Every TV show has a premise that tells the audience what to expect. Ted Lasso, for example, is about a Kansas City college football coach who gets a job coaching a British soccer team in Richmond upon Thames, London. Usually, the premise of a show, be it a drama or a comedy, lasts throughout the entire series.
But sometimes, a show will switch up the premise during its run. There are a number of reasons for this and a number of examples where it doesn't work out very well. Interestingly enough, there were also some very successful shows that flipped the script and kept going for years. There were even some shows that became more popular when they changed the premise and found something else to focus the series on.
Updated by Lauren Turner on December 15, 2022: TV shows are generally creative, but some are especially innovative when thrown curveballs. These shows totally diverged from their original premise, which is always an intriguing notion to viewers. As such, we've revamped this list with even more information.
10 Cheers Created The "Will They/Won't They" And Then They Didn't
11 seasons
One of the most popular sitcoms of all time, Cheers started off with a basic premise that captivated audiences: would Sam Malone and Diane Chambers end up together? For years, viewers tuned in every week to see the latest developments in what became known as the "will they/won't they" storyline. And then, at the end of the show's fifth season, Diane left, and their romantic relationship never happened.
But Cheers was too popular to bring to an end, so the show kept going. The show left the "will they/won't they" story behind and focused more on the daily lives of the patrons of Cheers, lasting another six seasons.
9 Community Followed Cheers' Lead, Then Got Weird
6 seasons
Show creator Dan Harmon has never hidden his love for Cheers, and the classic sitcom's influence can be felt in the first two seasons of Community, where the main question was, "Will Jeff and Britta hook up?" But early into the second season, Harmon and the writers decided to lean into the ensemble cast that included Chevy Chase, Alison Brie, and Donald Glover, as well as their stranger ideas.
A show that was focused on a possible romance soon turned into something very different, and fans loved it, pushing the low-rated show to six seasons. To this day, the fans are still hoping for the Community movie.
8 Supernatural Completed The Story In Season 5 But Kept Going
15 seasons
Supernatural started off with a simple premise: the Winchester brothers would fight some kind of monster while looking for the Yellow-Eyed Demon, the monster who killed their mother. That mission came to an end in the fifth season when Sam and Dean faced off against their foe and won.
But fans, and the CW, weren't ready to say goodbye to the Winchesters, so Supernatural continued for ten more seasons, becoming one of the longest-running American TV shows. Over the years, the Winchesters learned the truth about their family's past, fought angels, and even died a whole bunch of times until their story finally came to a close in 2020.
7 Valerie Became The Hogan Family
6 seasons
In 1986, NBC debuted Valerie, a show about Valerie Hogan, played by Valerie Harper, as she raised her three sons while her airline pilot husband traveled the world for work. When Valerie Harper left the show after the second season, the series was renamed Valerie's Family.
In this new version, Valerie Harper tragically died in a car accident, and now her sons were being raised by her sister-in-law, Sandy, played by Sandy Duncan. For the fourth season, the show's name was changed to The Hogan Family, which lasted until the series ended with its sixth season.
6 Happy Days Lost Its Lead
11 seasons
Originally centered on teenager Richie Cunningham and his family as he grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in the 1950s, Happy Days quickly found a star in Fonzie, the motorcycle-riding greaser played by Henry Winkler. Fonzie proved so popular that after being a recurring character in the first season, he became a series regular in Season 2, replacing Richie's brother, Chuck, who forever vanished from the family and the series.
After seven seasons, Ron Howard, who played Richie, decided to leave the show to start the directing career he's best known for today. While Happy Days had lost its main character, the show continued, lasting another four seasons by focusing more on Fonzie and his younger cousin, Chachi.
5 Roseanne Became The Conners
10 seasons
Originally running from 1988 to 1997, Roseanne followed the lives of the Conners, a struggling working-class family in Illinois. In 2017, the series was revived with everyone from the original cast returning, even star Roseanne Barr.
The revived Roseanne was an instant hit with viewers, but when Barr made a series of controversial statements on Twitter, she was fired from the series. To deal with the loss of the show's main character, Roseanne was renamed The Conners and the premise switched to being about a family dealing with the death of their matriarch.
4 Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. Shifted To Taking Out The Hydra Agents In S.H.I.E.L.D.
7 seasons
The first TV show to be born out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. picked up shortly after 2012's Avengers, revealing that Agent Phil Coulson was, in fact, still alive. Given a new team to work with, Agent Coulson got to work in keeping the world safe as S.H.I.E.L.D.'s premier team.
But that all changed after Captain America: The Winter Soldier hit theaters, and audiences learned that Hydra was actually running S.H.I.E.L.D. Following that revelation, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s premise shifted as Coulson and his crew were put in charge of ferreting out the remaining Hydra agents in S.H.I.E.L.D.
3 Family Matters Found A Different Star
9 seasons
A spin-off of the hit sitcom Perfect Strangers, Family Matters initially focused on the life of police officer Carl Winslow and his family. In the pilot episode, Carl's mother moved into his home, adding to the stress the family was already feeling from the recent addition of Carl's wife Harriette's sister, Rachel, and her son, Richie, who moved in after Rachel's husband died.
But before long, audiences fell in love with Steve Urkel, the nerdy neighbor kid, and the Winslow family suddenly found themselves playing second fiddle to a character who was originally supposed to be a recurring character. Soon enough, the world was playing with Urkel dolls and eating Urkel O's while the original premise of Family Matters was lost forever.
2 Angel Joined The Bad Guys
5 seasons
After leaving Sunnydale at the end of the third season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, the vampire with a soul, moved to Los Angeles and started his own detective agency and his own self-titled series, Angel.
For the first four seasons, Angel and his team faced off against the evil law firm Wolfram & Hart. At the end of Season 4, Angel had won, which meant he became the CEO of Wolfram & Hart. Season 5 saw Angel, Spike, and the crew using Wolfram & Hart's resources to try and prevent the apocalypse they've inadvertently started. Sadly, Angel was canceled at the end of the fifth season.
1 The Good Place Solved The Mystery In The First Season
4 seasons
The Good Place initially started off being about Eleanor Shellstrop, played by Kristen Bell, as she found herself accidentally placed in Heaven after her death. In an attempt to stay in Heaven, Eleanor starts working to become a better person. By the end of the first season, she realizes that she isn't in the Good Place at all, and instead, she's in the Bad Place.
Across its four seasons, The Good Place changed the premise a number of times. First, Eleanor and the others thought they were in Heaven, only to find out they were in Hell. Then, they tried to help the demon who watched over them keep his job, and they later searched for a new way to get people to Heaven. Along with being hilarious, The Good Place kept its fans on their toes.