Growing the Beard/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions

** ''[[Stargate Atlantis (TV)|Stargate Atlantis]]'' was more or less the Stargate ''setting'' as a whole Growing the Beard, as Atlantis has always maintained a higher quality of character development, plot, and visual design.

** Actually, ''[[Stargate Universe (TV)|Stargate Universe]]'' was the attempt to grow the franchise's beard as a whole. The show itself started to grow the beard with the episodes "Subversion" and "Incursion", parts 1 & 2. No literal beards, but (like the ''[[Farscape (TV)|Farscape]]'' example above) it seems that the introduction of an out-and-out villain made the folks on ''Destiny'' remember that they had other things to do than just mope about being stuck on a ship and switching bodies to have sex. Stuff like...kicking ass.

** This has even been lampshaded many times by the people behind the show.

* Though there were a few decent episodes in its first season, ''[[The Odd Couple]]'' took a giant leap in quality when, starting with Season Two, it was filmed with three cameras and a live audience. Right from the second season's first episode, the show suddenly demonstrated more energy (and fun) as the cast fed on the live reactions of the audience.

** Season 2: Cara, a bi-sexual warrior who used to fight for the Dark Lord has joined the Light Siders and does [[Deadpan Snarker]] sarcasm; Richard grows 5 day stubble and as of Feb 2010, the plots are more interesting.

* Yet another literal beard-growing moment: Masaharu Morimoto, Iron Chef Japanese on ''[[Iron Chef]]'', originally came off as very stern and kind of arrogant; when he appeared on ''Iron Chef America'', he'd grown a beard, gained 10 or 15 pounds, wore glasses, and was suddenly very soft-spoken and personable.

* ''[[Mamas Family]]'' grew the beard after it was canceled by NBC and then brought back in first-run syndication. The vast majority of fans seem to prefer the syndicated episodes over the NBC ones, and find Iola and Bubba (who were added in syndication) funnier than Fran, Buzz, and Sonia (who were [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome|written out]] after NBC).

* ''[[Parks and Recreation]]'' started out as an underwhelming clone of ''[[The Office]]'' (it's from the same creators) set in a government office instead of a corporate one. Luckily, it quickly developed past this, thanks in large part to Amy Poehler's portrayal of hopelessly naive and idealistic main character Leslie, and the emergence of Chris Pratt as a [[Breakout Character]]. The show's all-inclusive political humor (poking fun at the workings of government without making any stances) helped set it apart too.

* ''[[The X-Files]]'' grew the beard in Season 1, episode 13: "Beyond the Sea". Before this there was very little character development, the acting was horrible and it was almost completely unrelated [[Monster of the Week]] episodes. Music, cinematography and writing also became steadily better after this point.

* ''[[The Muppet Show]]'' was ''funny'' from day one, but it wasn't until the second season that a lot of the main characters' personalities and appearances really jelled; season one Fozzie was a borderline [[Jerkass]], Gonzo was a pathetic little [[The Woobie|nebbish]], and Miss Piggy was, literally, more two-dimensional. There was also an upswing in guest stars after the show got popular; initially, the guest stars mostly came from Hollywood, but the appearance of ballet legend Rudolf Nureyev (at his request) gave the show an extraordinary amount of credibility, leading great performers in many fields to appear on the show.

** Although not quite on the same level, many fans cite Season 25, and the 1988 serial ''Remembrance of the Daleks'', as the point where 1980s ''Doctor Who'' began demonstrating a fresher, more confident and mature approach after several years of muddling along in a rather wobbly (at best) fashion, particularly after the brief mid-eighties 'hiatus' and the less-than-well-received Seasons 23 and 24. Unfortunately, by this point the damage had arguably been done, and it wasn't long after that it was cancelled.

** For classic series fans, the first appearance of the Daleks in the second story was a massive step up after a mostly dull introduction story featuring cavemen.

** Also the 4th Doctor, the early 70's Doctor Who had been rather uneven, being often rather campy and could be quite Anvilicious at times, and they hadn't quite worked out how to do good special effects in color(not that there isn't some great material in the 3rd Doctor's run, particularly stuff involving the Master) but improvements in production design, special effects, and the Phillip Hinchcliff and Robert Holmes pairing brought the series to what most consider to be the creative and qualitative peak of its original run.

*** Which still boggles the mind, how many shows reach their qualitative and creative peak starting in their '''12th''' season?

** Season 1 and 2 are certainly good Television but Season 3 is when it really lives up to its promise. We're back on the street, new characters such as Bunny Colvin and Tommy Carcetti are introduced, we get a better balance between worlds and we see the social side of Police Drama. This coincides with Omar growing His goatee into a thick beard and Cutty, also bearded, arriving onto the scene. And then Season 4 also improved on that, continuing to look on the politics but also the education system.

* For ''[[Firefly]]'', it's "Our Mrs. Reynolds." As with ''Dollhouse'', this is not to say that the preceding episodes are bad. It's just that this is the moment when the show's budding sci-fi, Western, action, comedy, drama and [[True Companions]] elements fuse together into the wonderful insanity we Browncoats love so well. The addition of [[Recurring Boss|YoSaffBridge]] is just icing on the cake.