History Flanderization / LiveActionTV

** Charlie goes from the dim-witted ButtMonkey of the group to an incredibly stupid IdiotSavant ManChild with a penchant for screaming. The episode "Flowers for Charlie" actually gives an InUniverse justification for this change, as it is explained that the much of the work the Gang has assigned Charlie to do around the bar involves him frequently handling a potent cocktail of various dangerous chemicals, implying his increasing stupidity, illiteracy, and unhinged behavior over the run of the series to be the result of ever-worsening brain damage from exposure to said chemicals.

--->'''Dennis:''' 'Cause if the girl said no, then the answer obviously is no. The thing is that she's not gonna say no, she'd never say no ... [[AnOfferYouCantRefuse because of the implication]].

* ''Series/{{Psych}}''. Where do we begin? Shawn went from being a happy-go-lucky average-intelligence charmer to a genuinely stupid, somehow universally attractive, lovable [[JerkAss asshole]], while poor Gus went from Shawn's slightly uptight but more traditionally competent and knowledgeable buddy to a total loser whose areas of expertise are mostly [[InformedAbility informed abilities]] and exists almost solely to finish Shawn's pop cultural references. Jules went from being your average cop stand-in with a little bit of {{U|nresolvedSexualTension}}ST with Shawn to TheChick, and Lassiter went from being Shawn's {{Foil}} with a little bit of hidden bigotry to such a gigantic creep that it is honestly a wonder why anyone lets the man near them. Buzz [=McNab=] (EnsembleDarkHorse, anyone?), meanwhile, has all but disappeared. He's mostly rescinded back to his original place as a figure in the background of certain scenes. The {{Flanderization}} of all of the characters is actually many fans' biggest complaint.

** Justin's and Alex's innocent SiblingRivalry turned into a spiteful, [[CainAndAbel dark]] enmity that is characterized by revenge and loathing. The affection they expressed quite visibly in the first two seasons was reduced dramatically and by the the end of season three, they barely speak to each other like two normal people. In fact their lines towards one another mostly consist of insults and snarky phrases.

* Reika Shindai starts ''Series/KamenRiderSaber'' as a mysterious manipulator with a very icy and cool demeanor. Later on, we're introduced to her older brother and learn she looks up to him and desires his approval. This eventually escalates into her [[KnightTemplarLittleSister being fiercely protective of him]] and [[BigBrotherWorship worshipping the ground he walks on]], to the point where she becomes furious when someone gets too close to him or when another girl shows interest in him. By the end of the series, it's easy to forget she started out as TheChessmaster who played the other Kamen Riders for fools.

** [[KnowNothingKnowItAll Cliff Clavin's]] eccentricity and his helplessness with women. In the first few episodes, Cliff is having sex with women, including Carla's sister. Later in the series, Cliff suddenly becomes inept, and later [[TemporalParadox becomes a]] ''[[TemporalParadox virgin]]''. Cliff also devolves from a reasonably knowledgable person in season 1 to a KnowNothingKnowItAll. In the early episodes of the show, Cliff's storehouse of facts is sometimes a little off-topic or overly-detailed, but he's generally accurate and is regarded as a reliable source by the other bar patrons. By season two, his 'facts' are usually absurdly wrong (he seriously believes that "'DNA' is an acronym for the words 'Dames are Not Aggressive'), and he's seldom believed. In another very specific example of Flanderization, Cliff knows what iambic pentameter is in season one, snarking to Sam at a suggestion of an Elizabethan Poetry Night at Cheers: "I remember the night you were charged for practicing iambic pentameter without a license." But by season six, speaking of a poem he himself wrote, Cliff states: "It's written in iambic '''pentathlon''' with rhyming couplets, every couple of couplets."

** Drake's main character traits were being fairly dumb and good with girls, but he just got dumber and dumber as the show progressed. Originally he was a not particularly bright teenager but wasn't a complete moron either. Eventually, it got to the point where he couldn't pronounce the word 'America'. [[TooDumbToLive As in, the country he lived in]].

* One example for getting Flanderized between the pilot and the rest of the series is Carlton from ''Series/TheFreshPrinceOfBelAir''. He starts out as a slightly silver-spoon-in-mouth guy, somewhat sceptical of Will and a little snobbish, but generally normal and relaxed, and definitely able to take care for himself. Come episode two, he's already a neurotic rich kid reliant on the family butler for most tasks and so detached from the rest of the world that he simply doesn't understand normal people problems.

** Initially, the fact that Ben liked calzones was just a part of his status as a FishOutOfWater from the "big city", as people in small town Pawnee like pizza and have an irrational aversion to calzones. Later on, the dish becomes something of a TrademarkFavoriteFood for Ben, and in one episode, a depressed and somewhat irrational Ben becomes obsessed with the idea of opening up a fast food calzone restaurant.

** Kelly Bundy's [[BrainlessBeauty stupidity]] (she was originally merely BookDumb), along with Bud's [[HollywoodGeek geekiness]]. The latter ended up being a blessing in disguise when it led to ''actual intelligence'', making him one of the few successful Bundys.

** Dean unfortunately has a few of these now. Another one is how he "makes everyone family." In the first six seasons or so of the show, Bobby gets PromotedToParent and Dean forms a family unit with Lisa and Ben while believing Sam to be dead. He also clearly views Cas in a familial role. From late Season 7 to early Season 9, however, Dean in short order refers to Cas, Charlie, Benny and Kevin ''all'' as "family" with utmost sincerity, causing fans to joke that Dean has decided that anytime he likes someone, they should be family.

** Robin was always meant to be a strange mixture of {{tomboy}} and girly-girl, but she gradually lost a lot of innate feminine qualities and became a fullblown {{Tomboy}}. It's eventually revealed that she was RaisedAsTheOppositeGender which she originally seemed to be bitter about, with most of her boyish hobbies being a result of trying to win her father's respect. In later seasons she gradually becomes a rowdy [[TheLadette Ladette]], to the point that a season 9 episode claims that she has never had any female friends because she genuinely doesn't like to spend time with other women.

** B.P. Richfield was depicted a cruel and hate-filled tyrant from the beginning, but his love of making his employees suffer (especially Earl) was exaggerated more and more until he became a vicious, murderous monster who relished in the suffering of dinosaur society at large.

** Kramer is perhaps the most noticeable, going from a quirky but ordinary fellow into an eccentric mastermind who regularly breaks the law, social expectations, and maybe even the rules of physics. Elaine goes from a forward-thinking woman to being short-tempered, neurotic, and vain. George goes from being a relatively unsuccessful but otherwise mature individual into a bastion of failure who explodes at the smallest lack of success. Of the three, only George's Flanderization is lampshaded or mentioned in-universe. Jerry's his finicky tendencies toward cleanliness and girlfriend-perfectionism surface pretty regularly. In one episode, he meets a woman who's just like him, which he considers an excellent relationship. Over time, though, he wants to break up because he thinks she's ''too much'' like him.

** Dr. Lisa Cuddy underwent this kind of treatment. In season two, she was taking fertility meds to get a baby. As seasons progressed, her baby obsession became worse and worse, until she turned into a weepy wannabe mom whose biggest ambition in life was to bring up a kid. (Although anybody who has ever known a woman in real life who desperately wants to be a mohter and is on hormone wrecking fertility medication might argue that this isn't so much flanderization as it is TruthInTelevision.)

** Dr. Lisa Cuddy underwent this kind of treatment. In season two, she was taking fertility meds to get a baby. As seasons progressed, her baby obsession became worse and worse, until she turned into a weepy wannabe mom whose biggest ambition in life was to bring up a kid.

** In the episode "War Co-Respondent" written and directed by Mike Farrell who played B.J. Hunnicut, Hawkeye Pierce as played by Alan Alda seems to exhibit almost all of his worst characteristics at once: he's goofy, annoying, speaks in almost nothing but one-liners, and is a complete lecher. It's like we're seeing Hawkeye from B.J.'s perspective. It's subverted in the end, however, when Hawkeye turns out to be the only person able to look at things rationally and proves himself to be a true friend by giving B.J. exactly the advice he needs to see his way out of his dilemma.

** Corporal Walter "[[HypercompetentSidekick Radar]]" O'Reilly grew more and more infantile as the series progressed (while, ironically, actor Gary Burghoff's hair grew thinner and thinner). In the early seasons, Radar, while certainly young and inexperienced, wasn't a total innocent; he drank, played poker with the guys, helped himself to Colonel Blake's cigars, and was clearly a sly and knowing individual. In later seasons he became so childlike that he drank nothing but Grape Nehi (because of his previous bad experiences with getting drunk; "Did you have fun in Tokyo?" "I must have because I don't remember a thing.") and couldn't say words like "nudity" without stammering. Additionally, his [[PsychicPowers literal telepathy]] -- demonstrated in more than one early episode -- eventually degraded to simply an ability to hear incoming helicopters before anyone else, a feat which Hawkeye was able to duplicate during his TemporaryBlindness, and anticipate his superior's wishes.

** Corporal Walter "[[HypercompetentSidekick Radar]]" O'Reilly grew more and more infantile as the series progressed (while, ironically, actor Gary Burghoff's hair grew thinner and thinner). In the early seasons, Radar, while certainly young and inexperienced, wasn't a total innocent; he drank, played poker with the guys, helped himself to Colonel Blake's cigars, and was clearly a sly and knowing individual. In later seasons he became so childlike that he drank nothing but grape soda and couldn't say words like "nudity" without stammering. Additionally, his [[PsychicPowers literal telepathy]] -- demonstrated in more than one early episode -- eventually degraded to simply an ability to hear incoming helicopters before anyone else, a feat which Hawkeye was able to duplicate during his TemporaryBlindness, and anticipate his superior's wishes.

** Charlene was Flanderized in reverse, starting out as a stock teenage girl stereotype (being obsessed with fashion, make-up and boys) but became a far more complex character who started to make her own decisions, think outside the box, stand up for her beliefs and put the needs of her family and others before herself.

** Fran Sinclair's role was to be the typical overworked housewife, but as Earl started to care less and less about his family and more about himself and his own interests, Fran became so overworked that she became increasingly hot-headed and prone to snapping (and, in some episodes, becoming obsessed with some odd new hobby or job that gets her away from the housework, but ends up being detrimental to her in some way). Marge Simpson of ''{{WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons}}'' would experience very similar Flanderization.

** [[AvertedTrope|Averted]] with Ethyl. She was introduced as the grouchy, insulting mother-in-the-law stock character from her first appearance, and her personality remained exactly the same throughout the course of the series.

** Fran Sinclair's role was to be the typical overworked housewife, but as Earl started to care less and less about his family and more about himself and his own interests, Fran became so overworked that she became increasingly hot-headed and prone to snapping (and, in some episodes, becoming obsessed with some odd new hobby or job that gets her away from the housework, but ends up being detrimental to her in some way). Marge Simpson of ''{{Series/TheSimpsons}}'' would experience very similar Flanderization.

* ''Series/SavedByTheBell:'' Screech was originally a quirky genius, but his growing stupidity was epitomized when he became an assistant principal in ''Series/SavedByTheBellTheNewClass''. With Screech, it's not that he's stupid (He was [[spoiler:salutatorian of his class]].) He simply has [[NoSocialSkills no social skills]]. But it did, indeed, get worse as the series went on. So it still counts.

** Troy and Abed have gone from being best friends to so codependent on one another that Abed literally can't function without Troy. Individually, Troy was originally a normal guy who was attending community college after losing a football scholarship due to an injury, but athletic prowess gets largely forgotten (unless it happens to be plot relevant that episode), and he becomes dumber & more immature as the show has goes on. Meanwhile Abed has gone from being a reasonably functioning young adult (notably probably on the autism spectrum) to suffering a mental breakdown over his favorite TV show being delayed to mid-season.

** Megan went from a mischievous younger sister who pulled relatively harmless pranks on her brothers to a totally sadistic demon child who believes she was put on Earth to make their lives miserable. The supplies she pulled pranks with went from [[BucketBoobyTrap a bucket of water over an open door]] to [[WhereDoesHeGetAllThoseWonderfulToys a full arsenal of high-tech gadgets and weapons that would make any CIA operative jealous]]. Her pranks also became increasingly over the top, as in one episode the writers imply she was willing to put a whole crowd of people in danger of kidney failure to beat Drake and Josh in a salsa contest. This case was later lampshaded in the pre-title sequence to the episode "Megan's First Kiss", where Drake & Josh go on a rant about how Megan's practical jokes went from childish to borderline terrorist.