It's hard to believe one of the biggest television franchises tried to hide its name.
For one reason or another, all these shows changed titles — some for the better, but
others … not so much.
It's easy to understand why Seinfeld is seen today as one of the most popular, beloved,
and influential shows of the past 50 years.
Its unique brand of fast-paced, whip-smart comedy and stories that defied convention
became a watershed moment in television that shaped the landscape of sitcoms forever.
Famously a "show about nothing," its episodes were anything but ordinary, often revolving
around a single everyday moment like waiting for a seat at a restaurant or buying a loaf
of bread.
However, as quintessential a series as Seinfeld has become, it didn't start out that way.
When it premiered in July of 1989, there were a couple minor differences in terms of characters,
and it even had a different title.
Airing as The Seinfeld Chronicles, it centered on New York comedian Jerry Seinfeld and his
surly friend George Costanza, alongside a wacky neighbor.
It still starred Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander, and Michael Richards, but the neighbor played
by Richards was named Kessler, not Kramer.
"Oh what are you doing?
Kessler, it's a tape!"
What's more, Julia Louis-Dreyfus's character Elaine was nowhere to be found.
Even more surprising, the pilot episode was received negatively by audiences.
Thankfully, the showrunners implemented a few key changes, simplified the title, and
TV history was made.
The 1980s might be the all-time best decade for family sitcoms, seeing the birth of classics
like Who's the Boss, Growing Pains, Family Ties, and Full House.
Smack dab in the middle of these classic series was The Hogan Family.
The Sandy Duncan-led comedy followed an aunt who arrives to take care of her nieces and
nephews after the death of her sister.
However, that premise isn't actually how the series started; it was originally titled Valerie
and starred Valerie Harper in the title role as a wife and mother of three kids who struggles
to keep her busy life in order.
After the show's second season, though, Harper was unceremoniously fired following a contract
dispute, and her character was killed off-screen.
So, in came Duncan as Aunt Sandy, and the show swapped out its title, running for another
four successful years as The Hogan Family.
While Harper was forced to watch her own show go on and find success without her, she would
eventually get the last laugh after the studio sued her trying to claim she'd quit the series.
Harper counter-sued in defiance and ultimately won out when she was awarded $1.4 million
in lost wages in 1988.
Arriving on the airwaves in 1975, Saturday Night Live became an instant classic.
While SNL certainly wasn't the first successful sketch comedy show to air, its iconic cast
of lesser-known raw talent made it decidedly different from those that had come before.
What's more, the show was far edgier than its predecessors, breaking down comedic barriers
and eventually becoming an American cultural staple that turned nearly its entire cast
into stars.
With such a well-chronicled history, it's hard to picture that the series ever went
by a different name.
But for its first season, it did.
The reason for the discrepancy was that, ahead of the premier, SNL's studio learned that
there was already a variety show in development called Saturday Night Live.
To avoid legal problems or confusion among the audience, the sketch comedy show launched
as NBC's Saturday Night.
Conveniently, the other Saturday Night Live ended after just one year, so NBC rebranded
its late-night series with the title that we all know now.
And it's a good thing too, because SNL rolls off the tongue a lot better than NSN.
In the mid-'90s, the Star Trek franchise was one of the biggest names on TV, with both
Deep Space Nine and Voyager on the air.
Later in that decade though, ratings for both shows began to decline, and it felt like some
franchise fatigue was setting in.
In response to this downward trend, showrunners made the decision to wait until both series
had ended before launching another.
The result was Star Trek: Enterprise.
Airing its first episodes in the fall of 2001, the show broke the status quo by being a prequel
set in the early days of human space exploration — more than 100 years before Kirk and Spock
went where no one had gone before.
"This is Captain Jonathan Archer of the Starship Enterprise, I don't need to tell you where
we are."
What some may not remember, however, is that when the show first began, it broke the norm
in another way by removing "Star Trek" from the title.
Although it's difficult to imagine a major franchise trying to distance itself from its
own name, because the Star Trek brand was fading in popularity, it was a strategic move
at the time.
Thus, for its first two seasons, the series was known simply as Enterprise.
It also featured a pop song in the main title sequence in place of the orchestral themes
of prior Star Trek shows.
Unfortunately, these changes did little to attract a broader audience, and by Season
3, the show was officially retitled Star Trek: Enterprise.
With a new showrunner in Season 4, reviews improved, but it wasn't enough to save it.
The series was sadly given the ax after its fourth season.
John Ritter was one of the industry's biggest sitcom stars thanks to Three's Company and
its continuation, Three's A Crowd.
But when those came to an end, he struggled to find another popular series, starring in
short-lived shows like Hooperman and Hearts Afire.
In 2002, though, the actor took the adult lead in the sitcom 8 Simple Rules, where he
starred as a middle-aged father and husband raising three kids.
Future Big Bang Theory alum Kaley Cuoco played Bridget, Ritter's on-screen daughter.
However, not everyone knows that Bridget was once a titular character in the series; when
the show first aired, it had the longer name 8 Simple Rules... for Dating My Teenage Daughter.
In its first season, the show ranked fairly well in the ratings and seemed poised to become
a hit, so in its second year, the title was simplified to make it a little less clunky.
"I can't believe I never thought of that.
I mean I'm always, like, so logical."
Tragically, Ritter's sudden death in 2003 forced a total overhaul, and Season 3 saw
the show retooled to focus on his character's father and brother.
Without Ritter, however, the sitcom just couldn't stay afloat, and 8 Simple Rules was canceled
after its third season.
Famous today for featuring a pair of superstars before they were famous, Two Guys and a Girl
is pretty much exactly what it says in the title: a sitcom centered on two male college
buddies who are friends with a young woman.
Deadpool star Ryan Reynolds played alongside Richard Ruccolo and Traylor Howard as Berg,
Pete, and Sharon, respectively.
Additionally, Nathan Fillion played Sharon's boyfriend, Johnny.
Though the show was never a major hit, it did air for four seasons and remains one of
the most criminally under-appreciated '90s sitcoms.
Similar to 8 Simple Rules, Two Guys and a Girl initially had a name that was a lot longer
and tougher to rattle off.
Upon its first release in 1998, the series was called Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place,
and the plot of Season 1 focused on Pete and Berg as coworkers at a pizza restaurant.
That decision occurred because the show was actually based on the real-life experiences
of creator Kenny Schwartz, who worked at a pizza joint while in college.
The title wasn't shortened just to make it easier to say, either.
After the show's first season, the pizza place premise was de-emphasized and eventually ditched altogether.
This meant removing it from the title, and thus the show became Two Guys and a Girl.
Long before Freaks and Geeks, there was another iconic teen comedy that made a name for itself
thanks to its offbeat humor and unique storytelling style.
It might be one of the most underrated '90s TV shows, and its name was Parker Lewis Can't Lose.
The show followed a popular high schooler and his oddball friends as they got themselves
in and out of trouble.
The series starred Corin Nemec as the titular Parker Lewis, whose penchant for tongue-in-cheek
monologues and fourth-wall-breaking asides evokes undeniable shades of the John Hughes
classic, Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
Aside from its strange sense of humor, one of the things that made the show unique was
its fast-paced filming style, which consisted of quick cuts, comic book angles, and cartoonish
sound effects.
While this aesthetic has helped it become a cult classic, it may have turned off some
audiences, as many of the show's more avant-garde elements were pushed aside for its third season.
It was around that time that the series also saw a name change to the more straightforward,
Parker Lewis.
There have been countless Batman shows over the years, from iconic entries like the live-action
series starring Adam West to the legendary Batman: The Animated Series.
In more recent years, the TV exploits of the Dark Knight have mostly revolved around the
wider cast of characters in Batman's world.
With various series fixating on police officer James Gordon, Batwoman, and the Caped Crusader's
sidekicks, it was only a matter of time before Alfred got his own spinoff.
In 2019, fans got exactly that with Pennyworth: The Origin of Batman's Butler.
A prequel to Gotham, the series explores the early life of Alfred Pennyworth when he worked
as a James Bond-esque agent running his own security agency.
However, the series didn't start out with that odd and unwieldy title.
Initially, it had the much more pleasing name of Pennyworth.
While it was a simple enough title, by the show's second season, it seems the network
was worried that audiences didn't know the significance of the name and how it is related
to Batman.
As a result, they changed the name of the series to include the awkward subtitle for
season 3 in order to make it completely clear that yes, this is the origin of Batman's butler.
No child of the '80s or '90s could forget Saved by the Bell — possibly the most oddly
celebrated teen show ever produced.
Its esteem is an oddity because it wasn't that stylish or slick, nor was it particularly good.
Instead, it was a kitschy, corny, goofball comedy for the whole family that was meme-worthy
long before such a concept existed.
It centered on hip high schooler Zack Morris, his jock best friend A.C. Slater, nerdy misfit
Screech, trendy Lisa Turtle, straight-A student Jessie Spano, and cheerleader Kelly Kapowski.
When the show got its start in 1989, however, it was something very different and not nearly
as appealing to teens as it later became.
This was due to the fact that several members of that cast weren't present yet, and the
focus of the show wasn't even the kids themselves.
Instead, the star of the series was their teacher, Miss Bliss, played by former child
star Hayley Mills.
Fittingly, the original title of the show was Good Morning, Miss Bliss, which was how
it was known for its entire first season.
In fact, Slater, Jesse, and Kelly weren't yet part of the series, and there were several
others who were there in their place.
After 14 episodes, the students became the center of the stories and Miss Bliss was written
out of her own show.
"Wow, that's great!
How did the poor sap take it?"
After that, the series was renamed Saved by the Bell, continuing to air with this title
for four seasons.
In 1960, Hollywood legend Andy Griffith got his own show: a sitcom about a small-town
sheriff named Andy Taylor.
Future Three's Company star Don Knotts co-starred alongside him as Barney Fife, a bumbling goofball,
while a young Ron Howard played Taylor's son Opie.
The Andy Griffith Show was a smash hit, becoming one of the biggest shows of its era.
With ratings to compete with powerhouse series like Bonanza and Bewitched, it ultimately
ran for more than a decade… depending on how you look at it.
The exact length of time the show aired is somewhat up for debate; following Andy Griffith's
exit after Season 8, the series got a new name: Mayberry, R.F.D.
While the change is sometimes considered the beginning of a new series, the fact that most
of the supporting cast from the previous year returned means it's often viewed as a continuation
of the original show.
Named for the fictional town the series was set in, Mayberry, R.F.D.
centered on Ken Berry's character, town councilman Sam Jones.
While many other recurring characters returned throughout the show's run, Griffith, along
with his co-stars Knotts and Howard, was noticeably absent aside from the occasional guest appearance.
Though the series' shift away from Andy Taylor could have killed the show, Mayberry, R.F.D.
lived on for another three seasons.