History TheArtifact / WesternAnimation

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' has the main character Lincoln himself. The first two seasons centered on his struggles to survive a household of ten wild sisters, but by the third one, the sisters had enough development to carry episodes on their own without Lincoln, meaning that he doesn't have as much of a purpose in the show as he once did. Heck, he's not even seen whatsoever in some episodes. Even when he's the focus character of an episode, his storylines now typically revolve around other aspects of his life outside of his family.

** Sort of subtly lampshaded in ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerbTheMovieAcrossThe2ndDimension''--Phineas is singing the song "Where Do We Begin", before diving into singing a part of the show's theme song, but suddenly realizes before he can finish the line "driving our sister insane". He claims that they're going too far and continues singing the song they were supposed to sing. He doesn't try to drive her insane or even seem to realize that he's doing it, so it wouldn't make any sense for him to say that.

** Sort of subtly lampshaded in ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerbTheMovieAcrossThe2ndDimension''--Phineas is singing part of the show's theme song, but gets distracted before he can finish the line "driving our sister insane". He doesn't try to drive her insane or even seem to realize that he's doing it, so it wouldn't make any sense for him to say that.

* In ''WesternAnimation/AtomicBetty'', you might notice Maximus looks a lot like Betty's cat Purrsy and Admiral DeGill looks like her pet goldfish. This is leftover from the original concept of the series, where Betty's space missions were fantasy adventures at night involving her pets and toys (Sparky and X5 look very toylike, their designs stick out like a sore thumb compared to other aliens and robots seen in the show)

* In the ''WesternAnimation/DisneySingAlongSongs'' VHS series, Professor Owl from the ''WesternAnimation/AdventuresInMusicDuology'' was originally the host, with Jiminy Cricket and Professor Ludwig Von Drake occasionally taking over. In later entries, Professor Owl only appears to say "And now, here is your host, [Jiminy Cricket / Professor Ludwig Von Drake]!", and [[TheOtherDarrin in a completely different voice from the intro and earlier videos]], at that. The most likely reason is that the between-song segments were composed entirely of StockFootage of old cartoons, and Cricket and Von Drake -- particularly the latter, who by the end was the only one hosting -- had a good deal more material to draw from.

** The series got a new title sequence in Season 3 to fit with the [[spoiler: the change of setting from Earth to Mewni]] which among another things had Janna as one of the main characters, Ludo,[[spoiler: Toffee and Glossaryck]] as the major antagonistic forces and the wand still with the split star. This maked sense for the 4-part arc ''The Battle of Mewni'' where the title sequence debuted but doesn't really fit with the events after that arc, Ludo [[spoiler:and Toffee]] are gone, the wand has a new form, [[spoiler: Glossaryck is temporarily dead and then returns to Star's side]] and Janna has being DemotedToExtra. The latter point became an aversion once Season 4 turned her into a main character again.

** Speaking of Janna. She inverts this in Season 4, at first she seems to have no purpose in the narrative given she has no reason ow way to be on Mewni and only seems to have regained her relevance on the show out of being a BreakoutCharacter but then during the last episodes [[spoiler: Star, Marco and Tom are unable to go back to Mewni for traditional means and it turns out only Janna can help them since [[ChekhovsSkill she has being travelling without a portal]]. ]]

** The series got a new title sequence in Season 3 to fit with the [[spoiler: the change of setting from Earth to Mewni]] which involved among another things had Janna as one of the main characters, Ludo,[[spoiler: Toffee and Glossaryck]] as the major antagonistic forces and the wand still with the split star. This maked sense for the 4-part arc ''The Battle of Mewni'' where the title sequence debuted but doesn't really fit with the events after that arc, Ludo [[spoiler:and Toffee]] are gone, the wand has a new form, [[spoiler: Glossaryck is temporarily dead and then returns to Star's side]] and Janna has being DemotedToExtra. The latter point became an aversion once Season 4 turned her into a main character again.

** Early on, it was established that the young boy Aang was preceded by the male Avatar Roku. Later on in the series, every other avatar we see before and after Aang and Roku alternated genders: Roku was preceded by Kiyoshi (female), Kuruk (male), and Yangchen (female), while Aang was succeeded by Korra (female). This is compounded by the fact that early in the series, the group finds a room of statues that directly implied Roku too was preceded by an unnamed male Avatar. Female Avatars could still be seen in the room, so this implies that originally the Avatar cycle didn't have a pattern when it came to gender distribution. However since the series had already established Roku as preceding Aang at that point, they couldn't change it to the newly established rule and the discrepancy goes unaddressed.

** The infamous trippy and abstract opening used during TheSixties was itself an artifact, as it was originally intended to be a unique alternate opening sequence for Creator/ChuckJones' ''WesternAnimation/NowHearThis'' and other experimental one-shots prior to the shutdown of Warner Bros' old animation studio (the ''Looney Tunes'' cartoons with the regular cast continued to use the familiar rings intro) and the more odd look of the opening fit wonderfully with those cartoons due to them being trippy and abstract themselves. However, Warner Bros decided to adapt it as the permanent opening when they shut down the old studio in favor of outsourcing it to Creator/DePatieFrelengEnterprises, ripping it of its original intent and context in the process.

** Similarly the fact that the young boy Aang was preceded by the male Avatar Roku, later episodes would confirm that the avatar cycle goes directly boy, girl, boy, girl which makes the discrepancy odd. This is compounded by the fact that early in the series the group find a room of statues that directly implied Roku too was preceded by an unnamed male Avatar. Female Avatars could still be seen in the room, so this implies that originally the Avatar cycle was a lot more mysterious and esoteric when it came to gender distribution. However since the series had already established Roku as preceding Aang at that point they couldn't change it to the newly established rule and the discrepancy goes unaddressed.

** Similarly the fact that the young boy Aang was preceded by the male Avatar Roku and an early episode contained a room of statues that directly implied Roku too was preceded by an unnamed male Avatar. Female Avatars could still be seen in the room, so this implies that originally the Avatar cycle was a lot more mysterious and esoteric when it came to gender distribution. Later episodes would however confirm that the cycle goes directly boy, girl, boy, girl, but the series had already established Roku as preceding Aang at that point and the series never explains the discrepancy.

* On Creator/PBSKids broadcasts of early episodes of ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'', a black bar with white lines on it would appear on the left side of the screen. This particular bar was actually the signal for the Actimates toys of Arthur and D.W., allowing them to respond to the episodes, and kept appearing during reruns of those early episodes.

* On Creator/PBSKids broadcasts of early episodes of ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'', a black bar with white lines on it would appear on the left side of the screen. This was the signal for the Actimates toys of Arthur and D.W. to respond to the program, and appeared during reruns long after the toy had been discontinued.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheTomAndJerryShow2014'' uses the classic gasp, gulp, and screaming sound effects for the duo even though they stick out like a sore thumb compared to the more modern noises of the show.

** The "robots in disguise!" slogan has stuck around in both the theme song and overall material, long after any hope of disguise faded out. Neither side in the original series displayed any interest in maintaining the {{Masquerade}}, and by the early second season, just about everyone on Earth is aware of them, with parades in the street commemorating the Autobots, open collaboration with Earth's governments, memorials to Optimus Prime built ''before'' his death, and Cybertron itself briefly appearing in Earth's orbit at one point. By the third season, even their designs are depicted as mostly crazy space-age vehicles or robot animals that would be no good for disguise anyway. In many future shows, there's even less reason for disguise to be a factor; ''Beast Wars'' takes place on prehistoric Earth, for instance, giving them nothing to hide ''from'', and featured contemporary wildlife being mixed in with [[AnimalsNotToScale bugs the size of tigers]] and [[EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs dinosaurs]]. Later commercials tried different slogans like "They've got the power to surprise!", "stronger, faster, more alive!" or "the challenge is in the change!", but none managed to really catch on.

* WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse's ears. No matter how he turns his head, [[CheatedAngle they stay in the same position, in direct violation of the rules of perspective]]. This is a relic of the time Mickey was created (the late 1920s), when designs were simple and crude, but as the animators improved their drawing skills and the style became more elaborate, Mickey's design began to look archaic by comparison. His immense popularity made a complete redesign impossible, so only small, judicious changes were made over time. There was a time in the early 1940s when the ears were altered to look more like real mouse ears, as well as giving them dimension, but that change was short-lived and the round ears returned. Nowadays it's accepted as a crucial element in Mickey's design (even 3D depictions of the character like ''WesternAnimation/MickeyMouseClubhouse'', ''VideoGame/EpicMickey'', and ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' have special adjustments to keep the ears the same from every angle), and is even [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] on occasion.
* The early seasons of ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' had a pretty different tone and concept, and so many older elements have become this over time.
** Kenny is TheUnintelligible because his muffled voice was originally supposed to be a clever censor. In early episodes, he would often describe lewd things that were theoretically too vulgar to say outright, but viewers could listen closely and understand what he was saying. For example, in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_6i1grHQ3g a short "This program is brought to you by..." spot]] promoting ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'', where Kyle plugs the card game, and Kenny says, "[[TakeThat That sounds fucking gay]]," in a way that sounds like the game's tagline, "It's not just a game." As the show pushed the envelope and censors became more lax, however, this novelty became mostly pointless; other characters can use explicit language without any issue. Losing that novelty, combined with the reduction of [[TheyKilledKennyAgain Kenny's recurring deaths]], is why Kenny [[DemotedToExtra faded to]] [[OutOfFocus the background]] as the seasons progressed.
** For many years, this was the case with Officer Barbrady, who was prominent in early seasons as the town's lone dim-witted police officer. A new police force was gradually established with distinct characters and a completely separate headquarters, which gradually displaced Barbrady, who was reduced to very brief and infrequent appearances when the larger force wasn't necessary. After being sidelined for a decade, he was written out of the show in Season 19, which included him being fired from the police force, with the Mayor outright telling him he was [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall "from another time"]].
** A more typical case is Stan's Uncle Jimbo, who was a prominent adult character in the first few seasons, seen often and rarely seen without his [[StraightMan war buddy Ned]]. Both characters fell OutOfFocus as main characters after the fifth season, as the boys' dads became more prominent. Unlike many other characters on the show who faded from prominence and were written out, DemotedToExtra or [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome removed]], Jimbo has remained a part of the show's cast for fifteen years since then, but has usually recieved only very small StraightMan supporting roles to other characters such as Randy or Cartman, with only a few lines of supporting dialogue and without his familiar comedic traits from early episodes (besides continuing to sell guns). A single scene in season 22's "Time To Get Cereal" features Jimbo and Ned in their familiar roles, but they are dropped for the rest of the storyline, and he appears hospitalized with COVID-19 in "The Pandemic Special."
** Pip is yet another example. During the first four seasons, he was the resident ButtMonkey, a nice boy constantly bullied by everyone else, and a classmate of the four main boys with possibly the most screentime right after them (excluding Wendy and a few adult characters). After his ADayInTheLimelight episode in Season 4, he would become a LivingProp at best, with his initial role being basically replaced by Butters, whom the creators themselves stated to work better as such character. This would continue for several seasons until he was KilledOffForReal in the fourteenth one.
** Early designs for the adult characters had the same circular heads, small noses[[note]]barring Sheila Broflovski's hook nose[[/note]], flat hairstyles, and simplistic body shapes. However, as the show underwent ArtEvolution, adult characters developed more complex designs, being given different head shapes and facial features and more realistically-textured hairstyles, especially when caricaturing real-life people. Adult characters introduced early in the series, like the main four's parents, have kept their earlier simple designs, which is noticeable when they share scenes with newer adult characters.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''
** Meg Griffin seems to have been designed and included for one narrative purpose (high school angst-driven stories); as the show has become joke-driven, structurally looser and narratively weaker, Meg's continued existence often seems little more than a vestige of the {{plot}}-driven early seasons of the show. Couple this with the character's initial unpopularity for those very reasons, and the show's increasing reliance on the Seth [=McFarlane=]-voiced characters, the audience's dislike of the Meg character ([[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] frequently on the show through the rest of the family's increasingly pronounced and occasionally violent antipathy toward her) and there's really little left of the character beyond the awareness of her Artifact status.
*** The disproportionate in-universe hate towards her has shoved her through TheWoobie Wall for many members of the audience, giving her an actual purpose in the show. It also makes the scene in the the episode "Dial Meg for Murder" where she beats Peter after being in prison a few months a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome. Whether or not this was intended is a topic of debate.
*** The diminishment of Meg's character began at about the same time as her original (and uncredited) voice actor Lacey Chabert was replaced by Mila Kunis. In contrast to Lacey Chabert's rather mundane characterization, Mila Kunis brought a sharper, more distinctive quality to the character (along with a much greater appreciation for the show's type of humor than Lacey Chabert had, which is what caused her to leave the show and be uncredited). Mila Kunis' performance allows the out-of-proportion attacks on Meg to be funny, whereas had Lacey Chabert remained, it likely would have just come off as mean-spirited.
*** Nowadays, Meg can occasionally get whole plots dedicated to her, with them varying in how nice she is treated. In addition, recent seasons have added the gimmick that Meg may or may not be a troubled, disturbed, violent girl that possibly committed murder, needs constant supervision to stop her doing something wrong, and is a powder keg just waiting to explode.
** Stewie Griffin's unusual appearance and voice--his posh British accent and slicked-back hair, in particular--were originally a pretty explicit ShoutOut to Franchise/HannibalLecter of ''Film/TheSilenceOfTheLambs''. This made sense in the early seasons, since Stewie's entire gimmick was that he was [[EnfanteTerrible a deranged evil genius with the body of an infant]]. But after years of {{Flanderization}} caused his characterization to become dominated by his snobbishness and his [[CampGay feminine mannerisms]], it started to seem a bit odd that he still looked like a cannibalistic {{serial killer}}. But by then, his design was simply too iconic to change.
** Chris Griffin is a blond even though his parents are a brunette and a redhead. However, Lois also originally being blond in the "Pitch Pilot" suggests it as a leftover that the son was originally to inherit from the mother.

* ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'':
** The final season of WesternAnimation/TheTransformers does this to Optimus Prime, of all characters. They'd brought him back due to the heavy backlash over his death in ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie'', so they couldn't very well kill him off again. But because of the huge cast that had to be written in [[MerchandiseDriven due to the toyline]], all of the older characters like Blaster and Perceptor had been PutOnABus in favor of new characters with more marketable gimmicks (such as being a Head- or Targetmaster, or being part of a combination team). Prime is the only exception, and looks notably out of place with his '80s-era Mack Truck form and lack of gimmicky weapons when surrounded by futuristic cars and jets and all the -masters. Notably, in the Japanese continuity, which splits off right after he's brought back to life, he dies again almost immediately, replaced by a series of newer, more visually and technologically impressive leaders.
** In the third season, this also happens to some extent with many of the first- and second-season characters who survived the movie, although some of them do get important roles in an episode or two (Blaster and Soundwave in "Carnage in C-Minor", Perceptor in "The Face of the Nijika", etc.).
** Optimus Prime himself may be an example of this trope. His nemesis Megatron has had several personality changes over the course of the franchise, but the Big Red himself is pretty much the same character, even when he's smaller or less red. His alternate counterparts tend to be closer to the original than the alternate Megatrons as well. Then again, there's not much that can be changed about a consummate hero without keeping him as heroic as he's expected to be. A lot of modern stories have seen him be [[DemotedToExtra demoted]] to a SupportingLeader role or otherwise written out, due to the difficulties in writing a character of his [[BigGood rank]] and [[IdealHero personality]] (often moving the focus to [[KidAppealCharacter Bumblebee]]). Notably, ''WesternAnimation/TransformersAnimated'' is one of the few modern series where Optimus is inarguably the protagonist from beginning to end, and it's also notable because he ''isn't'' the BigGood or IdealHero in that series.
** ''WesternAnimation/BeastWars'':
*** Optimus Primal and Megatron were originally conceived of as simply being their G1 selves in new bodies. The TV series (and pretty much every version to follow) reinterpreted them as different people entirely, but [[OneSteveLimit kept their names]], and in Primal's case, [[IdenticalStranger his extremely Prime-ish face design.]] It's the equivalent of your boss taking the name "Babe Lincoln" and wearing a stovepipe hat and thick beard to work, and nobody ever commenting on it. Megatron got a later justification in the series for why he has the same name as the other one ("Megatron" is actually an {{Antichrist}}-esque figure in their religion, and both versions take on the name because they're {{Card Carrying Villain}}s), but Primal's reasons basically remain an enigma all the way to the end of the series.
*** The reasoning the cartoon gave for the beast modes of characters was that their modes were protective: the planet was infused with energy that would overload Cybertronians in minutes, and the only way to protect themselves was to use shells of organic material that could block it out. Essentially, beast modes were their equivalent to hazmat suits. At the end of the first season, the energy was converted to a stable form that was no longer harmful... but this had a side effect of also making beast modes rather useless. They were pointless for disguise, since the series took place in a prehistoric era and the modes generally weren't convincing anyway, and pointless for combat, since characters couldn't use weapons or gadgets in beast mode, and rarely offered anything their robot modes didn't (for instance, Silverbolt could fly just as effectively in either mode). This was given a bit of a bandage by the Transmetal concept, where characters could now use their beast modes as rapid transport, but even then, non-Transmetal characters in the later seasons have a habit of transforming for no other reason than to remind you they can.
** The "robots in disguise!" slogan has stuck around in both the theme song and overall material, long after any hope of disguise faded out. Neither side in the original series displayed any interest in maintaining TheMasquerade, and by the early second season, just about everyone on Earth is aware of them, with parades in the street commemorating the Autobots, open collaboration with Earth's governments, memorials to Optimus Prime built ''before'' his death, and Cybertron itself briefly appearing in Earth's orbit at one point. By the third season, even their designs are depicted as mostly crazy space-age vehicles or robot animals that would be no good for disguise anyway. In many future shows, there's even less reason for disguise to be a factor; ''Beast Wars'' takes place on prehistoric Earth, for instance, giving them nothing to hide ''from'', and featured contemporary wildlife being mixed in with [[AnimalsNotToScale bugs the size of tigers]] and [[EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs dinosaurs]]. Later commercials tried different slogans like "They've got the power to surprise!", "stronger, faster, more alive!" or "the challenge is in the change!", but none managed to really catch on.
** Soundwave's classic cassette recorder altmode and array of "cassettes" that eject and turn into other robots got kicked in the bolts ''hard'' by TechnologyMarchesOn, what with those recorders being almost nonexistent in popular culture for years (most people assume him to be a boombox, which is, if anything, even more dated), and cassette tapes having been solidly eclipsed by the CD by the mid-nineties, which has itself been rendered obsolete by digital formats like [=MP3=] (and that's just in the realm of music); not to mention the issues inherent to having a tiny handheld recorder turn into something large enough to go toe-to-toe with a walking Mack truck like Optimus Prime. However, there are only so many Decepticons with meaningful name and face recognition outside of diehard fans, so new TV shows have to try ReimaginingTheArtifact whenever they bring him up. Even when he's been reimagined significantly, though, his old "eject the tape" gimmick is almost always kept intact in some form, and his designs tend to include things like pause-and-play buttons, a window on his chest, or a suspiciously battery-like shoulder cannon as remnants of his old design.

* Hack and Slash in ''WesternAnimation/ReBoot'' fell into this during season 3. While the series got DarkerAndEdgier, they didn't. For the most part they were ignored unless some comic relief was needed.
* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' started with 22 contestants in the first season, but while the second and third seasons still had most of the cast competing, a few characters were stuck watching from the sidelines. With such a large main cast, some pairs of characters were pretty similar to each other, which made a few like [[HairTriggerTemper Eva]], [[TheDividual Katie and Sadie]] redundant as [[TeamMom Courtney]], [[DumbBlonde Lindsay]] and [[{{Geek}} Beth]] respectively took on their defining traits. The three only competed in the first season as a result, and have been OutOfFocus ever since.
** The SpinoffBabies, ''WesternAnimation/TotalDramaRama,'' is set at a daycare instead of a reality show, but still uses ConfessionCam segments.
* Speaking of animated reality shows, after the first season ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'' lost the pretense of being "the first animated reality" by dropping the "confessional" segments, the votes, and so on. This however was referenced in TheMovie that closed the series for good.
* The ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' theme-song has the titular boys saying that they want to "Drive their sister insane!" However, [[CharacterizationMarchesOn their personalities changed a bit during development]], and now the boys are incredibly nice, and want to help their sister out--she's just too amped up to realise. However, because it rhymes and is so intrinsic, the line stays.
** Then again, you could take the line to mean that the things they do are going to drive her insane as a side effect, even if it's not what they intend to do.
** Sort of subtly lampshaded in ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerbTheMovieAcrossThe2ndDimension''--Phineas is singing part of the show's theme song, but gets distracted before he can finish the line "driving our sister insane". He doesn't try to drive her insane or even seem to realize that he's doing it, so it wouldn't make any sense for him to say that.
** Candace yelling "Phineas!" was originally in response to him snarking "It's a short drive" following the above line.
* ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends'':
** ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndTheMagicRailroad'' introduced the engine Lady as a sort of BarrierMaiden keeping the magical bond between the Engines' world and the real world alive, but this magical bond is not only never mentioned in any other version, but Shining Time Station and the Messrs. Conductor have since been phased out entirely. Nevertheless, Lady continued to appear in a few stories released shortly after the film, despite having lost the one thing that made her special and interesting. She disappeared after she'd appeared in enough stories to justify the toys to kids who didn't see the movie.
** Given that the series has a huge cast, this is the case for the majority of the engines. Characters who were once mainstays of the series like Duck, Boco and Daisy have all but disappeared - if one were to be cynical, one might suggest that the few appearances they have are to ensure their continued presence in [[MerchandiseDriven the various merchandise lines]].
** In addition, the original episodes, and [[Literature/TheRailwaySeries the novels on which they are based]], placed most of the engines onto different lines and work regimes. Now, the engines just seem to work freely anywhere around Sodor, making some of them superfluous. This was likely done so as to make main characters such as Thomas more flexible and easier to write into different situations.
** Newer seasons, due to change in writing team, seemed to make some attempts to reverse these examples, with more accuracy to the original stories and the return of old concepts and characters. Some leeway is still made in favor of new additions however.
* Zordrak was created as the sinister BigBad of ''WesternAnimation/TheDreamstone'', in early episodes, while mostly staying in his lair, he devised many of the plans for his mooks, the Urpneys, and on a handful of occasions played part in the task at hand, making him a palpable KnightOfCerebus. As the show began to revolve more and more around the Urpneys' slapstick however, Zordrak's part in the show became smaller and more superfluous, usually appearing as little more than [[BadBoss a source of abuse for his mooks]] while they plotted and acted out everything themselves. The heroes themselves even became trivial additions at times due to the Urpneys being such luckless imbeciles they could play out and fail at a scheme completely by themselves (though they were pushed back into spotlight a little in the final seasons).

* ''WesternAnimation/TheTomAndJerryShow2014'' uses the classic gasp, gulp, and screaming sound effects for the duo even though they stick out like a sore thumb compared to the more modern noises of the show.
* Creator/CartoonNetwork's action-animation block Creator/{{Toonami}} has one in the form of a quote: "''We won't be intimidated by criminal threats!''", a line taken from the [[WesternAnimation/SupermanTheatricalCartoons theatrical Superman cartoons]], which aired via the Cartoon Roulette. While the Superman cartoons (as well as the Cartoon Roulette itself and [[WesternAnimation/TheHerculoids the]] [[WesternAnimation/SpaceGhost other]] [[WesternAnimation/Birdman1967 shows]] it presented) left the block in 2000 and never came back, the sound bite for the line itself was still used in various promos. Even the revived Toonami on Creator/AdultSwim still uses it in promos.
* The 2011 reboot of ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'' has the boys and Stewart still rocking the same T-shirts they did in the 1990s. While it's still reasonable that teenage metalheads would be rocking Metallica and AC/DC shirts in modern times, being iconic acts, one wonders how many teenage boys nowadays would wear a T-shirt by the nearly forgotten hair metal band Winger (hell, Winger was almost an artifact when the original B&B show started airing in the '90s).

** Subverted with WesternAnimation/DaffyDuck's signature "WOO HOO WOO HOO" laugh. He was originally an insane {{Cloudcuckoolander}} comparable to WesternAnimation/WoodyWoodpecker. Though soon became the a more levelheaded JerkAss he's known as being, albeit with a few screwball elements, he keeps his manical laughter during occasional {{Character Check}}s or {{Character Rerailment}}s.

* Heloise has a scar on her head in ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes''. This is an artifact from an earlier concept, when the show was going to take place in Hell and Heloise was a teenage serial killer who was gunned down by the police. It was only left in to make her seem creepier.
* In ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'', Starfire's distinctive speech patterns became this trope. She would speak very slowly and [[SpockSpeak properly]], and often misuse slang and idioms ("Let us kick the butt!"). The original point was that she was an alien not used to speaking English, but over time the series introduced other aliens--including other Tamaraneans--who [[AliensSpeakingEnglish spoke English just fine]]. It simply became a quirk of her character.
* Beginning in Summer 1999, Nickelodeon began to have Henry and June from ''WesternAnimation/KaBlam'' host various Nicktoon blocks, such as 101% Whizbang! and U-Pick. While ''[=KaBlam=]!'' aired its last episode in May 2000, the duo continued to host U-Pick until the end of 2000 when the block was cancelled (it would be revived two years later with live-action hosts). However, they eventually came back (albeit with June [[TheOtherDarrin being recast]]) at the beginning of 2001 to host the ''Nicktoon World News'' shorts in-between commercial breaks, where they'd sit at a newsdesk and give out fun facts about upcoming Nicktoons (or in some cases, already-airing Nicktoons), as well as various "coming up next" bumpers for the channel. Despite this, ''[=KaBlam=]!'' had already been cancelled a year earlier and eventually was taken off of Nickelodeon's schedule not too long after the shorts/bumpers began airing. They still continued to host them until Fall 2001 when Nickelodeon retired them for good.
** The fourth season of the show received a slight {{Retool}} to the wraparounds, making the TV studio setting more apparent than it had ever been and almost abandoning the comic book setting, which had been the show's primary gimmick (most likely as an attempt to integrate elements from the failed ''The Henry and June Show'' pilot into the series). The only remains of it being in the opening and ending titles and the show's traditional "turning the page" to the next segment.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': Fry's backstory as [[FishOutOfTemporalWater a 20th century human transplanted into the 31st century via cryogenic freezing]] almost became an afterthought in later episodes. If you got into the series at a later point, you'd scarcely think that Fry wasn't from the 30th century. This is a JustifiedTrope, however: similar to ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'' under the Live Action TV section, it was inevitable that Fry would get used to life in the future, especially since real time passed over the course of the series (he was 25 at the start of the show and in his mid-30s by the time it ended); the main surprise ended up being that he adjusted to life in the future far faster than they'd expected. One episode also acknowledges it, with characters mentioning that Fry fits in quite well in the future because he was such a misfit in the 20th century.
* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'':
** Katara's OpeningNarration remains the same through the series. Her statement "And although [Aang's] airbending skills are great, he has a lot to learn before he's ready to save anyone." was true early on, it makes no sense by Book 3, where Aang is clearly stronger and more mature, having saved countless people before even mastering the final element.
*** This is a bit of a subversion, as while Aang is far more powerful and mature by the end of the series than at the beginning, the "learning" aspect is still accurate until the end as two techniques Aang learns during the GrandFinale are instrumental to his ultimate success: [[AttackReflector lightning redirection]] and [[spoiler:[[DePower energybending]].]]
** In early episodes, the fauna in the Avatar world ran on CallASmeerpARabbit, filled with wildly-alien beasts with the names of ordinary Earth animals. By the end of the first season, the wildlife had been replaced by more organic-looking MixAndMatchCritters. Despite this, the bizarre species introduced in the earlier episodes couldn't just go away, especially since two of them, Appa the "bison" and Momo the "lemur", were the show's ubiquitous {{Team Pet}}s.
* Similarly the fact that the young boy Aang was preceded by the male Avatar Roku and an early episode contained a room of statues that directly implied Roku too was preceded by an unnamed male Avatar. Female Avatars could still be seen in the room, so this implies that originally the Avatar cycle was a lot more mysterious and esoteric when it came to gender distribution. Later episodes would however confirm that the cycle goes directly boy, girl, boy, girl, but the series had already established Roku as preceding Aang at that point and the series never explains the discrepancy.
* ''WesternAnimation/HeyArnold'' kept the same title sequence throughout its run. Needless to say, by the show's end after five seasons some things that showed up in the title sequence had long since been changed, most noticeably Stinky's spiky arm-bands (from back in the first season where he was a bully alongside Harold, before he eventually became more of a mild-mannered CountryMouse with a slight {{Jerkass}} streak) and the very fact that Ruth [=MacDougal=] is still present. (By the series' end, [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome she had all but disappeared]].)
* ''WesternAnimation/PhantomInvestigators'': Early in production, Daemona's real name was Prunella Daemon, and "Daemona Prune" was to be her aliases while on the job as a Phantom Investigator. It was later decided that the latter name would be used as her real name and she wouldn't use an aliases as a Phantom Investigator, leaving her name as an artifact from an earlier point of production.
* ''Franchise/Ben10'': Several of Ben Tennyson's ten original forms have been made completely obsolete due to him gaining new ones with the same abilities and more over the course of the sequel, yet these forms still end up being brought back because of how iconic and popular they are.
** Ben started using his Original Series favorite form [[SuperStrength Four Arms]] again in ''WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien'' even though he had plenty of super-strong aliens with additional powers.
** [[GreenThumb Wildvine]] was brought back in ''WesternAnimation/Ben10Omniverse'' even though Swampfire has the same abilities plus PlayingWithFire.
** Grey Matter started being regularly used again, also in ''Omniverse'', even though Brainstorm had the same SuperIntelligence plus ShockAndAwe. There was an attempt at ReimaginingTheArtifact by clarifying that Grey Matter is even smarter than Brainstorm, but [[InformedAbility they did a rather poor job at showing it]].
* ''WesternAnimation/SofiaTheFirst'': Sofia's backstory as a [[FishOutOfWater village girl who becomes a princess when Miranda marries the king]] becomes less significant as the series goes on. In the first season, Sofia adjusting to royal life is easily the basic premise of the show. In the later seasons, her backstory is rarely mentioned at all, and there is almost no indication that Sofia hasn't always been a princess. {{Justified|Trope}} in that it was inevitable that Sofia would get used to life as a princess as time passed.
* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' has an example of this combined with AdaptationRelationshipOverhaul. In this show, Tim Drake/ComicBook/{{Robin}} is in an OfficialCouple with Cassie Sandsmark[=/=]ComicBook/WonderGirl, because it was inspired by the ComicBook/New52 giving them a RelationshipUpgrade. However, this was in part because at the time, the ''real'' character Tim is usually an couple with, Stephanie Brown/Spoiler, was ExiledFromContinuity for perceived toxicity[[note]]Even then, Tim/Cassie was StrangledByTheRedString, as the characters had little interaction in the show compared to other romances that were present[[/note]]. Said blacklisting would eventually be lifted, with Tim soon enough becoming a couple with Steph once again and never going back (his relationship with Cassie was ''not'' taken well by fans, so this was a [[AuthorsSavingThrow saving throw]]), and by the time the series was UnCancelled and ''Outsiders'' was released, Stephanie Brown was fully introduced as Spoiler and they could've theoretically been made a couple as they usually are in the source. However, because Tim and Cassie are one OfficialCouple of the show, him and Steph haven't even had so much as a ShipTease much less actually date each other, because doing so would mess with this particular continuity, even if it was inspired by a poorly-received period of time. Not helping matters is the AgeLift, as while they're normally the same age, here Tim is 16 while Steph is a full two years younger than him, making them as a couple sound unlikely.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' has the main character Lincoln himself. The first two seasons centered on his struggles to survive a household of ten wild sisters, but by the third one, the sisters had enough development to carry episodes on their own without Lincoln, meaning that he doesn't have as much of a purpose in the show as he once did. Heck, he's not even seen whatsoever in some episodes. Even when he's the focus character of an episode, his storylines now typically revolve around other aspects of his life outside of his family.
* Vlad Plasmius, major villain of ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'', was originally intended to be a vampire, but the concept was scrapped. Despite this, he still has a lot of leftover elements from that concept: his design in both forms, his name, and so on. Based on Danny, his design seems like it should be a color-inverted version of his outfit when he became a ghost, rather than the Dracula outfit he actually wears, but it seems they liked the design too much to bother.
* In the beginning of ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', the Gems were portrayed as almost completely magical beings who dealt with objects like devices that could move through time, scrolls that could come to life, and wands that could replicate anything. Most notably, the Crystal Gems live in a temple that is BiggerOnTheInside and has all sorts of AlienGeometries within. As the series went on, the nature of the Gems shifted to more of a science fiction angle, and many of the more "magical" things disappeared or [[DoingInTheWizard were explained as something more technical than that.]] As the home of the main characters, the Gem Temple couldn't just go away, so it ends up feeling a little out of place looking at Gem technology/magic/{{magitek}} from when Homeworld was first mentioned onwards.

* On Creator/PBSKids broadcasts of early episodes of ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}'', a black bar with white lines on it would appear on the left side of the screen. This was the signal for the Actimates toys of Arthur and D.W. to respond to the program, and appeared during reruns long after the toy had been discontinued.
* The ExpositoryThemeTune of ''WesternAnimation/SpaceGoofs'' still retains the "Five little monsters were riding through space..." part in the Season 2 intro even though Stereo [[PutOnABus no longer appears in the show]] (which brings the cast down to four), to the point that he's not even in the intro where they're shown crashing into Earth.
* Some TV edits of ''WesternAnimation/RudolphTheRedNosedReindeer'' cut out the [[TheReveal revelation]] that Yukon Cornelius is looking for peppermint at the North Pole rather than gold or silver--but they leave in Yukon's peculiar habit of licking his pickaxe, which is {{foreshadowing}} for that twist (he's tasting his pickaxe for peppermint). Without the twist, it's just a random quirk of his that's never explained.
* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' ostensibly began as a tie-in with Creator/TimBurton's live-action ''Franchise/{{Batman}}'' movies, but eventually went in its own direction after it became a hugely popular show in its own right and the showrunners were granted more creative control by the network. Despite this, the show still retained a few changes from the source material that carried over from the movies, even after they ceased to fit with the show's visual sensibility and interpretation of the mythos. Most notably: ComicBook/{{Catwoman}} is portrayed as [[AdaptationDyeJob blonde]], ComicBook/{{the Penguin}} is drawn with deformed fin-like hands, and ComicBook/{{the Joker}} is given a definitive backstory as a former Gotham City gangster (although he's [[NoNameGiven never given a name]], and he's not [[AdaptationOriginConnection the one who killed Batman's parents]]). Tellingly, the first two changes were quietly dropped after the show was {{retool}}ed as ''WesternAnimation/TheNewBatmanAdventures''.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': Fry's backstory as [[FishOutOfTemporalWater a 20th century human transplanted into the 31st century via cryogenic freezing]] almost became an afterthought in later episodes. If you got into the series at a later point, you'd scarcely think that Fry wasn't from the 30th century. This is a JustifiedTrope, however: similar to ''Series/ThirdRockFromTheSun'' under the Live Action TV section, it was inevitable that Fry would get used to life in the future, especially since real time passed over the course of the series (he was in his mid-30's by the time the show ended). One episode also acknowledges it, with characters mentioning that Fry fits in quite well in the future because he was such a misfit in the 20th century.

** Chris Griffin is a blond even though neither of his parents is. However, considering that Lois originally was also blond in the "Pitch Pilot", likely suggests it as a leftover that the son was originally to inherit from the mother.

** Klaus the East German athlete in a goldfish's body, seems to serve no narrative purpose in later episodes. Originally he was a much more mean-spirited character with a [[TheCasanova unrequited crush]] on Francine, and was intended as a foil to Roger, but with Roger's shift from sheltered and somewhat sympathetic JerkWithAHeartOfGold to largely-independent HeroicComedicSociopath, that's pretty much fallen by the wayside. Klaus mostly TookALevelInKindness as a result, however, ironically becoming the lonely one.

** Hayley was originally designed as a counterpart to Stan's extreme convervatism, and this relationship formed the backbone of many earlier episodes. As the show largely lost its political aspects over the years, Hayley's had less and less to do, with focus shifting to her marriage to TheStoner Jeff Fischer.

** The "robots in disguise!" slogan has stuck around in both the theme song and overall material, long after any hope of disguise faded out. Neither side in the original series displayed any interest in maintaining TheMasquerade, and by the early second season, just about everyone on Earth is aware of them, with parades in the street commemorating the Autobots, open collaboration with Earth's governments, memorials to Optimus Prime built ''before'' his death, and Cybertron itself briefly appearing in Earth's orbit at one point. By the third season, even their designs are depicted as mostly crazy space-age vehicles or robot animals that would be no good for disguise anyway. In many future shows, there's even less reason for disguise to be a factor; ''Beast Wars'' takes place on prehistoric Earth, for instance, giving them nothing to hide ''from'', and featured contemporary wildlife being mixed in with [[AnimalsNotToScale bugs the size of tigers]] and [[EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs dinosaurs]]. (Later commercials tried "They've got the power to surprise!", "stronger, faster, more alive!" or "the challenge is in the change!", but none managed to really catch on.)
** Soundwave's classic cassette recorder altmode and array of "cassettes" that eject and turn into other robots got kicked in the bolts ''hard'' by TechnologyMarchesOn, what with those recorders being almost nonexistent in popular culture for years (most people assume him to be a boombox, which is, if anything, even more dated), and cassette tapes having been solidly eclipsed by the CD by the mid-nineties, which has itself been rendered obsolete by the [=MP3=]; not to mention the issues inherent to having a tiny handheld recorder turn into something large enough to go toe-to-toe with a walking Mack truck like Optimus Prime. However, there are only so many Decepticons with meaningful name and face recognition outside of diehard fans, so new TV shows have to try ReimaginingTheArtifact whenever they bring him up. Even when he's been reimagined significantly, though, his old "eject the tape" gimmick is almost always kept intact in some form, and his designs tend to include things like pause-and-play buttons, a window on his chest, or a suspiciously battery-like shoulder cannon as remnants of his old design.

* ''WesternAnimation/TotalDrama'' started with 22 contestants in the first season, but while the second and third seasons still had most of the cast competing, a few characters were stuck watching from the sidelines. With such a large main cast, some pairs of characters were pretty similar to each other, which made a few like [[HairTriggerTemper Eva]], [[TheDividual Katie and Sadie]] redundant as [[TeamMom Cour]][[{{Tsundere}} tney]], [[DumbBlonde Lindsay]] and [[{{Geek}} Beth]] respectively took on their defining traits. The three only competed in the first season as a result, and have been OutOfFocus ever since.

** The final season of WesternAnimation/TheTransformers does this to Optimus Prime, of all characters. They'd brought him back due to the heavy backlash over his death in ''WesternAnimation/TheTransformersTheMovie'', so they couldn't very well kill him off again. But because of the LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters that had to be written in [[MerchandiseDriven due to the toyline]], all of the older characters like Blaster and Perceptor had been PutOnABus in favor of new characters with more marketable gimmicks (such as being a Head- or Targetmaster, or being part of a combination team). Prime is the only exception, and looks notably out of place with his '80s-era Mack Truck form and lack of gimmicky weapons when surrounded by futuristic cars and jets and all the -masters. Notably, in the Japanese continuity, which splits off right after he's brought back to life, he dies again almost immediately, replaced by a series of newer, more visually and technologically impressive leaders.

** Given that the series has LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, this is the case for the majority of the engines. Characters who were once mainstays of the series like Duck, Boco and Daisy have all but disappeared - if one were to be cynical, one might suggest that the few appearances they have are to ensure their continued presence in [[MerchandiseDriven the various merchandise lines]].

** The [[TeamPet animal companions]] Naga and Pabu, whose significance and screen time dropped steadily over the seasons. By book 4, they had nothing to do and barely even appeared. Understandable, given the breakneck pacing with LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters all fighting for limited screen time. But even as far back as season 1, some fans felt they didn't add anything to the show and were only there so that ''The Legend of Korra'' would have counterparts to Appa and Momo from the original series (even though Appa's main function was to be transportation, as he could fly, whereas Naga is a terrestrial animal in a setting where cars and blimps are commonplace).

** The infamous trippy and abstract opening used during TheSixties was itself an artifact, as it was originally intended to be a unique alternate opening sequence for Creator/ChuckJones' ''WesternAnimation/NowHearThis'' and other experimental one-shots prior to the shutdown of Warner Bros' old animation studio (the regular Looney Tunes cartoons continued to use the familiar rings intro) and the more odd look of the opening fitted wonderfully with those cartoons due to them being trippy and abstract themselves. However, Warner Bros decided to adapt it as the permanent opening when they shut down the old studio in favor of outsourcing it to Creator/DePatieFrelengEnterprises, ripping it of its original intent and context in the process.

** The infamous trippy and abstract opening used during TheSixties was itself an artifact, as it was originally intended to be a unique alternate opening sequence for Creator/ChuckJones' ''WesternAnimation/NowHearThis'' and [[WesternAnimation/BartholomewVersusTheWheel other experimental]] [[WesternAnimation/SenorellaAndTheGlassHuarache one-shots]] prior to the shutdown of Warner Bros' old animation studio (the regular Looney Tunes cartoons continued to use the familiar rings intro) and the more odd look of the opening fitted wonderfully with those cartoons due to them being trippy and abstract themselves. However, Warner Bros decided to adapt it as the permanent opening when they shut down the old studio in favor of outsourcing it to Creator/DePatieFrelengEnterprises, ripping it of its original intent and context in the process.