History Main / OddballInTheSeries

** The original ''ComicBook/Marvel2099'' lineup series featured futuristic "Sequel"/"Reboots" of existing characters like [[ComicBook/SpiderMan2099 Spider-Man]], [[Characters/MarvelComicsDoctorDoom Doctor Doom]], ComicBook/{{The Punisher|2099}}, and the [[ComicBook/XMen2099 X-Men]]. There was one unique generation character called Ravage (though the book was still called Ravage 2099), the main draw was supposed to be that Ravage was written by ''Creator/StanLee''.

** ''Anime/MobileFighterGGundam'' drastically departs from the RealRobotGenre and war themes to delightfully and shamelessly embrace [[ShonenDemographic Shōnen]] and {{Super Robot|Genre}} tropes. Still manages to be popular and loved despite, or perhaps because of, this.

** "Treehouse Of Horror II" is the only WesternAnimation/TreehouseOfHorror special where the individual segments don't have onscreen titles. In this episode, the FramingDevice is Lisa, Bart, and Homer have candy-induced nightmares, so the episode guide only refers to the segments as "Lisa's Nightmare", "Bart's Nightmare", and "Homer's Nightmare". [[https://www.simpsonsarchive.com/episodes/8F02.html The Simpsons Archive's recap]] [[FanNickname gives each segment the unofficial titles "The Monkey's Paw", "The Bart Zone", and "If I Only Had A Brain"]].

** ''Literature/RingForJeeves'' in the Literature/JeevesAndWooster series - the novel features only Jeeves as a character (Bertie Wooster is absent), it is the only Jeeves and Wooster novel told in the third person (Bertie being narrator of all the other books and stories) and the story is set in the post-WWII Britain instead of the usual vague GenteelInterbellumSetting. There are quite unpleasant implications for the upper class protagonists, who have to actually [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome start to work for a living]]. It is quite funny, just [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks different from the classical Wodehouse]], into whose signature StrictlyFormula novels reality intrudes quite disturbingly.[[note]]Wodehouse freely admitted he was writing basically "musical comedies without music", and some of his fans even in the 1930S acknowledged that many elements of his humour and settings were more like taken from [[TheEdwardianEra early 1910s]].[[/note]]

* ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' had four episodes that lacked any supernatural, magical, or science-fiction elements. "[[Recap/TheTwilightZone1959S1E1WhereIsEverybody Where is Everybody]]", where an amnesic man wanders into a GhostTown; "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS2E61TheSilence The Silence]]", about a man who aims to win $500,000 if he can stay quiet for a full year; "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS3E68TheShelter The Shelter]]", where a group of neighbors desperately try to get into a friend's bomb shelter after a missile warning; and "[[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS5E149TheJeopardyRoom The Jeopardy Room]]," where a Soviet defector is caught up in a sadistic game with two hitmen.

Some media, such as ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' or ''Franchise/{{Gundam}}'', are known for being long-running series with multiple incarnations. Within these series, there is always at least one installment that is drastically different to the rest.

** ''Series/KamenRiderRyuki'' was ''Kamen Rider'' InNameOnly back in 2002. However, it fell victim to SeinfeldIsUnfunny, and most of the elements that made it unique when it was new (such as a Franchise/SuperSentai-esque TransformationTrinket, grey moral tones, varied suit designs, etc) are quite passé now. The ''Highlander''-esque plot, however, still makes it quite unique amongst the franchise, or at least until ''Gaim'' touched that again.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' has Season 6, which is the only one where [[TheyKilledKennyAgain Kenny]] remains dead for the whole season (after his death in the aptly named "Kenny Dies" from Season 5), except the season finale, "Red Sleigh Down," where he returns to life, despite the original intention of him being KilledOffForReal. Stan, Kyle and Cartman spend much of the season coping with his death, and seeking the right replacement for him, which result in Butters filling in for Kenny for the first five episodes, and then Tweek for the next six episodes. Neither Butters nor Tweek were working out for the gang, so the remainder of the season had Kenny partially return by having his spirit possess Cartman, after he inadvertently drinks his ashes, mistaking them for chocolate milk mix. After a few episodes, Kenny's spirit is exorcised from Cartman, and Kenny himself returns to life, without any apparent explanation, in the aforementioned season finale.

** To this day, {{Call Back}}s to the events of ''TIH'' are far rarer than callbacks to any other film in the series, to the point that Creator/WilliamHurt's Thaddeus Ross returned in ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'' for the explicit purpose of assuring audiences that ''The Incredible Hulk'' is still {{canon}}; this has been solidified a bit more as Ross has become a recurring character, though his past with Banner is seldom mentioned, and Creator/TimRoth's Abomination has returned to the series as of ''Film/ShangChiAndTheLegendOfTheTenRings'', with ''Series/SheHulkAttorneyAtLaw'' seeing Banner joke that he was "[[LeaningOnTheFourthWall a completely different person]]" back when he and the Abomination fought.

* ''Film/{{The Incredible Hulk|2008}}'', the second film in the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse god, is a massive oddball in that series:

** The film breaks from the MCU formula by having a [[DarkerAndEdgier darker tone]] than the largely action-comedy franchise would become known for, and also by establishing the Hulk's origin story via a montage in the opening credits (allowing it to share BroadStrokes continuity with the [[Film/{{Hulk}} 2003 film]]) rather than in the movie proper. Having opening credits at all is a rarity for the series, a trait it shares only with its immediate successor ''Film/IronMan2'' and the two ''Film/{{Guardians of the Galaxy|2014}}'' films.

** To this day, {{Call Back}}s to the events of ''TIH'' are far rarer than callbacks to any other film in the series, to the point that Creator/WilliamHurt's Thaddeus Ross returned in ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'' for the explicit purpose of assuring audiences that ''The Incredible Hulk'' is still {{canon}}; this has been solidified a bit more as Ross has become a recurring character, though his past with Banner has not been mentioned outside of an episode of ''WesternAnimation/WhatIf2021'' which revisited the events of ''TIH''; and Creator/TimRoth's Abomination has returned to the series as of ''Film/ShangChiAndTheLegendOfTheTenRings''.

** When it comes to movies about Literature/WinnieThePooh, ''WesternAnimation/PoohsGrandAdventure'' was a bit of a surprise to people thanks to its [[DarkerAndEdgier noticeably darker tone]] for the franchise's standards. While some (especially critics) thought this was too much for a Winnie The Pooh movie, ''Pooh's Grand Adventure'' [[Administrivia/TropesAreTools is still just as well liked as the other Pooh movies]] that have come out both [[WesternAnimation/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh before]] and [[WesternAnimation/WinnieThePooh after]] it, with some Pooh fans hailing it as the best.

** ''WesternAnimation/WinnieThePooh'' is the oddball of the Disney Animated Canon's "Revival Era". While every other movie in this era is either a full-on musical or a non-musical comedy/adventure with high emotional stakes, ''Winnie the Pooh'' is a throwback to [[WesternAnimation/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh its predecessor]], with very few songs and low to non-existent stakes.

* ''Film/TheLastJedi'' is the oddball of not only the sequel trilogy but ''Star Wars'' as a whole, an intentional creative choice by director Rian Johnson. It is the only film in the series to not feature a traditional lightsaber duel (neither duel in the movie features two lightsabers clashing), the only film to not have the line “I have a bad feeling about this” spoken out loud, and the only one to follow three simultaneous subplots instead of one to two. It also features noticeably more overt humor than the other films, and has by far the fewest screen wipe transitions of any film in the series.

* ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom'' is quite different from the other films in the Franchise/IndianaJones series. Whereas the rest of the films have Indy trotting the globe, racing to find an artifact before aggressive government agents from an enemy of America do, this story has Indy stuck in India fighting thuggee cultists. The tone is also very different, with a wacky child sidekick and several scenes dedicated solely to gross-out reactions.
* ''Franchise/{{Halloween}}'':
** ''Film/HalloweenIIISeasonOfTheWitch'': Where every other movie is a slasher flick about Michael Myers, the third installment is about a crazy Halloween mask maker who wants to use magically bombing masks and Stonehenge to kill children. The original intent was to turn ''Halloween'' into an anthology series, but fans rebelled and the series reverted back to focusing on Michael Myers.
** ''Film/HalloweenH20TwentyYearsLater'' doesn't take place in Haddonfield, Illinois (while the prologue is in Illinois, the town is Langdon, ''not'' Haddonfield), and occurs over several days, rather than one.
* After ''Franchise/FridayThe13th'' went over to Creator/NewLineCinema, two instances of oddballs were made in a row:
** ''Film/JasonGoesToHellTheFinalFriday'', the ninth film, where instead of a hockey-masked killer and/or a Crystal Lake Locale, Jason becomes a body-stealing demon thing for most of the film.
** ''Film/JasonX'' had Jason being his familiar self again, but otherwise the film was a deliberately campy effort which sent him into space.

** Seasons 1, 3 and 9 are the only seasons that do not end with a two-parter.

** Seasons 1, 8 and 9 are the only seasons where the episodes are released in the same order as their production order.

** The Season 7, 8, and 9 finale two-parters are the only ones that do not feature a musical number.

* ''Podcast/MomCantCook'' points out how unusual ''You Lucky Dog'' is as a Disney Channel Original Movie for starring an adult, without even any supporting children.

* Out of all the shows in the Series/{{Arrowverse}}, ''Series/LegendsOfTomorrow'' sticks out because, unlike all the other shows, it isn't a direct adaptation of an existing comic -- it instead utilized side characters from ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' and ''Series/TheFlash2014'', gathered together by time-traveller Rip Hunter (who has had his own comics and appeared in various others). Despite taking inspiration from those, as well as the ''ComicBook/JusticeSocietyOfAmerica'' (beginning in season 2), ultimately it is it's own distinct thing -- and has gotten progressively DenserAndWackier.

* ''Film/MissionImpossibleII'', which has only become more apparent as [[Film/MissionImpossibleFilmSeries the film franchise]] became a LongRunner:
** This is the only movie in the series in which Ethan Hunt and his team don't end up having to [[SternChase go on the run from the government]] and try to accomplish the mission while [[InspectorJavert wrongly considered]] [[RogueAgent rogue]] at some point.

** Compared to his portrayal in later films (where Ethan's love interests are not one-shot characters, and it's all-but-said that he isn't the type to "love 'em and leave 'em), Ethan acts more like a James Bond {{Expy}}, being able to quickly seduce a woman he just met into the sack and has no problem going for guns time and time again.

** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' is set on a station instead of a starship ("Fort Apache In Space" as opposed to "Wagon Train to the Stars"), and relies heavily on the use of the StoryArc. Instead of a weekly PlanetOfHats, most of the focus is on the Federation's interaction with one planet, Bajor, and the planet's internal politics. It also acts as a {{deconstruction}} of the utopian Federation that Gene Roddenberry envisioned. As such, it's pretty polarizing among ''Trek'' fans, but also has a following among people who don't necessarily like the other series. On an in-universe note, it is the only series that features scenes set in the Gamma Quadrant (as the wormhole leads there) though it is primarily set in the Alpha Quadrant.
** ''Series/StarTrekEnterprise'' is the only series in the franchise that takes place prior to the establishment of the United Federation of Planets.
** ''Series/StarTrekVoyager'' is the only series that is primarily set in the Delta Quadrant (until ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekProdigy'').
** ''Series/StarTrekPicard'' is the sole series that mostly takes place in the Beta Quadrant, and all the main heroic characters are civilians (i.e. none of them are active Starfleet officers), until the ReTool in season two.
** ''Series/StarTrekDiscovery'' is the only series where the main character is not (initially) in command (until ''WesternAnimation/StarTrekLowerDecks'' took the concept ''much'' further)

* UsefulNotes/{{Android}} 3.0 (aka "Honeycomb") is a notable outlier among the many different versions of Android that Google has produced. The primary reason is that despite the OS largely being associated with smartphones, Honeycomb was designed to work exclusively with tablets, and was [[ChristmasRushed rushed out]] in order to compete with Apple's [=iPad=]. Not only was it an ObviousBeta at launch as a result, it also meant that it ended up being the only version of Android that remained closed-source, as Google didn't want manufacturers to try and cram a rushed OS designed for tablets into a phone. It also had a pretty over-the-top, sci-fi-esque look to it that was quickly phased out afterwards.

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons 4th Edition'' massively overhauled the game's system to the point that many people complained it no longer resembled D&D and was less of a roleplaying game and more of a tactical combat game. It also made massive changes to the game's lore. While some of the game's changes were well received, it was not very successful, and so the 5th edition was designed to more closely resemble earlier editions and reverted a lot of the lore changes.

* The ''WesternAnimation/SuperSunday'' anthology series primarily featured segments of multiple shows -- ''Bigfoot and the Muscle Machines'', ''Robotix'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Inhumanoids}}'' -- designed to sell action figures and whatnot from Creator/{{Hasbro}}''. ''WesternAnimation/{{Jem}}'', on the other hand, was targeted at girls and sold them dolls; by comparison, it had plots more grounded in reality (with the exception of Synergy) and the stakes were generally not very high. It later got [[CanonWelding integrated into]] [[SharedUniverse the same universe as]] ''Inhumanoids'', ''WesternAnimation/GIJoeARealAmericanHero'' and ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformers'', which means it also sticks out amid those shows.

* ''Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet'' has ''Film/ANightmareOnElmStreetPart2FreddysRevenge'', where Freddy is not quite the horrific figure of [[Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet1984 the original]], nor the quipster he would become in ''[[Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet3DreamWarriors 3]]'', and instead attacks people in reality, rather than in dreams, and manipulates the protagonist to do his bidding. It is also the only film in the series with a male protagonist.

* Franchise/JamesBond:
** ''Film/LiveAndLetDie'' features supernatural elements in a series that doesn't even remotely touch on the subject anywhere else. The Bond Girl, Solitaire, has genuine fortunetelling abilities that are [[VirginPower tied to her virginity]], and one of the villains is Baron Samedi who's implied to be the real thing.
** ''Film/{{Moonraker}}'' goes the sci-fi route and has its final battle in ''outer space''. Interestingly, ''Live and Let Die'' was much better received as a movie, probably because it was adapted from one of the original Creator/IanFleming novels whereas ''Moonraker'' was an original creation ([[InNameOnly it shares no similarities with the novel of the same title]], other than a BigBad named Hugo Drax) hastily drawn up to compete with ''Franchise/StarWars'' and [[RecycledScript had the exact same plot as the previous film in the series]], ''Film/TheSpyWhoLovedMe''.
** ''Film/LicenceToKill'' is the only movie where Bond isn't on a mission in [=MI6=]. Instead, he's a RogueAgent on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge taking on the South American drug lord Franz Sanchez after he attacked Felix Leiter and his wife Della.
** ''Film/{{Skyfall}}'' is the only film in the Creator/DanielCraig pentalogy that has no mention of Vesper Lynd.

* ''Film/Jaws3D'' is the only one in the quadrilogy not set on Amity Island. Even the [[Film/JawsTheRevenge 4th one]] starts out there before moving to the Bahamas.