on the {{camp}}y side, which was an odd match with the Ninth Doctor's dark personality; "Dalek" meanwhile was the first story to match the main character's tone with its serious storyline and focus on the moral ramifications of the Doctor's past and present actions. After this, the Ninth Doctor's tenure continued with similarly dark monsters and more dramatic episodes that would continue to earn acclaim among fans and critics. |
| 70 | ** Series 3 seems to be considered this for the 10th Doctor. While Series 2 isn't hated and has some well-thought of episodes like "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E3SchoolReunion School Reunion]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E4TheGirlInTheFireplace The Girl in the Fireplace]]" a lot of people found 10 and Rose unbearable. Series 2 often had quite a goofy, silly tone and produced one of the worst thought of DW stories with "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E11FearHer Fear Her]]" and one of the most divisive (amongst the fandom if not the critics) with "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E10LoveAndMonsters Love & Monsters]]". Series 3 emphasised the loneliness of the Doctor and had a more serious tone, along with producing two of the best-regarded DW stories: "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E8HumanNature Human Nature]][=/=][[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E9TheFamilyOfBlood The Family of Blood]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS29E10Blink Blink]]". The story arc is widely considered much better done, although the ending is also divisive. |
| 71 | ** Things got even better in Series 4, with the reintroduction of Donna Noble, often considered the best companion since Sarah Jane Smith, and some of the best episodes of New Who as a whole, such as "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E2TheFiresOfPompeii The Fires of Pompeii]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E8SilenceInTheLibrary Silence in the Library]][=/=][[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E9ForestOfTheDead Forest of the Dead]]", "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E10Midnight Midnight]]", and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E11TurnLeft Turn Left]]". It's a massive BrokenBase, however, whether the finale was RTD's best or worst (with little middle-ground to the debate), and what is thought of the specials after that. |
| 72 | ** Series 5 (the first with Creator/MattSmith) was a bit uneven in it's first three episodes with Smith obviously still trying to get a handle on the character (though the Eleventh Doctor's berserk attack on a Dalek in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E3VictoryOfTheDaleks Victory of the Daleks]]" gives a {{Foreshadowing}}). The two parter "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E4TheTimeOfAngels The Time of Angels]][=/=][[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E5FleshAndStone Flesh and Stone]]" is where Smith nails the character and succeeds properly to the legacy of Creator/DavidTennant's hyper popular Tenth Doctor. Smith never looks back and the rest of his tenure is generally considered to be an excellent portrayal of the character. |
| 73 | ** Series 9 is often considered this for the Twelfth Doctor. Creator/PeterCapaldi is a great actor, but his Doctor wasn't fully baked in the early episodes of Series 8: too cantankerous, with his constant insults of Clara's appearance feeling mean-spirited, and his hatred for soldiers out of character. The StoryArc turned Clara into something of a SpotlightStealingSquad via belated CharacterDevelopment, cutting in on the Doctor and his enemies. But he softened into someone lighthearted, just socially-awkward, and became less disdainful of the military. His "beard" is a hoodie (belonging to Capaldi himself) that he first dons in the 2014 Christmas special between seasons -- his original outfit has a starched white shirt; when it's swapped out Capaldi starts to seem [more] comfortable in the role. Series 9 experimented with multi-part stories similar in length and tone to serials of the classic series, balancing brooding, deliberately-paced character drama with energetic comedy and action. In particular, "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E5TheGirlWhoDied The Girl Who Died]][=/=][[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E6TheWomanWhoLived The Woman Who Lived]]" and "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E7TheZygonInvasion The Zygon Invasion]][=/=][[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E8TheZygonInversion The Zygon Inversion]]" are regarded as some of the show's strongest work in years and penultimate episode "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E11HeavenSent Heaven Sent]]" was acclaimed as one of the best episodes '''ever''' immediately: Laser-focused on the Doctor's anguish and struggle when he's TrappedInAnotherWorld with no company save a voiceless enemy, it confirms just how awesome the character and Capaldi's performance are. Even debate over how well "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent Hell Bent]]" wrapped things up and whether the LighterAndSofter ChristmasEpisode that followed was ''too'' light couldn't wipe the triumphs of this season off the table. |
| 74 | %% ZCE * ''Series/{{Dollhouse}}'' simmers along until "Man on the Street" (1x06). [[TrueArtIsAngsty From then on...]] |
| 75 | %% ZCE ** This has even been {{lampshade| hanging}}d many times by the people behind the show. |
| 76 | * ''Series/TheDrewCareyShow'' became much better after the first season, when Lisa, Jay and Mr. Bell left the show and Mr. Wick became the new boss. |
| 77 | * It took a while for ''Series/{{Emergency}}'' to hit its stride. About the length of time it took for Chet and Marco to grow their PornStache's and Gage to grow his mullet. |
| 78 | * The sitcom ''Series/FamilyTies'' improved in the second season which is the time Michael Gross, the actor playing patriarch Steven Keaton grew a beard. It started out mainly about the divide between ex-hippie parents and their children, mainly their eldest son, a conservative, Alex. It still remained that way after the first year but it also became clear that Creator/MichaelJFox became the [[BreakoutCharacter breakout star]] of the show, showing natural comic gifts, and more episodes were written bringing depth to his young Republican character. |
| 79 | * ''Series/{{Farscape}}'': |
| 80 | ** This basically '''killed''' it in Australia. The Nine Network hyped ''Farscape'' to the point of stupidity, then put it on in prime time. Unfortunately, the series was [[SlowPacedBeginning slow to build]], with Crichton in particular starting off as an annoying putz. The ratings slumped dramatically and Nine began to bounce it about from timeslot to timeslot and play episodes out of order. |
| 81 | ** Most fans consider the introduction of Scorpius as the big bad and the kicking off of the big myth-arc about wormhole weapons and the Scarran/Peacekeeper conflict at the end of season 1 to be the moment the show grew its beard. Until then most of the episodes had been standalone 'John learns about the crazy universe' episodes, but Scorpius changed all that. |
| 82 | *** The beard growing could have started slightly sooner, with the episode "[[Recap/FarscapeS01E17ThroughTheLookingGlass Through the Looking Glass]]"; as this episode cemented the crew as an ensemble with Crichton as the "glue" holding them together; and set the tone of mixed humour/drama. Not to mention providing something of a relief after the previous "monster of the week" style, and the thoroughly {{Anvilicious}} episode just prior to it ("A Human Reaction"). The beard is fully grown by "[[Recap/FarscapeS02E03TakingTheStone Taking the Stone]]", which develops Chiana's character considerably, making her less of a gimmick, and more of a real person. |
| 83 | *** It also helps that the beginning of the second season saw D'Argo's character (he [[TookALevelInBadass Took A Level In]] Smart) and makeup get significantly retooled. |
| 84 | *** It got good when they stopped resisting the madness - the crew stopped calling John nuts and started one-upping him with whacked ideas of their own. |
| 85 | ** Where it stopped becoming a 'human in alien environment' gig and started becoming DarkerAndEdgier was around the episode "[[Recap/FarscapeS01E16AHumanReaction A Human Reaction]]" where John encounters the ancients (which is also about the time the MindScrew kicked in). This set the point where the show started GrowingTheBeard at lightspeed. |
| 86 | ** There's even a handy visual cue: At first, Crichton wore the old jumpsuit he came in, announcing to all that he was a clueless earthling trapped in the wrong end of the galaxy. Then he switched to a BadassLongcoat, announcing to all that he'd found his feet, given up on "normal," and was ready to start being a BigDamnHero. |
| 87 | ** Unfortunately, this went hand in hand with ContinuityLockout making it pretty much impossible for new viewers to come in. Which is what ultimately got the show cancelled. |
| 88 | * For ''{{Series/Firefly}}'', it's "[[Recap/FireflyE06OurMrsReynolds Our Mrs. Reynolds]]". As with ''Dollhouse'', this is not to say that the preceding episodes are bad. It's just that this is the moment when the show's budding sci-fi, Western, action, comedy, drama and TrueCompanions elements fuse together into the wonderful insanity we Browncoats love so well. The addition of [[RecurringBoss YoSaffBridge]] is just icing on the cake. |
| 89 | * ''Series/TheFlash2014'': |
| 90 | ** It started out better than ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' but still suffered from the same issue that show did: villains. Weather Wizard was hammy and killed off, as were Multiplex and Mist. But then "[[Recap/TheFlash2014S1E4GoingRogue Going Rogue]]" came and with it... Captain Cold. With its introduction of a compelling villain, fractures in the Team Flash dynamic (with the reveal that Cisco had created the cold gun), great use of Felicity Smoak (who at this time had begun her descent into fan hatred on Arrow), and an ending promising more Rogues to appear, Episode 4 would begin growing the beard for the show. |
| 91 | ** The beard fully grew with "[[Recap/TheFlash2014S1E10RevengeOfTheRogues Revenge of the Rogues]]", which saw Heatwave appear, the Flash reveal himself to the world, and be the first episode to deal with the [[spoiler:Harrison Wells is the Reverse Flash]] reveal. |
| 92 | * ''Series/{{Flash Gordon|2007}}'' starting getting better halfway through the first season. |
| 93 | * The first season of ''Series/{{Frasier}}'', while still very good, suffered from inconsistent characterisation, an obnoxiously loud audience that whooped and cheered at the slightest joke, and overall didn't do enough to set itself apart from its parent show ''Series/{{Cheers}}''. It wasn't until the second season episode "The Matchmaker," that the show demonstrated the wit, wordplay, timing and farcical storylines it would become famous for. |
| 94 | * In the introduction to her first solo cookbook, ''The French Chef Cookbook'', Julia Child publicly disavowed the first 13 episodes of her show ''The French Chef'', claiming (not implausibly) that WGBH had erased them and they were unwatchably terrible; the book thus begins with episode 14, and most of the first 13 were eventually reshot. |
| 95 | * While the first season of ''Series/{{Friends}}'' was not considered bad, it had a lot of [[TheEighties 80s-ish styles and fashions]] [[EightiesHair (particularly in hairstyles)]], and was quite a bit more wholesome, family-friendly, and episodic than the other seasons, with some critics regarding it as an inferior clone of ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}''. It started to grow some stubble with "The One With All The Poker", the first episode to really show what it can do with its GenderEqualEnsemble by pitting Rachel, Monica, and Phoebe against Joey, Chandler, and Ross in a friendly game of poker. However, it doesn't really find its stride until the second season, after that [[TheNineties the styles and fashions match the proper decade much more]], the writing improves, it finds its own consistent humor and voice, the character's personalities begin to gel more, and there are more ongoing story arcs. It had also set itself apart from many other sitcoms of the time by ending most of their seasons in ''soap opera style'' cliffhangers, a trend that ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'' soon followed. By the end of season two, it was already competing with ''Seinfeld'' as the ultimate sitcom of the 90's. |
| 96 | * ''{{Series/Fringe}}'' grew its beard in the last third of Season 2, starting with the episodes "[[Recap/FringeS02E15Jacksonville Jacksonville]]" and "[[Recap/FringeS02E16Peter Peter]]". |
| 97 | ** Others would argue it started as far back as "[[Recap/FringeS01E04TheArrival The Arrival]]" (Season 1, episode 4), which introduced the Observers and put ''Fringe'' on the road to being something other than an ''X-Files'' clone. |
| 98 | * ''Series/GossipGirl'' didn't really get into the swing of things until the seventh episode. Before that, the characters were interesting but all the relationships were essentially static (Blair fights with Nate, Serena and Dan get closer, Chuck enjoys hookers, Vanessa and Jenny sit at home alone). In that episode, Nate and Blair finally break up and the viewers love what ([[spoiler:read: who]]) Blair does after. |
| 99 | * ''{{Series/Gotham}}'' Season 2 begins with the 'Rise of the Villains' arc. Rather than concentrating on 'supervillain origin' of the week stories, it's now much more serialized. Characters such as Bruce and Edward Nigma are now integrated into the main story involving the rise of new Big Bad Theo Galavan. We also begin to see the legacy of the Joker take clearer shape. [[spoiler:Throwing Fish Mooney off the building.]] This seems to be the turning point, as less popular characters begin to get bumped off too. |
| 100 | ** Originally ordered for 16 episodes, "Gotham" was later bumped up to a full 22-episode season. The "extra run" can be seen as the beard's first appearance. It had a shift in tone that carried over to the following seasons and featured the first multi-episode villain (The Ogre) in a fairly standalone arc, moving away from baddie-of-the-week format. The Ogre arc is also responsible for the "rebirth" of Barbara Kean, who went on to become one of the series' most exciting characters. |
| 101 | * ''Series/GraceAndFrankie'': The show started off with solid acting, but was bashed by critics and audience on its weak plotlines and cliched situations, despite the amazing cast. Season 2 saw the show fully embracing its {{Dramedy}} status, delving in darker plotlines while still improving in the comedy aspect. Season 3 saw the show raise to even more critical acclaim. |
| 102 | * ''Series/HappyDays'' is often thought to have grown the beard around Season 2 or 3, when most of the EarlyInstallmentWeirdness ended and Fonzie got more screen time. |
| 103 | * ''Series/HappyEndings'' started as a very bland and generic sitcom but grew something of a personality in season 2, rescuing one of the main characters from the [[RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap Scrappy Heap]] in the process. |
| 104 | * "Homecoming" marked the moment ''Series/{{Heroes}}'' went from being an ''ComicBook/XMen'' wannabe to the show that made NBC relevant again. |
| 105 | ** It is a common opinion among viewers that as of Volume 5, the show got over its SeasonalRot and is growing the beard again. Or was. Sadly it wasn't enough to prevent the {{cancellation}}, or possibly bring back the ''many'' viewers it had lost. |
| 106 | * While the pilot to ''Series/HomicideLifeOnTheStreet'' was certainly a departure from more traditional PoliceProcedural shows, it wasn't clear until at least the third episode, "Night of the Dead Living," just ''how'' different it was. But because [[ExecutiveMeddling NBC found it so atypical that they pushed it back to air as the final episode of the season]], the original viewing audience's first real glimpse into what kind of show it was didn't come until the sixth (aired fifth) episode, "Three Men and Adena." No guns are drawn; no suspect is chased. It's just two cops [[PerpSweating interviewing a suspect]] in the brutal [[KillTheCutie rape and homicide of an 11-year-old girl]] for six hours condensed to 45 minutes more gut-wrenching than most 3-minute action sequences. And in the end, [[spoiler:[[KarmaHoudini the perp walks]], assuming [[NoEnding he was even guilty in the first place.]]]] |
| 107 | * ''Series/{{House}}'' was pretty solid from the start, but the early episodes suffered from somewhat inconsistent characterisation, an abortive attempt to couple House with Cameron, and a poorly-received story arc involving a CorruptCorporateExecutive trying to take control of the hospital. The series really hit its stride with the penultimate Season 1 episode, "Three Stories," which gave the full backstory to the incident that crippled House, along with much more insight to his character and fleshing him out as being far more than just a bitter {{Jerkass}}. |
| 108 | * ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' started off with some decent use of the UnreliableNarrator and allowed some twists and turns that most sitcoms are unable to handle, but was otherwise a fairly standard sitcom that thrived on the use of the ZanyScheme. It wasn't until the mid-first season episode "The Pineapple Incident" that the show really took advantage of its unique format to tell a complex stories that [[AnachronicOrder double-back on themselves]], [[TheRashomon reveal hypothetical events]] and [[OnceMoreWithClarity revisit previously seen moments]]. "Drumroll, Please" later in the season and "Slap Bet" of the second season also secured the show's tone. |
| 109 | * ''Series/ICarly'': Season 2, where [[CharacterDevelopment Freddie's a much rounder and mature character]], [[IfItWasFunnyTheFirstTime old jokes fall into disuse]], the plots are better and the comedy starts growing more mature. Season 1 was OK, but season 2 is where the series really got good. [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking It's also in widescreen.]] Even towards the halfway point and end of Season 1, the show started growing a more mature stubble with more drama/comedy episodes such as iHeart Art, iHate Sam's Boyfriend, iDon't Want to Fight, and iMight Switch Schools all airing immediately in that time frame. |
| 110 | * Yet another literal beard-growing moment: Masaharu Morimoto, Iron Chef Japanese on ''Series/IronChef'', originally came off as very stern and kind of arrogant; when he appeared on ''Iron Chef America'', he'd grown a beard, gained 10 or 15 pounds, wore glasses, and was suddenly very soft-spoken and personable. |
| 111 | * Whilst the first season of ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'' struggled with a few aspects of the show's unusual tone to start with, the second season really hits its stride with the introduction of Frank as a regular, as well as changing Dee from the voice of reason to a neurotic, amoral mess like the rest of the gang and emphasising various aspects of the others (Charlie's [[ManChild immaturity]], Dennis' [[TheSociopath sociopathy]], Mac's... [[ArmouredClosetGay confusion]]). This coincided with the gang's antics as a whole becoming so over-the-top and [[CringeComedy cringe-inducingly]] immoral that [[CrossesTheLineTwice the line ended up obliterated a thousand-times over]]. ''Dennis and Dee Go On Welfare'' is generally seen as the definitive beard-growing moment. |
| 112 | * ''{{Series/Justified}}'' started off very "villain of the week", with a couple main cast members regularly absent, but it really grew the beard in Season 2, which focused mostly on a single, powerful villain (or in this case a family of them), though the last few episodes of the first season saw some proverbial stubble popping up. |
| 113 | * ''Series/KamenRider'' started as a weekly horror superhero show about a lonely hero that fights an organization that creates evil monsters and is made from old Nazis. The emphasis was around the many evil plots of Shocker and the angst the tormented hero goes through, with little support from his comrades. After the accident Hiroshi Fujioka had, the lead man is changed, add that the changes producer Toru Hirayama did: Introducing a completely new supporting cast that was a bit more comedic and casual, having Tobei Tachibana manage the Tachibana Racing Club and adding more emphasis on the action. Slowly, it turned into an amazing story where a guy fights evil monsters that blow up when defeated with heavy support from his comrades, and even though the tormented hero aspect was still there, the support of his comrades and positive attitude of saving the day proved how much the show evolved. It went off to spawn many sequels and eventually [[Franchise/KamenRider an entire franchise]]. |
| 114 | * Whilst the first season of ''Series/KeepingUpAppearances'' is still very entertaining, but it doesn't become a truly classic sitcom until Mary Millar takes over as Rose and David Griffin joins the cast as Emmett at the start of Season 2. |
| 115 | * ''Series/KitchenNightmares US'' had a decent enough first two seasons, but they suffered a little from lacking the postscript sequences that its UK forerunner had -- thereby leaving the viewer in the dark as to whether or not Creator/GordonRamsay's visit actually counted for anything in the end -- and focusing too much on bistros and Italian restaurants. Starting with Season 3, the postscript sequences were added in, and a much wider variety of restaurants began to be featured. |
| 116 | * ''Series/LabRats'' was originally considered little more than a typical Disney teen sitcom with a gimmick (the kids were bionic). However, the show would later put more emphasis on longer story arcs, introduce the most heinous villains ever seen in a KidCom, and having their main character exes very nearly get killed off. |
| 117 | * ''Series/TheLastManOnEarth'' started out strong as a [[AfterTheEnd post-apocalyptic comedy]] with an [[MinimalistCast intriguing]] [[TheLastManHeardAKnock concept]], but began to go downhill in the middle of Season 1. It cast aside its original premise for [[ArcFatigue bog-standard sex-comedy]] plots, and its main character grew into an UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist. The show returned for its second season noticeably improved and it started to gain critical notice for its [[{{Retool}} increased focus]] on its post-apocalyptic setting, its strong EnsembleCast and previously unlikeable characters undergoing significant CharacterDevelopment. The show may not [[GenreShift resemble the idea that was originally pitched]], but it has long since shorn its TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot reputation. |
| 118 | * ''Series/LateNight with Creator/SethMeyers'' initially had a shaky, awkward start, but grew the beard in Mid-2015 when it started to shift towards a NewsParody style similar to ''Series/TheDailyShow''. In particular, the "A Closer Look" segments drew critical acclaim, and the monologues were greatly improved when Seth decided to do them from the desk, rather than standing up. |
| 119 | * ''Series/LaverneAndShirley'': While most viewers think the first season was good, the majority of them think it got better after the first season, when Shirley's voice and Laverne's hairdo were more consistent. |
| 120 | * ''Series/LawAndOrder'' grew the beard when Creator/JerryOrbach joined the cast as Lennie Briscoe. Fan opinion is divided as to whether it stayed good or kind of lost it after Dick Wolf was forced to create some female characters and Michael Moriarty left/Sam Waterston joined. |
| 121 | * ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'' was given a very different look at the start of the second season that greatly improved the atmosphere of the show: Olivia got a haircut, Stephanie March joined the cast as permanent ADA Alexandra Cabot, the writers noticed that the UnresolvedSexualTension between Benson and Stabler (allegedly due to actual chemistry between Hargitay and Meloni) was too much and toned it down, detectives Jeffries and Cassidy were replaced by Tutuola, and the show began to distinguish itself as its own series. |
| 122 | * ''Series/LegendOfTheSeeker'' really comes into its own with "Denna" (1x08), where the series becomes darker, more dramatic and a bit, erm, kinkier. Season 1 as a whole, however, follows your bog-standard "Find the MacGuffin and defeat the DarkLord" fantasy plot. The second season takes things more literally as Richard grows a beard, as a reference to the [[Literature/SwordOfTruth second book]]. Then Cara, a bisexual warrior who used to fight for the Dark Lord, joined the band of heroes and provided DeadpanSnarker sarcasm, and the plot took a turn for the ''very'' interesting. Bog-standard fantasy no more! |
| 123 | * ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'': The first season was considered a fun time travel show that managed to enjoy itself despite getting caught up in an unnecessarily-ambitious MythArc and [[StrangledByTheRedString some bad romances]]. Season 2 proved itself to have learned its lesson from the very first episode; the show simply became about watching the Legends romp through history and punch out Nazis, with far less unnecessary drama and contradictory time-travel mechanics. Even the MythArc exists primarily to justify letting the cast fight various famous historical villains. |
| 124 | ** The Big Bads of the second season get in on it as well. While Damien Darhk had been amusingly snarky on ''Series/{{Arrow}}'', Merlyn had been more melodramatic, and Eobard Thawne on ''Series/TheFlash2014'' had been played dead-serious most of the time. When they get together to go against the Legends, [[SnarkToSnarkCombat the snark gets dialed up to 11]] which makes them far more entertaining to watch than the overblown Vandal Savage who came across as Generic Evil Overlord. |
| 125 | ** Fans generally agree that the beard began to grow in Season 2 and it was Season 3 where it was fully grown, with "Beebo, The God of War" being seen as the moment Legends cemented what kind of show it would be. |
| 126 | * Though ''Series/{{Lost}}'' was extremely intriguing for the first couple of episodes, the end of "Walkabout" absolutely '''sold''' the series. |
| 127 | ** It could be argued that ''Lost'' grew its beard in "[[Recap/LostS01E04Walkabout Walkabout]]", and after a slump in season 2-3, hit back immediately after the widely panned "[[Recap/LostS03E09StrangerInAStrangeLand Stranger In A Strange Land]]" in "[[Recap/LostS03E10TriciaTanakaIsDead Tricia Tanaka Is Dead]]". |
| 128 | ** "[[Recap/LostS02E14OneOfThem One of Them]]" was a ChekhovsGun version of this trope. While the interpersonal drama and general weirdness had already been introduced so wonderfully in "Walkabout" and stretched out in the episodes since, the second season's introduction of [[strike:Henry Gale]] [[MagnificentBastard Benjamin Linus]], the show's first true villain, cemented the fact that a battle between good guys and bad guys would be a major component of the series -- even if the characters and the audience didn't realize this at the time. |
| 129 | * ''Series/Lucifer2016'': The second season is considered an improvement over the first due to the ongoing storyline with "Mom" and the addition of forensic specialist Ella Lopez. After the third season devolved into a bad case of SeasonalRot, the fourth season served to re-grow the beard and is often cited as the best season of the show. The ChannelHop from Fox to Netflix meant that the writing became more streamlined (due to the reduced episode count), looser censor restrictions meant the storyline could become darker and sexier, and the increased effects budget meant they could make more use of features such as Lucifer's [[GameFace Devil Face]]. |
| 130 | * ''Series/MadanSenkiRyukendo'', around the 30th episode, took an upward climb in quality. The show expanded focus to characters other than the heroes and embraced its silliness, while moving away from the bad parts that were present in the beginning. Because of this, the last half of the series became one of the best {{toku}} shows yet. |
| 131 | * The first season of ''Series/MadMen'' is quality television but it is in Season 2 that characters become more developed, stories become more focused, the changes of the era come into play more and the actors are given more to work with. Kinsey also grows an Creator/OrsonWelles beard. |
| 132 | ** Critics would argue that Nixon vs. Kennedy at the end of the first season was the real turning point for the show. Mr. Campbell, who cares... indeed. |
| 133 | * ''Series/MamasFamily'' grew the beard after it was canceled by NBC and then brought back in first-run syndication. The vast majority of fans seem to prefer the syndicated episodes over the NBC ones, and find Iola and Bubba (who were added in syndication) funnier than Fran, Buzz, and Sonia (who were [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome written out]] after NBC). |
| 134 | * ''Series/TheManShow'' saw a major upswing in quality once it reached its third season and fourth seasons. Almost all of the rehearsed sketches were phased out and replaced with Adam and Jimmy going out and messing with people on location, the misogynistic rants and tedious macho behavior diminished and gave way to a lot more SelfDeprecation, Adam and Jimmy got better with their timing, and the cringe-inducing homophobia disappeared and increasingly blatant and funnier HoYay increased. |
| 135 | * ''Series/MarriedWithChildren'': |
| 136 | ** This is a rather bizarre example in the sense that it started out more subtle and down-to-earth, but actually dramatically improved when the show became more wacky, to the point where it basically became a live-action cartoon, while it still retained most of its core themes and jokes. It's a rare case of {{Flanderization}} actually ''improving'' a show's overall quality. |
| 137 | ** The main reason it decided to abandon all traces of subtlety and go for all-out farce was that ''Series/{{Roseanne}}'' [[DuelingShows was airing at the same time]], and it cornered the "Realistic {{Deconstruction}} Of Idyllic [[TheEighties 1980s]] Sitcom Families" market far more effectively, so the producers of ''Married...'' decided to [[{{Flanderization}} go into overdrive]]. As a result, it became ''very'' popular with [[{{Demographics}} young men]], who (as Katey Segal noted in the ReunionShow) don't tend to watch sitcoms, and that's why it lasted for so long. It probably would have been cancelled much sooner otherwise. |
| 138 | * ''Series/{{MASH}}'' started doing this did this with the episode "Sometimes You Hear the Bullet", where [[spoiler:Hawkeye is reduced to tears when an old friend of his dies on the operating table]]. Once "Abyssinia, Henry", aired, it became clear the show had moved from a straight-up Army comedy to a comedy with dramatic storylines. |
| 139 | * The general consensus is that ''Series/Merlin2008'' grew the beard around episode 8, which, along with the five episodes which followed it, was noticeably darker in tone than the first part of the series. A lot of fans identify it as the point at which the show stopped being a GuiltyPleasure. |
| 140 | ** Essentially, the show got interesting the second that [[spoiler:Mordred]] showed up. |
| 141 | * ''Series/MightyMed'': Like with ''Lab Rats'', ''Mighty Med'' was seen as rather standard KidCom fare for the channel. Then in season 2, they temporary turned their female lead evil and even briefly killed her off. |
| 142 | * Creator/MorecambeAndWise's first TV show ''Running Wild'' was widely considered to be a disaster, with one critic saying "Definition of the week -- 'Television': the box in which they buried Morecambe and Wise". Their next series ''Two of a Kind'' written by Sid Green and Dick Hills was better received, however their classic years are considered to be when they moved to the BBC and Eddie Braben became their scriptwriter. This is the era when the relationship between them was finally established with Wise as the egotistical idiot and Morecambe as the down-to-earth clown, as well as introducing the elaborately staged guest appearances. |
| 143 | * ''Series/TheMuppetShow'' was ''funny'' from day one, but it wasn't until the second season that a lot of the main characters' personalities and appearances really jelled; season one Fozzie was a borderline {{Jerkass}}, Gonzo was a pathetic little [[TheWoobie nebbish]], and Miss Piggy was, literally, more two-dimensional (she was initially a background character and didn't even have a dedicated puppeteer). The better establishment of these characters also roughly coincided with a head writer change and the resulting increased focus on the character-driven backstage plots rather than on-stage skits and running gags. There was also an upswing in guest stars after the show got popular; initially, the guest stars mostly came from Hollywood, but the appearance of ballet legend Rudolf Nureyev (at his request) gave the show an extraordinary amount of credibility, leading great performers in many fields to appear on the show. |
| 144 | * The second half-season of ''Series/TheMuppets2015'' had a new showrunner, who had an official mission-statement to make the show more "Muppety" after the first half had leant a bit too heavily on the reality theme, but without losing things that had worked, such as the new role for Uncle Deadly. While the consensus seems to be she was effective, it sadly came too late to save the show, which was not renewed. |
| 145 | * ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' grew a beard right after its first two aired seasons (one on KTMA and the other on the Comedy Channel). The second season bearding is WordOfGod: the KTMA and first season episodes were mostly ad-libbed. When they started scripting the riffs in season two, the jump in the number of really good lines was clear (the addition of TV's Frank didn't hurt). A significant number of [=MSTies=], however, point to the ''third'' season as the point where the show really hit its stride - "Film/CaveDwellers" and "Film/PodPeople" are often seen as the first truly great episodes in the show's run. |
| 146 | * The first season of ''Series/{{Newhart}}'' was frighteningly bad. None of the wacky townspeople existed yet, nor did Michael and Stephanie. The show was more a bland sitcom with standard recycled plots. Worst, it was taped, rather than filmed, so the entire look and feel was different. When the show switched to film, it grew the beard. |
| 147 | ** ''Series/{{Newhart}}'s'' biggest problem was that the show's regular {{Jerkass}} was a [[TheScrappy painfully-unfunny character]] named Kirk Devane. The show gained an attractive stubble in the second season when it switched to film and, more importantly, Stephanie joined the cast, but it was still saddled with Kirk. The show grew a full, beautiful beard at the start of the third season when Kirk was PutOnABus and [[SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute replaced]] by Michael who was actually a bigger {{Jerkass}} than Kirk, but was hilarious. |
| 148 | *** The worst part was that for 6 years, the only season of Newhart available on DVD was Season 1. |
| 149 | * ''Series/TheNewsroom'', thus far. It premiered with a bang (Will's speech) and then a frenetic episode before basically spending a season Arc Welding. Its second season has more than one overarching story arc and smaller storylines not exclusively revolving around romantic pairings. |
| 150 | * ''Series/NorthernExposure'': Season 2 is much better regarded than Season 1, as the characters find their niches and the sweetness, comedy, and MagicalRealism all gradually increase. Season 3 improves on all of these aspects and is probably the season with the best-liked episodes and guest stars while also benefitting from having more than eight episodes to draw out character arcs. |
| 151 | * Though there were a few decent episodes in its first season, ''Series/{{The Odd Couple|1970}}'' took a giant leap in quality when, starting with Season 2, it was filmed with three cameras and a live audience. Right from the second season's first episode, the show suddenly demonstrated more energy (and fun) as the cast fed on the live reactions of the audience. |
| 152 | * The first season of the US version of ''Series/TheOfficeUS'' went through some serious growing pains. While only the pilot was a ''direct'' lift from the original British show, it was still an uneasy mix of the British version's "[[CringeComedy humor of discomfort]]" and more American-style jokes. The season was only six episodes long, however, and contained enough genuinely hilarious moments to give it promise. With season two, the writers gained more confidence in allowing the characters to have their own personalities apart from the ones that inspired them, which also allowed for an increased focus on the other people working at the office. |
| 153 | * ''Series/ParksAndRecreation'' was originally conceived as a clone of ''Series/TheOfficeUS'' (it's from the same creators) set in a government office instead of a corporate one. Reception to the first season was lukewarm at best, so the show went through a major retooling for its second, and found more of its own voice and identity in the process. Thanks in large part to Creator/AmyPoehler's portrayal of Leslie (who [[CharacterizationMarchesOn stopped being]] a gender-flipped rehash of Michael Scott and became more of her own character), the emergence of Creator/ChrisPratt's Andy and Creator/NickOfferman's Ron as the {{Breakout Character}}s, and the ensemble cast in general coming together more strongly, the show's humor style also greatly improved. Fitting enough, when the show aired in Germany, the entire first season was cut out. By the end of the season, it's outgrown its EarlyInstallmentWeirdness and come into its own identity. It grew the beard further in Season 3 with the introductions of Ben and Chris, adding some more variety and chemistry to the cast after getting rid of the bland and uninteresting Mark at the end of the second season. The third season episode "Harvest Festival" is considered by many fans and critics to be the definitive beard-growing moment of the series. |
| 154 | * ''Franchise/PowerRangers'' began as [[Series/MightyMorphinPowerRangers a show]] where a FiveManBand does humanitarian stuff around their school, fights the {{Mooks}}, then the MonsterOfTheWeek, and then goes back to school - StrictlyFormula. Starting with ''Series/PowerRangersInSpace'', plots became more complex and characters more human as it went on, and {{Card Carrying Villain}}s were replaced (to some extent) with villains with better-defined motivations. ''In Space'' is generally used as the template to which all later seasons owe their inspiration: a strong [[HalfArcSeason season]]-long StoryArc, aggressive CharacterDevelopment, some sort of romance on the side and culminating into a big GrandFinale. |
| 155 | ** Even before this, the initial series would probably have collapsed into obscurity without the [[SixthRanger Green Ranger]] and the Dragonzord. They modified the dynamic of the team (and the show) and, perhaps more importantly to Haim Saban and Bandai, sold more toys. |
| 156 | *** Season 2 was where the show proved it had legs. Prior to that the episodes were very formulaic (with the exception of the Green Ranger saga) and the overall mood was almost pure cheese until the genuinely scary Lord Zedd came along, starting with the destruction of the old Zords and the removal of the comical Rita Repulsa. This coincided with a noticeable boost in production quality (the actors appeared in costume with the helmets off, in addition to staging American-made fights scenes to better match the story) and the special effects jumped up in quality. Longer storylines became the norm and this got even more noticeable in season 3. Even when the show had to resort to using the suits of its source footage starting [[Series/PowerRangersZeo the next season]] to save money from all the original footage that had to be shot, the more serialized nature of the story stayed, albeit in a more limited form. |
| 157 | ** The series generally goes back and forth between strong periods and weaker seasons, which often results in WinBackTheCrowd. Producer Bruce Kalish was [[{{Misblamed}} known for over-using explosions and the like]] for his 4-year run after ''[[Series/PowerRangersDinoThunder Dino Thunder]]'' ended. ''[[Series/PowerRangersRPM RPM]]'' was the first season in years without him, and was comparable to the series as ''Film/TheDarkKnight'' was to the ''Series/Batman1966'' live action show, by fans who have seen neither. |
| 158 | ** Within individual seasons: |
| 159 | *** ''Series/PowerRangersTurbo'': The additions of T.J., Cassie, Ashley and Carlos on-screen, with Judd Lynn taking over writing duties more-or-less concurrently. The new characters and more consistent writing gave new life to an otherwise moribund series. (After these changes, the ratings saw noteworthy improvement.) Looking back, the second half of Turbo gets a far more favorable reception than the first half. |
| 160 | *** ''Series/PowerRangersInSpace'': For this particular series, the major storylines and dynamics of the season, such as the characterization that makes Ecliptor a fan-favourite, really all hit their stride once Darkonda shows up. There's a lot less filler from that point on. |
| 161 | *** ''[[Series/PowerRangersLostGalaxy Lost Galaxy]]'' started off kind of slow and was too clearly riding the popularity of ''In Space''. About the time the Magna Defender shows up it starts to make its own identity, [[spoiler:especially with his HeroicSacrifice and Mike returning to the group]]. |
| 162 | ** ''[[Series/PowerRangersNinjaStorm Ninja Storm]]'': took a while to grow it, but when they added in the Thunder Rangers to the team permanently, or The Samurai's Journey was the point the beard finally grew in. |
| 163 | *** ''Series/PowerRangersSamurai'' had a good deal of growing pains with Saban returning to produce the franchise and keep people excited about the new series. Much like the original MMPR the arrival of the SixthRanger, Antonio, proved to kick the series up a notch. There's also when Deker's human appearance (A bearded Rick Medina), which is also considered when the show grew into itself. |
| 164 | * ''Series/PrisonBreak'' led off with some good episodes, but really grew the beard in the two-parter "Riots, Drills and the Devil" (episodes 6 and 7 of Season 1), which set the benchmark for all subsequent episodes in pace and tone. [[MagnificentBastard Robert Knepper's character T-Bag]] blackmailed his way into the escape plan, the Michael/Sara relationship really kicked off, most of the main characters got to show off the traits that would define them and drive the show for the rest of its run (Michael being the hero, Lincoln being brawny, etc), and the Evil Government Conspirators started taking a more active role in the fate of the protagonists. |
| 165 | * The first season of ''Series/QuantumLeap'' is enjoyable enough but most episodes feature Sam solving some relatively mundane problem. Then, in the final stretch of the season, we get "[[Recap/QuantumLeapS1E07TheColorOfTruth The Colour of Truth]]", where Sam leaps into an elderly African-American and experiences racism first hand in an episode considerably more serious than anything that went before, and it becomes clear the show isn't afraid to tackle social problems as well. |
| 166 | * French viewers [[ReplacementScrappy didn't react well]] when host Julien Lepers was fired from the GameShow ''Series/QuestionsPourUnChampion'' (the French version of ''Series/GoingForGold'') by France 3 executive Dana Hastier in 2016 and replaced by Samuel Étienne, and audiences plummeted as a result. Samuel Étienne himself admitted being "pretty bad at the job" initially, though over the years he mellowed up, becoming more popular with viewers, and audiences surged again. |
| 167 | * The first series of British SF-{{SitCom}} classic ''Series/RedDwarf'' was something of a mixed bag, with the inexperienced actors (loosely: a performance poet, an impressionist, a dancer and a standup comedian) taking a while to find their feet and the writers not sure what tone they wanted to hit. The second series saw a notable improvement with the introduction of the android Kryten (although not as a regular at first) and an upping of the SF elements. However, it wasn't until the third series with the introduction of the ''Starbug'' spacecraft and more shows about getting off the eponymous ship that the show really hit its stride. |
| 168 | ** The Season 1 finale of ''Series/RedDwarf'' ("[[Recap/RedDwarfSeasonIMe2 Me^2]]") definitely stands out as a 'growing the beard' moment; it was the first real 'spotlight' episode for Arnold Rimmer and was the first time we got to crawl inside his head (via a subplot regarding Rimmer's final words before dying) towards his inferiority complex and his deep-seated self-loathing, leading to Rimmer becoming more of a sympathetic and fleshed-out character. |
| 169 | * The second season of ''Series/RobinHood'' is generally considered to be of a much higher standard than the first, with a more consistent tone between episodes and better CharacterDevelopment. |
| 170 | * ''Series/RuPaulsDragRace'' is widely believed to have grown its beard in Season 3. Season 1 was filmed in a different, smaller location with a very low budget, and the show's pacing can feel off compared to later seasons. Season 2 was when the show was moved into its current studio and established how the show would look and feel moving forward, but was still rough around the edges in many areas. And the show's first two winners, Bebe Zahara Benet and Tyra Sanchez, were controversial choices compared to the fan favorites they beat for the crown (Nina Flowers and Raven, respectively). Season 3, on the other hand, is well-remembered for several reasons. First, it added [=RuPaul=]'s longtime FagHag Michelle Visage as a regular judge, who quickly won viewers' hearts by having a level of camp second only to Ru herself. Second, the first major plot twist of the series was Ru having Shangela--the first queen eliminated in Season 2--return to the competition by jumping out of a box, the first time an eliminated queen was given a second chance. Third, the season's numerous conflicts--Shangela's "I don't have a sugar daddy" speech, Mimi Imfurst hoisting a screaming India Farrah over her head during a lipsynch, and the whole "Heathers vs Boogers" rivalry--marked how the show would become known for its HamToHamCombat. Lastly, season winner Raja was the first whose victory was widely accepted, as she had been a fan favorite from the start. While the first two seasons had their bright spots (Season 2 introduced the OnceASeason "Snatch Game"), Season 3 is considered by most fans to be when ''Drag Race'' truly came into its own. |
| 171 | * ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'': The Season 1 episode hosted by Creator/RichardPryor took the show from being a grungy, New York-style variety show into the edgy, late-night sketch comedy show where anything can happen (scripted or otherwise). |
| 172 | * ''Series/{{Scrubs}}'' is generally agreed to have gotten off to a remarkably strong start, but some of the characters' personalities and interpersonal relationships still weren't quite fully formed in Season 1, leading to a few ideas that got quietly dropped early on (like a potential LoveTriangle between Turk, Carla, and Dr. Cox). Season 2 was where the show ''really'' hit its groove as the characters' comedic personas became fully solidified, and its distinctive balance of wacky comedy and hard-hitting drama became fully established. This opened the door for a deeper exploration of most of the core characters, leading to a few ambitious multi-episode arcs that allowed the main cast to truly shine--like Dr. Cox getting back together with Jordan, J.D. and Elliot resuming their on-and-off relationship, and the introduction of Elliot's boyfriend Sean. Most longtime fans will tell you that they fully got onboard with the show around that time. |
| 173 | * ''Series/SchittsCreek'' was always funny but consistently improved over the first and second season: |
| 174 | ** The series started off in the shadow of ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment'' and the Roses are harsher and meaner in the first episodes because of it. When they soften but retain their edges, the series starts to find its own voice and blossoms. |
| 175 | ** When the first season romances between Alexis and Mutt and David and Stevie fizzle out, it leads to CharacterDevelopment for Alexis and David. Alexis feels hurt for the first time, and David and Stevie settle into a deep friendship that becomes a core part of the show. |
| 176 | ** When the Rose parents crash the Barn Party to tell their children they love them, the scene nails the mixture of sharp humor with a touch of genuine sentimentality that makes the show great. |
| 177 | * ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' began as a fairly innocuous observational sitcom, but took a sharp upswing in the last two episodes of its second season: "The Chinese Restaurant", a real-time episode with a single set, garnered impressive critical acclaim, while "The Busboy" started the show's practice of weaving together the [[TwoLinesNoWaiting various subplots]] at the end of each episode. It got more stubble with "The Parking Garage" but didn't really grow its beard until "The Boyfriend" and "The Limo", late in season three, which saw the show introducing more off-the-wall elements into the mix. |
| 178 | ** While it definitely started to hit its stride by the end of season 3, season 4 is what really cemented it for most fans. This season is considered not only by the fans, but by the writers themselves to be ''The Breakthrough Season''. It is the first season to feature a StoryArc (in which Jerry and George write a pilot for NBC for a sitcom called [[ShowWithinAShow Jerry]]), later seasons would become known for them (particularly season 7 when George becomes engaged to his on-again-off-again love interest Susan, then spends most of the season trying to get out of the engagement). This season also has several popular episodes such as "The Bubble Boy", "The Contest", "The Outing", and "The Junior Mint". |
| 179 | ** Creator/MichaelRichards also cites "The Statue" as the episode where Kramer started growing a beard. |
| 180 | * In ''Series/SesameStreet'', the characters' reaction to Mr. Hooper's death was the first of many attempts to teach young children about topics that are hard to talk about. Some consider it the point where children's television as a whole grew the beard. |
| 181 | * Fans of ''Series/{{Shadowhunters}}'' point to the fifth episode "Moo Shu To Go" as a marked improvement. The actors settle into their characters better - especially Creator/EmeraudeToubia and Creator/MatthewDaddario, effects get a little better and the episode structure is better. |
| 182 | * ''Series/{{Sherlock}}'''s beard grew enormously at the end of its first series. Where the first two episodes were comedic and lighthearted, with a single serious climax per episode, the finale, "[[Recap/SherlockS01E03TheGreatGame The Great Game]]", was thrilling and tantalizing. It ended with the introduction of Holmes's most well known adversary, James Moriarty, and a cliffhanger that left viewers on tenterhooks for the entire next year. |
| 183 | * ''Series/SonsOfAnarchy'' has "Capybara", "The Sleep of Babies" and "The Revelator", the trio of episodes that ended Season 1. Most of Season 1 is a perfectly serviceable crime drama with above-average acting and great action sequences, but the story is largely by-the-numbers, and the three-way feud between SAMCRO, the Mayans and the Nords didn't strike many people as particularly original or compelling. But then the corrupt ATF agent June Stahl suddenly stepped up as the Sons' most dangerous enemy when she duped the club into believing that Opie had betrayed them, culminating in a truly shocking WhamEpisode where [[spoiler:Tig accidentally murdered Opie's wife Donna]]. After that, tension went up a hundredfold, and the stakes just got higher when Season 2 introduced the genuinely scary white supremacist gang "The League of American Nationalists". Also of note: viewers really started taking notice of the show's [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic excellent soundtrack]] around that point; many fans still get goosebumps when hearing Audra Mae's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2p84Xdx8ck "Forever Young"]] and Curtis Stigers' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6NDdF-R2uk "John the Revelator"]]. |
| 184 | * ''Series/TheSopranos'' is often credited as Growing the Beard for the medium of television itself. The show grew its own beard in the first season episode "[[Recap/TheSopranosS1E5College College]]", which ended with Tony ruthlessly killing a snitch in witness protection -- an act that no TV protagonist had ever done before at that time. |
| 185 | * ''Series/{{Southland}}'' started off as a typical PoliceProcedural without much new to the formula but over time, the plots become more original, the tone got grittier, and unnecessary characters were dropped to focus on the interesting ones. |
| 186 | * ''Series/SportsCenter'' has been a daily staple of Creator/{{ESPN}} since the network debuted in 1979, but the show really became big in the mid-'90s, with a batch of witty, CatchPhrase-spouting anchors led by the duo of Creator/KeithOlbermann and Dan Patrick, also including Creator/CraigKilborn, Rich Eisen, Kenny Mayne, and Stuart Scott. |
| 187 | * ''Series/StargateSG1'' starts off very slowly, and takes more than a season to coalesce around a unified, sensible mythos and begin its story arcs. |
| 188 | ** The first truly great SG-1 episode was "[[Recap/StargateSG1S1E19ThereButForTheGraceOfGod There but for the Grace of God]]", near the end of season one. Nearly the entire rest of the series took its cues from it in tone, it stepped out of ''Franchise/StarTrek'''s shadow and stopped trying to copy it and it became much better for it. |
| 189 | ** ''Series/StargateAtlantis'' was more or less the Stargate ''setting'' as a whole Growing the Beard, as Atlantis has always maintained a higher quality of character development, plot, and visual design. |
| 190 | ** ''Series/StargateUniverse'' has its beard in full by mid-Season 2. ''Destiny'''s mission is finally made clear, the crew has gained control of the ship and are working together toward a collective goal ([[TeethClenchedTeamwork for the most part]]). By mid-season, they've unwittingly been pulled into a war with a new alien race, hinted by WordOfGod to become the new BigBad of SGU. |
| 191 | * It's pretty common for ''Franchise/StarTrek'' spinoffs[[note]]This trope does not apply to ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'', the first season of which is typically agreed to be its best and whose third and final season is typically considered its worst[[/note]] to take two seasons or so to find their footing and figure out their tone, before really Growing the Beard usually somewhere around their third season. As for examples: |
| 192 | ** Season 2 of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''. At that moment, we see Commander Will Riker sport his distinctive beard, marking his growth into something other than a Kirk clone. Apparently the beard was a ThrowItIn by Creator/GeneRoddenberry; Creator/JonathanFrakes returned after the season break for script readings with that beard, and Roddenberry felt it gave him a far more dignified "nautical" appearance. It's hard to argue. Meanwhile, other characters begin to find their niches, such as Geordi La Forge being assigned as Chief Engineer, where he could do something other than use his VISOR as a [[AppliedPhlebotinum plot device]]. In reality, it wasn't the beard, but the fact that Roddenberry was no longer calling the shots and interpersonal conflict was allowed on the show. Writers were no longer hamstrung by having all of the crew be constantly friendly with each other. |
| 193 | *** In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E13DejaQ Déjà Q]]", Riker (who had previously fallen in love with a holographic woman) rejects a pair of women that Q created to celebrate his return to the Continuum; prompting Q to very astutely lampshade Riker's character growth by invoking this trope by name: |
| 194 | ---->'''Riker:''' I don't need your fantasy women.\ |
| 195 | '''Q:''' Oh, you're so stolid! You weren't like that before the beard. |
| 196 | *** Many consider the very first proper case of GrowingTheBeard to be the season 2 episode "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS2E9TheMeasureOfAMan The Measure of a Man]]" which dealt with resolving the issue whether [[EnsembleDarkhorse fan-favorite]] android Data was a sentient being with rights. The episode is considered one of the best not only for TNG, but the entire franchise as well. |
| 197 | *** The death of Tasha Yar in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E22SkinOfEvil Skin of Evil]]" is also credited with giving the show a pathos in subsequent episodes that it didn't have before, especially since the death was senseless and abrupt. Which ultimately is extremely ironic because the actress left for exactly the reason she wasn't feeling challenged enough. |
| 198 | *** Though it was season 3 that showed the most improvement. This trope could well have been named for the season finale "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS3E26S4E1TheBestOfBothWorlds The Best of Both Worlds]]", in which ''Next Generation'' not only became a great show, but also emerged from its predecessor's shadow and, unlike said predecessor, guaranteed itself a fourth season. |
| 199 | *** Season 1, and part of season 2, was affected by a writers strike that hampered the script quality, including necessitating the reuse of scripts from the cancelled ''Star Trek: Phase Two'' series, leading to characters shoehorned into parts not written for them (Picard would take Kirk's lines, Data take Spock's, Crusher/Pulaski take [=McCoy=]'s, Geordi take Scotty's, Troi take Ilia's, and so on). Many point to the end of the strike as when the show really started to find itself, and there was a significant management change between seasons two and three. Season one had a large writer turnaround (including Trek veterans like DC Fontana) due to conflicting management policies, with Maurice Hurley wresting control of the writing staff for season two. He ended up being replaced by newcomer Michael Piller, who slowly filled the writers room with people he could trust and work with, and Rick Berman took over executive producer duties as Gene Roddenberry took less of an active role due to declining health. |
| 200 | ** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' did the same, with Captain Sisko growing the beard this time. This one isn't generally considered an improvement so much as a change in tone. |
| 201 | *** Sisko's shaved head starting with season 4 could also count to a degree, though this was really just taking the changed tone from his growing the beard to the next level, which would lead to the epic 3-season long Dominion War storyline. |
| 202 | *** The change of uniform started the "Growing the Beard" effect; starting with "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS05E10Rapture Rapture]]", Captain Sisko began to embrace his role as the Emissary to the Prophets, and the even darker tone of the show started here. |
| 203 | *** Bringing in the ''[[PintsizedPowerhouse Defiant]]'' was also a big plus, some people were having a hard time getting into a Franchise/StarTrek series that had very minimal traveling and no command chair for the captain to sit in. |
| 204 | *** But the place where it all kicked off would have to be the first season's penultimate episode, "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS01E19Duet Duet]]". Most of the first season had been rather lacklustre but the last two episodes were extremely well-written and showed just how powerful the local politics were going to be. From the second season onwards, the writing was of a consistently much higher standard. |
| 205 | *** The season 2 finale "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS02E26TheJemHadar The Jem'Hadar]]" also did something similar to what TNG did with the Borg by introducing a potent new enemy in the form of the Dominion. Led by mysterious "founders" and employing the titular Jem'Hadars as soldiers. The episode climaxed with the Jem'Hadar destroying a Galaxy-Class ship, the same type as the Enterprise of ''TNG'', to show what a threat they could represent. The looming threat of the Dominion would drive much of the show before it escalated into the 3 season-long Dominion War, and would be the impetus behind many of the other changes mentioned above (the ''Defiant'', Sisko's growing role as Emissary, etc...). |
| 206 | ** Many ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' fans felt the show began to grow its stubble with the third season, which finally left the lackluster Kazons behind in the season opener and went for more "fun" and adventurous storylines, even if this debatably [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot distanced the show even further from its early promises]]. Some much-welcomed tweaks were down to the character dynamics, such as toning down Chakotay's MagicalNativeAmerican traits and putting a term to the Neelix/Kes romance, which some viewers had found uncomfortable. In particular, the "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E8FuturesEnd Future's End]]" two parter was an exciting high-stakes storyline which set the show's new direction and introduced the Doctor's mobile emiter, giving the show's BreakoutCharacter more things to do. |
| 207 | *** The beard was fully grown with the fourth season which gave Voyager a more serious threat: [[TheVirus the Borg]]. Although the Borg did suffer from VillainDecay, the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E25S4E1Scorpion Scorpion]]" was a gripping and downright terrifying episode showing an alien race more dangerous than the Borg, Species 8472. It also introduced Seven-Of-Nine, whose questionable allegiance gave the show a much-needed sense of contention and uncertainty (plus the eye candy factor is credited with the series gaining enough viewers to escape cancellation, allowing these plot lines time to develop). The fact that Creator/JeriRyan [[SugarWiki/HeReallyCanAct could really act]] sealed the deal later on, as she became a primary character with many well-written and well-performed story arcs. |
| 208 | ** Most viewers agree that ''[[Series/StarTrekEnterprise Enterprise]]'' was just finding its voice in either the third season (which was a tight, serialized full-season {{arc}} in the style of ''Deep Space Nine'') or the fourth (where Manny Coto became showrunner, made a bunch of {{Authors Saving Throw}}s[[note]]with the Temporal Cold War, the Vulcans, and so on[[/note]] and started organizing the show to tie it in better with [[Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries the original series]][[note]]with the ongoing arc of increased inter-species cooperation, increased hostility with Romulans (to lead up to the Romulan War), and establishment of the Coalition of Planets (as the League-of-Nations-esque predecessor to the Federation)[[/note]]). Unfortunately, the show was cancelled at this point, so we'll never know if the beard would've stayed on. General consensus, however, is the beard fell out with the widely hated finale episode. |
| 209 | ** The same is also now happening with ''[[Series/StarTrekDiscovery Discovery]]'', with the major change of setting in the third season freeing it from the need to avoid tripping over the continuity of shows set after it. This has been termed "growing the braids" after Michael Burnham acquired long hair braids in Season 3. |
| 210 | ** ''[[Series/StarTrekPicard Picard]]'' was a contentious series from the beginning, with many feeling its gritty character drama direction fell short of living up to the potential of the long-awaited return of the titular hero. With a new showrunner brought in after the second season, Season 3 would reunite Picard with his ''Enterprise'' [[TrueCompanions crewmates]] and undergo a significant {{Retool}} to become a true GrandFinale for ''[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration The Next Generation]]'' to near-universal acclaim where ''Nemesis'' failed two decades beforehand and close the book on the 24th century era of ''[=Star Trek=]''. For bonus points, the Season 3 premiere would also coincide with return of [[TropeNamers Riker himself]] as a regular cast member. |
| 211 | * ''Franchise/SuperSentai'' had one that began with ''Series/DengekiSentaiChangeman'', which was much [[DarkerAndEdgier darker and more serious]] than the shows that preceded it, had a more fleshed out setting and more character drama, as well as more [[NobleDemon nuanced]] and less [[CardCarryingVillain card-carrying]] villains. Hirohisa Soda, the head writer of the series from ''[[Series/DaiSentaiGoggleFive Goggle Five]]'' to ''[[Series/ChikyuuSentaiFiveman Fiveman]]'', has remarked that he considers ''Changeman'' to be an important step forward for both the franchise and his skills as a writer. The [[Series/ChoushinseiFlashman succeeding]] [[Series/HikariSentaiMaskman seasons]] carried on the trend ''Changeman'' kicked off, culminating in ''Series/ChoujuuSentaiLiveman'', which is considered to be one of the darkest and most dramatic and well-written shows in ''Sentai'', even to this day. |
| 212 | * The first season of ''Series/TheAdventuresOfSuperboy'' following Clark Kent/Superboy as a college student is often not viewed in high regard thanks to its more SliceOfLife focus on the character, sitcom plotlines and crude looking effects. The second season changed things up with a new set of actors and improved characterizations (including a particularly AxCrazy take on Lex Luthor), a DarkerAndEdgier plotline/setting and much better looking effects. |
| 213 | * The sixth episode of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'' -- "[[Recap/SupernaturalS01E06Skin Skin]]" -- is often considered when it was starting to get really, ''really'' good. It was the start of {{squick}}y gore, uneasy subtext (the misogyny of the shapeshifter and Shifter!Dean's near-rape of Becky), festering issues, awesome acting and more insight to their brotherly relationship. All the things that ''Supernatural'' is loved for. |
| 214 | ** "Salvation" and "Devil's Trap" the Season 1 finale two-parter helped further shape ''Supernatural'' into the show fans know and love, with the first usage of "Carry On Wayward Son", the first confrontation with Azazel AKA The Yellow-Eyed Demon, and [[BreakoutCharacter Bobby Singer's]] first appearance. |
| 215 | ** For Jeremy Carver's run, "As Time Goes By" qualifies with its introduction of the Men of Letters and Abaddon, one's of the show's more popular villains. Up until that point, Season 8 had caused division amongst the fanbase with its RomanticPlotTumor, even more arguments between Sam and Dean, and the plot being all over the place. "As Time Goes By" establishes that Supernatural could still introduce [[WorldBuilding new aspects, storylines, and characters]] to the show and make them work. |
| 216 | * ''Series/{{Taskmaster}}'': Series 1 is fondly remembered, but Series 2 is where the show really started to develop its own identity. Specifically, the "Place Three Exercise Balls On The Yoga Mat On The Top Of The Hill" task caused a series-defining moment when Creator/RichardOsman took advantage of the task's ExactWords to completely negate most of the challenge of the task[[note]]Specifically, while all the other contestants interpreted the task in the most obvious manner of "take the three yoga balls up the hill and put them on the mat", he reasoned that nothing in the task stated that the yoga mat had to ''stay'' at the top of the hill, so he brought the mat to the balls instead[[/note]]. When his reasoning was accepted as valid, LoopholeAbuse immediately became a major aspect of show, with various contestants' attempts at twisting the definitions of the tasks becoming a major draw for viewers. |
| 217 | * ''Series/TerminatorTheSarahConnorChronicles'': |
| 218 | ** The show didn't truly start to get good until about midway through its first season (about the time when Derek Reese shows up). |
| 219 | ** Not to mention that around the beginning of the 2nd season, John Connor grew a freakin' ZZ Top size beard. In particular, the series began to focus more heavily on John himself and his role as a savior, as well as using [[RobotGirl Cameron]] more prominently and making the cat-and-mouse time travel warfare between future John and Skynet and an unnamed third machine faction a central theme. |
| 220 | * The Creator/BorisKarloff hosted 60s anthology series ''Series/{{Thriller}}'' had one, thanks in part to ExecutiveMeddling. Early episodes dealt with standard crime based thrillers, similar to ''Series/AlfredHitchcockPresents''. Network executives asked the producers for more traditional horror stories, in line with Karloff's presence and the Universal lot available to them. Fans considered the gothic horror stories that followed when the series truly hit its stride; Creator/StephenKing even called this the best series of its type thanks to these episodes. |
| 221 | * ''Series/TheTonightShow'': The Creator/JayLeno version was tanking after he took over from Creator/JohnnyCarson, until some retooling of the set and format and a widely publicized interview with Creator/HughGrant led to Leno growing some facial hair. |
| 222 | * In 2002, long-running [=BBC=] magazine-format car show ''Series/TopGearUK'' was {{Uncancelled}} and given a huge revamp to an entertainment show about cars with a studio format. Along with the return of one of the old show's presenters (Jeremy Clarkson), and while still including the car reviews of yore, the retool came with much, much higher production values. To say it's displaced the older ''Top Gear'' (1977-2001) is a massive understatement. In the second series, James May replaced second-hand car salesman Jason Dawe, giving the show its 'classic' dynamic of Clarkson, Hammond and May. |
| 223 | ** Even then, the series still had some beard-growing to do: the segments were somewhat poorly paced, and the reviews, while excellent, quickly become routine. Then they introduced the Cheap Car Challenges, the wacky, absolutely over-the-top segments like Car Darts and Caravan Conkers, and the extremely hilarious and epic road trip specials to foreign countries, which show up roughly once every two seasons. The show really hit its stride then. |
| 224 | * Many people say this of the second series of ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'', compared to Series 1. Whether or not this made it great, good, or simply less painful to watch [[BrokenBase depends on who you ask.]] |
| 225 | ** The tone certainly became much more consistent and less {{Wangst}}y, and the main characters more competent... and then [[spoiler:half the cast was killed off one by one.]] |
| 226 | ** The general feeling by anyone not already a long-term fan is that ''Series/TorchwoodChildrenOfEarth'' is where is not only grew the beard but then proceeded to beat up the shark until it begged for mercy. A few long-term fans were in uproar over the killing of fan-favourite character [[spoiler:Ianto Jones]]. Others think this just makes the beard longer by living up to the AnyoneCanDie reputation. |
| 227 | * ''Series/TheTorkelsons'' underwent this after its retooling into ''Almost Home''. The series became more light-hearted, Dorothy Jane and Millicent had less stress in their lives (i.e., the former had less responsibilities and was allowed to be more of a free-spirited kid and the latter was given a love interest in the form of her charming, widowed boss) and many felt that [[Creator/JasonMarsden Gregory]] and [[Creator/BrittanyMurphy Molly]] were better foils than [[AnnoyingYoungerSibling Ruth Ann and Steven Floyd.]] |
| 228 | * ''Series/TruCalling'' is generally accepted to have improved with the addition of Jason Priestly's antagonist {{time travel}}ler. Whether the improvement was from "terrible" to "mediocre", or from "good" to "excellent" is still contested. |
| 229 | * ''Series/TwentyFour'' was a fairly unremarkable police/office drama until about 5:40 AM. The show suddenly kicked into full gear at that point, with [[AlasPoorScrappy the death of Poor Man's Mena Suvari]], the unveiling of Ira Gaines' "IHaveYourWife" plot, and the wonderful last-second plot twist, where [[ActionSurvivor Teri]] finds out her new friend is actually TheMole, all dropped on us in rapid succession. This episode set the tone for the rest of the series. |
| 230 | * ''Series/UpstairsDownstairs'' was a popular but lightweight period drama through Series 1 and 2. The decision to take the show into the post-Edwardian era and UsefulNotes/WorldWarI gave the show a more serious tone that pleased both viewers and critics. American critics also applauded the departure of the characters Sarah and Thomas, who proved to be deeply unpopular in the States. |
| 231 | * ''Series/TheVampireDiaries'' was, at first, rather generic with often cheesy diary sequences. It's around episode 6 of the first season that the show fleshed out the vampire mythology and [[spoiler:showed that AnyoneCanDie by killing off Vicki, who was one of the main characters up until then.]] |
| 232 | * ''Series/TheWalkingDead2010'' grew the beard around season 3. Although prior seasons were good fans complained about the glacially slow pacing. After season three people commented that "Every episode feels like a season finale", something they definitely wouldn't have said about season 1. It should be noted that Rick's facial hair was growing throughout the prior seasons but it does seem most prominent in season 3. |
| 233 | ** Hershel starts out as being a mild antagonist who sympathises with the walkers and wants Rick's group off his farm. He grows a literal beard at the same time that he becomes a valuable member of the group and an awesome character. |
| 234 | ** Arguably, the midseason finale of season 2 achieved this, which was also the point in pre-production where Creator/FrankDarabont was fired and replaced with Glen Mazzara. The first half of season 2 had been focused on the characters searching for Sophia and getting used to living on The Farm, which was narratively static. The second half of the season presents the group with serious moral dilemmas, existential threats from within and without, and finally destroys The Farm and scatters the group. |
| 235 | * ''Washington Week in Review'' was, for over three decades, a male and pale establishment which grew increasingly dull over the years, especially when Ken Bode was in charge. That all changed when Bode was handed his walking papers in 1999, to be replaced with Gwen Ifill, who would become equal to, even surpass, Bode's predecessor Paul Duke as the face of the show. Ifill vowed to ensure that the show would spend more time looking forward, even going so far as to shorten the title to simply ''Washington Week'', and the show would quietly yet effectively abandon its "male and pale" phase in favor of a more diverse cast which included female journalists, journalists of color, and even younger journalists than had been appearing. Combined with Ifill's honest approach to journalism, the result was a livelier, more attractive political program that helped boost PBS's reputation for reliable, balanced, and real journalism. Ifill was so respected for it that for months following her death the series did not have a permanent host. |
| 236 | * ''Series/{{Weeds}}'' started out as a very dark dramedy with some interesting characters but didn't really get great until Season 4. The characters moved to a new town and the comedy got seriously amped up. It wasn't even until Season 5 that it got its first Emmy nomination for Best Comedy Series. |
| 237 | * ''Series/WhoseLineIsItAnyway'' started off as a rather basic improvisation show, featuring a lot of games that are great practice for real improv actors but which aren't particularly ''funny'' for anyone watching them. Over the years it started [[RuleOfFunny playing to its strengths]], and fans almost universally agree that since then it has become remarkably better. None of them can agree, however, on ''when'' it went from "boring" to "funny." Most often you will hear one or more of the following reasons: |
| 238 | ** John stopped appearing on the show |
| 239 | ** (Tony/Mike/Greg/Ryan/Colin/any combination of the five) started appearing on the show |
| 240 | ** Ryan became one of the show's regulars |
| 241 | ** Colin became one of the show's regulars |
| 242 | ** The British players left/were sacked |
| 243 | ** The show moved to Hollywood |
| 244 | ** Drew replaced Clive as host |
| 245 | ** Wayne became one of the show's regulars |
| 246 | ** Celebrity guest shows (possibly starting with [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments Richard Simmons]]) |
| 247 | * Most GameShow fans think that ''Series/WheelOfFortune'' grew the beard when it eliminated the [[RetiredGameShowElement shopping rounds]] and had contestants play for cash. As a result, the game became much faster-paced, allowing for much longer puzzles that could lead to much bigger payouts. |
| 248 | * For the Dutch version of ''Series/TheMole'', ''Series/WieIsDeMol'', either season 3 or season 5 would be this, depending on who you'd ask. Season 3 hosted one of the most devious moles the series has ever had and showed how intriguing the show can be with an excellent mole, while season 5 (the first celebrity season) is seen as the true starting point of the (modern) version (and also as the moment the series seriously started to gain in popularity). Both seasons are, hence, fondly remembered and still regularly discussed among fans of the series. |
| 249 | * The first nine episodes of ''Series/TheWire'' are perfectly serviceable police drama. You start to get invested in the story and wondering how the detail is gonna put the Barksdale crew behind bars... and then "[[Recap/TheWireS01E10TheCost The Cost]]" happens. In a single scene, the show's JustForFun/HolyShitQuotient shoots into the stratosphere and you realize that while you weren't looking, the characters slowly snuck up on you and made you care for them. It's impossible not to be addicted after that point. |
| 250 | ** Season 1 and 2 are certainly good television but Season 3 is when it really lives up to its promise. We're back on the street, new characters such as Bunny Colvin and Tommy Carcetti are introduced, we get a better balance between worlds and we see the social side of Police Drama. This coincides with Omar growing his goatee into a thick beard and Cutty, also bearded, arriving onto the scene. And then Season 4 also improved on that, continuing to look on the politics but also the education system. |
| 251 | * ''Series/WizardsOfWaverlyPlace'': The show started off as a typical wacky "Teen with a secret" KidCom (but with magical powers!), but by the second season, the show picked up intriguing plot threads and an emphasis on continuity usually uncommon for a show of its type, as well as an improvement of the writing in general. |
| 252 | * ''Series/YoureTheWorst'' was already well liked in its first season as a sardonic {{deconstruction}} of [[RomanticComedy romantic comedies]], but then the second season upped the ante with an earnest and heartrending depiction of one of the main character's struggles with clinical depression. It continued its growth in the third season with its exploration of the characters' issues and growth, grief struggles, and their relationships (two of which are broken up at the end and one with an uncertain future). |
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