Oddest Status Quo change

[Kahless the Unforgettable]

Is "status quo change" the code word for "completely reworking a show due to network/behind the scenes interference?"

If so, Andromeda and Earth: Final Conflict had some of the most stark changes for those reasons, at least for me. So much so that they actually made me stop watching the shows as they were no longer the shows I was originally watching.

Pretty much every Whedon show that lasts more than a season did the same, though that was almost intentional. Almost. I mean, Angel went from a detective noir to a... whatever it ended up being. I'm still not sure to this day.

Archer has been doing it a lot in the last few seasons as well. But, again, that was more intentional than behind-the-scenesy. They were just getting tired of the premise and wanted to mix things up to keep it fresh. Weeds did the same thing, but I honestly dunno if it was intentional or not.

Hell, even Game of Thrones managed to do it. The first season felt like it was going to be all about Ned Stark and his family in an almost no-fantasy fantasy drama. Now there's dragons, blood magic, undead zombies, and more.

Oh, and for shows that do it on purpose: American Horror Story probably wins the cake there. Finally a show who's original premise was going to be a different show each season that actually lived up to that premise (as opposed to other ones who gives up those sorts of ideas before the second season even goes into production, like Ragnar intending to be killed in season one of Vikings).

 

[crookeddy]

He's alive again.

Yeah so my point stands

 

[Phoenix219]

They retconned away Peter Parker's marriage by having him make a deal with the devil. The deal exchanged his marriage for the unnatural life extension of his elderly and frequently ill Aunt.

They turned Norman Osbourne into Gwen Stacy's baby-daddy.

Also, Jason Todd is alive again because Superboy punched a wall.

I thought Jason Todd is alive because of the Lazarus pit? What does it have to do with Infinite Crisis?

 

[JoeZhang]

I thought Jason Todd is alive because of the Lazarus pit? What does it have to do with Infinite Crisis?

He literally comes back to live in his grave because Superboy punches reality. He's however got brain damage and is later put in a pit.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

They retconned away Peter Parker's marriage by having him make a deal with the devil. The deal exchanged his marriage for the unnatural life extension of his elderly and frequently ill Aunt.

They turned Norman Osbourne into Gwen Stacy's baby-daddy.

Not to mention that for years Aunt May actually was dead of old age in "Amazing Spider-Man #400"-until it turned out it was all another crazy plan of the Green Goblin and that the May who died was in fact a physically altered actress:

http://www.cbr.com/the-abandoned-an-forsaked-aunt-may-is-dead/

Some of the changes were dialed back a bit eventually-it turns out that Peter did live with MJ for many years, so pretty much all those stories about them being married still 'sort of' happened. (The OMIT storyline). I think Dan Slott has also hinted in the latest couple of issues (Specifically, the recent Iron Man crossover) that the One More Day stuff might be unraveled.

Marvel writers seem to be terrified to take characters away from what they were in the 60s. That's why they couldn't stomach a married Spider-Man or Aunt May dying. Any change taking Peter away from what he used to be like get retconned.

Of course last I checked Peter was dead... so that's a big change I guess...

He's alive again.

Those are many of the reasons that I alluded to earlier as to why I haven't gotten back to reading Spider-Man. Ugh.

Is "status quo change" the code word for "completely reworking a show due to network/behind the scenes interference?"

If so, Andromeda and Earth: Final Conflict had some of the most stark changes for those reasons, at least for me. So much so that they actually made me stop watching the shows as they were no longer the shows I was originally watching.

Pretty much every Whedon show that lasts more than a season did the same, though that was almost intentional. Almost. I mean, Angel went from a detective noir to a... whatever it ended up being. I'm still not sure to this day.

Archer has been doing it a lot in the last few seasons as well. But, again, that was more intentional than behind-the-scenesy. They were just getting tired of the premise and wanted to mix things up to keep it fresh. Weeds did the same thing, but I honestly dunno if it was intentional or not.

By that count, Sliders should be also included thanks to Fox's extensive meddling to the point creator Tracy Tormé was forced out of his own show and John Rhys-Davies quit out of protest. I can't remember if the same was true for Sabrina Lloyd and Jerry O'Connell.

Hell, even Game of Thrones managed to do it. The first season felt like it was going to be all about Ned Stark and his family in an almost no-fantasy fantasy drama. Now there's dragons, blood magic, undead zombies, and more.

That's not really the same. The show was following the books very close during the early seasons. All of those elements aside from the Stark family was always there.

 

[Kahless the Unforgettable]

That's not really the same. The show was following the books very close during the early seasons. All of those elements aside from the Stark family was always there.

That doesn't make it any less of a status quo change just because it happened in the books first.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

Except the undead zombies are literally in the first scene and dragons are talked about throughout the whole first season. I don't remember if blood magic was mentioned in the first season or not, but it certainly was in the second season.

 

[Phoenix219]

He literally comes back to live in his grave because Superboy punches reality. He's however got brain damage and is later put in a pit.

That makes very little sense. Much prefer the animated take, then, during which Ra's takes Todd's original body and ressurects it directly, although it has to overcome the insanity / brain damage induced by the pit. That sounds so incredibly nonsensical. It makes our normal time travel discussions sound completely logical.

 

[crookeddy]

That makes very little sense. Much prefer the animated take, then, during which Ra's takes Todd's original body and ressurects it directly, although it has to overcome the insanity / brain damage induced by the pit. That sounds so incredibly nonsensical. It makes our normal time travel discussions sound completely logical.

Are you not familiar with the amazing events of Infinite Crisis, involving Superboy getting really mad and punching through reality?

 

[Captain of the USS Averof]

Battlestar Galactica: TOS season 1 and season 2 (AKA Galactica 1980).
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century season 1 and season 2. It didn't change it's name like BSG but it was a totally different (and bad) show.

 

[Snaploud]

I believe it's now known as a Retcon Punch.

 

[Kahless the Unforgettable]

dragons are talked about throughout the whole first season

In a "magic is dead" way, and as a history lesson that's almost taken as mythological by most. Even Dany didn't think the gift of egg-shaped stones she was given as a gift were real.

But hey, you can convince yourself the story didn't change drastically after season one all you want. That doesn't mean it didn't, because it definitely did. Which was the entire point of it, really; if Ned Stark wasn't safe, no one was.

 

[Nerys Myk]

In a "magic is dead" way, and as a history lesson that's almost taken as mythological by most. Even Dany didn't think the gift of egg-shaped stones she was given as a gift were real.

But hey, you can convince yourself the story didn't change drastically after season one all you want. That doesn't mean it didn't, because it definitely did. Which was the entire point of it, really; if Ned Stark wasn't safe, no one was.

That is the status quo of GOT and ASOIAF.

 

[Kai "the spy"]

I don't think shows like GoT actually have a status quo.

 

[Phoenix219]

Are you not familiar with the amazing events of Infinite Crisis, involving Superboy getting really mad and punching through reality?

I'm aware of the bubble dimension Superman, Alex Luthor, Lois and Superboy (i believe) were trapped in for quite awhile. I know Superboy went crazy and was kind of the big bad of the storyline. I know this is where the multiverse was reborn and the after affects were long lasting for a few years until the N52 rebooted it all. I guess I never knew or realized the extent of the "reality altering" punches. I knew it was the gimmick / Macguffin of Infinite Crisis, but missed the minutia.

 

[theenglish]

In a "magic is dead" way, and as a history lesson that's almost taken as mythological by most. Even Dany didn't think the gift of egg-shaped stones she was given as a gift were real.

But hey, you can convince yourself the story didn't change drastically after season one all you want. That doesn't mean it didn't, because it definitely did. Which was the entire point of it, really; if Ned Stark wasn't safe, no one was.

It wasn't really a change to the status quo though, just a plot point. All of the "twists" are foreshadowed in the first book. The hatching of the Dragons brings back the magic of the old Valyrian world and Ned Stark's death was predicted by characters several times. The only thing is that rather than the hero finding a way to save the day, he loses and dies, opening the plot wide open. I guess you could say the first novel follows a more conventional plot line that is then turned on its head. Hell, maybe you're right.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

I see where you're coming from with Ned Stark's death, as it was a master stroke of audience manipulation. Build a character up to be the classic hero protagonist then have him killed off by less principled people and scatter his family. And he was the focus of the narrative until then, whereas after him the narrative became a lot more splintered and the story became morally void.

I would classify that more as a change in the audience's perspective than a change in the actual world, because the world functions the same way before and after, just the audience is primed to expect much different outcomes.

One of the most jarring status quo changes I can think of is in Lost after season 3 where they stop tracking the camp as a community and replace flashbacks with flash forwards.

 

[Solid Snack]

I think the 'retcon punch' was also used to explain various things that didn't make sense from the original crisis. At the end of the storyline everybody seems to more or less remember that the other worlds were all gone and the silver age continuity was more or less intact; however, next month there's barely any mention of it, and a great deal of origins and backstories were changed (with the exception of mostly Batman and Green Lantern, but that's kind of been the norm with almost every DC retcon). Then came Superman Birthright which also changed the origin again and was incompatible with "Man of Steel". Ditto with "Secret Origin". So basically the retcon punch explained certain changes to the timeline even in post-Crisis.

I'm not so sure Peter was dead as much as buried in Doc Ock's subconsciousness when he took over his body and became Superior Spider-Man. There's a bit of ambiguity over that, especially when Ock came back in a new cloned body and had to defeat the lingering Peter Parker persona from that cloned body. So basically the 'current' Spider-Man might be a 'memory clone', with the real one having died in #700, or something like that.