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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Daniel Avery" data-source="post: 225554" data-attributes="member: 27">I'd have to think a bit deeper on this, but those that immediately come to mind:The Facts of Life originally featured Mrs. Garrett (from Diff'rent Strokes) as a house-mother to seven or eight young girls in ages from 11 to 17 at a boarding school.  There was also a headmaster and one of the teachers included as principal cast.  It did not take long for the producers to recognize there were too many characters to write for.  They hired some new writers/producers who whittled the cast down to Mrs. G and three of the original girls in close age range, then added one new girl to the mix.  They also ditched the headmaster (the teacher had departed earlier in the first season) and placed the girls all in one environment (working in the cafeteria) on the campus that forced them to live together.  The show lived on for many seasons and a few cast additions and subtractions (most notably the departure of Charlotte Rae's Mrs. Garrett) but was basically that core of four girls (who grew up onscreen).Empty Nest was originally going to be a sitcom centered around widowed pediatrician Harry Weston.  It was going to explore how he was picking up the pieces and moving on with life, having to get back out into dating, etc. while hanging out with his dog, Dreyfuss.  His two adult daughters would drop by occasionally, as would his annoying neighbor Charlie.  At work he'd be hectored by his pushy nurse/office manager, Laverne and he'd interact with the cute kids.  After about 2/3 of the first season they realized they were running out of excuses for his daughters to visit, and Richard Mulligan could only do so many scenes talking to Dreyfuss before it all looked repetitive since he was in basically every scene of the show.  So the daughters developed sudden "financial problems" and had to move back in with daddy, opening up plotlines where they vied for their father's attention and bickered like siblings half their age.  Harry's work life was now balanced with home life, and the supporting characters shouldered a lot of the burden of screen time.  Instead of Harry being the center of all the stories, they could now adopt the familiar A-plot, B-plot, C-plot structure with the daughters and Laverne becoming more developed characters and having stuff to do that did not directly involve Harry.Mama's Family was originally a spin-off derived from sketches performed on The Carol Burnett Show.  NBC developed the show with Vicki Lawrence's "Mama" character as the lead (who finally got a name: Thelma).  Most of the 'family' were not from the original sketches--they created a spinster sister (Fran) for Thelma, as well as son Vinton, grandchildren Buzz and Sonya, and daughter-in-law Naomi.  Original sketch characters played by Carol Burnett, Betty White, and Harvey Korman appeared sporadically as guest stars.  The NBC version was much more like the CB sketches: moments of sharp, pointed emotions and arguing mixed among the jokes.  After two seasons NBC cancelled the show, but producers decided to revive the show for first-run syndication a few years later.  The show returned with many cast changes and more creative freedom away from NBC.  Fran, Buzz, and Sonya were out; repressed neighbor Iola and Eunice's son Bubba were in.  Burnett and Korman were also not to appear, and White, only once.  The retooling made the show much more of a conventional sitcom since the links to the source material had been basically severed once Burnett's Eunice was no longer around.   The retooled version lasted several more seasons and received high ratings right to the end.</blockquote>

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