"Hunky Dory gave me a fabulous groundswell. I guess it provided me, for the first time in my life, with an actual audience – I mean, people actually coming up to me and saying, 'Good album, good songs.' That hadn't happened to me before. It was like, 'Ah, I'm getting it, I'm finding my feet. I'm starting to communicate what I want to do. Now: what is it I want to do?' There was always a double whammy there."
The opposite of Jumping the Shark and Seasonal Rot, Growing the Beard is the definitive moment when a series begins to become noticeably better in quality. This often involves a new writer or other creative person coming on board, the happy discovery of a popular character, or the exit of a meddling executive or less popular characters. In general, this is where a franchise is realizing what works and starts to find its voice.
If it is a comedy, then this is usually when it deviates from an overall lighthearted tone and reaches an impressive emotional depth. If it is a drama (or something in between), this would be when the character dynamic is spelled out clearly and starts to resonate with the storyline. In the case of science fiction, another major characteristic of this trope is that the show will begin to develop actual continuity (generally spanning the lifetime of the series once begun), rather than just spending its time on one-off episodes which don't mean anything outside each individual episode itself. While there may not be a true Myth Arc as such, there will still be some form of memory, and you can expect to see events from episodes referenced by characters later.
The key to this trope is seeing a dramatic "before and after" difference along the life of a series. The element can sometimes be attributed to a single, outstanding episode that defines the show. Other times it is just a general improvement, like the Trope Namer Star Trek: The Next Generation. Fans of the series noticed a sharp increase in the quality and consistency of stories and the show coinciding with Commander Riker, Jonathan Frakes, literally growing a beard.
It's almost worthwhile to call this "Finding the Beard", because nearly every serial media that persists has some degree of change from its initial variation. Continuity Creep, Story Arc, and Myth Arc are all strong reasons why this can happen, helping the audience grow more interested in this new show. See also Surprisingly Improved Sequel.
In general, this happens only once during a series' run. But there are times where long after Growing the Beard a show starts to hit a low point like an Audience-Alienating Era or Strictly Formula. A second Growing the Beard can occur with a refreshing of ideas and hitting a new high. We might well call this variant "Greying the Beard".
Also note that just because a series eventually grows a beard doesn't mean it was actually bad to start with. Getting a new viewer into a series with an abysmal beginning can be difficult, as they only have one's word that "it gets a lot better, really". Sometimes though it's just a case of smoothing out any elements of Early-Installment Weirdness. Being So Okay, It's Average is sometimes the worst offense a show can have before it evolves, or it takes a season or two of being just "good" before it develops the myth arc it became famous for. For example, Calvin and Hobbes may have needed some time to develop into a truly great piece of work, but it was still an excellent and clever strip from the very beginning.
Also note that fans can be starkly divided as to whether a change is Growing the Beard or Jumping the Shark. Usually such judgments cannot be made objectively or definitively at the moment it happens.
Sometimes, the improvement is associated with changing around the creative team, which would intersect with My Real Daddy as it means the work succeeds because of someone not acknowledged as the original creator. A Franchise Original Sin can also be associated with elements both before Growing the Beard and after, as it can be related to elements always associated with the work before it became a problem.
For tropes about the growth of actual beards, see Time-Passage Beard and Beard of Sorrow.
A No Recent Examples rule applies to this trope. Examples shouldn't be added until 1 year after the season ends (or 18 months for episodic works without seasons) or 6 months after the work ends (which also applies to non-episodic works such as films in a franchise), whichever comes first. This is to prevent kneejerk reactions to recently released works and allow for opinions to stabilize.
No Real Life Examples, Please!
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Asian Animation
- Catch! Teenieping: While the first season received mixed reviews, the audience (mainly the fans of the show) consider the later seasons are much better than the first season, due to the show getting more creative with the princess forms and also gets more unique designs choices of Teeniepings.
- While Seasons 1 and 2 of Happy Friends are by no means considered terrible, Season 3 is notable in that it establishes lore and running gags that would go on to become series staples (such as Doctor H.'s missing father and Big M.'s vomit-inducing ugliness), and it benefits from introducing the fan-favorite character Kalo.
- For some people, Lamput got better when its episode runtime increased from 15 seconds to two minutes, giving it more room for good jokes and stories.
- The first season of Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf is just a Road Runner vs. Coyote story about Wolffy trying and failing to catch the goats every day. For some people, the show is much better in its later seasons when it begins to have continuous stories and larger plots, some of which (Marching to the New Wonderland and War of Invention) stretch across multiple seasons.
Comic Strips
- Berke Breathed acknowledged that Bloom County didn't really take off until Opus, Binkley and Milo became the central focus. He admitted that early on, he didn't know what direction to take the strip (leading to a massive Retcon of nearly the entire first year and a half), and that he often cribbed Doonesbury in the earliest strips.
- Calvin and Hobbes opened up emotionally with the baby raccoon arc. It opened up creatively with the transmogrifier arc.
- The "big dog that stole Hobbes" arc predated the baby raccoon arc, and was the first thing to really open sentimentality into the strip, setting the stage for baby raccoon. It also let Watterson know that the readers were connecting with the characters as he began receiving letters from fans who were worried about Hobbes before the story even resolved.
- It's generally agreed that the point that Dick Tracy really comes into its own is either the introduction of Jerome Trohs, Littleface Finney, or Pruneface.
- As far as characterization goes, Sam Catchem's introduction marks the point where the protagonists become more fleshed out and interesting characters.
- Doonesbury was originally about a group of kids in college for the first decade or so of its run. Gary Trudeau took a 2-year hiatus and then began drawing the strip again, developing the art style and real-time storyline that the strip is known for today.
- While the art definitely improved after his hiatus, the writing of the strip had always been top notch. See Trudeau's Pulitzer he won in 1975 as evidence of that.
- For the first few years, FoxTrot was just a funnier, quirkier version of the typical family gag strip with several of the cliches (older brother's eating habits, daughter's ditzy behavior, father's cluelessness, etc.) turned up to eleven. And then, in 1989, Jason dressed up as Batman to go see the new film, introducing the film's pop culture awareness and geek sensibility that would eventually come to dominate the strip.
- For its first month and a half, Garfield was centered on the titular cat and Jon. The introductions of Lyman and Odie made the strip one of the most familiar to many readers.
- Knights of the Dinner Table was initially a short, fairly shallow series of one-off jokes featuring Flat Characters, no ongoing story, and crude art. Over the many years of its publication, it's evolved to a lengthy, deep series featuring fully-fleshed out characters, long story arcs, and...slightly less crude art. The turning point was probably when it stopped focusing on every strip being a brief joke ending in a punchline, and started truly dwelling on the narrative of the campaign, as well as the lives of the denizens of Muncie.
- Peanuts:
- In the first few years after its 1950 debut, it was a basic gag strip about children, with a few odd quirks (a kid playing Beethoven on a toy piano, a smart dog, etc.). Then in a 1956 sequence, Charlie Brown got his kite caught in a tree, and was so angry he decided to just stay there. This went on for over a week, with other characters walking by and making sarcastic or inane comments. Charles M. Schulz himself later identified this sequence as the moment when the strip's unique brand of humor finally took shape.
- Another often-cited (by critics and creator alike) example of a turning point in Peanuts is Snoopy's Anthropomorphic Shift: gradual for the most part, but one day he began walking on his hind legs, and there was no turning back.
- The Perishers initially featured strong artwork and occasionally funny jokes, but was marred by generic characters and an over-reliance on Running Gags and cutesy moments. This changed when initial writer Ben Witham was dismissed and replaced by Maurice Dodd, who fine-tuned the strip's humour and made it ten times better in the process.
- Sally Forth (Howard) started out as a prosaic 'liberated wife/mother in the workplace' strip, until Francesco Marciuliano was hired as writer, putting a cheerfully goofy-yet-grounded spin on things.
Podcasts
- Many fans of Escape from Vault Disney! believe the podcast considerably improved after the 5-month long hiatus imposed by the COVID-19 Pandemic. Reasons include a new intro and intermission music replacing the generic banjo music with impactful licks based on the "Walt Disney and You" VHS promos from the 80's, the transition from in-person only guests to Zoom allowing a more diverse and fun group of guests than whoever's near Tony Goldmark in Southern California, and the inclusion of the State of the Parks segment leading to interesting theme park discussion when needed.
Professional Wrestling
- The Big Boss Man, aka Ray Traylor. When he debuted in the WWF in the mid-80s under the guidance of manager Slick, he wrestled much like the Wrestling Monsters that were frequent in the time period. In fact, he even got teamed up with one, Akeem, to form the Twin Towers. The beard-growing period came for the Boss Man in 1990, when he split from Akeem and Slick and underwent a Heel–Face Turn. The next couple years or so saw him becoming more of a Lightning Bruiser in the ring, and a much beloved upper-midcarder. When he came back to the WWF in the late 90s, he'd grown the beard in terms of his on-screen persona (he went from the cop outfit to the SWAT-team getup), but he wasn't the in-ring worker he once was.
- Daniel Bryan in the most literal way possible. He debuted clean shaven and wasn't much more than a jobber. He moved to Perma-Stubble when he left NXT and a goatee when he won the US Title and MITB. He started growing it out when he became World Champ, but it wasn't until Team Hell No that he became a true star, when he stopped shaving entirely. By the time he was main eventing WrestleMania XXX, he looked like a wildman from the mountains.
- Dwayne Johnson began his pro wrestling career as Rocky Maivia, a one dimensional face in a time where people wanted something more. In short order, he made a heel turn, started constantly referring to himself in the 3rd person, took the mic and ran with it, and even main evented WrestleMania as The Rock. Now many consider him one of the greatest wrestlers of all time, and easily the most charismatic man in wrestling history.
- Kurt Angle was always seen as a great wrestler, but people didn't start calling him the greatest wrestler of all time until he shaved his head after losing a Hair Match to Edge in 2002 (making this, in a way, a reverse Growing the Beard!). He became one-half of the inaugural WWE Tag Team Champions, had three more World Title reigns, and delivered Match of the Year contenders.
- "Stone Cold" Steve Austin was originally given a gimmick of "The Ringmaster" and managed by Ted DiBiase. It was a pretty bland gimmick until he ended up losing DiBiase as manager in a match. Then he started getting himself involved with Bret Hart. He arguably grew his beard officially in a submission match at WrestleMania 13 when he refused to tap out to Bret Hart's Sharpshooter and passed out instead.
- Randy Orton debuted as a bland smiling baby face in 2002 with none of the things that would later make him a legend, and seemed to not be going much of anywhere even after being traded to Raw in September 2002. However... when Randy Orton went down with a shoulder injury, he was sidelined for months, and instead of disappearing from our screens, cut a series of promos called Randy News Network where he cut snide updates about his shoulder injury, assuming everyone missed him, slowly turning heel before joining Evolution. The rest is history, as Randy eventually became a co-face of the company along with John Cena
- Speaking of big match John... John Cena made his debut on the June 27th, 2002 episode of Smackdown as the prototype, accepting the open challenge laid out by Kurt Angle. Despite losing that match, he made a huge impact, dropping the "RUTHLESS AGGRESSION" line before smacking Kurt Angle— but besides that, had nothing else to him besides his look. It was looking like he would have been fired, but when Stephanie McMahon overheard him freestyle rapping, Cena's Doctor of Thuganomics character was born. This newfound character led to Cena winning the United States Championship at WrestleMania 20 before officially becoming WWE Champion a year later at WrestleMania 21. He then slowly became the face of the company, having multiple WWE and World Heavyweight Championships reigns.
- Anytime you put a wrestler in a hardcore match with Mick Foley, this will happen.
- The Undertaker had grown stagnant as a wrestler, and hadn't wrestled an interesting match in years. Then Mankind shows up in 1996, and proceeds to take The Undertaker to the limit, now, both men are legends.
- Triple H had recently won his second World Title from the Big Show, but fans didn't really take the guy as a serious champion. Most still saw him as Shawn Michaels' Depraved Bisexual cohort from DX. Until his matches with Cactus Jack at the 2000 Royal Rumble and his other match with Cactus Jack in a Hell in a Cell at the 2000 No Way Out. Through a combination of Nepotism and Executive Meddling, he has been the Villain Protagonist of the whole company for 14 years and counting.
- Randy Orton was considered nothing more than a bland third generation wrestler who only got there because his dad was Cowboy Bob Orton. Kind of like how fans first responded to The Rock. After a feud with Mick Foley culminating in a match at Backlash 2004, he became a real main eventer, and beat Chris Benoit for the World Heavyweight Championship in the main event at SummerSlam four months later. Today, he's practically one of the faces of the company.
- Edge had already built up quite the midcard following thanks to the three-way feud between him and Christian, the Hardy Boys, and the Dudley Boys in the early 2000s, but most people didn't take him seriously as a main event talent, even with a blink-and-you'll-miss-it WWE title reign under his belt in early 2006. Enter Mick Foley again, and a hardcore match at WrestleMania 22, and suddenly Edge had become cemented as not only a main event talent and worthy champion, but a future legend. Destroying his "friend" Matt Hardy's career didn't hurt him too much either.
- Dominik Mysterio had a considerably lackluster early years in WWE's main roster, as fans didn't really catch on with the idea of supporting Dominik despite being pushed to win the SmackDown Tag Team titles alongside his father Rey, due to his relatively bland personality and being seen as someone who only got to where he is thanks to Rey's influence. This changed in late 2022 when he turned heel and betrayed Rey and Edge at Clash of the Castle to join The Judgment Day. Dom's heel turn saw him develop a Smug Snake, Boisterous Weakling, Prison Changes People note character who seems to be hell-bent on making his father's life hell whenever possible. He also changed his moveset and mannerisms by emulating his Honorary Uncle Eddie Guerrero more, addressing the problem of Dom not being able to emulate Rey's moves well thanks to his larger build. The improvements on both in-ring and promo work as a heel, coupled with his entertaining character work, got him so over that he quickly became a huge Hate Sink that constantly generates nuclear heat wherever he went. Not bad considering where he was less than a year ago.
- To a lesser extent, he also did this for The Judgment Day. The faction had a hard time finding their footing and getting over with the crowd thanks to their underlying supernatural influences, which were considerably out-of-place in the generally grounded (if somewhat wacky) atmosphere of WWE. Dom's inclusion into the group saw them gradually transition from this into a more delusional, high school bully-esque stable of heels, which everyone agrees works much better for them.
- Kyle Fletcher started his career forming a successful tag team Aussie Open with fellow Australian Mark Davis. After they joined AEW and continued teaming there, Davis got injured, prompting Fletcher to pursue a singles career. While he showed potential such as becoming ROH World Television Champion, he propelled to new heights when he turned on long-time friend Will Ospreay to join the Don Callis Family and changed his look by shaving his head (making it a reverse example of Growing the Beard much like Kurt Angle as stated above) and debuting new ring gear (he wouldn't wear pink until the occurrence of the Owen Hart Foundation Men's tournament months later). This would lead to him becoming one of AEW's rising stars and its future world champion, with the consensus being it's a matter of "when" than if he'll win it.
Roleplay
- JoJo's OC Tournament: It's generally agreed that, after a first Edition (Shining Sandstorm) that served as a testing benchmark and a second Edition (Worldwind Tour) that was Cut Short, the Original Character Tournament begun finding its footing with the third Edition, The Grand Tour, which features clearer rules, better framing devices, and a far more coherent narrative than its predecessors, on top of featuring actual Character Development from its characters. The fourth Edition, Urban Uprising, is when the OCT truly spread its wings and took off, as it combined the previous qualities of The Grand Tour and combined with them an even more complex, multi-layered form of storytelling alongside far more elaborate and entertaining Stand battles.
Tabletop Games
- BattleTech RPG spinoff Mechwarrior was still very much a war game that just happened to have tabletop RPG elements in its first edition, and it was not well optimized for anything other than small unit combat. Things improved somewhat in the second edition, but it was finally around its third edition that the game figured out how to let its players in on its Humongous Mecha Space Opera setting as more than just another soldier in a drawn-out fight full of record-keeping, calculations, and statistical minutiae, as the setting at the time also bloomed into arguably its most famous timeframe, from the Clan Invasion up until the eve of the Fed-Com Civil War. Conveniently, the game also had rules for people who wanted to play in older periods of time as well, and so generally appealed to most of the growing RPG fanbase.
- Dungeons & Dragons: 5th Edition was released with much fanfare as a necessary "back-to-basics" approach following the highly controversial 4th Edition, but the core rulebooks released in 2014 were criticized for being somewhat splotchy. In addition to the general growing pains of a rebuilt game lacking the foreknowledge of how its metagame would later develop, the Player's Handbook and especially the Dungeon Master's Guide were littered mechanics that were unclear due to vague language, prone to obvious abuse cases, or facing bizarre pitfalls that didn't make much sense in practice, raising many questions for its integrity as a coherent system. The initial expansions didn't improve things much; the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide expansion was seen as a mediocre splatbook with new mechanics that were very limited, undertuned and poorly-built, and too thematically limited to the Forgotten Realms setting. Following a drip-feed of new content, errata, and Sage Advice Rulings later, Xanathar's Guide to Everything was released in 2017, which is where the game became a refined system; in addition to splurging a huge amount of content for players (new subclasses, spells, and character customization options for every class and core race), its various updated descriptions and new systems helped round out the game's most egregious imperfections, namely the exploits in downtime and spellcasting, with plenty of setting-neutral content for game-masters as well. The amount of quality-of-life updates has led many to colloquially refer to Xanathar's as the "fourth core rulebook."
- Magic: The Gathering was always a fun game, but the point at which it "grew up"—simplifying rules baggage, gearing toward tournament play, improving art standards, and kicking off its longest-lasting storyline — was the Mirage set. Probably not coincidentally, this was the first set that head-designer-to-be Mark Rosewater worked on.
- It wasn't until Ice Age that Wizards of the Coast got the numbers right for card value, rarity, and the yearly release cycles with sets.
- Nobilis was always well thought of by its fanbase, but it's the enormous and gorgeous second edition Great White Book that people generally associate with the feel and appearance of Nobilis.
- The 2nd edition of Pathfinder had a few uneven years after launch. While hardly unplayable, several base and newly-introduced classes seemed fairly underpowered, and the published Adventure Paths during that time were notorious for poor tuning. Fans generally agree that with the release of The Beginners Box in 2020, the developers had found their footing with the system, with the quality of classes, adventures, and lore-based books released after that point remaining consistently high (which was helped even further by the OGL controversy in 2023 allowing them to go back and fix the previously-underpowered classes for the Remaster).
- 1st Edition (ie: Rogue Trader) Warhammer 40,000 was essentially Warhammer IN SPACE. 2nd edition refined the concept from being space-elves, space-undead, space-orcs, space-dwarves to being races in their own right, but it took until 3rd edition to expunge the silly elements and turn it into the Grimdark nightmare it is today, highlighted by a major shift in painting styles from technicolor schemes and often awkward banners/slogans to a more gritty and realistic style. 3rd edition also significantly simplified and streamlined many of the gameplay elements that were inherited from its WHFB precursor.
- To say Warhammer: Age of Sigmar got off to a rough start would be an understatement. Not only did it replace a beloved setting, its first edition had no game balance whatsoever (the rules simply say both players field whatever models they want) along with silly rules for most units, like re-rolls for having a bigger moustache than your opponent. (Really) Then came 2nd Edition, which removed all the joke rules, added a points system and support for competitive play, greatly expanded the world's lore, and added new and well-received factions like the Sylvaneth and Idoneth Deepkin. While fans of Warhammer Fantasy are still sore from its loss, by 2nd Edition it's generally agreed that Age of Sigmar is no longer a joke and can stand up to Games Workshop's other wargames, with some competitive gamers even preferring it to 40k.
Theatre
- Crazy Horse: The shift to creative stage lighting coupled with the songs of Jacques Morali (a disco record producer and songwriter who wrote songs for The Ritchie Family and the Village People) marked a significant improvement in the quality of the shows beyond just having naked girls dancing as well as the start of its reputation as a chic night Parisian venue to attend.
- A Very Potter Sequel was significantly more technically sophisticated than its predecessor.
- Stephen Sondheim was clean shaven for most of his early career, and though he produced good music and lyrics, his Signature Style didn't appear until the mid 1970s, with Company when he literally grew a beard, which he has kept ever since.
- Believe it or not, even Shakespeare had to grow the beard to become the master we know him as today. With the possible exception of Richard III, most of his earliest efforts are considerably less polished (and as a result, less popular) than the more mature works that would come to establish his reputation as the best of all time. Most scholars would agree that he didn't really hit his stride till Romeo and Juliet, which was something like his eleventh play! ("Something like," because, given the spottiness of early modern publication records, it's impossible to say with absolute certainty when the Bard wrote anything.)
Toys
- Gunpla:
- During its early stages, Gunpla weren't known for the engineering marvel that is today. A lot of plastic models released during the 1980-87 period are just pieces built in a single or more runner mold in sparse colours and requires the use of glue and full painting, and in the Zeta Gundam's case, small polycap binders, though the need of using glue is still necessary to stick parts. Starting from Char's Counterattack Model series, Bandai introduced a snap-fit system that allows user to snap fit parts without the use of glue, significantly widens the accessibility for users.
- The Real Grade line is a 1/144 scale line of Gunpla model kits meant to replicate the engineering of Master Grade in the 1/144 scale. The line features the Advanced MS Joint, special parts that consists of pre-assembled parts made using a dual-molding technique with both ABS and PP plastics meant as the inner frame for the model kit, where the majority of the build process is to snap fit all the plated parts onto the inner frame until the final product is completed. However because the frame itself is molded in thin ABS batch and the polysterine parts were easy to worn out over the time, on top of parts might not be able to fit perfectly into the inner frame, resulting in a figure that looks impressive in both visual and engineering standpoint with a build consistency of a hand grenade. The most infamous offender of this phenomenon is the RX-78-2 Gundam and MS-06 Zaku II, MSZ-006 Zeta Gundam, MSN-06S Sinanju, and Gundam GP01 Zephyrantes and its Full Burnern Variant. Starting from the Real Grade RX-0 Unicorn Gundam, the Advanced MS Joints were slowly and steadily replaced with more traditionally hand-assembled inner frame you see in Master Grades, while the MS Joints itself only used in more intricate parts that are hard to mold in the smaller scale. The result? The best Unicorn Gundam plastic model kit ever hit the stores, especially notable since all other Unicorn Gundam releases are known to be a volatile hand grenade (Master Grade Ver. KA), primitive (HGUC), or a glorified brick (PG). This design philosophy would help to shed the Real Grade line from its questionable quality moniker over the years, and today the line itself is almost a perfect scaled down Master Grade with cheaper price point and equivalent-or-better engineering.
- The first wave of LEGO Hero Factory was met with severe disdain partly because of its Replacement Scrappy status after the cancellation of BIONICLE, and partly because most of the toys were hardly any different than those of that line. The second wave, 2.0, brought about a drastic overhaul of the entire LEGO "Constraction" building formula, with the introduction of a well articulated inner "skeleton", ball joints everywhere, much sturdier ball joint sockets, and a greater room for customization.
- When BIONICLE first came out, the sets were mainly of the Toa and a handful of animals from in-universe. While McDonalds had kids' meal toys of a few of the Matoran (no less the ones who would become toa later), they were all very basic sets with simple mechanical gimmicks, and in fact were marketed under the Technic brand. The Toa Nuva lookes a lot less odd than the previous Toa Mata, and around that time the other sets started looking a lot less like toysets and more like mechanical creatures. The Metru Nui line was when it really hit its stride, where the toys got better gimmicks.
- BIONICLE itself was this for the entire Constraction line of toys for Lego (and possibly every other "series" they had after). Prior to this, they were basically one off "sets" of robots (not always with ball joints either) with a rather bare-bones story and cheesy or bland names. Even the first incarnation of BIONICLE, "Boneheads of Voodoo Island" had that vibe too, until Lego realized that having a strong story and cohesive theme backing the toys would make them sell well. This is in part due to the massive success of their Star Wars License. A focus on ongoing story narratives would later translate to their other lines as well, most notably Ninjago.
- Transformers:
- The franchise's first LEGO-styled building toys, the Built to Rule line, was a massive failure with just about everyone, with the toys being not only badly built often in both of their modes and badly articulated, but also just plain bad looking (and also offensively Off-Model compared to their actual transforming toy counterparts). The second wave was a vast improvement, with the figures actually resembling the intended characters, but sadly, due the first wave under-performing, it only saw a limited release and the line was canceled not much thereafter.
- Although a success from the start, the early Beast Wars toys were often rather clunky and some of them had to be greatly redesigned to look good on the TV show. Later, the animators started working more closely with the toy designers, producing much more intricate and detailed figures that were almost perfect representations of the cartoon models. Sadly, much of their chrome applications and plastic variants didn't stand the test of time as well as the designs, and the following series, Beast Machines, was a tremendous down-step in Show Accuracy/Toy Accuracy, and it was also canceled when it started to get better. Sadly, Beast Machines had a step up in engineering, with intricate, inventive transformations; Beast Wars figures in general were either "stand up and fold out limbs" or "crack open shell and fold entire robot out with dangling animal parts" with a few exceptions.
- Transformers: Energon for the Unicron Trilogy. While the Transformers: Armada toys were decently show accurate, they had terrible and sometimes non-existent articulation and sometimes bizarre gimmicks. Energon made sure that the robot's limb joints were necessary to the transformation process, resulting in much more posable toys. Transformers: Cybertron improved on this, bringing back unlockable gimmicks while keeping the Energon level of articulation.
- The Transformers Classics, Universe, and Generations toylines all brought back classic characters and gave them new toys with much better articulation. They also had weapons that could be stored or integrated in vehicle mode, meaning fewer lost parts. While some earlier ones had really fiddly transformationsnote , this got much better as time went on. Early toys either had weird proportions or difficult to play with, while later ones have either improved on the overall appearance or fixed the more involved transformations.
- S.H.Figuarts
- Their first Naruto line was met with very mixed reception by collectors. The figures tended to be very inconsistent with each other, as the first Naruto and Sasuke figures were clearly based off the manga art while the rest of the figures were based off the anime, the articulation schemes were also tended to be hit or miss, with Naruto, Sasuke, Minato and Itachi having the old style articulation while everyone else had the more modern articulation scheme that the Dragon Ball figures started using. The line ended up being cancelled in 2018, but Bandai would take a second go at the Naruto line in 2022, however, they clearly learned from their mistakes the first time around as all the new Naruto figures were met with extremely positive reception, with all the figures being consistent, having great articulation and a large spread of accessories with each figure, and even more manga style figures such as Minato and Itachi fit in with the anime figures. To this day, the Naruto line continues with positive reception.
- For their One Piece line, their first line in 2010 was a major disaster, with each figures having problems left and right leading to the cancellation of the line. In 2023, when they decided to take another go, the first figures in the new line were met with mixed reception, but they started to improve in 2024 with the release of the Romance Dawn Luffy, after that all the figures have gotten mixed to positive reviews, but in 2025, they started to up their game with Portgas D. Ace, which is widely considered to be the best figure in the line, and set the bar high. All the figures released after Ace have gotten very positive reviews.
- The first year of Mixels was met with mild interest, but was touted as "silly" for the most part. It wasn't until its second year of release, with Series 4, that it really took off, using various careers and themes instead of sticking with simple elements and expanding the universe further. The TV series was considered its better point at the same time, with the transition from shorts to specials.
- Hasbro's first go at the Marvel Legends line in 2006 was met with overly negative reception from collectors considering them to be a downgrade from Toy Biz's take. Hasbro's earliest figures tended to have poor sculpts, limited articulation, barely any paint details and lack of accessories, as well as costing more than the Toy Biz figures, leading to the line's demise in 2009. In 2012, they took a second go with the "Return of Marvel Legends" which were much better received for having more articulation, better sculpts and more paint and accessories, and starting with the The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in 2014, they launched the "Infinite Series", which set the bar even higher with figures having even better articulation, sculpts and a decent spread of accessories than the "Return of Marvel Legends" which collectors were super happy with. After that, Marvel Legends would continue producing figures to mixed to positive reception.
- The first line of American Godzilla figures by Playmates Toys in 2019 had a disastrous reception. Allegedly they were designed and produced in a hurry to meet the street date, with certain figures being no more than low-grade knockoffs of previous Bandai and NECA figures with bad molding, very muddled details, sloppy paint and wonky articulation. The fact that these toys had replaced the fan-favorite NECA line was also a sour point. Their Shin Godzilla figure (a botched recast of a NECA mold that was reportedly copied without NECA's knowledge) was so notoriously goofy that Playmates themselves stopped promoting it and eventually redesigned it from scratch. The later series were much better received, especially their Godzilla vs. Kong tie-in line and subsequent toys of both vintage and modern kaiju characters based on Japanese media, many of which demand insane prices on the aftermarket, mainly outside the US. While the controversy around their rushed initial releases left a lasting stain on the company in many collectors' eyes, others came to regard Playmates toys as decent American alternatives or companions to Bandai Japan's ever-popular Movie Monster Series, especially compared to other brands that have released American kaiju merch in previous years, like Jakks Pacific or Lanard Toys.
Web Animation
- Battle for Dream Island: No one doubts that the show improves massively as time goes on, evidence being the basic, stilted animation and one note characters turning to fluid and expressive animation paired with characters that grow and change. Even the music improves, from royalty free stock music, to an original soundtrack composed by in-house creators. However, pinpointing when exactly it grows its beard is difficult:
- Some say the beard grows gradually over the course of Season 1, with incremental progress in voice acting, writing, and animation evident. Specific candidates include BFDI 6, which is a fan-favorite pastiche of The Amazing Race, or BFDI 9, which updates the poorly drawn limb assets to be vector-based. However, nowadays, most of Season 1 is dismissed, especially by new fans, as outdated and unimpressive, and, even within fans of Season 1, the last third (up to and including the finale) is considered a step down from what came before.
- BFDIA's first four episodes are agreed to be rushed and half-baked (albeit with a subtle bump in animation), resulting in either bad or just OK quality. However, BFDIA 5 is considered the highlight of classic BFDI due to its length, the variety of settings (including an evil forest, an abandoned city, outer space, and... Davidland), the characters, and the show generally nailing the vibe of a grand, fantastic journey, which makes this another great candidate for the first "post-beard" episode.
- Finally, BFB 1 is the episode where improvements in most other aspects occur, including the aforementioned original soundtrack, much cleaner character bodiesnote , redone backgrounds (using a more pleasing, softer color palette), and fully hand-drawn limbs and faces (used as a freeform, expressive alternative to the rigid limb and face assets), all of which help the episode age much better than the episodes that immediately preceed it (while not bad, they leave a very early-2010s taste in the mouth). Coupled with its status as a Denser and Wackier Soft Reboot, controversially, it's often recommended as a newcomer-friendly beginning to avoid the previously detailed jank from Season 1... despite continuity from previous seasons becoming more and more relevant as Season 4 progresses.
- DEATH BATTLE!'s animation, characterization and presentation were rather crude for the first few seasons or so, but over the years have greatly improved. Comparing the original "Mario vs. Sonic" in Season 1 and their rematch in Season 5, and there's quite a significant increase in quality between the two, especially when it comes to the fight animation.
- DSBT InsaniT: Episode 5 is where characters really start being fleshed out.
- The animation of Happy Tree Friends became more polished over time, while episode plots became longer, considerably more complex and more likely to involve multiple characters. This is particularly notable in the TV episodes starting in 2006.
- Homestar Runner's first major cartoons (which have since been removed from its site) were fairly awkward and at odds in characterisation with later installments. Around the point of the Fluffy Puff Commercial or Where's The Cheat, the characters started to reach their current form.
- The Strong Bad Emails have almost always been the main draw for the site, and grew its beard when the show became longer and had more outdoors scenes. A decent bet would be the first Compy email "invisibility", which is a prime example of Strong Bad's Imagine Spots
- Inanimate Insanity: The first season starts off with extremely crude animation, stilted voice acting, immature humor, and a very derivative plot, to the point that the very first episode is particularly infamous for its "quality." While the season improves by gradually polishing the art, embracing the campy tonenote , and poking fun at its shortcomings, the creators' inexperience prevents it from being more than a fun watch. This all changes by season 2; the production value is noticeably better by the first episode. Specifically, episodes 7, 8, and 9 mark a pivotal shift in the show's writing: it stops being a straightforward, albeit tongue-in-cheek, take on the object show genre, and starts questioning the assumptions that underpin object show tropes, including how a cutthroat reality show would realistically affect the mental well-being of its competitors (and host).
- The Most Popular Girls in School: While season one was definitely funny, season two and especially season three is where the show really begins to showcase its storytelling abilities and its comedy.
- Neurotically Yours had very rough animation and was mostly about a squirrel rambling on about what bothered him in the world and a teenage goth girl who kept the squirrel as a pet while listening to punk music and was extremely introverted. Several episodes later, the series quickly evolved with the squirrel, Foamy, giving more coherent and thoughtful rants while also causing shenanigans. The girl, Germaine, also had her own rants and slowly shed her goth persona of the course of several years, revealing a broken and battered girl.
- Red vs. Blue:
- The series first started off as a novel concept, but all but two of the actors were amateurs, the sound was muffled and the overall pacing was slow. Season two picked things up immensely, but season three was really where Rooster Teeth got into the swing of things.
- The real growing the beard moment came with the Recollection trilogy. Blood Gulch Chronicles was undoubtedly hilarious, but there were arguably just as many shows out there that were just as good if not better. Then came the Recollection trilogy with epic fight scenes, interesting plot/character development, surprisingly good acting, an awesome villain and a really gripping story, and it STILL managed to stay absolutely hilarious. All this served to finally cement Red vs Blue up there as one of the greatest Web shows of all time, with quality on the level of professionally made movies. With Season 10, Elijah Wood signed on as one of the voice actors.
- The first volume of RWBY was pretty okay. The characters hadn't really expanded beyond clichés yet, and there was a lot of exposition to get through. When Volume 2 came around, the groundwork had been laid for more interesting character interactions, Weiss had been Rescued from the Scrappy Heap, and Remnant had been expanded into a world viewers could truly get invested in. Then came Volume 3: it's widely agreed that this is the point where the series truly came into its own. The animation has improved so much it's hardly recognizable as the same show, the voice work is now consistently outstanding, the pacing blows even the best episodes of the previous volumes out of the water, and the humor is much more even. The overall opinion among viewers is that RWBY now feels like a real, broadcast-quality show and not just an amateur web series. Latter half of the season contains the brutal deaths of several beloved characters and aversion of Status Quo Is God which marks a turning point in the series to a more serious show with life and death consequences.
- The first two episodes of There she is!! are great, but it isn't until the third episode that the story really starts to pick up. This is mostly because, while the first two are pretty much standalone stories, the last three episodes work as a trilogy.
- The Youtube channel Yarnhub originally started out as a knock-off of Simple History as its videos also covered historical events and shared the same 2-D animation style. However, the channel would grow into its own with the 12th video "The Heroic End of Two Navy Pilot's Inseparable Friendship" when it switched to 3-D animation and focused more on obscure yet exotic events by soldiers during war time.
- The first era of Glitch Productions' time as an indie cartoon developer is generally considered to be the weakest. Meta Runner and Sunset Paradise were certainly not panned but they were some degree of polarizing. Sunset Paradise was tied to the SMG4 universe which left outsiders confused and Meta Runner felt too melodramatic to viewers. The biggest for the two shows' downfall was that second era, which consisted of Murder Drones and The Amazing Digital Circus, was far more popular and beloved for their creative storylines, fluid animation and usage of adult themes. They got so popular that you would be forgiven for that the first two shows even happened at all.
Web Videos
- Achievement Hunter's Let's Play Minecraft didn't hit its stride until episode 10, when they created the Wipeout course and introduced the Tower of Pimps, once just a one-off gag done by a drunk Gavin. Until that point, it was pretty much the guys at Rooster Teeth just messing around like a bunch of idiots in various parts of Minecraft doing random things. Another point would be its first multi-parter with episodes 15-17 in which Michael, Jack, Gavin and Ray attempt to steal away the Tower of Pimps from Geoff, who has made a tower in the sky filled with lava and hidden it up there.
- Another Achievement Hunter series, Let's Play Grand Theft Auto, had this happen twice. When it began as Let's Play Grand Theft Auto IV, it was just them messing around in GTA IV, much like how it was with Minecraft. They then decided to play the "Cops 'n Crooks" game type with the now-traditional Team Lads versus Team Gents matchup, and that became the most played game type for the group. There was also a minor one when they played "Witness Protection". Of course though, they had to move on when Grand Theft Auto V was released and the Online counterpart opened. The series went on a bit of a lull again as Let's Play Grand Theft Auto V, but noticing that Rockstar had yet to offer heists in Online, they decided to start their own heists by making complicated plans to steal from convenience stores. Needless to say, the "Heists" were a huge success.
- Atop the Fourth Wall was pretty much just like any other review show for its first several months, though a very good one. And then Mechakara appeared, helping the show stand out from the pack with its genuinely suspenseful and compelling storylines, as well as some of the best production values seen in such a series. And all without losing focus on the reviews themselves. Though there is a growing number of people who wish that Linkara would dial down the number of Myth Arcs he's been putting in his reviews. His review of Superman: At Earth's End can be considered a Beard moment as well, ditching the early "Now we've got it" intro and having memorable skits that would become recurring gags, such as "I AM A MAN", "Because Poor Literacy Is Kewl" and "Of course! Don't you know anything about science?". To say nothing of the ending, which would give the show its tagline of "Where bad comics burn".
- The Autobiography of Jane Eyre: The (un)appearance of Mr Rochester significantly boosted viewers' interest. Episode 8 started as if Jane might meet him on her walk, but it ended up showing Jane speaking about her late friend Helen, which was welcomed by fans as well. Mr Rochester showed up in episode 10 and each subsequent episode was The Un-Reveal when his voice was heard and his arms and torso shown, but his face was revealed later in episode 13. It was an adaptation of "fire scene" from the book, re-imagined as glass crash and serious accident. The atmosphere of the video was very spooky and gloomy, and fans loved it — both Mr Rochester's reveal and the mood of the whole video.
- The Cartoon Hero grew the beard when he upgraded to a better camera, making his show look much more professional then the fuzzy audio and video of his early work. His writing also became more focused, and he began including a Story Arc.
- Chuggaaconroy is a good example of how very surprising is to visit the early installments of popular Lets Plays and see how different the overall quality of them compared to their later ones. When specifically he "Grew the beard" can be debated, though most would agree it's around 2010-2014, with even Chuggaaconroy himself having his own thoughts on the matter.
- These days it's hard to picture The Cinema Snob minus the beard. In the beginning he looked old, dorky and neurotic. Also, the video camera stock was as crappy as the films.
- The first campaign of Critical Role really hits its stride with its first character-focused arc, often referred to as the Briarwood Arc, at episode 24, "The Feast." Some would point a few episodes back to the "Trial of the Take" quartet, where the party is temporarily split up and gains a few fan-favorite guest players.
- The second episode of Demo Reel cut down on the the length of the movie parodies and instead focused on the characters growing to care about each other. It also treated the movie (Wreck-It Ralph) with affection other than looking at it from a film critic's point of view, and got a rocky theme tune.
- Season 1 of Dragon Ball Z Abridged relied heavily on internet culture references and fourth wall gags that, while funny on their own, was love it or hate it. Starting with Season 2 and the Namek Saga, and becoming especially apparent once the Ginyu Force shows up, the dialogue become a lot wittier, relied less on fourth wall jokes and references, and had such excellent edits for the sake of jokes that if you hadn't watched the actual show in a few years you legitimately wouldn't notice a difference.
- For an In-Universe example, Arin of Game Grumps has claimed that "he knew Dan was going to work out just fine" as a replacement for Jon after Dan's Mayor Luigi
bit.
- I'm a Marvel... And I'm a DC began as some somewhat amusing shorts, though it relied a bit on sticking to the Mac ad series, and the stop motion was rather jarring. The series really got funny when it just picked up the concept of a dick-waving contest between the two giants and ran with it. In other words, the second RandomGuy's Green Goblin showed up.
- Also on the dramatic side, it grew a dramatic beard the moment it revealed that Superman was missing, and the casual "After Hours" had suddenly become a Crisis Crossover.
- Related to this was Lex Luthor and Superman's argument about erasing the Marvel universe when viewers suddenly realized the series could also be incredibly deep.
- It grew the beard a second time, going from great to awesome, by adding one character - Deadpool. "Rorschach and Deadpoooooool. A nut and a fooooooooool."
- Also on the dramatic side, it grew a dramatic beard the moment it revealed that Superman was missing, and the casual "After Hours" had suddenly become a Crisis Crossover.
- MarzGurl had reviews of some rather unremarkable animes early on during her time on TGWTG; one of her few claims to fame was having blue hair. In early 2011, she started reviewing the The Land Before Time series, including the short-lived TV show and some video games. As it went on, some of her fellow reviewers begged her to stop for her own sanity. Afterwards, she has started reviewing more mainstream animated films, such as documenting Don Bluth's career.
- Matthew Santoro:
- "10 Conspiracy Theories that turned out to be TRUE!", where Matthew started making every video of his educational.
- "The WORST ALLERGIES!", where Matt stopped making skits with Rapid-Fire Comedy and started to make the humour less fast-paced.
- The Music Video Show was a mixed bag with its first two seasons. The first season started off with problems, though it had a handful of good episodes, with the Kim Kardashian episode and the Video Games episode being standouts. Season two, by the creator's own admittance, was not good. Season three got into this trope, beginning with its Katy Perry episode and got better ever since.
- Arguably, it found its own identity when it stopped being a Video On Trail clone, phasing out the white transitions after the first few episodes.
- The New Adventures of Captain S grew the beard with episode 6, Nigel Strikes Back, when it became Darker and Edgier, focussed more on the characters' motivations and generally gave more reasons to the audience to care more about the events of the series.
- Opinions differ on where exactly The Nostalgia Chick got consistently good (whether it was Nella coming in more often or it was where she started looking at tropes as well as doing reviews), but the first step was probably the Black Comedy-filled "Top 10 Disturbing Songs" list where she proved dark humour is what she's incredibly good at.
- While not bad in the least, The Nostalgia Critic was a little less focused in subject matter at the start of his show. He found his footing and niche sometime after starting up Channel Awesome and uploading to Blip.tv. A good bet would be his review of The Wizard or Batman & Robin (1997). His yelling felt less like pathetic whining and more hammy and over-the-top, more visual gags were in place and the increased time limit of Blip meant he could focus on more aspects of the film. Both reviews had gags that still resonate two years later. Doug Walker feels somewhat embarrassed when commentating on his review for Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue in 2010, spending most of the review explaining what he hadn't got right with the Nostalgia Critic character.
- Pop Quiz Hotshot the pilot got a really bad reception, with even people who made it admitting to not caring. The second episode was deemed a lot better, with The Nostalgia Critic using his Friendless Background to kidnap people, General Anesthetic actually having lines, the guests getting points if they make Critic laugh, and the fact that Doug added more Homoerotic Subtext didn't hurt in the slightest.
- Around 2015-2016, Mathew Buck's Projector reviews increased in length, which gave more opportunity to give more in-depth analysis on the films he covered. Compare the original Projector reviews from 2011, which typically ran no longer than five minutes, to his current ones, which tend to range from 15-20 minutes and have more insightful commentary than before.
- raocow grew the beard when he moved from a deadpan, straightforward style to a wackier-voiced, Talkative Loon who just rambles stream-of-consciousness and doesn't stop unless the level's really tough. And that's just a totally dandelion dandylicious thing, isn't it, guy? Yes, it's the thingiest of things.
- RedLetterMedia's Mr.Plinkett Reviews were excellent deconstructions of the Star Trek film franchise, but there was little else to them other than the movie reviews. It wasn't until the Star Wars prequel reviews that Plinkett became a fully fleshed out character: kidnapping, rape, murder, and all. The reviews themselves were also a significant jump up in quality, to the point of being a must-see for any sci-fi fan.
- A tweet by Site 42 (a TikTok and YouTube channel made by SCP Foundation author TheeSherm) references this trope, both noting the Trope Namer as well as fellow SCP content creators TheVolgun and SCP Illustrated.
I didn’t know “Growing the Beard” was causative. If I had known that the secret of Volgun and Illustrated’s success was facial hair, I would have grown the beard sooner, sheesh.
- The Spoony Experiment's beard-growing moment is (according to both by fans and Noah Antwiller himself) the review of the The Thing (2002) computer game, which marked the point where reviews were scripted instead of improvised and where Noah developed the sarcastic and snarky personality that would become a hallmark of the Spoony character.
- Steam Train was very controversial upon launch because it started the very same day Jon left its parent show, leading some to cry foul of his replacement being in two separate shows on the same channel. Their first episode had a wide range of complaints against it, such as the recording equipment slowing the game to half-speed, their ineptitude at the tutorial level, and the fact that most all the jokes were just them doing an annoying silly voice for a man for the entirety of the video. Their second episode cooled down the flames a bit, and things have been looking up ever since.
- Some viewers say Stuart Ashen's videos started getting better when he went from "Doctor Ashen" to "Ashens"
- Tree Fog started out with simple song covers, but it really took off when it developed a plot with the band splitting up. This coincided with the shaving of Alex's beard, strangely enough.
- Tribe Twelve started out as Marble Hornets lite, but has been steadily improving, culminating in the series developing a massive, convoluted time travel plot, introducing a particularly unusual case of Future Me Scares Me and obtaining absolutely spectacular special effects... and it's still somewhat easy to follow.
- Twitch Plays Pokémon Crystal started out suffering from being the sequel to the famously insane original. The Mob spent a lot of time tearing itself apart over Lazergator, with many wanting to release him to make the game harder, but others wanting to keep him. When they accidentally released Togepi instead, the resultant shock and regret caused a new Rage Against the Heavens plot to form in contrast to the old one's aburdist theological journey.
- While Lowtax's first three "Let's Play Cry of Fear" videos were surprisingly well received, it wasn't until Dave "Shmorky" Kelly took up the second microphone that Gaming Garbage became a possibility.
- Monster Island Buddies started off as a funny skit-based show, but it starts getting better halfway through Season 1, where the show starts developing continuity and an actual Story Arc. In Season 2, the show starts firing on all gears; the comedy gets even better, gains actual dramatic stakes, starts giving the main cast Character Development, and develops the creative and intricate plots the series would be praised for.
- Unwanted Houseguest: Began with the introduction of "TRUE Scary Stories" giving the Houseguest a more consistent appearance and personality. Doctor Wolfula's introduction as a recurring character to give him someone else to interact with, and the introduction of Chapter Videos to more directly tell stories really leg it tale off.