17 TV Characters Who Had Such Wildly Different Personalities At The Start, They May As Well Be Separate Characters

Eric might as well be the poster boy for this. He started off as Cory's cool big brother who was charming, full of himself, and of average intelligence. But then he basically became a complete dummy overnight, and his character was reduced to the laughingstock of the family. 

Donna was mostly just a background character initially, but she still had a significantly different personality back then. During Season 1, she's an image-obsessed party girl like Kelly, even throwing a big bash with tons of guys while her parents are out of town. Later, however, she's portrayed as the innocent, sweet one of the group.  

Degrassi characters rarely stay consistent throughout their arcs, but Imogen essentially had a complete personality shift. She was initially manipulative and obsessive, even persuading Eli to stop taking his medication — her early personality is similar to Esme's character in Degrassi: Next Class. Later, she's mostly just a quirky, free-spirited girl who usually tries to do the right thing.

Tristan was always a bit dramatic and shallow, but his personality really took a huge turn after his best friend, Tori, left. He became extremely self-absorbed, rude, and downright cruel at times — by Next Class, his character was hardly recognizable from the sweet, insecure kid back in Season 11 of The Next Generation who just wanted to be loved for who he was.

Alright, hear me out: I am far from a Dean fan, but I have to admit that he really wasn't terrible in Season 1. In fact, his character was a lot more layered at first — he rode a motorcycle, read books, and had a slightly mysterious, charming vibe at first. But by Season 2, he was basically just a jealous jock who didn't understand Rory's ambitions.

Okay so, to be fair, Teddy was never intended to be a super-compelling main character. He was introduced as Amy's love interest, and that was basically it. However, the guy at least had some personality in the beginning. Later, he was literally just known for being incredibly boring. He also became super, super desperate to win Amy back, which was a sharp contrast to how he acted in earlier seasons.

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In the early seasons, Megan was an annoying but harmless little sister. Her pranks got on her brothers' nerves, but they were more mischievous and funny than anything else. In the later seasons, however, she became cruel and devious — as if she was determined to actually torture the boys. 

This one wasn't as drastic a change as some on this list, but it's still worth mentioning. When Derek was introduced, he was portrayed as the team's intelligent and sensitive crime expert who always dressed to impress. After Season 1, however, his character was much more of a "tough guy." He traded out his suits for casualwear and focused on fighting.

Alison felt like a character whom the show wanted to redeem but couldn't quite figure out how to do so. As we saw in flashbacks, her entire personality before her disappearance was high school mean girl to the extreme — I mean, the girl literally had an entire town wanting to kill her at age 15. After she returned, though, she just sort of...became nice? It's understandable that all the trauma might change her personality, but her complete transformation felt too rushed to be a true redemption arc. 

I know, I know, I'm talking about a Muppet. But guess what: Kermit really did have some serious personality changes. In fact, Cheryl Henson, daughter of Kermit's creator, Jim Henson, criticized Kermit's puppeteer Steve Whitmire — who was fired in 2017 — for the way he portrayed the character after her father's death, saying he "performed Kermit as a bitter, angry, depressed victim." 

It's hard to remember that Kelly, the true outspoken drama queen of Dunder Mifflin, wasn't this way at all when she was introduced. Her character, who didn't really come into focus for a couple of seasons, was initially portrayed as mostly quiet and chill (save for the time she slapped Michael in the episode "Diversity"). 

This was mostly a case of a difference between the pilot and the rest of the show. In the first episode, Carlton was maybe a little snobby, but generally an average, chill dude. After the pilot, however, he was a certified rich kid who relied on the family butler to do nearly everything for him. No complaints, though — it definitely made for good comedy.

To be completely clear, Chuck is still very much a terrible person. However, the pilot set him up to be a sociopathic villain to the extreme, attempting to sexually assault both Serena and Jenny in one episode. Chuck was only a secondary character and a villain in the books. However, when he ended up being a breakout character whose chemistry with Blair (Leighton Meester) was popular among fans, the show pivoted away from this initial plan and took his character in a different direction. His character still did awful things, but he wasn't written as the same depraved villain who was in the pilot.

It's hard to remember sometimes, but Cat actually started off as a pretty normal, reasonably intelligent character. By Season 2 of Victorious, however, she was played up as the "dumb friend" to the extreme, with her ditziness constantly being used as the butt of the show's jokes.

To be fair, Parks and Recreation was a pretty different show altogether in the first season. In Season 1, she was something of the female version of Michael Scott from The Office — totally incompetent at her job and silly to the extreme. After the first season, though, she becomes much more ambitious, hardworking, and competitive. 

It's hard to remember sometimes, but Deb actually started out as a decent (though flawed) parent to Nathan at the beginning of the show. By Season 2, however, she was a completely different person. You could argue that everything she went through changed her, but there was a world of difference between the Deb who voluntarily ran Karen's café for her so she could go to Italy and the Deb who wielded a gun, tried to kill Dan, and angrily stormed into her son's classroom demanding he give her pills.

This is an odd but interesting one! Before she landed the role of Phoebe on Friends, Lisa Kudrow played a waitress named Ursula on NBC's Mad About You. Although Ursula started off as a guest character, Kudrow brought so much personality to the role that they kept her around. The most surprising part? Ursula was nice in this universe. 

“When Friends got its time slot on Thursday night at 8:30 p.m. after Mad About You, everybody realized we needed some explanation for the audience — why are they seeing the same girl with the same voice at 8:00 and 8:30 on two different shows?” Kudrow said in an interview with Comedy Central UK.

And thus, Phoebe's twin, Ursula, was born. Except in the Friends universe, she was definitely NOT as nice. The more you know!