History GrowingTheBeard / WesternAnimation

* While generally not considered bad, the first season of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' is jarringly different from other seasons to more recent viewers, due to the show's slower pace, Homer's voice, the quirks of the animation style, etc. The show starts to pick up in the second season, and then hits its stride by the third season. The reason was largely financial: the initial Tracey Ullman shorts were done on the cheap (starting with a two-man animation team, one of whom was Creator/MattGroening), and improved as more funding was added. The first season was a half-length trial - with the second season, they got full funding and were able to set down a regular writing and production cycle and firm up the designs. Many fans (and several people on the creative staff) also feel that the show's storytelling noticeably improved once Homer replaced Bart as the ''de facto'' protagonist around Season 3, which allowed for a wider range of plots that wouldn't have been possible with a 10-year-old lead character.

* Though a divisive {{Retool}}, Season 3 of the original ''[[WesternAnimation/TheTransformers Transformers]]'' cartoon (as well as the movie that preceded it) started to feature more sophisticated continuity and backstory for the Transformers mythology, and some surprisingly mature episodes like "Dark Awakening".
** ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}: WesternAnimation/BeastWars'' was strictly episodic, though still enjoyable in its first season. Bread crumbs to larger story arcs about both Megatron's ultimate agenda for prehistoric Earth, Tarantulas' secret role as a third faction unto himself, and the nature of the aliens who designed the planet started to get laid midseason, starting with the mid-season two-parter "The Trigger." This lead to a slow build to an explosive first season finale. By Season 2, the series had hits is stride and become largely serialized. The plot threads were woven much more tightly and characters gained depth, which continued until the end of the series. It may not be incidental that the first season was also the longest (in fact as long as both of the other two together).

* While ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' was always great it began its run as a simple and comedic kids' show with any plot elements being far in the background. It wasn't until "Mortal Folly/Mortal Recoil" at the end of season two that the show began to take a ride on the CerebusRollercoaster, balancing out its more bizarre comedic elements with copious amounts of world-building and character development.

* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' began its run as a simple and comedic kids' show with any plot elements being far in the background. It wasn't until "Mortal Folly/Mortal Recoil" at the end of season two that the show began to take a ride on the CerebusRollercoaster, balancing out its more bizarre comedic elements with copious amounts of world-building and character development.

* ''WesternAnimation/BarneyBear'' benefited from taking cues from Avery and applying [[DenserAndWackier improvements in timing and pacing to the later shorts]], and giving Barney a [[ArtEvolution much-needed redesign]].

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLifeAsATeenageRobot'' started out as a show about a robot girl trying to be normal. The latter 2 seasons put this on the backburner and focused more on important stuff. Plots became more dynamic and less predictable, characters get some much needed development, relationships start forming more, plot arcs become more common, and the Cluster MythArc led to an epic season 2 finale.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLifeAsATeenageRobot'' started out as a show about a robot girl trying to be normal. The latter 2 seasons put this on the backburner and focused more on important stuff. Plots became more dynamic and less predictable, characters get some much needed development, relationships start forming more, plot arcs become more common, and the Cluster MythArc led to an epic season 2 finalle.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'' started off as good, but Season 2 saw it become ''great'' by turning [[EnsembleDarkhorse Ray and Kreiger]] into main characters, having more interesting and unpredictable plots, giving characters emotional depth without sacrificing the humor, giving the series a proper villain in the form of Barry, and generally having funnier, sharper jokes.