Unexpected fan favorites who take over the show?

[the G-man]

JirinPanthosa wrote:

---

I always thought the downfall of Heroes was its inability for any character to be doing the same thing for more than two episodes in a row after the first season.

Could be. I was just acknowledging a complaint that I heard a lot about Sylar's Face turn.

[Greg Cox]

She didn't exactly take over the show, but Anya on BUFFY is another example of a one-shot guest character who ended up playing a much bigger part on the show than was originally intended.

Heck, Anya is more of a plot device than a fully-realized character in her first appearance, but the writers seemed to see some humorous potential in the character and started bringing her back . . . .

[Mr. Adventure]

^^ In the end unfortunately kind of seems like she ended up back as a plot device.

The Borgified Corpse wrote:

---

Wesley on Angel. He started off as a slapsticky comic relief character who would spout exposition about the monster-of-the-week. By Season 3, he'd become a serious hero. Then, after he got himself thrown out of Angel Investigations for kidnapping Angel's son, he became a shotgun toting basass! His dominance of the series became even more pronounced during the 5-part arc in Season 4 when Angel turned evil.
It didn't last. After everyone got their memories erased in Season 5, Wesley took a step back. He became an exposition-focused supporting player again. But Season 4 could just as well have been called Wesley instead of Angel.

I started watching Angel during the Jasmine arc so you can imagine my surprise when I finally got around to watching from the start and seeing Wesley's introduction

[Anwar]

Well, with Spike and Anya it was also that the show needed replacements for Angel and Cordelia once they were both gone so they just put Spike and Anya in their place.

[junxon]

anya was funny, cordelia was a bitch.
spike was funny, angel was boring.

a massive improvement

[Mr Light]

T-Bag on Prison Break.

Like Spike on Buffy and Sylar on Heroes, a villain that should have been killed off a loooooooong time ago and was artificially kept alive to keep the fans happy.

Chloe on Twenty Four.

[TheMasterOfOrion]

[Mr. Adventure]

Was that a personal favorite? I didn't really think Chianna took over the show.

[Starbreaker]

Chiana was written as a guest spot but they added her as a regular due to fan reaction.

[Maestro]

Worf?

[od0_ital]

^

Worf took over TWO shows! And horned in on the last TOS movie!

[Timby]

The Borgified Corpse wrote:

---

Niles on Frasier. Season 1 was very much Frasier's show. But from Season 2 onwards, it was more Frasier & Niles as a double act. This became more pronounced as the series went on. There are some later episodes where we spend more time in Niles' apartment than in Frasier's apartment. There are some episodes ("Moon Dance," "Head Game") where Frasier hardly appears at all and the episode is entirely about Niles.

To be entirely fair, however, many of these episodes coincided with Kelsey Grammer being in rehab / jail / having extended appearances in court / etc.

[Kestrel]

Mr. Adventure wrote:

---

^^ In the end unfortunately kind of seems like she ended up back as a plot device.

One of my biggest - but not only - gripes with Buffy S7.

junxon wrote:

---

anya was funny, cordelia was a bitch.
spike was funny, angel was boring.

a massive improvement

Bollocks, Cordelia was awesome, and made a great double-act with Angel.

[Aragorn]

I didn't watch Homicide, but didn't it go from an ensemble to the Andre Braugher show?

[_C_]

I seem to recall Xena got her own show after she was awesome on Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.

Damn, I miss Xena...she kicked serious butt! Though, in hindsight, Kevin Sorbo is pretty nice on this lady's eyes, yeeeessss...