Yahoo News The brilliant TV shows ruined by one tweak
We've already seen how one small tweak can help completely turn around a struggling TV show's fortunes. But sometimes it can go the other way too.
Whether it's the introduction of a crappy character, the removal of a beloved one, a bizarre plot twist or a freak time jump, here are some of the best TV shows to lose it all on a silly whim.
1. The OC – sending Marissa to a different high school
Why would such a vanilla storyline cause such a problem, we hear you ask? Well, The OC's third season was when it suddenly lost its way after two brilliant years of teen drama and love triangles.
By sending Marissa to Newport Union, it meant that the character started hanging out with – frankly – the worst cast additions in the show's history (we're looking at you, Johnny). It turned her into a highly unlikeable person, separated her from the usual gang and eventually led to her death in the season's finale.
While The OC had its serious moments, it always had this air of fun and escapism. Season three was just one misery after another to the point where you actually didn't care when one of the show's main characters died in a horrible car crash. And you can trace it all back to that stupid plot change.
2. Prison Break – actually breaking out of the prison
Prison Break was always going to be in a tricky situation as it entered its second season. After such an incredible start, how the hell were they going to sustain it after Michael Scofield and friends escaped?
When the second season changed into a Fugitive-style drama, everything that made the first season so good was gone.
So much so, that most of them were put back in a different prison for season three. Bravo! But season four changed yet again to a bizarre con-man caper drama. Then they went back to breaking out again.
3. Gilmore Girls – giving Luke a secret daughter
One word you wouldn't want to use to describe Gilmore Girls is "depressing". But that's the direction the show started taking in season six. Luke and Lorelai's on-off relationship was one of the show's most loved talking points, and this was totally derailed by the introduction of a teenage daughter Luke didn't know he had.
It was a silly contrivance, used purely to throw yet another spanner in the works of the couple, especially after he didn't tell Lorelai for weeks after finding out. After finally looking close to getting together, it ruined everything. It would have been fine if the daughter was a brilliant character, but April was just irritating and added nothing. She pretty much vanished before you knew it.
This eventually led to an even worse seventh season where everyone was miserable and nothing of note happened until the finale when things began fixing themselves.
4. Red Dwarf – replacing Rimmer with Kochanski
It's crazy to think that Chris Barrie decided to only appear in four episodes of the seventh series due to a hectic work schedule (bloody Brittas Empire).
Because of this, Rimmer had to be written out partway through the series, and was replaced by Chloe Annett's version of Lister's ex Kochanski. While she provided a completely different element to the show, Red Dwarf seriously lacked Rimmer's snivelly smeghead getting on the wrong side of Lister. It would be like replacing Sheldon with a deadpan Kristen Stewart in The Big Bang Theory. The humour just seemed to be lacking all series.
Thankfully, Barrie saw sense and returned full-time from series eight onwards, and Kochanski left soon after. Lesson learned: if you can't bring back your main characters, maybe don't bother.
5. How I Met Your Mother – setting the final season across a weekend
We won't bother discussing the god-awful, whole series-ruining finale, you probably know all about that one. But HIMYM had already started ruining its legacy earlier on in the final season.
Ted finally meeting the titular mother was always going to be a huge moment that deserved to be built up, but the writers decided to wreck the heartwarming sitcom's momentum at the last minute by for some reason having it take place during the wedding between Barney and Robin. And considering that we find out in the final scenes that Barney and Robin later divorced, this seemed totally pointless.
It slowed the action right down, Marshall was stuck on a train for about five episodes and Ted still didn't meet the mother until the final episode. And we all know what happened next. Eugh.
6. Desperate Housewives – time jumping five years
Some fans may have liked the sudden twist at the end of season four when the comedy-drama zoomed forward half a decade (despite the characters looking exactly the same), but others were left thinking: "WTF?"
This meant that fans weren't able to see how Bree had become a Martha Stewart-type mogul, how Susan was with a totally different man and how Gaby was now suddenly a mother with two kids. This is the sort of thing that would happen in a series finale, not halfway through a show's run.
It could be said that they were just trying something different, but it also stank of desperation, of wanting to reboot the show without having to tie up any loose ends.
7. Glee – sending Kurt and Rachel to New York
Glee was already starting to lose its charm by the end of the third season, but it truly lost it the following year. The reason? Kids graduate eventually.
Instead of letting go, Glee continued for three more years. The worst change was when we followed Kurt and Rachel to New York and any remaining shred of reality vanished. Glee always had a silly side to it, but it took the piss when Kurt easily got a gig at Vogue and the pair scored an incredible apartment right in the heart of the Big Apple. Come on.
Not only that, but back home it introduced a whole new set of New Directioners which simply didn't cut it compared to their predecessors. Gleeks everywhere started handing in their membership cards.
8. South Park – killing Kenny for good
Creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone had made it clear that they had got sick of Kenny as a character, trying to come up with ways of killing him each episode. So in season five they thought: "F**k it, let's get rid of him."
While 'Kenny Dies' was a genuinely moving episode that saw the gang mourn the actual death of Kenny, the group's dynamic never quite felt right throughout season six. Butters was a brilliant addition, but the elevation of Timmy and Tweek in particular didn't work.
Thankfully, Kenny was suddenly brought back to life at the end of the season and has remained there ever since. He still dies occasionally, and the gag was even incorporated into his superhero namesake Mysterion, where his power was the ability to be literally reborn the next day every time he dies. Genius.
9. Sliders – going waaaay too sci-fi
Ah, Sliders. Oh, what could have been. Network Fox messed about with the show so much that by season three they even dropped the premise of the show: a group of people visit different dimensions trying to find their way home.
Although it was built around a sci-fi premise, the first two seasons never felt too sci-fi. It was more of a Quantum Leap-style drama about friendship, family and romance. But trying to capture that sweet X-Files magic, the show went totally bonkers, and before you knew it they were battling aliens and morphing into different versions of their characters.
If you watched the last episode right after the first, you'd have no idea you were watching the same show.
10. House – introducing a new team
Midway through House's run, the Hugh Laurie medical drama went through a bit of a reboot by shaking up his crack team of doctor detectives.
While his previous team were still hanging around the hospital, the new team featuring Thirteen, Taub and Kutner (and later Adams and Park, who were even worse), just never gelled in the same way.
Despite this, the new brigade technically had more time on House's team than the originals overall. The show's tone was distinctly darker because of it and there's only so many times they could debate whether their patient had lupus.
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