TV Shows That Changed Their Premise

Once in a while, the TV show you start watching is not exactly the one you end up with.

Take CBS' B Positive, which with the third episode of its sophomore season launched what it has dubbed "Chapter 2" (read the inside story). Whereas Season 1 of the multi-cam sitcom was about Drew, a man in need of a kidney, and Gina, his unlikely donor, Season 2 followed up the successful transplant surgery with a financial windfall for Gina, steering her life — and in turn the series — in a very new direction.

Changing course midstream is not entirely unusual for a TV show, as our round-up below demonstrates. Sometimes, immediate viewer (or worse, network exec) feedback will "nudge" a showrunner to highlight or downplay certain original aspects. On the flip side, sometimes in the later years of a show's run — either due to a wave of cast exits/changes, or simply out of a need for a creative "refresh" — a premise will be revisited and revised.

Again, the following is a list of shows that meaningfully altered their original premise (not just tone or characters) at some point after premiering. Not included are shows that changed their title as they evolved (e.g. Three's Company becoming Three's a Crowd), or those that simply changed geographical settings (Laverne & Shirley was basically the same show upon relocating from Milwaukee to Hollywood).

Which of these change-ups do you remember watching unfold in real time? And which were for the better... or not?

WHAT IT ORIGINALLY WAS: Originally developed as a pilot in 1972 (but nixed by ABC and burned off as an episode of Love, American Style – until, that is, American Graffiti popped in theaters), Happy Days followed a 1950s family as viewed through the eyes of Ron Howard's wholesome Richie Cunningham. Early episodes thus saw Richie navigate assorted rites of passage, such as attending his first stag party and learning how to deftly unclasp a bra, with dropout/greaser Arthur "The Fonz" Fonzarelli seldom more than on the periphery.

WHAT IT BECAME: When its already so-so ratings began to fall in Season 2, the single-camera Garry Marshall comedy went broader with its humor and made Henry Winkler's "The Fonz" a central character, even moving him into a room above the Cunninghams' garage. In turn, the ABC sitcom rocketed to No. 1 in the ratings and went on to run 11 seasons.

WHAT IT ORIGINALLY WAS: ABC's Perfect Strangers spinoff focused on a middle-class African American family living in Chicago. Early episodes followed Carl and Harriet Winslow's efforts to raise three children (one of whom would eventually disappear!) under the watchful eye of Carl's mother Estelle.

WHAT IT BECAME: Not long after Jaleel White was brought in as next-door neighbor (and Laura's not-so-secret admirer) Steve Urkel, Family Matters became about anything but! For the next eight seasons, the TGIF sitcom focused on Urkel's various inventions and clones (!), with the series culminating in his venture to, yes, outer space.

WHAT IT ORIGINALLY WAS: Debuting in 1994 as These Friends of Mine, this ABC sitcom starred stand-up comic Ellen DeGeneres as a bookstore employee with a number of quirky pals.

WHAT IT BECAME: In Season 2, the title was changed to Ellen — since a little show called Friends was taking off on NBC — and two main cast members were dropped, including future Friends scene stealer Maggie Wheeler. Then in Season 4, DeGeneres' character came out as gay, and the show became less of an ensemble and more focused on Ellen's life as a lesbian. (The coming-out episode pulled in more than 40 million viewers, but the buzz didn't last: ABC cancelled Ellen the following year.)

WHAT IT ORIGINALLY WAS: A medical comedy focused on John Dorian's (played by Zach Braff) journey from naive med school grad to confident MD — and his various daydreams along the way.

WHAT IT BECAME: After an eighth (and presumed final) season that ended with a planned series finale, ABC went and renewed Scrubs for Season 9. (Surprise!) The show then shifted from a teaching hospital setting to med school, where JD's BFF Turk and reluctant father-figure Dr. Cox oversaw a crop of fresh-faced newbies (played by Kerry Bishé, Eliza Coupe, Michael Mosley and Dave Franco).

WHAT IT ORIGINALLY WAS: H. Jon Benjamin voices Sterling Archer in this animated FX/FXX comedy, with the suave international spy leading his team on a series of James Bond-esque adventures peppered with off-color quips.

WHAT IT BECAME: After six seasons of spycraft, Archer got creative in later seasons, moving the action to L.A. in Season 7 and making the title character a private detective. From there, Season 8 saw him become a film noir gumshoe... Season 9 made him an alcoholic airplane pilot on a remote island... and Season 10 went sci-fi, imagining him as the co-captain of a spaceship. In Season 11, though, the series reverted to its original spy premise, with Archer waking up from a three-year coma.

WHAT IT ORIGINALLY WAS: A multi-camera sitcom taped in front of a live studio audience, the Girlfriends spin-off followed Melanie (Tia Mowry-Hardrict), an aspiring doctor who turns down admission into a prestigious medical school to follow her pro-football boyfriend Derwin (Pooch Hall) to San Diego.

WHAT IT BECAME: By Season 3, The Game evolved into a single-camera comedy that felt more like a half-hour drama. After The CW cancelled the series, BET picked it up for what would be Seasons 4 through 9, which featured divorces and reconciliations and steroid abuse. Mowry-Hardrict left the show prior to Season 6 (but returned for the series finale), while new additions included Brandy as Chardonnay, Jason's (Coby Bell) second wife, and a pre-Insecure Jay Ellis as wide receiver Bryce "Blueprint" Westbrook, who replaced Derwin as the lead.

WHAT IT ORIGINALLY WAS: A college freshman infiltrates a mean-girl sorority to uncover the truth about what happened to her mother decades earlier. All of this is complicated by the arrival of a devil-masked serial killer mowing down unsuspecting students all over campus.

WHAT IT BECAME: In the horror comedy's second season, those same sorority sisters are now suddenly (and inexplicably) doctors at a local hospital, where yet another masked monster — possibly of supernatural origin, but who even knows — emerges with murderous intentions. 

WHAT IT ORIGINALLY WAS: Courteney Cox's Jules Cobb was a single mother who, following a recent divorce, aimed to "make up for lost time" by dating younger men — ergo the single-cam comedy's title, which showrunner Bill Lawrence admitted at the time was simply "noisy."

WHAT IT BECAME: Not long into its freshman run, and as ABC research indicated that the title/"cougar" premise was turning away potential viewers, the show leaned into being an ensemble comedy about Jules, ex-husband Bobby, BFF Laurie and a group of wine-loving friends. Despite toying with an actual title change for Season 2 on, Cougar Town stuck, though the comedy's opening credits would have great fun imagining what might have been.

WHAT IT ORIGINALLY WAS: Kevin James played a newly retired police officer who, along with his (significantly) better half Donna (Erinn Hayes), was blindsided by twentysomething daughter Kendra's decision to drop out of college to support her new fiancé, a nebbish app-developer named... Chale.

WHAT IT BECAME: James' former King of Queens costar Leah Remini guest-starred in the Season 1 finale as Kevin's former police partner Vanessa, and was subsequently promoted to series regular for Season 2. Following Donna's death-by-kung fu coupon, Kevin and Vanessa opened a private security firm, and the series' remaining episodes focused on their fledgling business.

WHAT IT ORIGINALLY WAS: Season 1 of the ABC series followed Emma Swan's introduction to Storybrooke, Maine — via Henry, the son she long ago placed for adoption — and her eventual acceptance that its residents were amnesic fairytale characters, and she herself was the daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming! Subsequent seasons pit Emma (aka the Savior) and friends against various baddies such as Rumplestiltskin, Peter Pan, the Wicked Witch of the West and Cruella de Vil.

WHAT IT BECAME: After Emma found her "happy beginning" with Captain Hook — and in the wake several major cast exits — Season 7 was a "requel" (reboot/sequel) in which a new curse deposited Regina/The Evil Queen in Seattle, where as "Roni" she ran a pub. In turn, Wish Hook (don't ask) believed himself a police detective, partnered with Weaver (Rumple), while grown-up Henry pursued his own OTL with (a new) Cinderella.

WHAT IT ORIGINALLY WAS: At the time of its September 2013 debut, the multi-cam Chuck Lorre sitcom was by design about a mom-to-be (played by Sadie Calvano), her mom (Anna Faris), and her mom's mom (Allison Janney). Violet and her mom Christy had both gotten pregnant as teens (though the former wound up placing her child for adoption), while Christy and her mother Bonnie shared substance abuse problems and in fact reunited, following an estrangement, in AA.

WHAT IT BECAME: The show shifted from being about Christy and Bonnie mending their relationship and Christy mending her relationship with Violet, to a show about Christy, Bonnie and the close knit group of women they met in AA. Then, with Faris' abrupt departure ahead of Season 8, Christy disappeared off to Georgetown Law School, leaving Bonnie and her gal pals the focus of what would be the sitcom's farewell run.

WHAT IT ORIGINALLY WAS: Thomas Middleditch's Drew was a recently divorced therapist who needed a kidney transplant; Annaleigh Ashford's Gina, a hard-partying woman from his past, decided to offer up her kidney on a whim. Season 1 thus focused on Drew and Gina as unlikely roommates, and Drew's friendships with fellow dialysis patients.

WHAT IT BECAME: Post-transplant, the focus shifted to Gina, who discovered that one of her favorite residents at the Valley Hills retirement home had died and left her $48 million. (OK, $24 million after taxes.) A complete overhaul followed in Season 2's third episode, when Gina took over Valley Hills and the series introduced a new Ensemble of a Certain Age, including Hector Elizondo, Jane Seymour, Ben Vereen, Priscilla Lopez and Jim Beaver.

WHAT IT ORIGINALLY WAS: A spinoff of Disney Channel's That's So Raven (2003–07), this show picked up more than a decade later with best friends Raven and Chelsea — now divorced single mothers — raising their children under the same roof in Chicago.

WHAT IT'S BECOMING: The comedy's upcoming fifth season will relocate Raven (and just one of her twin children, for some reason!) to San Francisco, where she will care for her father after he has a health scare. Also not along for the ride? BFF Chelsea.