1. The Simpsons - The Entire Look Of The Show
Who (perhaps apart from Marge) would change a thing about Homer Simpson? Instantly recognisable and endlessly quotable, the man and his family have captured the hearts and funnybones of audiences of all ages through nearly thirty years of classic television and one iffy movie. Well someone would have had it differently Matt Groening. That's right. The legendary creator of the most celebrated cartoon series in history didn't actually want his characters to look like they do. He simply sketched some crude characters, gave them names and handed them over to the animation department with the assumption that the talented folks there would refine and tidy up his drawings, making something of a little more quality out of them. What follows was brilliantly satirised in the season 8 episode 'Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie' they didn't change a thing. To save time and money, the animators simply traced over Groening's original sketches and thus the Simpsons retained the simplicity of design that eventually rocketed them to cultural phenomenon status, despite Groening's hopes otherwise. And that's not all - if you've ever fleetingly wondered why the Simpsons are yellow skinned, that was an idea of Gyorgyi Peluce (try saying that out loud), the show's colourist, theorising that getting sitcom-hardened audiences interested in a prime time cartoon series would be a tall order. He thought that making them yellow would help catch the attentions of channel surfers, who may stop on the Fox Network to wonder what had gone wrong with their televisions. He was probably right.