There are a lot of shows that focus on a place of business, and many of them get Strictly Formula after a while and need a Retool. Sometimes a change of management can bring life back into an old show, or at least add conflict for a while. Sometimes this is an excuse to stage a Tyrant Takes the Helm story. Sometimes this is an excuse to stick the heroes in charge.
Under New Management refers to a permanent change in management — or at least long enough for a full story arc. When the boss being replaced is back by the end of the episode it's a 10-Minute Retirement.
This is not The Protagonist being thrust into a recently vacated position and suddenly finding himself in charge of an organization while he's still learning the ropes. That's You Are in Command Now.
Often associated with We Don't Suck Anymore, They Changed It, Now It Sucks! and Nothing Is the Same Anymore. If done badly can lead to Meet the New Boss.
Examples:
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Film
- Violet takes over in 9 to 5.
Literature
- In Eric Hell has recently come under new management, so the traditional punishments get scrapped in favor of mind-numbing eternal boredom. Going Postal and Making Money both have Moist Von Lipwig as the new management of the post office and the mint respectively.
- Virtually the whole of the Discworld series could be viewed as an entire city-state coming under new management - ie, that of Lord Vetinari, whose different manner of thinking reinvigorates a previously moribund city. Whose course then takes a radically different trajectory to that of a typical fantasy-world city. We are given glimpses of the alternative - an Ankh-Morpork not run by Vetinari but by the other sort of Patrician - in books like The Colour of Magicnote and Night Watch.
Live-Action TV
- The Shield switched out the captain of The Barn several times over the course of the series, which often had a major impact on the way Vic worked.
- Between Cheers seasons 5 and 6, Sam sold the bar and left to live on a boat. He came back in the first episode of season 6 and took a job as a bartender at the bar he used to own. Then when the corporation which bought Cheers gave it back to Sam at the end of Season 8, Sam hung a sign saying "Under Old Management".
- Season one of House introduced a new character Vogler donating a large sum of money and taking control of the hospital. Then continually threatening to un-donate (or not donate some large sum in the future) if House doesn't do what he says.
- Ellen featured the title character selling Buy the Book to a couple of hippie capitalists. They put a conservative guy (Bruce Campbell) in charge and he brought a different style to the place. She wound up quitting when she sensed he was judging her sexuality.
- The Office (US):
- In season 6, Dunder Mifflin is bought out by Sabre, resulting in frequent visits by Jo, the Sabre CEO, a Sabre representative in the office, and Dunder Mifflin selling printers along with paper.
- In season 8 Sabre remains the owning company but Jo is replaced by a new CEO with his own 'unique' style.
- After Micheal's departure, the Scranton office goes through a number of managers until Andy gets the position. When he gets fired, he arranges for a former Dunder Mifflin executive to buy back the company from Sabre and gets rehired as regional manager. He then quits right before the series finale and is replaced by Dwight who to everyone's surprise ends up being the best and most competent manager the Scranton office ever had.
- Chuck:
- When Emmett became assistant manager at the Buy More there was a big sign up - "Under New Assistant Management" - and when he became manager he put the sign up again with the word "Assistant" Xed out.
- Things change even more when the CIA buys the Buy More to use as a cover for their operations. Morgan quickly points out that the operation of the store is too efficient and the employees too pretty and helpful. In order to create a more believable cover, the store goes back to the old way of running things except Morgan is made the new manager.
- Things are bound to change again after Chuck and Sarah buy the Buy More
- At the start of season 2, Babylon 5 sees Commander Sinclair replaced by Captain John Sheridan, who Straczynski said was as pivotal to the series as Aragorn to The Lord of the Rings.
- Happy Days hangout Arnold's was run by Arnold and then by Al.
- The heroes taking over Wolfram and Hart on Angel.
- Xena: Warrior Princess seasons 5 & 6 were about genociding the Greek and Celtic gods so the One True God could seize State Power.
- Similar to (and possibly inspired by) the Discworld example below, season six of Supernatural reveals that Crowley has taken over Hell, and transformed it from a place of eternal physical torment into a long, badly-lit corridor with a massive (as in >6,000,000,000 people long) queue - And what's at the front of the queue? The end of it again!
- After God left, Heaven was managed by the archangels and the celestial bureaucracy who after a while concluded that the Apocalypse would be preferable to their current existence. After the Winchesters thwart that plan, a civil war erupts over control of Heaven between the Archangel Rafael and Castiel. After Castiel wins, he allows the power to go to his head and succumbs to A God Am I. Heaven is devastated and when he loses his power, Naomi takes over and tries to bring order back to the chaos by any means necessary, including brainwashing other angels to do her bidding.
- CSI:
- Catherine Willows was pushed into the supervisor position, actually as Swing Shift supervisor along with Gil Grissom, then she became head of the Graveyard Shift after Grissom's departure. But the brass didn't like how she handled what happened with Ray Langston, and they brought in DB Russel as the new team leader.
- In the beginning, this was also done to set up things for the show-Brass originally led the night shift and it was given over to Grissom and Brass was bumped to Homicide.
- 2 Broke Girls starts out with Han having recently bought the diner from the Russian Mob. He fired the lazy waitress who only kept her job because she was sleeping with one of the mobsters and hires Caroline as a replacement. He keeps on Max, who has worked so long at the diner that she saw multiple management changes, despite her surly attitude because she has so much experience (and she runs off the folks who are just going to sit around taking up space, drinking coffee, and not ordering food). Plus, he's scared of her.
- Midnight Caller: After Devon King sells KJCM and moves to Tahiti, the station is bought by a young businesswoman named Nicky Molloy. She's a lot more business-minded and ruthless than Devon, and less willing to give Jack free rein.
Theme Parks
- The Enchanted Tiki Room (Under New Management). A classic attraction—more accurately, its Florida port—"taken over" by Iago and Zazu (from Aladdin and The Lion King (1994), respectively). Hilarity Ensues. It lasted almost thirteen years, but the Iago animatronic was damaged in a fire, and they eventually reverted to a slightly-edited version of the original. A lot of people didn't like the change, though; they thought the shrill and jarring Iago didn't fit into the normally relaxing Tiki Room.
Web Comics
- This happened in El Goonish Shive. Due to losing self-control and violating his agency's rules, Tedd's father was removed from his position of being the Head of the Paranormal Division
. His replacement turns out to be his immediate predecessor in the position, Arthur, who initially appears to be more interested in keeping secrets than helping people (the letter of the law over the spirit of it in terms of the job description), and then turns out to not be interested in keeping secrets at all, publicly announcing that magic is real for reasons that remain unclear, even after he starts working with the main characters.
