Forced Transformation / Live-Action TV

• In The 10th Kingdom, the prince is turned into a dog almost from the beginning of the story but manages to escape and get help. He is helpless throughout most of the story but he does help the heroes when he can. The witch also turns a dog into a copy of him; the dog isn't happy about it either.
• In the very first episode of Beetleborgs, Flabber turns the kids into rats by mistake.
• The Season 4 premiere of Being Human (UK) has werewolf George die from one of these (and the resulting kidney and heart failure it caused), though only doing this after christening his just-newborn daughter as "Eve", to complete the transition to a new focal cast.^note  The other members of the legacy cast were also deceased by this point, vampire Mitchell willingly letting himself be staked at the end of Season 3 and ghost Nina succumbing off-screen to injuries sustained by a vampire attack at the end of the same season. What makes this death more impactful is that he invoked it on himself.
• Often seen in Bewitched.
  • In various episodes, cousin Serena transforms Darren into a lamb, an ape and a statue. She is also shown as having transformed her erstwhile lovers into a crow and the Loch Ness monster. In one particularly extreme case, she transforms a man into a bed warmer and forget to transform him back for hundreds of years, leading up to the bed warmer being put up as an antique in a museum.
  • In an episode, Samantha turns a chimpanzee into a man, then back into a chimpanzee, then back into a man, and then finally back again into a chimpanzee. In another episode, she transforms a detective who seems to have discovered her magical abilities into a parrot, to convince him of how powerful she really is.
• In Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • In "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered", the witch Amy Madison turns Buffy into a rat with a spell. Later in "Gingerbread", Amy turns herself into a rat to escape burnage at a stake... and can't turn back. It's also possible she was trying to turn the angry mob that had kidnapped her into rats rather than herself and just suffered a Magic Misfire due to her being tied up and thus unable to properly aim the spell. Then there's that little spell at the end of the season... Amy does get restored twice but the first time, Willow doesn't realize she restored Amy and accidentally changes her back into a rat.
  • In "A New Man", Ethan breezes back into town for a little more fun, which results in Giles being turned into a Fyarl demon.
• The Bureau of Magical Things:
  • A magic hand mirror that grants wishes grants a wish that turns Darra into a rat. The others have to get the mirror and change him back before it runs out of wishes.
  • Lily ruins Kyra’s birthday cake, so she magics up a new cake with fairy dust. The result is that anyone who eats part of the new cake turns into one of the three cake pops decorating it. Imogen turns into a mermaid, Tayla into a fairy princess, and Peter into a unicorn.
• Happens now and again in Charmed (1998). The sisters have both turned people into animals and been turned into other creatures themselves. Usually this is because a spell backfires or has unforeseen effects, but sometimes it's deliberate.
• In the Season 3 Finale of Every Witch Way, Emma and Mia end up trapped in a Resident Evil-esque video game and have to work together to survive. Emma's initially attempt to defend them results in her turning the attacking zombies into hats, though the dialogue that follows implies that she was trying to do something else:
  Mia: Hats? Really?
  Emma: It was the best I could do.
• The Goodies. In "Army Games", the Goodies are investigating an army research center and find a former brigadier who's been turned into a rabbit. This presages "Invasion of the Moon Creatures" when superintelligent rabbits are launching an Alien Invasion, turning Bill and Tim into giant rabbits (as well as Patrick Moore and science presenter James Burke).
• Goosebumps (1995):
  • In "Be Careful What You Wish For", everyone in the world except Samantha is turned into a fly by the Literal Genie witch when she blurts out "All of you just buzz off!". In the book, everyone simply vanished until she could correct the badly-worded wish.
  • In the first "Chillogy" episode, Karl convinces Jessica to sell lemonade for exorbitant prices by artificially driving up demand. Then he exposes her and turns her into a Pig Man for being a "greedy little pig".
• One episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys uses a magic Bow and arrow belonging to Artemis to turn Herc into a pig for most of the episode, while Iolaus and Autolycus scramble to get him restored.
• Often seen in I Dream of Jeannie. Most notably:
  • In "What's New, Poodle Dog?", Jeannie turns Roger into a poodle to prevent him from arranging a double date for himself and Tony with two beauty queens.
  • In "Who Needs a Green-Eyes Jeannie?", the jealous Jeannie turns Tony's ex-girlfriend into a chimpanzee.
  • In "Happy Anniversary", the Blue Djinn turns Tony into a lobster and Roger into a donkey.
  • In "Who Are You Calling a Jeannie?", the amnesiac Jeannie accidentally turns Dr. Bellows into a mouse.
  • Reversed in "Fly Me to the Moon", when Jeannie turns a space chimp into a human (played by Larry Storch).
• Jessie: In "The Princess and the Pea Brain", the humble peasant in Zuri's story takes a potion that would make him irresistible. Instead he gets turned into a hamburger, as "everybody loves hamburgers", though fortunately he changes back.
• Kingdom Adventure: This is one of Zordock's abilities. The monster "Gulp" is actually Magistrate Kendrick, Pitts' predecessor, who was loyal to the Emperor and refused to go along with Zordock's plans. Zordock turned him into the beast that everyone now calls "Gulp" to punish him, but he's still got human-level intelligence, is capable of speech, and actively helps the protagonists whenever he can.
• Legend of the Seeker:
  • In his arrogant younger form, Zedd turns a lovely young prostitute's customer into a mouse so he can have her for himself.
  • In a benevolent case, while disguising himself as "Grannak the Great" to get in league with the D'haran Dragon Corps, Zedd finds among the party a bound and chained D'haran traitor named Masslar, who is being delivered to Lord Rahl after his secret thoughts of him being slain by the Seeker had been hear by Renn the Listener. Zedd even uses Masslar to get in closer with the Corps, by setting him free, then using his magic to recapture him, causing Masslar to hate him all the more. However the commander becomes annoyed with Masslar and his constant odes towards the Seeker, and arranges for him to be executed on the spot. Zedd, knowing he cannot allow an ally of Richard's cause to die, let alone a good man who turned against D'hara after seeing their cruel and bloodthirsty ways against innocents, uses his magic to turn Masslar into a raven before he is beheaded by the axe. Later Masslar in raven form finds Zedd who turns him back into man, and thanks Zedd for saving his life, and vows to join in the Resistance's fight against Darken Rahl.
• Lovecraft Country: William/Christina used a potion to turn Ruby into a white woman, and didn't ask first. Naturally, she's freaked out to wake up that way, but soon likes the idea since it gives her more privilege, so that her next transformations are knowing and wanted.
• Mako Mermaids: An H₂O Adventure: A mishap with Ondina's magic once turned Erik into a cat. Her first attempt to change him back turns him into four cats.
• Married... with Children:
  • The episode "Psychic Avengers" ends with the family turned into chimpanzees and Buck turned into a human by a gypsy's curse after a scam. The end credits to that episode even show Al and Peg in chimp form. Though granted they don't seem to care...
    Peggy: Oh well, I guess we're monkeys. (continues watching TV)
  • The episode "Field Of Screams" has a subplot involving this, Bud, Buck, and the new bug powder Kelly advertised called "Springtime in Baghdad". The transformations weren't shown on-screen, but what Buck and Bud end up as show. Buck was turned into a different breed of dog, then a turkey. Bud, on the other hand, grew breasts from the exposure to it. By the episode's end, they had long, floppy ears. Doesn't it make you think what "Springtime in Baghdad" is made of?
    Buck: [as a turkey] I sure hope this crap wears off before Thanksgiving.
• In an episode of Merlin, Morgana transforms Guinevere into a doe so Arthur will hunt and kill her.
• The Mr. Potato Head Show: an evil magic kit turns two different characters into toasters, who both say "I feel peculiar" upon this happening.
• In MythQuest, Cleo takes the place of Blodeuwedd after Blodeuwedd kills her husband. As punishment, she is turned into an owl.
• The Nickelodeon sitcom 100 Deeds for Eddie McDowd is about a bully who is transformed into a dog by a mysterious drifter and must perform 100 good deeds in order to turn back.
• Pixelface: In "The Ugly Truth", Alexia is transformed into a yeti by a magical beauty cream.
• It's a semi-recurring thing in Power Rangers for villains to nab innocent bystanders and turn them into the Monster of the Week. The Rangers usually just make the monster go boom as usual and the person would be back to normal. Either that, or the MOTW would just as often transform civilians or a proportion of the Rangers themselves into whatever for the scheme of the week, which is dealt with the same way.
  • Its parent franchise Super Sentai can have this too, with two examples being Cutanner and Ricky Goldtsuiker. The two of them are the youngest twin brothers of the Goltsuiker family of World-Hopping Space Pirates, but one trip to the world of SDtopia turned them into Karakuri Kengō Den Musashi Lord-looking Super-Deformed bots akin to the residents of that world. The reason they're fighting against the Tojitendo Dynasty is because Tojitendo sealed that world in a Tojiru Gear, and the Goldtsuikers are trying to find and free it in the hopes of also finding a way to turn the brothers back to normal.
• In Pushing Daisies, the children of Coeur d'Coeurs are terrified of aunts Lily and Vivian because they are reputed to turn unwary children into birds. That the aunts have taught at least one of their pet parrots to say "Help! She turned me into a bird!" may have contributed to the rumor.
• Sabrina the Teenage Witch:
  • Salem is changed into a cat for one hundred years as punishment for trying to take over the world. This punishment is fairly standard among witches, as other characters suffer or nearly suffer similar fates. (In one episode, an old member of Salem's gang who's had his sentence commuted visits, and he's still just getting the hang of being human again.)
  • Harvey also found himself on the odds and ends of spells due to his romantic involvement with a witch. He's been turned into a frog, a beast, a dog, a bowling pin and much more, but thankfully since he's mortal he never remembers the magic he is under (that is, until Sabrina uses up her spell quota on him).
  • One episode has Sabrina in a bad mood. When Libby attempts to bully her, Sabrina turns her into a goat!
  • On her first day at her new school she accidentally turned Libby into a pineapple and had to have her aunts help her change her back since she was still learning how to use her powers.
  • When Aunt Irma learns that Aaron, Sabrina's fiance, is a mortal she turns him into a goldfish. He's turned back into a human by the end of the episode.
  • Zelda has a date with a man named Ron. However, Hilda is having trouble with her powers and she unintentionally turns him into a deer. Whether Ron is later turned back into a man, or has to spend the rest of his life as a deer is never revealed.
• Seriously Weird: As a result of his curse, Harris finds himself being transferred into other things against his will on multiple occasions:
  • In "Demon Dog", he is possessed by the spirit of a dog and starts turning into one.
  • In "Harris and the Mermaid", the mermaid Muriel uses a lock of his hair and a magic kiss to swap his legs and her tail, transforming him into a merman.
• One episode of She-Wolf of London opens with three obnoxious frat boys being turned into carp. Since the witches promptly plop them into a frying pan, though, the "less lethal" part doesn't apply.
• In the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "True Q", Q briefly turns Doctor Crusher into an Irish Setter dog.
• Star Trek: Voyager:
  • While in the Fair Haven holodeck program in the episode "Spirit Folk", Tom Paris plays a prank on Harry Kim by changing a pretty Irish lass he's about to kiss into a cow. Unfortunately, two holodeck charcters witness this and become convinced that Tom and Harry must be The Fair Folk (not the friendly kind).
  • In "Q2", Q turns his son into an amoeba for a short period to show him where he is going to end up if he keeps acting irresponsibly.
• On Supernatural, the witch Rowena confronts Olivette, who had her kicked out of the Grand Coven. She's about to kill Olivette but decides that would be too merciful, so instead turns her into a hamster. After Sam barges into her presence, she threatens to turn him into a moose. "A real moose!" ("Moose" being the nickname given to Sam by her son Crowley.)
• Raven and Chelsea of That's So Raven accidentally turn themselves into cows in the Halloween special.
• The Thundermans: Dr. Colosso was turned into a rabbit by his own Animalizer as punishment for ruining Hank and Barb's wedding.
• The Twilight Zone (1959):
  • In "It's a Good Life", Anthony Fremont turns a man into a jack-in-the-box before sending him to the cornfield.
  • In "Jess-Belle", the title character obtains a Love Potion from Granny Hart. As she does not have any money to pay for it, she has to pay a price of a different sort: she turns into a leopard every night at twelve o'clock.
• The Twilight Zone (1985): In "Cat and Mouse", Guillaume de Marchaux was cursed by an angry husband to live forever in the form of a cat during the day, only being able to turn into a man again at night.

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