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A
- The first season of The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius felt like a spinoff of the pilot movie, in that many people found it generic and unimaginative. Around the time Libby got her Expository Hairstyle Change, the episodes started to feel more fleshed out, with more in-depth storylines and stronger character moments, and it resembled more like a classic Nicktoon.
- The first season of The Adventures of Puss in Boots was released in five episode packs, and had a highly episodic bend to it. The second season was released in a larger, all at once batch and features a tighter continuity and an ongoing story arc.
- Adventure Time began its run as a simple and comedic kids' show with any plot elements being far in the background. It wasn't until "Mortal Folly/Mortal Recoil" at the end of season two that the show began to take a ride on the Cerebus Rollercoaster, balancing out its more bizarre comedic elements with copious amounts of world-building and character development.
- While The Amazing World of Gumball was met with positive reception upon its debut, largely thanks to its Medium Blending, many fans agree Season 2 was when the series hit its stride. It had better animation, improved humor, more coherent stories, and a willingness to further experiment with its different art styles. Its wit managed to turn even the most clichéd of sitcom stories into something worth watching, as seen with "The Job", "The Fridge", "The Remote", and "The Finale". With seasons 3-6, the show has only improved with time, with many episodes that are considered the best debuting during this run.
- American Dad! is widely regarded as becoming a more coherent and original show after the two part episode "Stan of Arabia"; stepping out of the shadow of its predecessor by avoiding that show's excessive use of flashbacks and focusing on plot elements that weren't just easy political targets.
- The show has been steadily growing the beard since "Roger n' Me", finally becoming a classic with the third season episodes "Meter Made" and "Dope & Faith", the latter containing several sublime moments including a subplot resolution that involves Roger the alien on cocaine and Steve Smith defeating the Big Bad by waving a chopstick and shouting "wash your hands" in Spanish.
- Archer started off as good, but Season 2 saw it become great by bumping Ensemble Darkhorses Ray and Krieger up to main character status, introducing a greater variety of episode plots, giving most of the characters considerably more emotional depth without sacrificing the humor, refashioning Barry into the series' first proper main villain, and generally having funnier, sharper jokes.
- Atomic Puppet was clumsy in its blend of action and comedy and didn't fully utilize its premise when it debuted. However, it managed to score its first big hit with "Sword Sisters" and the show would improve from there, especially after "Erlenmeyer's Revenge". This became especially prominent in the second half of the series as more emphasis was put on the action, the characters received development, continuity started to creep in, the setting was fleshed out, and the writers got more ambitious, with more serious episodes (like "Hero's Holiday" and "Pinched Nerves") and bigger stories (like "Worm Boy").
- Avatar: The Last Airbender began to grow its beard in the double-whammy of "The Storm" and "The Blue Spirit", and it was fully grown by the season one finale. The following two seasons were noticeably less childish, putting more focus on the War Is Hell aspect and bringing in Princess Azula, a far more dangerous villain than both her brother Zuko and Admiral Zhao from the first season. Every major character got a lot of development as the show went on, except maybe Toph, although there wasn't much need of development in her case. This beard is more noticeable retroactively, with the Early-Installment Weirdness present in Season 1 making it age less gracefully.
- Avengers Assemble is considered to have marginally improved during its second season. Characters grow and develop (particularly Iron Man and Falcon), Black Widow appears much more frequently, the animation isn't as lazy as in season 1, addressing a common criticism that much of the action would happen off-screen, and the villains become much more competent and deadly with the Squadron Supreme episodes being particularly noted for their competent writing and action.
- The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes introduced the main characters in a disjointed manner (the first five episodes having premiered online in the form of 20 shorts). The show started improving after the founding of the Avengers, and seemed to hit a stride in the second half of the first season. By that point, the show started focusing less on finding new Avengers, and more on developing the eight they had, while still expanding their universe.
B
- The Backyardigans from season two onwards; the character designs become cleaner and the animation is much smoother. Even the songs get better.
- Barney Bear benefited from taking cues from Avery and applying improvements in timing and pacing to the later shorts, and giving Barney a much-needed redesign. The final batch of shorts directed by Dick Lundy between 1952-1954 are near-unanimously considered the best ones.
- The Batman does this with its first season finale, when the characters began to gain some depth and it was not so blatantly Merchandise-Driven. Most notably, Joker shows his nasty side for the first time, Batman/Bruce goes through the first real trauma in his career, and one of the show's best villains (Clayface) is created (although he is inferior to his comic and DCAU versions).
- It grew the beard again in the fourth season. Alan Burnett went on record that among all his work on animated DC (including Batman: The Animated Series), season 4 of The Batman was his best. And it’s hard to disagree with him - it’s an extremely well-written season without a single bad episode.
- The pilots and the first season of Beavis And Butthead is considered inferior due to characters and humor not being well-established yet. General consensus is that the show started to improve during second season.
- The Denser and Wackier reboot of Ben 10 was considered mediocre at best up until its first season finale, where Vilgax is introduced and played as seriously as he was in the original series, some world-building hinting at the existence of the Plumbers was brought up, and Ben unlocked Vilgax's species as an Omnitrix transformation, something fans have wanted to see for a long time.
- Season 2 continues to feature Vilgax in a recurring villain role and is developing more continuity with elements such as the progressing unlocking of Enhanced Forms for Ben's aliens, which also ensures more legitimate action sequences. There's even some legitimate Character Development, with Ben becoming increasingly worried about the downside of having the Omnitrix and how it could lead him to becoming weaponized for destruction. It helps that the majority of this season's episodes have been written by the members of Man of Action themselvesnote plus the writer of the aforementioned Season 1 finale, whereas much of Season 1 was freelance work and felt much more episodic as a result.
- Beware the Batman started out as a decent show, but with slow pacing and episodic stories. This changes in "Family", where the League of Assassins plot begins to fully emerge and Tatsu finally becomes Katana. This continues throughout the season as more focus is placed on the continuing story arcs, character development, the introduction of some iconic members of the Rogues Gallery, and even improved animation.
- Big City Greens: The series itself has gotten noticeably improved after Season 1, specifically the Character Development, an increase in continuity, and multiple backstories. Season 3 is considered even better, due to its nature averting the status quo by having Gloria open her own restaurant and amping up the backstories and characterization, in addition to a more serialized plotline with the Greens returning to their old farm.
- Bob's Burgers:
- For many people, the series started out slow. Many people specifically say the episodes "Sheesh! Cab, Bob?" and "Art Crawl" to be the point the show finally found its groove and became what it is now. Bob's Burgers is an odd case as many people go on to say that, while they were not thrilled with the previous episodes at first, they were much more enjoyable to rewatch after watching more of the series.
- Many fans point to "Burger Wars," which marked the introduction of popular Ensemble Dark Horse members Mr. Fischoeder and the Pesto twins Andy and Ollie.
- Season two's first episode, "The Belchies," introduced the "kids go on a wacky adventure without the adults' awareness" plot that became a staple of later seasons.
- For many, season 3 was a second Growing the Beard moment, as the show finally got upgraded to a full, 22 episode season by Fox, and has many fan favourites like "Tina-Rannosaurus Wrecks", "Topsy" and "Mother Daughter Laser Razor." The season expanding on what were considered the show's weakest characters, Gene and Linda, was also a part of it.
- The first few episodes of BoJack Horseman did little to impress people, looking like a fairly typical adult cartoon with an asshole protagonist and lots of crass humor. By the second half of the first season, however, episodes like "Say Anything" and "The Telescope" came to reveal a surprising amount of dramatic heft, shifting the tone to a nuanced dramedy that became a critical darling in the second season onwards.
C
- Caillou isn't exactly well-liked with those who are above preschooler age, but it replaced its main character's Spoiled Brat personality with a Mr. Imagination one in Season 4, leading to viewers preferring Seasons 4 and 5 over the first three.
- Cartoon Network. For the first few years of its existence it was a rerun farm for older Hanna-Barbera shows and Looney Tunes. They made the cult hit Space Ghost Coast to Coast in 1994, but it was the What A Cartoon anthology series that opened the doors to original content, leading to shows like The Powerpuff Girls and Dexter's Laboratory. Alongside this was the weekend action/adventure block Toonami, which contributed to the 1990s anime boom in the West with shows like Mobile Suit Gundam Wing, Tenchi Muyo!, and Rurouni Kenshin. And in 2001, they made good on their original mission statement of "everyone loves cartoons" with a cartoon block for older teens and adults called [adult swim].
- While the Classic Disney Shorts are generally well liked among classic animation fans as a whole, it's near universally agreed that these shorts reached their peak in the mid 30's to early 40's, with hits like The Old Mill, Clock Cleaners, Lonesome Ghosts, and Thru the Mirror.
- In fact, Disney as a whole gradually grew the beard in the 30's, when Disney pushed for higher quality, more naturalistic animation, ditching the crude rubberhose style of the early cartoons for the most part, with the epitome of their beard growing being the first five Disney features: Snow White, Pinocchio, Fantasia, Dumbo and Bambi. The studio artists grew from animating rubberhose cartoons to naturalistic, classical, proportional humans, animals, and scenery... in the span of 3 years!
- If you ever find the shorts produced by Walt Disney's first animation studio, Laugh-O-Gram Studio (your best bet would be the Beauty and the Beast Blu-ray), watch them in chronological order. You may notice a gradually reduced reliance on Overly Long Gags, and a stronger desire to tell a story, featuring endearing characters. Even then, the visuals have nothing on the shorts and movies later produced at Walt Disney Animation Studios.
- Code Lyoko starts out formulaic in season 1, but more substantial character development and plots start showing up in season 2. The series later introduced something that wasn't XANA attacking, plot elements that meant the team couldn't always go to Lyoko to deactivate a Tower, and showed just what kind of a threat this Omnicidal Maniac of a virus was in a terrifying manner.
- Codename: Kids Next Door: The show was a series of unconnected stories about five kids sticking it to the adults, and a certain bunch of kids who live down the lane. While hints of something greater were present in the season one finale, it wasn't until the season two finale ("Operation: E.N.D.") that the writers started developing the organization more, putting the characters in more danger, and showing that not every operative is a good guy.
D-E
- Although Daria was golden from the first episode, "Café Disaffecto" was the episode where the show began to hit its stride creatively with regards to Daria being a force of nature within Lawndale, wreaking havoc against the status quo in her own passive-aggressive manner, via causing a riot with her anti-communist "Melody Powers" spy stories after being pressganged into participating in a coffee house open mic night event by her parents and her school.
- Another good example would be the third season's first (production-wise) episode, "Through A Lens Darkly", where the title character diverges from being an Invincible Hero-like protagonist and made her into more of the Broken Ace she would become in later episodes.
- "The Misery Chick" is another good candidate, since it's the first episode to show the emotional depth and Character Development seen more in later episodes, as well as the first one to explore whether Daria's pessimistic attitude is necessarily a good thing or not. It also deals with a difficult topic (the untimely death of an unlikable person) and doesn't provide an easy answer to the problem by the end of the episode.
- The DC Animated Universe has some examples:
- While Batman: The Animated Series was great from the beginning, it started off as being action-oriented, with early episodes like "On Leather Wings", "Christmas with the Joker" and "The Last Laugh" being primarily fast paced and minimal plot. "Heart of Ice" is generally regarded as episode that gave the series its well known popularity in addition to being one of the best episodes of the entire series and legendary for reinventing Mr. Freeze as a tortured soul who lost his wife.
- Justice League:
- This trope is expressly discussed in the season two DVD. The producers felt that season one of Justice League was a competent production, improving as it progressed, but that it was in season two that the show became what they always wanted it to be. Many of the changes came about from their own disapproval and from listening to fan complaints. Bruce Timm explained that much of season one was just trying to get the series started and they ended up rushing things where they should have taken more time. The second season opened with "Twilight", a Darkseid episode, and the level of quality leaped over the best of the first season. Among the items discussed:
- They made a policy decision to avoid "Super-wimp" with Superman, which had a much larger effect on the first season than they had realized. Even the Depending on the Writer issues even in the comics, his primary job in fights was to get thrown into buildings or otherwise knocked around with relative ease (he was beaten up back in Superman: TAS in a similar way, but always came back to win the fight. In Justice League, another hero would just step in for him). A noticeable example came from "The Enemy Below", where Superman is incapacitated by Deadshot's electrified manhole cover trap. In the second season, he was more likely to tank or quickly recover from any attack that came his way, including Darkseid's Omega Beams and catching thrown vehicles instead of being hit by them.
- They wanted to increase the scale of the stories with larger backgrounds, more character models animated in critical scenes, bigger stakes, a visceral sense of physical contact and added emotional conflict even between the heroes. The rationale was "the show doesn't necessarily have to be dark, but it has to be intense" in order to make sure viewers were engrossed. The action became faster, more chaotic, more creative, and less repetitive. Green Lantern was even chastised for being too straightforward with his ring.
- They featured a lot of Call Backs to Batman: TAS and Superman: TAS, and some Call Forwards to Batman Beyond, that had not been included in season one. Originally, they wanted Justice League to stand on its own merits, but understood fans are generally watching the show to see their favorite characters.
- They began laying the groundwork for many future story arcs, while the first season had episodes largely self-contained. In particular, many hints about Hawkgirl's history would come to a head in "Starcrossed" (the season two finale). Likewise, the flirtation between Green Lantern and Hawkgirl became more obvious until they finally admitted their feelings to each other.
- Bruce Timm said that he was often spurred on by Mel Brooks's advice to Ring the Bell; if a scene seemed like it might be too much and you were having second thoughts, do it anyway and make it bigger. It was the official mantra of the production team that "Good enough isn't good enough". The animators had specific instructions to work until a scene was good enough and then make it better.
- However, there are fans who believe that season one’s three-part finale "The Savage Time" is where the show hit this point. Besides the badass plot about the Justice League going back in time to World War II to stop Vandal Savage from taking over in the present, for the first time it shows each member of the League being awesome, and Superman being restored to his former glory. It also probably didn't hurt that the set-up saw Batman, the Spotlight-Stealing Squad of the DCAU, benched - this allowed the writers to truly demonstrate what the other characters were capable of in creative ways, as opposed to the Badass Normal Strategist bailing them out/finding the solution (which would still happen thereafter, but not quite as often).
- This happened again during the relaunch of the series as Justice League Unlimited. The first season was more shaky with the writers getting used to the new half-hour format, greatest emphasis being put on characters of the day instead of the Original Seven, and the fan-favorites Flash and Hawkgirl being Put on the Bus. The second half of the first season rectified this; Flash and Hawkgirl were back full-time, the series focused on a continuous storyline instead of self-contained episodes, and the writing and characterization got better.
- The second season of Dexter's Laboratory boasts the most focused balance between the show itself and the Monkey and Justice Friends spin-offs and even offered the most easily relatable stories in the show which also helped introduce more inventions that Dexter would invent to make his life easier resulting in the most versatile season of the series.
- Disenchantment is generally seen as having a slow start, with some funny moments in an otherwise awkward series. The second half of season one picks up, however, especially as the last three episodes undergo Cerebus Syndrome.
- Early Iger-era Disney Channel cartoons (The Replacements, American Dragon: Jake Long, The Emperor's New School) seemed to start with bad to fairly average first seasons, then there would be changes made in their second seasons to address this.
- Doc McStuffins has been growing the beard since season 2, where the plots contained more depth and maturity by tackling more complex storylines that are still accessible to everyone.
- Vampirina is writer Chris Nee's growing the beard, featuring dynamic characters and less formulaic episodes.
- Drawn Together became more versatile with its characters and storyline in season 2 and didn't put as much emphasis on its reality show theme. While DT's first season continues to be split among those who love it and hate it, its second season not only pushed the limits of taste, but also how good the show could possibly be.
- The first couple of seasons of The Dreamstone are entertaining and ripe with good humor, but more or less a Strictly Formulaic Villain Protagonist series for the Urpneys, with core elements undeveloped or broken. Starting from the third season, the show gradually expands. The Noops become more competent and sympathetic, with their Flanderization and Designated Hero status against the Urpneys slowly undone, allowing them to get in on the humour and story more often. There is a much larger focus on world (or galaxy) building, with greater use of new realms and characters to spice up the formula, and the dream process is a more frequent part of the plot (compared to just one or two episodes from the first two seasons). This is also done while barely diluting any of the wonderful Urpney humor.
- The Duck Dodgers episode "Of Course You Know, This Means War (and Peace)" provided a compelling, drama-laden episode that didn't break the tone of the rest of the series, the following episode being used for the snapback.
- The characters in Ed, Edd n Eddy started to find more of their niche in their personalities and found more solid and witty stories for them to tell after Season 1.
F
- Family Guy:
- The series was considered good from day one, but it started off as rough around the edges with everyone falling into the typical stereotypes (sensible mother, bumbling dad with a good heart, bratty teenage daughter, dimwitted teenage son, talking dog, with a power hungry baby that wants to take over the world being the only character that didn't fit into a mold). Many of the plots were edgy for its time, but nothing so shocking that it would get people riled up. After the show came back on air from cancellation, during Seasons 4-6 (a few even include Seasons 7 and 8), it dove head first into more risque plots and jokes that aimed to offend as many people as possible. The characters themselves also changed heavily due to Flanderization, but here they still retain some parts of the original personalities. While fans still argue over the quality of the show, most agree that Family Guy was better developed after the cancellation than it was back before it.
- After undergoing heavy Seasonal Rot throughout seasons 6-7, the writers started listening to critics and de-flanderized characters and rescued scrappies.
- "Road to Rhode Island" is considered one of these for the development of the comedy team of Brian and Stewie. At first, Brian was intended to be Peter's sidekick, while Stewie was a loner who aimed to kill his mother and take over the world. This episode established the Brian-Stewie relationship that has become one of the show's hallmarks.
- The second season of Fanboy and Chum Chum was better received by people who considered the first season a tedious slog as it focuses more on the plots of the episodes and less on the gross-out humor and sub-plots, especially during the half-hour specials. Even Kyle and Lenny's abusive treatment was toned down during this season as well.
- Fangbone! started off quite simple and straightforward, focusing on the day-to-day adventures of Fangbone and Bill as they navigated school and fought Venomous Drool's monsters. However, the show quickly started exercising its ambition beginning with its first half-hour episode "The Duck of Always". From that point, the series began to work more on the overarching story of the duo's conflict with Drool, developing their friendship, giving focus to some of the side characters, fleshing out Fangbone's world of Skullbania, expanding the conflict to include additional factions like the Shadowsteppers, and even expanding on Venomous Drool's backstory.
- The first season of Fantastic Four: The Animated Series contained low quality animation (provided by Kennedy Cartoons and Wang Film Productions), storylines that were seen as lacking the wit, drama and characterization of the original comics, and exposition-heavy dialogue. The show was retooled for its second season, changing its animation studio to Philippine Animation Studio Inc., replacing Ron Friedman with Tom Tataranowicz as the showrunner and boasting more mature, dramatic narratives. However, the show was cancelled at the end of season 2.
- Felix the Cat had a good start on silent films, but the 1922-1924 period, when Bill Nolan worked at the studio for a couple years, redesigning Felix and started introducing smoother animation in the cartoons, was when the series started getting great.
- The third season (specifically, "Parasites Lost" and "Time Keeps on Slippin'") is the first real glimpse of what Futurama is most highly regarded for — the ability to mix comedy and melancholy, which leads into its centerpiece plot. According to the DVD commentaries, the crew consider the first season episode "Hell Is Other Robots" the point where they found their specific voice instead of just parodying other shows or movies.
G
- The first season and a half of Garfield and Friends was decent but not necessarily spectacular, with mostly episodes that re-told recurring storylines from the comic strips. Then came the mid-Season Two episode "It Must Be True!" which lampooned public gullibility and people willing to believe anything they saw/heard through media. Over time, head writer Mark Evanier made more and more episodes that used Garfield to ridicule social trends and pop culture at large, firmly establishing the show as one of the first to use animation comedy to talk about social issues - which would be followed up in later cartoons such as Animaniacs and South Park.
- The U.S. Acres segments are also said to have gotten much better over time. The early segments are largely disliked by fans for their more kiddie nature compared to the adult-friendly Garfield segments, what with their focus on social morals and the Anvilicious songs at the end of each segment. However, in Season 3, they began to discard these in favor of wittier humor and satire, which helped them immensely. Some fans even felt these sections eventually got better than the Garfield segments, especially in the last season with episodes like "Kiddie Korner".
- Gargoyles started out as an above-average Action-Adventure cartoon, but it came into its own with the epic four-part story "City of Stone", which introduced detailed backstories for the major characters Macbeth and Demona (largely earning the show its reputation for multi-layered characters and complex story arcs), but also featured the first official alliance between David Xanatos and the gargoyles—definitively establishing Xanatos as an unpredictable power broker with no firm allegiance to good or evil.
- G.I. Joe Extreme grew its metaphorical beard with the two part season 1 finale "Coup de Klaw"/"Rebellion", which had a dramatic high-stakes storyline that upset the status-quo by having GI Joe's base destroyed and Iron Klaw's double-identity as Count Von Rani exposed for good. The season that followed had strong serialized writing and jettisoned many of the show's more laughable elements such as the bizarre musical insert sequences, the live-action segments, and the infamous opening sequence.
- While well received from its inception, Gravity Falls began with silly, not all too important episodes, but only truly began to take off around during the second half of its first season, when its story arcs began to unfold and soon character development was in almost every episode of its second season. The series also began to undergo much needed Cerebus Syndrome, making it feel more like a show that could be enjoyed by a wider range of audiences rather than just kids and cement just how serious the conflict was in-universe, which may have helped grow its beard.
- The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy. The original Grim & Evil shorts were charming, perfectly fine doses of wackiness that complimented the Evil Con Carne shorts well. However, when it got spun off into its own show, things improved considerably, with a refined art style that makes the characters pop out more, a more rapid-paced sense of humor, and an expansion of minor characters that became fan-favorites such as Irwin, Nergal and Billy's dad Harold.
- Grojband started off rather humbly, with the characters being fairly flat (with Trina being a generic troubled teenage girl and the band being Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonists) and the writing and music being simple and straightforward with some minor Sadist Show qualities. However, things started picking up towards the end of the first half of the series as the show got more ambitious, beginning with its first half-hour episode "Dreamreaver". This upward trend continued in the series' second half however as episodes became more ambitious, the main characters received some development and depth to become more likeable and interesting (with Trina receiving flanderization, making her less sympathetic but also much more entertaining), continuity became stronger, recurring characters were utilized more, the songs grew more experimental, and the series started to play around more with the Ship Tease between Corey and Laney while avoiding Romantic Plot Tumours.
H-K
- Hey Arnold!. After the first season, the art and animation improved (especially after the switch to digital ink-and-paint), the character development was increased, the writing improved, and everything in general improved. Many characters such as Sid, Phoebe, and Rhonda got more defined personalities. Helga, in particular, became more artistic, cool and complex and less emphasis was put on her sadistic, bullying ways. Season 1 was good overallnote , but the rest of the series was just plain better.
- I Am Weasel's focus strayed away from just "I.R. will never be as good as Weasel" to a wider array of storytelling which may have helped latch it off of Cow and Chicken and into its own show. Adding the Red Guy to the show's cast also helped. Later episodes even went as far to show what it feels like to be the Only Sane Man of the universe: not fun.
- Invader Zim started out partially uneven and uncomfortable in tone, until "A Room With A Moose" set forth just the right combination of pitch-black comedy and gleefully over-the-top silliness.
- Iron Man: The Animated Series had a rough go around to say the least, when it debuted in 1994. Season 1 of Iron Man was formulaicnote , bland and boring at times. More to the point, the first season's episodes were often comprised of meandering scripts, which were usually needlessly complex. The scripts also had some ill-fitting humor. To make matters worse, Season 1 of Iron Man contained choppy animationnote , and inconsistent voice acting. But Marvel Comics radically retooled Iron Man for its second season. The glut of regular characters was cut downnote , the formulaic style of Season 1 was discarded in favor of directly adapting popular storylines from the Iron Man comics. There is also a greater sense of continuity as the affects of events in one episodenote carried over into the next. Another change in direction was Koko Enterprises replacing Rainbow in the animation department. In return, the art became more detailed and moodiernote and the animation became much smoother. Finally, the mind-numbing opening credits of Season 1 are replaced with a fairly awesome rock theme.
- In this show's case, it didn't Grow the Beard so much as Grow the Mullet, since part of the changes included Tony growing a mullet (patterned after the one he had in the late 80s comics, minus the perm).
- Johnny Bravo became wittier, funnier, and easier to relate to in its second season. It also introduced Carl and Pops, which opened the door for more stories besides the standard "Johnny likes women" plot, while Suzy evolved from just a cute little girl with a crush on Johnny to someone more developed and mature, and Bunny evolved from the standard mother figure into a louder, more actioney-type character.
- KaBlam! was less random and fleshed out the characters more in season two.
- Kim Possible certainly started out strong, with an Action Girl self-aware heroine and plenty of humor, drama and fight scenes not like the usual Disney fare. However, Kim herself was a bit of a problem: she was lacking in flaws, a little egotistical and the world seemed to only exist in order to show how awesome she is. From the second season onward there's a wealth of Character Development all round, and Kim becomes less up herself and more compassionate, and more focus is given to her relationship with Ron, who grows from Butt-Monkey to Let's Get Dangerous! to good effect.
L
- The Legend of Korra: While some will defend the first two seasons, it's generally agreed that season one had serious problems (most notably the Romantic Plot Tumor) and season two suffered from a Sophomore Slump. The beginning of the third season is seen as when the series underwent a major improvement and came into its own, though half the fanbase would argue that the first sign of improvement was season two's "Beginnings" two-parter.
- Legion of Super Heroes (2006) started off strong, but also has accusations of being a Teen Titans (2003) ripoff. The show gradually gets its own identity as it goes on, especially in season 2.
- Looney Tunes: While not necessarily bad, the early shorts started as shallow, musical oriented Disney ripoffs, making them no different from any other cartoon studio's output at the time. However, in 1935, Tex Avery and Bob Clampett decided to bring back the fun of old rubberhose cartoons (at a time when Disney was becoming a major force in the industry) which slowly led to the creation of beloved stars like Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, and the rest of the Looney Tunes ensemble, while previous Disney-derivative stars like Beans the Cat and Oliver Owl faded into obscurity.
- While the Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog cartoons were always funny, it wasn't until the third entry that the wolf and sheepdog were seen to be on friendly terms off the clock, which was the critical component of the series.
- Bugs Bunny started off as an undeveloped prankster and fairly unsympathetic. As shorts passed throughout the forties, his personality and design slowly refined and he became the cool headed Karmic Trickster we all know and love. At this point, more ruthless villains like Yosemite Sam were also introduced to make sure Bugs stayed sympathetic.
- While fans are still divided whether Daffy Duck's own evolution was for the better (from a deranged heckler into a glory seeking Butt-Monkey), many agree his 'transitional' tenure throughout the mid to late forties led to some of his most versatile performances, being a perfect combination of the former's screwiness and the latter's ambition and bombastic wit.
- Director Chuck Jones grew the beard in 1942. Prior to this, most of his cartoons looked like imitations of Disney's style: slow-paced and rather cutesy. This changed with two particular cartoons, "The Draft Horse" and "The Dover Boys". They ended up being the first cartoons where he started to include the irreverent humor of the Warner Bros. animation studio, and both cartoons got big laughs at the theaters. Then, the following year, he released "Super Rabbit" (Bugs Bunny in a Superman parody). He had done several Bugs Bunny cartoons up to that point, but noted that this was the cartoon where he felt that he began to understand what made Bugs work. In fact, Chuck Jones hated all of his pre-1948 works (barring for some experimental shorts), especially "Elmer's Candid Camera", which he considered an Old Shame.
- While Bob Clampett's earlier cartoons are considered hilarious classics, it wasn't really until he inherited Tex Avery's old unit (starting with Wabbit Twouble) that he began to stretch the rubbery Deranged Animation and fast-paced action as far as it could go.
- Merrie Melodies, the sister series to Looney Tunes, went through this a few times. The first instance of this happened in 1934, when they upgraded to color (something that the Looney Tunes series wouldn't do until 1942). The second one happened in 1937, when Warner Bros. dropped the requirement that all Merrie Melodies were have at least one full chorus from WB's extensive musical library, which distracted from the narratives (although some shorts, such as I Love to Singa, got around that by being built after the songs). This set the groundwork for early hits like Daffy Duck and Egghead, Pigs Is Pigs (1937), Rhapsody in Rivets, and of course A Wild Hare
- Tex Avery's Looney Tunes shorts are unanimously considered to be hilarious classics, but his tenure at MGM was where the gloves came off and he was able to push the comedic limits of cartoon animation.
- In a similar vein, The Looney Tunes Show went through this as well. While the first season wasn't terrible, it had a difficult time figuring out if it wanted to appeal to sitcom fans or classic Looney Tunes fans, often relied too much on the Merrie Melodies and Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote segments as Padding, would often exaggerate the new personality traits of the characters (such as Lola's stalker tendencies and Daffy's Jerkass attitude), and had trouble balancing screentime between the main protagonists. In Season 2, the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote segments were dropped, the Merrie Melodies aren't relied on as much, which allowed for stories to not feel as rushed, personality traits of the characters were slightly mellowed, Bugs gets more screentime, and a redesign was given to the characters to make them more akin to their classic designs.
- The Loud House was always good, but during the first season, the show's craziness overshadowed the heart more often than necessary and it wasn't as easy to connect with the emotions of the characters. Since season 2 (Around the time Rita and Lynn Sr.'s faces were revealed), the show has found a better balance between heart and craziness and the characters became more realistic. The siblings also have more fleshed-out personalities than in the first season.
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- Most fans of MAD would say that the best episodes of the show would come since "Snot Pilgrim vs. the Wonderful World of Disney". The art style for the "Spy vs. Spy" shorts and the traps that they used also improved. Season 2's "Kitchen Nightmares Before Christmas" even got nominated for an Emmy.
- Miraculous Ladybug: The cluster of episodes towards the end of season 1 (beginning with "Princess Fragrance", the first episode providing a glimpse into the Myth Arc with the debut of Master Fu), is the point where the series starts to sprinkle intrigue and a sense of continuity into its Monster of the Week hijinks.
- Mixels was met with humor, yet was mostly derided as "silly" during its first season, which was made up of shorts. It wasn't until season two, with the release of half-hour specials that it was able to fully expand its personality into what it is. This was the same time that the toyline was breaking through better as well.
- Although some consider it good at the start, others weren't a fan of Moral Orel's episodic Black Comedy format. It got a little better (or at least different) in the second season where it started to focus on expanding the other characters. The second season finale and the third season is where it's considered to Grow The Beard (even if you liked it before) because of its Cerebus Syndrome, possibly because True Art Is Angsty. Also because it's rare to find a "serious" western animated show for adults.
- My Life as a Teenage Robot started out as a show about a robot girl trying to be normal. Starting in Season 2, while still present, such plots began taking a backseat to the show's superhero elements, in addition to the episodes overall becoming more tightly written with story arcs beginning to emerge, and characters getting some much needed development and stronger relationship dynamics.
- The fandom mostly agrees that at some point My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic grew the beard during season two, when the series shifted from a show made just for girls to one made for little girls but also with its Periphery Demographic in mind. A commonly cited point is "Lesson Zero" which abolished the "Twilight has to write a friendship letter to Celestia at the end of every episode" formula, allowing for more freedom in the show's storytelling.
- My Little Pony: Equestria Girls got a lot of flak for various reasons, probably the biggest for just the mere concept of doing a Human-Focused High School AU of My Little Pony. The first movie is So Okay, It's Average at best, but the sequel Rainbow Rocks has much better pacing, more believable Character Development, more threatening and entertaining villains, and successfully turned Sunset Shimmer (the shallow Big Bad from the first movie) into one of the most beloved characters in the whole franchise. Plus the songs are pretty awesome.
- Initially My Little Pony: Make Your Mark was seen as inferior to the comedy-focused Tell Your Tale spinoff due to its attempts at more substantive stories being seen as underwhelming and main story plodding. Chapter 4 was the point it started delivering on the Emotional Torque that had been built up; the heroes directly confronting the villain, Misty's Heel–Face Turn, and the plot stared advancing in high gear, that it became as good as it got and seen by many as the higher quality work.
- Ninjago did this in season 2 as the characters matured and more backstory was revealed, leading to some genuinely moving episodes. As the real plot of defeating the Greater-Scope Villain kicked off, it jumped from a Merchandise-Driven show running mostly on Rule of Cool and Narm Charm to a show with genuinely interesting characters and storylines (although the other two elements were still present to varying degrees). A primary example is the episode "Tick Tock", the episode famously known as the one where Zane is revealed to be a robot, where the show truly started showing off its emotional-driven story telling.
- The Patrick Star Show: Starting with "The Patterfly Effect" in season 1, the show's staff team got an overhaul, consisting of a dozen new writers and plenty of new storyboard artists. It also switched to being storyboard-driven, like the original seasons of SpongeBob, instead of script-driven. While the show still had its fans before then, the new staff episodes are generally agreed to be a much better direction. They're not only much funnier, but have crazier visuals, giving it a distinct Surreal Humor vibe along the lines of Uncle Grandpa. The plots are more original, faster paced, and make better use of the characters than the show's earlier episodes. Some disliked characters are also given new traits to make them more fleshed-out or put into situations where they work better.
- Phineas and Ferb:
- Most fans consider the episode "Dude, We're Getting the Band Back Together!" the episode that made them love the series. After that, the animation got better, there was more character development on even the minor characters, and the show started adding more Parental Bonus and Continuity Nods.
- Some of the rest, consider the episode "It's About Time!" for getting truly savvy in regards to Doof and Perry's dynamics. There is also "I Scream, You Scream", in which the writers show you just how self-aware the show is (plus the fanservice in B.U.S.T.E.D started quite a trend).
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- 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 becoming more sympathetic as an Anti-Hero.
- Ready Jet Go! started off as a fairly decent edutainment series in the first half of season 1. By episode 21 ("So Many Moons / Project Pluto"), the show had more vibrant and cinematic animation, more developed characters, stand-out songs, and more interesting plots. Although some argue that the beard-growing started earlier with "Beep Has the Blues", which was emotional and somewhat dramatic.
- ReBoot, mostly a highly episodic and comedic show in the first season became more action oriented in the second season, along with a focus on genre episodes experimenting with different styles and tones. This lead into the third season with multi-episode arcs that contribute to a larger seasonal story, which kept some humor but made the show significantly darker and more engaging to an older audience. This is mostly 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).
- Near the beginning of season three, Enzo loses a game which ultimately results in him becoming older and literally growing a beard.
- A good amount of the Recess fanbase say that while season 1 was good, season 2 is even better, with the characters beginning to use their catchphrases and more Character Development to Miss Finster and Ashley A., among others.
- Regular Show also began to tone down the focus on its main protagonists. The focus on Mordecai's developing relationship with Margaret gives the show a sense of continuity, and highlights both Mordecai's weaknesses and Rigby's snarkiness. The lowering of the focus on absurd plot twists can be refreshing once in a while.
- The Ren & Stimpy Show definitely got off to a good start, but the second season is universally considered a significant improvement over season 1's helter-skelter quality, and by many to be the series peak; Ren and Stimpy's personalities and voice work are more fleshed out, the drawings, animation quality and background art are much better (especially the episodes animated by Carbunkle) and the cartoons became much better in story structure, humor and pacing. Even the heavily contested Adult Party revival continued raising the bar higher; it had some of the most ambitious animation ever made in a western made-for-tv cartoon— the drawings and animation blow anything from the original series out of the water, the background art shirted from heavy stylization to a more naturalistic look and more in line with the painters personal styles, and the tone, characterization and acting (especially in episodes like "Ren Seeks Help") go further than even the standard set by the season 2 episodes.
- Rick and Morty: Although the series was received well from day one, "Meeseeks and Destroy" and, especially, "Rick Potion #9" were what brought the show to an especially noteworthy status - a cartoon that's not only hilarious, but also knows how to be deep, meaningful, and thought-provoking without undermining either intent.
- Rocko's Modern Life, while still well regarded, spent most of its first season focusing on just Rocko himself. Things picked up starting in season 2 when Filburt evolved from a background character to a third friend and the series fleshed out the perspectives of the other characters as well and not just Rocko's. We witness Filburt and Hutchinson get married and have children, Heffer become a cop only to get arrested himself, Mr. Bighead evolves beyond a standard Butt-Monkey to a more easily relatable character and even gains an artist for a kid. Heck, Season 3's Wacky Deli is considered the best episode of the show (At least by Murray himself). Then the animation improved come Season 4, due to switching from Sunwoo Entertainment to Rough Draft Studios.
- Rugrats is often thought to have grown the beard at around Season 3. The animation becomes cleaner, the plots are less simplistic, and Tommy is more fleshed out as a character.
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- Samurai Jack started off as a fun, beautiful show already, but it tended to rely on the Strictly Formula plot of "Jack seemingly finds a way to return to the past, but it doesn't work out for whatever reason." From Season 2 onwards, this plot formula showed up far less, and the plots became more original and interesting. Season 3 grew the beard further with Art Evolution and more consistent quality. Then there's the Darker and Edgier Season 5, which is generally considered in a tier of its own.
- The second season of Sanjay and Craig had been better received by those who thought it was a mediocre show during its first season. The grossout moments decrease considerably and the show has a stronger focus on character and story.
- While season one of Santiago of the Seas was considered well done, season 2 has shown a big jump of quality, especially in terms of writing, music, and animation. The stories have higher stakes and dive a lot more into the lore of the world, and hints to having a continues narrative arc that will span the season, which is rare in a preschool series. The series has also taken to talking to the audience much less - now only addressing them at the beginning and end of the episode.
- While starting out fairly strong, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated had issues balancing out the Lampshade Hanging, story arc, and romance (the last in particular being oft-criticized because of its insertion in almost every episode). As season 1 progressed, the romance became a little more downplayed, instead focusing on the story arc and the gang's relations and characterizations playing on each other, with a healthy dose of humor.
- Shimmer and Shine started out fine, but things became more interesting in season 2. The characters have better developed personalities, the plot lines are more interesting, and there's a healthy amount of action and fantasy incorporated.
- While generally not considered bad, the first season of The Simpsons is jarringly different from 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 starts to pick up in the second season, and then hits its stride by the third season. The reason was largely financial: the initial Tracey Ullman shorts were done on the cheap (starting with a two-man animation team, one of whom was Matt Groening), and improved as more funding was added. The first season was a half-length trial - with the second season, they got full funding and were able to set down a regular writing and production cycle and firm up the designs. Many fans (and several people on the creative staff) also feel that the show's storytelling noticeably improved once Homer replaced Bart as the de facto protagonist around Season 3, which allowed for a wider range of plots that wouldn't have been possible with a 10-year-old lead character.
- Sitting Ducks was much better in its second season than it was in its first. The slow atmosphere of the series disappeared and the characterization improved. Bill evolves into a surprisingly braver duck, Ed, Oly and Waddle gain more episodes dedicated to them and they even did better storytelling with Aldo fighting his craving for ducks.
- The Smurfs (1981):
- The show started off as adaptations of comic stories with original stories written for the series. They were mostly slapstick-based with little to no hints of story. Johan and Peewit were introduced in the second season, but that's not saying much. Season 3 was when the show started to improve. Episodes became more story-based, new characters were added (such as Marina and Laconia), and Handy's inventions started to resemble more or less to modern technologies (such as telephones and wheelchairs).
- In Season 6, the animation quality started to improve as Hanna-Barbera farmed their work overseas to foreign studios (namely Wang/Cuckoo's Nest, Toei Animation and Fil-Cartoons).
- Sofia the First started off strong, but has been steadily growing the beard since season 2, when Michael G. Stern took over as story editor. The conflicts had much more depth to them, the continuity helps up build up multiple arcs, enhances the character development, and even the animation feels more cinematic in scope.
- The second season of Sonic Boom has been seen as this by many Sonic Boom supporters due to its more refined animation, nods to the fandom and the fact the writers are making more emphasis when it comes to story and development.
- South Park:
- Some fans think that seasons 4, 5 and 6 were the golden age of the show and the time during which it started its peak, subtly combining the crude humor of seasons 1, 2 and 3 with the extreme Author Filibuster of later seasons. For what it's worth, Trey Parker and Matt Stone consider season 4 to be the point where this happened, and absolutely hate the entirety of seasons 1-3 bar, of all episodes, "Terrance and Phillip in Not Without My Anus".
- During Season 17, after the change to a single 10-episode run rather than a 14-episode season split into halves, the writers began to experiment more and more with season-long arcs rather than purely episodic adventures. While Seasons 7-16 certainly were not bad, it's generally agreed by most fans that Seasons 17, 18, and ESPECIALLY 19 are the best overall seasons in a decade, owing partly thanks to the use of season-long themes and story arcs and generally improved consistency from episode-to-episode.
- The first few episodes of Space Ghost Coast to Coast were boring and awkward. It picked up towards the end of the first season/beginning of the second season, and the third and fourth seasons are where many people think the show's comedy is at its best.
- In the first season of Spider-Man: The Animated Series, most of the episodes were self-contained and centered around the villain of the week. In other words, it looked just like Batman: The Animated Series except in all the noticeable ways in which it was inferior to Batman (cruder animation, less exciting violence, less complex villains). The second season kicked off with a season long story arc, "Neogenic Nightmare", and the show became a multi-part soap opera that was less about the villains and more about Peter's personal life, the effect his powers had on his personal life, and the supporting cast. It's this format that has helped this show be fondly remembered... and helped it regularly trounce Batman in the ratings.
- SpongeBob SquarePants:
- While the first season of SpongeBob SquarePants is still considered a classic, the second and third seasons solidified the show's status as a pop culture mainstay. The characters evolved into their most iconic forms with increasingly outlandish and hilarious plots, along with tighter writing and animation in general. Many fan favorite episodes come from Seasons 2 and 3: "Chocolate with Nuts", "Graveyard Shift", "The Krusty Krab Training Video", and most of all "Band Geeks". Seasons 4 and 5 were received less positively, though, but reception towards them has warmed since.
- After the infamous Seasonal Rot from Seasons 6 through 8, the show's reputation improved again in the latter half of Season 9, mainly due to having a new team supervised by the original creator, Stephen Hillenburg. Episodes like "Goodbye, Krabby Patty?", "Mimic Madness", "Feral Friends" and "Squid Noir" become some of the best-received episodes in years. Though there is some division if these newer episodes are close to the quality of the first three seasons, these episodes, along with a few others, are still often considered good episodes in their own right.
- The first season of Star Trek: Lower Decks was criticized for having too much violent gross-out humor (similar to Rick and Morty) and unlikable characters. These elements started be phased out as the season went on, with episodes soon focusing on comedic versions of typical Star Trek plots, more world-building for an era of Star Trek that had been ignored for some time, and including more legacy characters like Q and Riker. The first season finale also brought back the Pakleds (a one-off joke villain from TNG) and turned them into an actual threat while amplifying the inherent goofiness of a species whose hat is Obfuscating Stupidity, making them the perfect antagonist for a comedy show. By Season Two, the characters had grown considerably and started to show more dimension, veering less into Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist. The season two finale was so well-received, some argued it was like a regular TNG episode with some comedy thrown in.
- Although Star vs. the Forces of Evil was a solid, if sometimes lightweight, show from the start, it wasn't until "Mewberty", which was Darker and Edgier and saw an improvement in both its animation and storytelling, that the show came into its own. The end of Season 1 cements this, which coincidentally had its penultimate episode titled "Marco Grows a Beard". Afterwards, Season 2 improved the quality of the stories by putting focus on the characterization of the cast, being much more continuity-driven and interconnected, as well as becoming more serious without discarding the series' humor. The Season 2 Finale/Season 3 premier Multi-Part Episode is considered the show's peak, being rife with the humor, characterization, and story consistent of the shows highlights.
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars began with many of its elements praised, along with some elements that the fans did not care for, such as the goofy battle droid humor. However, its reception improved over the course of its first season. The episode "Rookies" is generally cited as the moment the series improved, because it introduced the coldly efficient commando droids and was an atypical story focusing on a small squad of clone troopers. It also had two uses of the word "hell" as a swear, stunning most of the viewers who believed it was watered down for kids. "Lair of Grievous", "The Hidden Enemy", the Ryloth arc, and "Hostage Crisis" were the final pieces in the first season that were needed to show the direction that the show was going. The beard's growth was solidified with the Nightsisters and Brothers arc and the Mortis arc, which officially pushed the series into Cerebus Syndrome.
- Although Star Wars Rebels started out well, some viewers were skeptical that the show could deliver the depth and drama of its aforementioned predecessor series The Clone Wars. Fortunately, Rebels won over its skeptics and proved itself as a worthy successor to Clone Wars with the 4th episode, "Rise of the Old Masters", which introduced the Inquisitor and gave additional depth to Kanan and Ezra. For many fans, "Rise of the Old Masters" showed that the production crew weren't willing to shy away from adding drama to Rebels even with its Y7 rating. The first season finale finished the growth with the debut of Tarkin in the show, the killing of the Bumbling Henchmen Duo and even the Inquisitor himself, the rebels being officially inducted into the Rebel Alliance, and Darth Vader showing up to become a major villain in Season 2.
- Steven Universe:
- Many viewers believe the episodes "Mirror Gem" and "Ocean Gem" to be this, as those episodes are where the show got progressively more mature, shifting from a collection of Monster of the Week comedy skits to a plot-driven Dramedy. Though it would be the season one finale, "The Return"/"Jailbreak", where the series began seeing critical acclaim and a larger fanbase.
- "Rose's Scabbard" is arguably the first episode that tackled difficult emotional/psychological issues and explored queer themes, even ahead of "Jailbreak". It also stealthily introduced a seasons'-long Myth Arc that culminated in the revelation of Rose's true identity.
- There's an in-universe example in "Maximum Capacity", when Amethyst mentions how Li'l Butler started getting good in season 3 when the uptight neighbors, the Richingtons, moved next-door.
- Street Fighter: The first season was mostly stand alone episodes, with a few recurring elements (i.e. Guile's love interest). The second season has several character arcs through its episodes (i.e. Blanka's accidental further mutation, a growing rivalry between Ken and Ryu, Cammy's brainwashing, and Bison's acquisition of an ancient healing statue that, over the course of the season, drives him to world-destroying insanity). All this and Final Fight, too!
- Super Friends grew its beard multiple times such as when the combat useless Wendy and Marvin were dropped for the superpowered Wonder Twins, then "Challenge" for bringing in the classic supervillains and finally in the final two incarnations with better written stories taking advantage of well developed comics characters like Firestorm, Cyborg for teen identification and using Darkseid and his New Gods minions as the major recurring enemies.
- Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go! started out as a strictly episodic action cartoon... and then "I, Chiro" happened, where it turns out every petty little evil thing Skeleton King had been doing was in effort to resurrect a demon. The show in general got more serious while the comedy went from general kid-targeted silliness to an Affectionate Parody of anime and science fiction.
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- The 2012 TMNT show started off generally humorous, but with hints of a darker story arc, though the humor and seriousness was a bit unbalanced at times. Episode 9 shows significant improvement in the show's writing style, finally fully introducing The Shredder and how dangerous he is to the Turtles, with most of the episodes afterwards as of current figuring out how to balance the humor and seriousness, and focus on the story arc rather than the Monster of the Week format a majority of the previous episodes had (said monsters becoming more of a Rogues Gallery, though this was likely planned from the start).
- The first season of Teen Titans (2003) was 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!" In particular, "Masks", the episode that kicked off the Robin story arc at the end of the first season, introduced the "not so different" dynamic between Robin and Slade, and started developing Slade's motives and plans beyond the generic evil of his first few appearances marked the moment of beard growth for many.
- The Terrytoons studio greatly benefited from an animation and color upgrade from the late 30's and onward, as well as finding some new star series like Mighty Mouse, Gandy Goose and Sourpuss and Heckle and Jeckle and going in a more wacky, humorous direction than before. And then they got animator Jim Tyer on board, which combined with the talents of other animators like Connie Rasinski and Carlo Vinci turned the studio in a distinct name in the industry. Many animation fans agree that the cartoons also improved drastically after Gene Deitch took over the studio in the late fifties and changed everything (new design style, new characters, brought new artists, etc.), a few even critically acclaimed. Alas he was fired after 2 years and the studio reverted to its old ways, albeit with new characters.
- Tom and Jerry began to improve substantially around the mid to late 40's when they abandoned the series Harman-Ising roots in favor of taking pages from Tex's cartoons, including streamlining the designs, and ramping up the comedy, timing and pacing of the cartoons.
- Total Drama had a few of these in its first season, such as "Basic Straining" and "Brunch of Disgustingness".
- Though a divisive Retool, Season 3 of the original Transformers cartoon (as well as the movie that preceded it) started to feature more sophisticated continuity and backstory for the Transformers mythology, and some surprisingly mature episodes like "Dark Awakening".
- Transformers: Beast Wars was strictly episodic, though still enjoyable in its first season. Bread crumbs to larger story arcs about both Megatron's ultimate agenda for prehistoric Earth, Tarantulas' secret role as a third faction unto himself, and the nature of the aliens who designed the planet started to get laid midseason, starting with the mid-season two-parter "The Trigger." This lead to a slow build to an explosive first season finale. By Season 2, the series had hits is stride and become largely serialized. The plot threads were woven much more tightly and characters gained depth, which continued until the end of the series. It may not be incidental that the first season was also the longest (in fact as long as both of the other two together).
- Transformers: Animated was fairly disliked early on for its exaggerated animation style, the episodes were merely decent but not spectacular. "Thrill of the Hunt" introduced some of Ratchet's backstory in the original Autobot/Decepticon war and the results were both shocking and mature. It also introduced a popular rivalry between Prowl (Ninja) and Lockdown (Pirate).
- "Megatron Rising" is also a possible point for Beard Growth, setting up the more sustained arcs of the second season.
- It also features some big development for Megatron, who rapidly became one of the character's finest incarnations.
- Transformers: Prime started off fairly strong but some people complained that it was too reminiscent of the Transformers Film Series in both look and story structure (although with a greater focus on the robots). Once the initial miniseries was over and the series proper got started, fans started to pick up on the high-tension/horror-themed episodes like "Scrapheap," "Predatory," "Operation: Breakdown" and "Rock Bottom." Those episodes in particular started to show how dedicated the series was towards balancing both story and characters. "Partners" is also where there was a sense of a Myth Arc forming, where Starscream defects from the Decepticons and becomes neutral.
- While most of those examples will result in arguments, the "One Shall Fall" and subsequent "One Shall Rise" three parter was almost universally praised for some intense action scenes, powerful characterizations and a story twist that turns the classic mythos on their head.
- The same counts for Transformers: Rescue Bots. While the show started off strong, later episodes stayed true to the show's lighthearted tone while not being afraid to branch out with the character development, as well as having more ambitious storylines. No wonder it's the longest running Transformers show.
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- Ultimate Spider-Man (2012)'s season one finale has earned a more glowing reception than expected after previous episodes. After it, season 2's reception improved from the previous one, having more character development and bringing in fan-favorite Spider-Man villains, though the quality remains highly contested.
- The Venture Brothers started off a merciless Jonny Quest spoof/parody with a good deal of crude humor. Towards the end of season one, the show gained some depth into a Deconstruction of the entire "youth adventure" genre. The focus of the show shifted from the Venture boys onto their father, Dr. Thaddeus "Rusty" Venture, and the theme of "failure" became the central element of the show. By the end of season two, Character Development and Hidden Depths were abound, and the episode plots became deeper, more dramatic, more complex, and more intertwined. One character that truly "grew the beard" (much like Riker from the Trope Namer) would be The Monarch, who transformed from a lame joke villain at the start of the series to a truly terrifying supervillain via his quest to win Dr. Girlfriend back from Phantom Limb throughout season two.
- Wander over Yonder was well-received when it debuted, but Season 2 started drawing in the fans with the addition of a Myth Arc concerning Lord Dominator and more character development. However, the show was cancelled not too long afterwardsnote .
- The first season of W.I.T.C.H. was okay, but then Greg Weisman was called upon to produce its second season, which many consider to be a vast improvement. Sadly, the show was cancelled afterwards.
- The early Woody Woodpecker shorts have not aged well, and it's easy to see why: in Walter Lantz's attempt to imitate Tex Avery and Bob Clampett's fast-paced slapstick style of comedy, he missed the point. The gags were very Warner Bros. derivative and presented without much conviction, Woody didn't have much consistent characterization, the timing was slow and mushy, and the animation was some of the sloppiest of any cartoon from The Golden Age of Animation. Fans agree that things got much better when Disney veteran Dick Lundy arrived at the Lantz studio in the mid-1940s and took the director's rein. Lundy improved everything: the timing, the animation, the pacing, the gags, everything, bringing the series to what is considered its peak with classics like "Solid Ivory", "Banquet Busters" and "Wet Blanket Policy". And before Lundy, Shamus Culhane also beefed up the quality and direction of the series over Alex Lovy.
- Most X-Men: Evolution fans agree that that show stopped being a "kiddie cartoon" around the season 2 finale. Season 3, immediately afterwards, had a darker tone that reinforced the finale's turn.
