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Growing The Beard
The opposite of Jumping The Shark, Growing The Beard is the definitive moment when a television series begins to become noticeably better in quality.

Often involves a new writer or other creative person coming on board, or a meddling executive leaving.

Getting someone new into a series with an abysmal beginning can be difficult, as they only have one's word that "it gets a lot better, really."

This often refers to an individual episode of a comedic series that deviates from an overall light-hearted tone and (successfully) reaches an impressive emotional depth, without inflicting Cerebus Syndrome by changing the tone of the series and focusing on drama and emotion to the exclusion of humour in subsequent episodes.

Continuity Creep may contribute to the beard...unless it gets too excessive and threatens to do some shark-jumping. See also Surprisingly Improved Sequel.

Does not refer to spontaneous generation from one's own body an opposite-sex partner to keep up appearances.
Example:

Live Action TV
  • Star Trek
    • The trope is named for the beginning of the second season of Star Trek The Next Generation, following the weak first season. At that moment, we see Commander Will Riker sport his distinctive beard, marking his growth into something other than a Kirk clone. 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 plot device. Though it was the third season that showed the most improvement.
      • This trope could well have been named for the episode Best of Both Worlds. Almost everyone, Trek fan and otherwise, agrees that it was the episode in which Next Generation not only became a great show, but also the moment it emerged from its predecessor's shadow. (it also marked Next Generation starting a fourth season, something its predecessor never did)
      • It's also worth noting that in the ninth movie, Riker shaved off his beard. The ninth and tenth movies are generally considered to be of far less quality than the seventh and eighth.
      • As far as some are concerned, Star Trek really picked up shortly after Gene Roddenberry's death and the show was taken over by people who were slightly less idealistic than Roddenberry. On the other hand, others seem to consider that idealism to have been the the show's whole point. And because we're talking about sci-fi here, on a third hand, others consider that many of these same people failed to grow the beard necessary to help Star Trek Voyager and in a timely fashion to save Star Trek Enterprise.
    • Star Trek Deep Space Nine 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.)
    • Sadly, nearly everyone agrees that Enterprise was just finding its voice in the fourth and last season, though Season three was a marked improvement over the boring first two seasons. The exact moment would probably be the Vulcan civil war Story Arc early in the season, which set off a lot of political intrigue (and Mythology Gags).
  • Another literal Beard-Growing moment is Blackadder, where the titular character (or rather, the relative played by the same actor) gains one between season one and two, along with a ton of Magnificent Bastard qualities.
  • Full House rose sharply in popularity when the plots started focusing more on the girls than the men.
  • Law And Order Special Victims Unit 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 Alex Cabot, detectives Jeffries and comic-relief Cassidy were replaced by Tutuola, and the show began to distinguish itself as its own series instead of just a Law And Order spin-off.
  • 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 various subplots at the end of each episode. However, it didn't really grow its beard until "The Limo", late in season three, which saw the show introducing more off-the-wall elements into the mix.
  • Refering to above, many refer to ''How I Met Your Mother's season two episode "Slap Bet" as the series' "Chinese Resteraunt".
  • Madan Senki Ryukendo, 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.
  • Buffy The Vampire Slayer: Spike's arrival in Sunnydale proved a noticeable upswing, but the true Growing The Beard moment was probably the resurgence of Angelus, cementing the shift from Monster Of The Week episodes to a darkly comedic, character-driven series. True Art Is Angsty, after all.
  • Power Rangers began as a show where a Five Man Band does humanitarian stuff around their school, fights the Mooks, then the Monster of the Week, and then goes back to school - Strictly Formula. Starting with Power Rangers in Space, plots became more complex and characters more human as it went on, and Card Carrying Villains were replaced (to some extent) with villains with better-defined motivations.
    • Even before this, the initial series would probably have collapsed into obscurity without the 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.
  • Babylon 5's pace greatly improved when Sheridan became the captain (whether or not the two are actually related is up for debate). One character did grow some hair, but only on top of her head as Delen grew hair after going into a cocoon in the beginning of season 2.
    • The Beardgrowing did, however, already start in the middle of season 1, when Morden first arrived and the arc started to kick in.
    • Ironically, when Sheridan actually grew a beard, the series Jumped The Shark shortly thereafter. (Sheridan grew his beard after his capture and imprisonment by Earth forces, near the end of Season 4. Most fans agree that the quality of the show plunged at the start of Season 5.)
  • Mystery Science Theater 3000 grew a beard right after its first aired season on KTMA, when it went from ad libbing in the theater scenes to scripted jokes. Later MSTies who watch the early KTMA episodes would barely recognize the show. The second season beard is pretty much Word Of God: the KTMA and first season episodes were mostly ad-libbed when it came to mocking the films. When they started scripting the riffs in season two, the jump in the number 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 - "Cave Dwellers" and "Pod People" are often seen as the first truly great episodes in the show's run.
  • Flash Gordon starting getting better half way through the first season.
  • M*A*S*H did this with the episode "Sometimes You Hear the Bullet."
  • Brendan Fraser's death on Scrubs.
  • Many people say this of the second series of Torchwood, compared to Series 1. Whether or not this made it great, good, or simply less painful to watch depends on who you ask.
    • The tone certainly became much darker, and the main characters more competent... and then half the cast was killed off one by one.
  • Angel. Season 1 was certainly decent, but at some point things got better. This troper submits that it happened after Season 1 and again after Season 4 (Season 5 was just that good, though some fans complained season 4 was bad compared to the rest of the series.)
  • Most people believe that the sixth episode of Supernatural - Skin - was when it was starting to get really, really good. It was the start of squicky 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.
    • This troper would respectfully disagree. While Skin was awesome, Devil's Trap was the start of a beautiful thing. Sam and Dean are perfectly in the middle of badasses and vulnerable little boys, their great hunting skills are no longer an informed ability and they're genuinely scary - Dean's having a bloody breakdown - during the interrogation scene. It kickstarts Sam's arc and we're starting to realise just how much pain Dean is in all the time. It's got torture, beautiful brotherly moments (Dean saying that the things he's willing to do for Sam and his Dad scare him a little and Sam instinctively going on Dean's side against John's and saying that Dean comes way before killing the demon) and a bloody awesome cliffhanger to boot. As well as all the things that Skin was loved for.
  • The first season of 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.
  • The first season of Red Dwarf was something of a mixed bag, with the inexperienced actors taking a while to find their feet and the writers not sure what tone they wanted to hit. The second season 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 season with the introduction of the Starbug spacecraft and more shows about getting off the ship that the show really hit its stride.
  • The second season of Robin Hood is generally considered of a much higher standard than the first, with a more consistent tone between episodes and better character development.
  • Married With Children 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. A rare case of Flanderization actually improving the show's overall quality.
  • The second year of the new version of Top Gear when they replaced the second hand car expert with James May.
  • This troper is of the opinion that Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles didn't truly start to get good until about midway through its first season (about the time when Kyle Reese's brother shows up).
  • It could be argued that Its Always Sunny In Philadelphia was always good, but really hit its current stride after Danny Devito showed up to join the cast.
  • To this troper, 'Homecoming' marked the moment Heroes went from being an X-Men wannabe to the show that made NBC relevant again.
  • It might have been extremely early in the run (the third episode), but among this troper's high school gang, it was generally said that, though Lost was intriguing for the first couple of episodes, the end of Walkabout absolutely sold the series.
  • Tru Calling is generally accepted to have improved with the addition of Jason Priestly's antagonist time-traveller. Whether the improvement was from "terrible" to "mediocre", or from "good" to "excellent" is still contested.
  • The first season of the US version of The Office 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 "humor of discomfort" and more American style jokes. 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.

Anime and Manga
  • The first four episodes of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha often scare people off, as it looks like your usual Magical Girl fare. Girl gets powers, fights Monster Of The Week, rinse, repeat, and the animation style jumps about quite a bit. Then the plot does a turnaround, removes the Monster Of The Week entirely, and adds the Dark Magical Girl and the space battle cruiser staffed by military-uniform garbed mages.
    • The trend is continued in the following seasons, A's and StrikerS, as the story transforms into a psychologically complex, multi-dimensional saga.
    • In a similar vein, Digimon Savers starts off as "GeoGreymon victim of the week" series (with Gaogamon helping), but starts to pick up with the introduction of Falcomon. Then Kurata shows his hand and the fun and mass-genocide begins...
  • Witch Hunter Robin was rather blah through its first twelve episodes or so, featuring a rather episodic plot involving the protagonists hunting down random witches in an almost Monster Of The Week type format. All that changed during "Loaded Guns", when Robin's organization betrayed her, using her roommate Toko as bait for a trap that nearly led the titular character to her death, an action which kicked off the main plotline of the series.
    • Since WHR was a single-season show it's probable that this was deliberate.
  • Fans of Mai-HiME believe that it grew its beard at its eighth episode, with events (the killing of Harry by Miyu and subsequent "death" of Kazuya) that kick off an Ancient Conspiracy's intervention and cause a breakaway from the hitherto-formulaic plot.
  • For the first 20 or so episodes, GaoGaiGar was not particularly impressive at all and seemed to be a simple, poorly constructed Transformers ripoff like its predecessors... around episode 26, however, the first Big Bad reveals his hand, the truly epic fights begin, and the animation budget grows notably more robust. Then episode 31 occurs and the handbrake is removed from the wheels of badassery.
  • Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle changed from a lighthearted series full of ShoutOuts to past CLAMP series into a much darker story once the group arrived in Acid Tokyo and several startling character revelations took place. Main character Fay also physically exemplified this trope by allowing his hair to grow out after this story arc. IF you consider Darker And Edgier to be better. Some fans were put off by the unrelenting gloominess of the next three arcs, but the complexity of the plot and characterization certainly mushroomed.
  • Jubei-chan had about 7/10 comedy and 3/10 action. Then the sequel came, improved animation quality and turned that ratio on its head.
  • Trigun's first few episodes can be accurately described as "The Wacky Adventures Of Vash & Friends". That all changed in the twelfth episode, which set up an overarching plot to a previously fillerish show.
  • Eureka Seven was a quirky but tepid mecha anime for most of its first half, and most of its watchers were rather ambivalent towards it on its first Adult Swim airing. Then came the first-season finale, which, along with a marked increase in animation quality, set the stage for the rest of the show and was a wonderful Crowning Moment Of Heartwarming in its own right. It was then that the real fun began...
    • And according to the Word Of God and That Other Wiki, this has been planned by the writers in advance: first give us a shonen-y love drama and then without a warning, turn the whole show into a epic of mind-blowing proportions.
  • Though the episodes before it had had their highlights, the conflict at Narita in episodes 10 & 11 of Code Geass marked the point at which the plot hit its stride and entertaining plotlines were produced both for Zero's rebellion and Lelouch's life at Ashford.
    • Some would place the beard-growing moment more at the episode 22 mark; this was not only a Wham Episode that really kicked the pace of the plot into high gear and led to some memorable moments, but it is by open admission of the studio the point at which the show received a substantial increase in its production budget (in response to the show's surprise popularity), with the visual results being very obvious from this episode forward.
  • This troper was unconvinced of the hype associated with Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann up until the end of the first part with Kamina's death. Still, some others don't get into it until after the Time Skip, or everything after episode 17.
    • It's something of a Broken Base on this one; some people have considered either of the above two points to be Jump The Shark moments, and plenty thought it was just as awesome from the beginning.
  • The Mahou Sensei Negima manga does this around volume three, when it begins to switch from an Unwanted Harem comedy to an action series. It really hits its stride at the end of the Kyoto Arc, around volume 6. Unfortunately, the anime adaptation didn't get that far.
  • Gun X Sword starts a bit slow and episodic... and then at the end of the sixth episode, Van asks a waiter if he's seen a man with a claw. The response is as follows: "Yes. He's right over there." That moment starts the show's momentum going, and it never loses it until the end.
  • R.O.D. The TV starts off very slow and episodic, with only the most superficial of connections to Read Or Die and a strange amount of time spent on Anita going to school. Then the show gets a kick in the rear when the entire conspiracy of the British Library comes into play beginning with kidnapping Nenene and the destruction of the entire island of Hong Kong, and the main plotline becomes the focus and not the subplot.
    • Of course, Your Mileage May Vary, since this troper thinks that the part with Anita going to school contained some of the best episodes of the series—and they appeared to be relevant to the main plot after all.
  • Jo Jos Bizarre Adventure begins as what could best be described as Fist Of The North Star with vampires for its first two arcs. With Part 3 it really comes into its own with the introduction of battle spirits called "Stands" and does away with the Hokuto Shinken-esque martial arts used in Parts 1 and 2. And in Part 4, the art noticeably begins to shift away from looking like Fist of the North Star and develops a completely unique style.
  • After a pretty good first two episodes, Death Note spends a bit too much time on a largely forgettable subplot about the FBI (granted, it shows how extreme Light is, gives L a reason to suspect him, and shows off his Chessmaster skills, but could've been cut down in length). It's when L confronts Light directly, turning the series into a much more direct chess game between the two, that it really takes off.
  • After the rather dismal Johto season, Pokemon vastly improved itself with the AG series, which introduced a new cast member and a new story arc to go along with Ash's badge collecting quest, along with drastically reducing the amount of filler. And many fans believe Diamond and Pearl is even better.
  • Gundam SEED is rather slow-paced for the first 30 or so episodes (basically, every episode generally follows the ZAFT-attacks-Kira-saves-the-day routine; that these episodes are more or less a copy... uh, Remake of the original Gundam series doesn't exactly help), but after a few Wham Episodes SEED finally escapes this routine and sets off on a path to its original, epic Grand Finale. To its defense, the first episodes do a good job of familiarizing and endearing the characters to the audience.
  • Lots of One Piece fans contest that it was around the Arlong Arc that the really good stuff got started. (and that the aforementioned arc was the first great one.)
  • Candy Boy is turning more and more into an emotional slice of life series with each released episode, especially since the introduction of Kanade and Yukino's little sister Shizuku. Not bad for a show that was originally a one-time affair based around the gimmick of twin sisters who like each other much more than average.

Western Animation
  • While not considered bad, the first season of The Simpsons seems jarringly different than other seasons to more recent viewers, due to the show's slower pace, Homer's voice, the quirks of the animation style, etc. The show really picks up in the second season, and then really hits its stride by the third season.
  • The 1990s Fantastic Four and Iron Man cartoons both grew their beards in Season 2; while not rejecting their first seasons, the shows suddenly took a leap forward in quality.
  • Transformers: Beast Wars was very episodic, though still enjoyable, in its first season, but in the second and third the plot threads were woven much more tightly, characters gained depth, and the show went on what one fan has referred to as an "Epic kick". It may not be incidental that the first season was also the longest (in fact as long as both of the other two together).
  • Early episodes of Kim Possible, and indeed much of the first season, featured overly-simplified characterizations and rather weak performances on the parts of the voice actors, and almost no chemistry of any kind between the characters, with the titular character seemingly just a kidified Buffy Summers. However, fairly quickly the series seemed to realize that while action was good, a lot of the charm of the series fed off of the character interaction, and scripts full of characters quipping off of each other and amusing reactions (as well as better action, especially in the last season) became the norm.
  • The Batman does this with it first season finale, when the characters are started to give some depth and it is not so blatantly Merchandise Driven. Most notably, Joker (often slandered as the character who suffered the worst Adaptation Decay) shows his nasty side for the first time, Batman/Bruce goes through his first real trauma in his career, and one of the show's best villains is created (arguably exceeding his comic and B: TAS versions). It grew the beard again in the fourth season, which was not only a marked improvement over a weak third season, but probably the best for overall storytelling (as well as introducing their rather good version of Dick Grayson).
  • The Duck Dodgers episode "Of Course You Know, This Means War (and Peace)" provided a very compelling, drama-laden episode that didn't break the tone of the rest of the series, the following episode actually being used for the snapback.
  • Reboot, mostly a highly episodic children's show in the first two seasons, abruptly became much deeper and somewhat darker in the third season, with a season-wide plot arc that made the show much more entertaining to an older audience. This is likely because they went into syndication in the third season and were no longer subject to ABC's Broadcast Standards and Practices which had constrained them up until that point (including giving Dot a "uniboob" because they didn't want things to be sexual at all).
  • The Raccoons when the human characters were dropped in the second season and the setting changed to a fully Funny Animal world. With that new focus, the plots became more original and the characters more complex such as Cyril Sneer become more sympathetic as a Anti Hero.
  • American Dad is widely regarded as becoming a more coherant and original show after the two part episode "Stan Of Arabia"; stepping out of the shadow of its predecessor by avoiding that shows excessive use of flashbacks and focusing on plot elements that weren't just easy political targets.
  • Most X Men Evolution fans agree that that show stopped being a "kiddie cartoon" around the season 2 finale. Then came season 3...
  • Teen Titans season 1 was painfully slow, Anvilicious, and couldn't escape the label of "Justice League lite." Something at the end of Season 1 just clicked and showed that yeah, they can do drama. Then Season 2 said "yeah we can also do superhero comedy!"
  • Justice League Season 2 is considered a vast improvement over Season 1. Mostly thanks to writer Dwayne Mc Duffie joining the crew, but also managing to seriously think a few plots through (everyone loves "A Better World.")

Literature
  • The pre-1990 Discworld books (at the latest, up to Small Gods) felt far different than their latter counterparts. Particularly glaring within the separate section of the Disc mythos: Compare and contrast the Granny Weatherwax from Equal Rites to the one in Carpe Jugulum. Or the Lord Vetinari in The Color of Magic (Wordof God had to step in and confirm) to the Magnificent Bastard of the Moist Von Lipwig books.
  • Lord Foul's Bane, the first book in Stephen R. Donaldson's Chronicles Of Thomas Covenant series, isn't very good. Skip it. The series improves dramatically in the second book, titled The Illearth War, and stays that way.
  • The Dragonbone Chair, the first book in Tad Williams's Doorstopper fantasy series, Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, tends to drag on and doesn't introduce the main antagonist until several hundred pages in. Once the series gets going, it's very good, but you still have to get through much of the first book to get to the good stuff.
    • This seems to be the case with most of Tad Williams' doorstoppers. The protagonist only knows that their life is going to hell; they don't know why, and there's webs within webs, etc. This troper recalls reading the third book of Otherland and being approached by a classmate reading the first and asked, "When does it pick up?" "I'm still waiting." Friggen awesome characters, storytelling, worldbuilding, and prose keep this from really becoming the problem it would be in the hands of a less capable author. But it's a given that you just simply will not have any idea what's actually going on until the last five hundred pages or so.
  • Gardens of the Moon, the first book in Steven Erikson's gargantuam Malazan Book of the Fallen sequence, drops the reader in the middle of an ongoing war with little explanation of what is going on. The lack of scene-setting or explanations for concepts in the book have led many to give up on the novel, as acknowledged in later editions by the author. Fans suggest that the book doesn't settle down and become comprehensible until a good 150 pages in, and many suggest skipping it and starting with the more traditionally-structured second book, Deadhouse Gates (set on a different continent with different characters) instead.
  • David Brin's novel Sundiver, the first set in his Uplift Saga universe, is poor, and it is usually recommended that readers skip to the second, Startide Rising, instead. This is made easier by the second book being set 300 years after the first, featuring a totally different cast and having minimal references to the first book.
  • Robert Jordan's The Eye of the World, the first in his Wheel of Time series, sometimes cops a lot of flak for its "borrowings" from Lord of the Rings. The second book, The Great Hunt, takes the story in a completely different direction and is much better. However, given the amount of plot and character information given in the first book it is difficult to recommend that new readers skip it.
  • The Dark Tower fans generally consider the series to have properly begun in the second book. The author agrees so heartily that he actually re-wrote the first book to try and make it suck less; fans are divided as to whether this was an improvement.
  • Harry Potter did it with The Prisoner of Azkaban, the third book of the series. The first two were fun little page turners but didn't really appear to be much more than that. Then book three's title character is someone mentioned very briefly at the start of book one and it just builds from there, making it clear that this isn't just some fluffy kid/teen series but an incredibly intricately plotted seven part MythArc. Time Travel resolution aside, it's still This Troper's favorite in the series.

Film
  • The entire medium of film is generally considered to have grown the beard in 1919, with The Cabinet Of Dr Caligari proving that yes, it was a valid art form. Granted, this also made film subject to the same insistences about "True Art" as other mediums, but it's definitely worth it.
  • While Dr. No and From Russia With Love are exciting and entertaining spy movies, it wasn't until Goldfinger, the third James Bond film, that the iconic formula of the films is perfected. The series also arguably has a second Growing the Beard moment with Casino Royale, with a complete removal of the gadgets and more fantastic elements and a return to the gritty spy thriller of the novels.

Comic Books
  • Another literal example: Green Arrow was just a cheap Batman knockoff with an arrow gimmick until he started sporting a goatee and became a "socially conscious" modern-day Robin Hood with the modern political ideals and sophistication of Abbey Hoffman.
    • Just because it wasn't a Batman rip-off doesn't mean it was GOOD...
  • The US Transformers comic was okay, occasionally outstanding, for the first several years of its existence, until writer Bob Budiansky tired of it and started writing such gripping tales such as the human-sized Transformers who joined the pro-wrestling circuit or had romances with giant Amazon women in space. UK Transformers writer Simon Furman took over for the last two years of its run and the stories saw an immediate and significant upswing into epic, mythology-driven and long-running arc plots involving both new and old characters. Many old fans who'd gotten bored during Budiansky's reign returned to the fold and sales saw a significant upswing (passing 100,000 a month), making the decision to cancel the comic in 1991 all the more inexplicable.

Music
  • George Harrison of The Beatles. While not, strictly speaking, actually bad, his early works tended to lean a bit to the saccharine side of things, and most of his best performances were on songs written by John and/or Paul. However, he eventually became an accomplished songwriter in his own right, even managing to hold his own in a solo career after the band broke up. Just compare "Don't Bother Me" (from the album With The Beatles) to "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." (Like Riker, he also grew an actual beard in the interim.)
    • He did more than "hold his own" in his solo career, he was actually the first Beatle to have a post-Beatles #1 solo hit.
    • Not to mention The Beatles in general, who transformed from a goopy pop group into legitimate musicians during the '60s.
  • R.E.M.'s fifth album, 'Document'. As music writer Garry Mulholland puts it in This is Uncool: "the moment Michael Stipe stopped mumbling gibberish into his fringe over tinny old Byrds riffs". A bit harsh perhaps, but undoubtedly the record that made them mainstream.
  • Green Day's 'Dookie', the third album. The first two records are respectable but very lo-fi. They even re-recorded 'Welcome to Paradise' for Dookie to make it sound a bit less tinny.
  • David Bowie was in the music business for five years (my brain hurts a lot) before "Space Oddity"...and even then, his most iconic "early" (glam) songs (most of them actually Vindicated By History after "Ziggy Stardust" brought him back into the public eye) didn't come until his partnership with Mick Ronson.
    • Five years? That's all we got? Jeez...
  • The three original members of Rush were Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and John Rutsey. They were a decent if generic rock band with some definite promise. Then Rutsey left the band over creative differences after their first album. The next album, Fly By Night introduced the new drummer Neil Peart. Not only is he pretty much the consummate best rock drummer in the world, but he wrote the band's lyrics. Goodbye cutesy songs like "I Need Some Love", hello prog rock history. Rush became famous for their concept albums, their evolutionary style and their incredibly deep lyrics.

Web Comics
  • The beginning of Dan And Mabs Furry Adventures, to be frank, absolutely sucked. Then the author resumed updating after a year's absence, at which point the art quality massively improved, the characters' personalities became more distinct, the plot picked up, the worldbuilding started to improve, the separate species were introduced... In general, it just, very abruptly, became worth reading.
  • 1/0 had no point save getting a girlfriend when it started, nor did Tailsteak have any art experience, and it shows. The reason there was No Fourth Wall was that Tailsteak never bothered to put one in, and found he couldn't do much in the way of jokes with one. Then he started taking real advantage of its absence, using it for creative character interactions. Then said characters started spiraling out of control in just the right ways.
  • Erfworld was almost painful to read for the first few strips (comparable to a novel with the first hundred pages removed) until Parson and PLOT finally showed up and distilled the story down to a manageable scale.
  • This troper only read El Goonish Shive at the recommendation of a good friend. Going from the beginning on an attempted Archive Binge I hated the terrible writing and even worse artwork, the only motivation for going on being repeatedly told "It gets better." I skipped ahead to the "Sister" arc, watching as every aspect of the comic improved, from the writing to the artwork. Now he's sure it's one of the best on the web.

Videogames
  • After throwing the player straight into the action and then slowly explaining just what's going on in its first two levels, killer7 improves notably as soon as the Cloudman chapter starts, with much better level layouts and puzzles, not to mention the introduction of Andrei Ulmeyda and the rest of the game's quirky rogues gallery.
  • Apogee Software released two games featuring an eponymous hero who loved Oprah just a little bit less than he loved himself, wielded a nuclear proton rifle and fought a cybernetic Blofeld ripoff in the first game and aliens in the second game. Then they made the 3rd game 3D, used the Build engine, and altered the character drastically, turning him into a pastiche of testosterone-pumped action heroes. The result was a classic First Person Shooter. Have you guessed the character's name yet?
  • MegaMan 2
  • From the peach fuzz of 'IT IS DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE! TAKE THIS', The Legend of Zelda finally grew its beard in A Link to the Past.
  • Sam And Max: Season Two is widely considered to be much, much better than Season One, due to having harder puzzles, more variation in locations, more unique episodes, a much more coherent story arc involving most of the supporting cast and killing off the Soda Poppers.
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