Early Installment Weirdness/Western Animation


 * The earliest Woody Woodpecker shorts directed by Walter Lantz and Alex Lovy are quite different from the eventual Jerkass he became later. Woody was adorned with an ugly, ghoulish design, and was a shameless ripoff of the early screwball Daffy Duck. Even the stories and gags were very derivative of Warner Bros–type comedy (although this is probably because Lantz had one of their former writers, Ben Hardaway, working with him).
 * The Simpsons are possibly the best-known example amongst the modern generation. First were the Tracey Ullman shorts, the earlier ones with very skewed character models compared to what we know. Then come the first season or so, most of which is very different in tone and humor style to everything that came after it. In particular, there's the episode "There's No Disgrace Like Home" (in which Homer is actually ashamed of his family being dysfunctional, something that would be more in character for Marge or Lisa in later episodes). The writers' commentary cheerfully admits that pretty much everything in the episode is "wrong" compared to later seasons, though that still doesn't stop it from having a scene that continues to be extremely popular, where the Simpsons all give each other shock therapy.
 * Also notable is the completely different, more gruff voice Dan Castellaneta uses for Homer during the shorts and first part of the first season. The original voice of Homer was based rather closely on Walter Matthau. As well, after the first three or four seasons (after the initial craze died down) the writers realized that Homer was a much better character for generating plots, as long as they kept him fairly unpredictable and dumb. This was lampshaded with a "viewer's letter" saying that "I think Homer gets stupider every year." Dan Castellaneta actually says on several commentaries that he never really made a decision to change the voice; he just kept trying his best to match the voice he used in the previous episode, and it slowly changed to one that fit the writing better.
 * Let's not forget the early Off-Model appearances of black Smithers with blue hair (on the season one episode "Homer's Odyssey") and Lou the cop (who switched from being black to being yellow).
 * South Park is essentially known as one of the modern era's leading voices in satire, but the first several season were much better known simply for their use of swearing and shock-value in otherwise aimless, mostly Rule of Funny comedy plots. The lower budgets and actual-construction-paper animation also present a significant visual difference. Funnily enough, the newer seasons are far filthier and feature unbleeped swearing. The show itself lampoons all this when recreating the series' first scene with twice as much swearing and blockbuster computer effects in the episode "Cancelled".
 * Combined with Characterization Marches On, this can be seen in a lot of the first season episodes of Teen Titans; over time, the cast underwent a kind of reverse Flanderization, thanks to Character Development. In early episodes, several characters resemble stereotypes of themselves more than their selves from the later seasons--Raven's gothiness, Starfire's ditziness, Beast Boy's immaturity, and Slade's Card Carrying Villainy are all really played up, and the overall tone is more of a very lighthearted kid's action show, as compared to the somewhat schizophrenic later seasons, which tended to bounce back and forth between utter random goofiness and surprisingly intense darkness. It's generally considered that Robin's Not So Different Story Arc with Slade is where the show really Grew the Beard and started acting like itself.
 * Codename: Kids Next Door started with Sector V as apparently the only KND unit in the world. Their specialties and specific personalities besides Numbah 1 being the official leader had also not been established yet, Numbah 5 was almost The Voiceless, Numbah 4 didn't have his famous crush on Numbuh 3, and the show itself was far more of a comedy (with downright bizarre Gross-Out Show-style plots relying on the Rule of Funny) than the action/comedy it became as the series progressed. Also, some of the early gadgets didn't have the acronym gags.
 * It also had very little continuity, to the point you can watch most of the early episodes out-of-order.
 * And of course, the first episode title was "No P in the OOL" as A Worldwide Punomenon instead of the Fun with Acronyms titles for which the series is famous.
 * In the earlier seasons, "normal" prisons clearly existed--Count Spankulot is seen in one in at least two episodes (N.A.U.G.H.T.Y. (where the adults don't prove useless for a change and the local court is actually seen sentencing him!) and L.O.C.K.D.O.W.N.). Later on, all of the KND villains were locked up at a special facility in Antarctica.
 * Also, in earlier episodes, the KND were heavily implied to be Villain Protagonists with a Sympathetic POV. Later episodes made them more unambiguously heroic.
 * Daria's early gimmick was that whatever odd situation the title character had been placed in, she could get through it and upstage her erstwhile counterparts at Lawndale High and home on her wits and effective use of irony. Daria became more introspective in the later seasons.
 * Arguably this counts more as Character Development.
 * The first two seasons of Kim Possible lack the series signature Affectionate Parody, Les Yay, and comedy. Dr. Drakken was also a serious villain early on, and Shego was a rather onesided mook with some essences of her later personality.
 * The art is also quite different in the first season.
 * Also, Kim was weirdly hostile toward Rufus, calling him a naked freak among other things.
 * Most of these changes can be attributed to the departure of the original director and producer, Chris Bailey, who allegedly clashed with co-creators Schooley and McCorkle on the show's creative direction. The second season had a number of rotating directors before Steve Loter was installed as the permanent director for the third season.
 * Tick, Tick, Tick had Steve Barkin with blond hair, and all future appearances had brown hair. Her hair dryer grapple gun was also purple instead of blue.
 * The early Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts are almost unrecognizable from the latter-day productions during the 1940s and '50s, they were no different from the other cartoon series running at the time--mildly amusing musicals with bland characters, derivative of Disney's more polished Silly Symphonies. It wasn't until Tex Avery was promoted to director that Looney Tunes began living up to the first part of their name.
 * Even after the Loonification of the cartoons, some still come off as incredibly weird. Bugs Bunny (or his prototype) in particular started off more like Daffy Duck wearing a rabbit suit. Watch "Hare-Um Scare-Um" sometime and see Bugs openly refer to himself as crazy, jump around chuckling to himself, and even sing a Daffy-esque song about how insane he is.
 * The first episode of Phineas and Ferb has Phineas being sarcastic and a little more antagonistic towards his sister Candace, something that's still in the theme tune ("...or driving our sister insane!") After that, he's just upbeat about his projects and bears no ill-will to her or anyone. Dr. Doofenshmirtz's Evil Plan is also much grander in scope than his usual focus on "the entire Tri-State Area" too, and the key device in his plan is not an -inator.
 * The first season of KaBlam!! is somewhat more bizarre than the rest of the show (and not just the art style or the voices. It's more "zany" (similar to the WB cartoons, mainly Animaniacs), June being an idiot, and the lack of shippy moments between the duo.
 * In at least one early Invader Zim episode we see Gaz smiling. The closest we get later on is a wide-eyed Jaw Drop at the GameSlave 2 commercial.
 * She smiles while threatening Dib in the "Taster of Pork" episode, so clearly the creators were OK with an occasional smile.
 * In the first season of Rocko's Modern Life not only was the theme song different, but Rocko was more paranoid and easily angered, Filburt was not a regular character, but when he did show up he was nerdier than in later seasons, Bev Bighead in all her season 1 appearances was more flirtatious and liked to party, and the style was cruder, and there was more gross out humor and innuendo than later on, and most plotlines involved Rocko trying to make it through everyday situations gone wrong more than in later seasons.
 * Craig McCracken's first The Powerpuff Girls short (created under the title, Whoopass Stew) features the Amoeba Boys as genuinely competent criminals. Also, the girls have no individual personalities, and defeat the Amoeba Boys by flying them to extremely close contact with the sun, causing them to melt. Also, Professor Utonium for some reason looked like Dexter.
 * The first My Little Pony special was very dark; it could rival most boy shows at the time. The series based on the special was Lighter and Softer, and it only became lighter and softer throughout the generations. The Ponies resembled actual horses and acted like them. To new fans of the series, seeing them lick each other and lie next to each other seems homoerotic.
 * The premiere of My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic made the series look more like a Magical Girl show. However, the Elements of Harmony are completely forgotten until Season 2, and the show turns to focus on one-shot episodes rather than an overarching plot.
 * It also took a while for the visual effects for unicorn magic to be standardized, and even then the Color-Coded Wizardry didn't really show up until Lesson Zero.
 * The second episode of the original Nickelodeon version of Doug, "Doug Can't Dance", had a different art style from the other episodes of the original series. Plus, Roger has a different gang of thugs in that episode as well.
 * The first Tom and Jerry movie was actually about Tom and Jerry mysteriously gaining the ability to talk and sing. The sequels actually kept them both silent and were more faithful to the original cartoons.
 * Arthur has some major inconsistencies early on. Francine was a Jerkass instead of her more mellow Jerk with a Heart of Gold personality from later episodes, Sue Ellen appears several times despite having transfered to the school in third grade, Francine celebrated Christmas despite later being shown to be Jewish and celebrating Hanukkah, etc
 * The Five Episode Pilot of Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers for some reason actually portrayed villain Fat Cat in a way so that he acts like a human when no one's looking, but like a normal house cat when he is with humans. From the second episode onwards however, he is now always shown acting like a human. Justified since in the pilot he is owned by a criminal mastermind named Aldrin Klordane, and after Klordane is arrested Fat Cat operates on his own.
 * The pilot of Kaeloo suffered from this tremendously, as the animation is nowhere near that of the rest of the series, the character designs dangled around the Uncanny Valley and Bad Kaeloo had a vocal sac.
 * On the first two episodes of Beast Wars, the transformations are treated with much more gravitas. With each member shouting his name and transformation code out loud, and being seen to transform by themselves. This is not limited to just the first transformation either, as almost all of them in the first two episodes are this way. Similarly, a big case is made out of Optimus' inexperience at commanding. This is never referred two again once the two parter is over.
 * The early episodes of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy were much darker and more morbid in tone than the wacky, nonsensical show that it later became.
 * In the first season of Courage the Cowardly Dog, Courage openly spoke and had dialogue with a few other characters. For the rest of the series, he was pretty much silent. This is probably due to the fact that he was pretty much Captain Obvious.
 * In the first 1973–74 season Superfriends episode "The Power Pirate", there were a number of things that didn't match later episodes.
 * Wendy and Marvin talked like 1960s hippies, using phrases like "groovy", "cool", "right on" and "far out". They never spoke like this again.
 * Marvin was able to levitate himself into the air, indicating he was developing super powers. This was never brought up again.
 * The pilot episode of The Amazing World of Gumball had both Gumball and Darwin Watterson look nothing like how they do in the series proper.
 * The first season of Code Lyoko definitely fits the bill. For a start, Aelita is trapped on Lyoko and isn't seen on Earth at all until the season finale (compare to later seasons where she lives on Earth full-time). Furthermore, season one is also very formulaic, the pacing is noticeably slower than in later seasons and at this point Sector 5 isn't know to exist. Couple that with different terminology to later seasons (sectors are called 'regions', Kankrelats are called 'Roachsters' etc.), and very different 3D graphics, and it almost feels like a totally different show!
 * Aelita also went by a different name at first - Maya. For some time everyone thought Aelita was an artificial being rather than a human stuck in an artificial world.
 * The early episodes of Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy had more grotesque animation, Double D was more mellow and less uptight, and the trio actually succeed in getting jawbreakers in the pilot.
 * Static Shock was originally intended to be separate from the DC Universe, and the early episodes make references to Superman and other heroes as fictional, along with their alter egos.
 * The show's first season also has a cruder animation style and more focus on problems that would afflict urban youth whereas the Lighter and Softer later seasons would shy away from this and make the conflict more about fantastic superhero problems.