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Follow TV Tropes

Please don't list this on a work's page as a trope.
Examples can go on the work's YMMV tab.

Following

First Installment Wins
aka: First Instalment Wins

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"It's like Star Trek: The Next Generation — in many ways it's superior, but will never be as recognized as the original."
— Wayne, Wayne's World

There's a general trend that when people consume works, especially serial works, they read/watch/listen in publication order. Which means "everyone" saw the first installment, most people saw the second, many people saw the third... the earlier it is in the series, the more familiar it is amongst the general populace. The culmination of this is that the very first installment (and, going even further, the first couple scenes, even) will be the one that is the most familiar by a wide margin.

However, this is not true with all works. Creators anticipate that audiences may start a work during the middle of airing, so add tropes such as Soft Reboot to facilitate audience entry to that installment of the work. This provides a contrast where some installments of a series are more well-known or popular than others. Installments can range in size, proportional to the series. A franchise with three Sequel or Spinoff series can consider each one an installment, and each series can consider the first episode the first installment of that series. Examples should clearly define the scope of the series and why a given installment is first. William Hartnell, of Doctor Who, represents the first installment of the entire multimedia franchise, whereas Christopher Eccleston can only be considered the first installment of the "nu-who" Revival.

Still, to "win", one of the Doctors would have to be better known than all of the others. By now it's recognized as never happening, and Whovians will often introduce themselves by "their" Doctor, which might be the second, fourth, twelfth, or whatever installment. Other works tend not to have the same struggles, and this page contains many examples of works that have embedded their first installments into the public consciousness far beyond what their successive installments have achieved.

Concepts that help form this Audience Reaction are Nostalgia Filter, Sequelitis, and Small Reference Pools. Concepts that work against this reaction are Contested Sequel (when the first installment has a Broken Base), Early-Installment Weirdness (when the first installment feels strange to fans of the second) and Sophomore Slump (where the third installment of a series turns out to be better than the second, and possibly even the first).

Note: Inversions may be listed in Sequel Displacement (or Adaptation Displacement), where one of the successive installments (including adaptations) has become vastly more popular than the original. Reactions similar to the inversion are Surprisingly Improved Sequel and Even Better Sequel, where the successive installment is considered better than the earlier installment, which often makes it more popular as well.

A No Recent Examples rule applies to this trope. Examples shouldn't be added until six months after the third installment is released, to avoid any knee-jerk reactions. For similar reasons, examples shouldn't be removed until six months after a new installment disqualifies them.

Example subpages:

Other examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime and Manga 
  • When it comes to Berserk pretty much the only adaptation that’s considered to have done justice to the original manga is the very first 1997 anime which remains the most beloved many decades on for its true-to-the-text atmosphere and quieter moments and magnificent soundtrack by Susumu Hirasawa (barring the corny intro song). Berserk: The Golden Age Arc has a lot of fans and acclaim (particularly the third film) but is derided for Conspicuous CG and removing important character moments featured in the manga and 97 anime (though this got somewhat fixed with the memorial edition), while the infamous Berserk (2016) series just makes the 1997 anime even better by comparison.
  • There have been several Beyblade anime series, but the Bakuten Shoot Beyblade series that started it is the most well-known.
  • Cardcaptor Sakura is an odd example. The most iconic outfit for Sakura is a pink and white one she wears on the cover of the first volume (manga) and the first opening (anime) (see it here◊), but never actually appears in the story proper. Despite one gimmick of the series being not repeating outfits.
  • Most people will be aware of Digimon Adventure, maybe Digimon Adventure 02 if you're (really) lucky, but probably won't even know there were any further anime series beyond 02, let alone that there are now ten. And then Toei announced another sequel to Adventure long after Digimon Fusion finished its run, with little to say about the characters that debuted in 02! And then they release the first five minutes of said sequel where the little they said about said characters is, "They're beaten up by a new Digimon. Let's never mention them again."
  • Purely in terms of manga, the original Toriyama Dragon Ball run from 1984 to 1995 * outclasses the official Sequel Series manga Dragon Ball Super by Toyotarou. This even reflected by the fact the Super manga has Traced Artwork of poses and moves from the original series. Subverted of course when it comes to the Animated Adaptation as the Z anime brutally overshadows its predecessor the original anime to the extent where the latter practically doesn’t exist for mainstream audiences.
  • The original Fist of the North Star manga can be divided into two eras: everything up to the end of the Raoh saga (or what was adapted into the first TV series) and everything afterward (the second TV series). The majority of the later anime and manga spin-offs, as well as the numerous video games based on the franchise tend to be based on or set around the former era, with even side characters like Juza or Amiba often getting more exposure than the major players from the later era like Falco and Kaioh.
    • The 1984 TV anime by Toei Animation is also by far the most well-known adaptation of the manga, to the point where fans use it as the basis for what an adaptation of Fist of the North Star should be like. It helps that the anime constantly receives high amounts of praise for its use of music and voice acting to convey the right kinds of emotions from certain scenes, leading many to call it the adaptation with a heart.
  • Gundam:
  • Everyone knows that the eponymous Haruhi Suzumiya is God; fewer people realise that this explanation of her powers has held little canonical currency since Melancholy, the first book in the series (and it was implied that Koizumi wasn't being entirely serious). A little more justified than other examples in that most of the later books haven't been made into an anime yet, which was even more true prior to the release of Season 2 and the Disappearance movie.
  • µ's, the first group of the Love Live! franchise, remains the most popular and influential group outside of the series' fanbase despite the strong success of Aqours and Nijigasaki, with many of its members, songs and memes being more easily recognizable to non-fans.
  • Macross:
    • Robotech fans are most passionate about the Super Dimension Fortress Macross Saga. It's also the most familiar installment to those who might only be casually familiar with Robotech. Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross (The Masters) and Genesis Climber MOSPEADA (The New Generation) have their fans, but their lack of recognition may have to do with merchandising in Japan. The Valkyrie mecha (Veritech Fighter) has become an institution in and of itself. The Spartus hovertank and Alpha Fighter...not so much. It's reflective of how the original shows were also received in Japan; Macross has become a respectable Long Running franchise in its own right, while there has been little interest in revisiting the settings of Southern Cross and MOSPEADA.
    • This also applies to Super Dimension Fortress Macross itself, which is the most popular and best-known of the Macross series, and usually considered the best.
  • Mazinger Z has got a lot of sequels (Great Mazinger, UFO Robo Grendizer...), alternate series (God Mazinger, New Mazinger, Shin Mazinger Zero...) and reimaginations (Mazinkaiser, Shin Mazinger...). Neither of them has got the success, the impact or the popularity enjoyed the original series. Mazinger Z fans tend to think the original series was better, and the sequels and remakes did not live up to its legacy.
  • Naruto:
    • Out of all the movies for Naruto, the most well-known and the most liked is Naruto the Movie: Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow, the first one and usually the only one that people who write Fan Fiction for Naruto adapt. As for Shippuden, ironically enough the first movie during the second half of the series is arguably second in popularity. However, from a financial standpoint, Boruto: Naruto the Movie, the eighth Shippuden film and the last Naruto movie overall, is the most popular out of ALL the movies since it made the most money (Ninja Clash in the Land of Snow made the third most).
    • This trope can also apply to the Naruto series as a whole. Naruto receives more praise than Naruto Shippuden which suffers from an Annihilated Base — though everyone generally agrees that the last eighty or so episodes of Filler in the original series means it's not by that large of a margin. Boruto also had a hard time keeping up with the reputation of Naruto thanks to its Lighter and Softer first several dozens episodes and its Base-Breaking Character protagonist.
  • Noir, the first installment of Bee Train's Girls with Guns trilogy, remains by far the most famous and popular one, despite Madlax and El Cazador de la Bruja's virtues.
  • Pokémon: The Series:
    • Everyone knows of the first movie of the Pokémon anime. People also tend to know about the next two. But people outside the fandom are typically oblivious to the fact that there are 23 films and counting.
    • The first season of the anime (Indigo League) is also the most recognized outside of the fanbase. Out of all the theme songs of the Pokémon anime that have been made in the US, the first theme is considered by many to be the best and is easily the most recognized. A new cover of the original theme was composed for the XY series. The Johto League Champions season uses the first verse, but afterwards diverges into its own theme.
    • A fair amount of fans dislike the XY Mega Evolution Specials for their more serious stories and the older lead of Alain, preferring the more idealistic take on the series with Ash. This hate only intensified when Alain appeared in the main series and, in a very controversial decision, beat Ash at the Kalos League to become its Champion.
  • When non-fans discuss Pokémon Adventures they tend to discuss the Kanto and Johto arcs. This is especially common because most of the frequently-cited violent moments (like the Cloyster being killed by Giovanni or the zombie Psyduck scene) come from the first Kanto arc. It helps that the RGBY arc was the only one translated in many places for several years.
  • According to a 2019 NHK poll on the whole Pretty Cure franchise, The original season Futari wa Pretty Cure utterly dominates: it is the most favorite season, its two main Cures are the two most favorite Cures, and its opening song DANZEN! Futari wa Pretty Cure, with its multiple versions, made the list three times at positions 1, 5 and 11. The only aspect it did not top the charts is side characters, with the fairy Pollun only made to the 11th place.
  • Whenever Sailor Moon is brought up in popular culture, the shout-outs will usually have only the first five Sailor Guardians, Queen Beryl as the main villain, and Sailor Moon will be in her iconic red, white, and blue costume. If you're lucky, Sailor Pluto or Chibiusa might appear. the live-action series was a stand-alone show that only retold the first storyline. In fact, while the re-dub of the original series by Viz Media is considered vastly superior quality, with better voice-acting and no Bowdlerization or Dub-Induced Plotline Changes, it's the original DIC version from The '90s that many people still talk about, probably for that very same reason (and the well-regarded soundtrack).
  • Saint Seiya: Any shout-out almost always refer to the Gold Saints or something from the Sanctuary arc in general. The Poseidon and Hades arcs are never brought up.
  • Space Battleship Yamato/Star Blazers: Many American fans are familiar with ''The Quest for Iscandar' portion but don't realize that the Star Force will also fight the Comet Empire and the Bolar Federation. Both sequel series had been imported to the U.S, albeit the Bolar Wars was brought over a few years after the first two and not as widely distributed.
  • Higurashi: When They Cry will always be known as the gore filled horror it was in Season 1 instead of the tearjerker mystery-murder it became in later seasons.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! was a multi-million dollar smash hit when imported overseas. While the card game is still popular enough to warrant dubbing the series, most fans of the original won't accept anything from GX and onward.note 

    Asian Animation 
  • Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf. The general public is most familiar with the plot and jokes from Season 1, despite the show changing drastically in the years since. This is understandable when you consider that Season 1 has the most episodes out of any season of the show (530 episodes, to be precise), it still airs in some countries, and people tend to stop following the show after Season 1.

    Comic Books 
  • Heroes who become a Legacy Character will often be mostly well known for the original, not for their successors. This is usually because of Replacement Scrappy reasons, but most of the time, the first is the one who most know of. If asked on the street about the names of Robin or Venom, if they know any, it will be Dick Grayson and Eddie Brock (justified in Brock's case, as the second Venom is almost completely unheard of as he appeared for two issues then died, the third was more popular and well known for his role as Scorpion, and the latest Venom is only about a few years old), and if asked to describe the character, the descriptions will likely be along the lines of 'wears shorts, says "Holy X Batman!" a lot, and gets captured' and 'Big, scary, black, pluralizes himself, was a reporter like Peter', which describe Dick and Eddie.
    • A lot of it comes down to publicity though, as most adaptations, which are the usual way non-comic book fans learn any info at all about a character, will only get time to use the first or most well known version or take on them and as such, they're the only one people know of. As such, most people only know of the original, and will be surprised to know of them being replaced.
    • Jason Todd's infamous phone in vote on whether he would live or die got national coverage because most people thought it was Dick Grayson who they were voting to kill off, and likely resulted in him getting more votes.
    • Ask someone on the street who Supergirl is and they will describe a blond girl wearing a female version of Superman's costume and who happens to be Clark Kent's cousin. Ask them about her name and "Kara" is the only one you will get. Peter David claims that his Supergirl book was a flop because most of fans only cared for the original Kara Zor-El and not for her similarly-named replacements. Her live-action show has solidified this.
    • "The Super-Steed of Steel" introduced Comet the Super-Horse, who became Silver Age Supergirl's Action Pet. Eventually, Crisis on Infinite Earths retconned Comet out, and Peter David created a new Comet in the late 90s for his Supergirl series. As typical of nearly all Post-Crisis replacements of Silver Age Superman concepts, new Comet's backstory and nature were even weirder and more convoluted, becoming quickly and completely forgotten in favor of the original Silver Age Comet. Even more modern stories like "Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow" use Comet's original version instead of Post-Crisis Comet.
    • "Supergirl's Super Pet" introduced Streaky the Supercat' Supergirl's original action pet. However, Streaky would be Put on a Bus in 1971 as part of an effort to make the Superman books less "silly". Since then, several writers have tried to give Supergirl and even Power Girl a non-powered pet cat, but neither of them stuck precisely because they were just a regular cat, ergo unremarkable. However, people kept remembering the original Streaky, so he eventually returned to the comics.
    • The Super Dog from Krypton introduced Krypto, Superman's dog who quickly became a hit between readers and inspired dozens of imitators (like Ace the Bat-Hound, Streaky the Super-Cat...). By the 1990s, DC did not want multiple Kryptonian characters around, not even dogs, so they tried to replace him with a common Earth dog who was named "Krypto" by a Superman fanboy...and who hardly someone became popular in-and-out-universe and only made a handful of appearances before being sent to comic-book Limbo, completely forgotten and replaced by the returning original Krypto.
    • Dan DiDio has used this as justification for replacing many characters with their Silver Age incarnations, specifically Supergirl (Kara Zor-El), The Flash (Barry Allen), Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) and Batgirl (Barbara Gordon).note 
  • YMMV as to whether or not Batman: The Dark Knight Returns is masterful or overrated, but when its sequel, The Dark Knight Strikes Again, was released, it marked the beginning, for many fans, of the Creator Breakdown of Frank Miller. Things only got worse when All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder came out, whether you accept it as a prequel or not.
  • Superman: Earth One turned out to be pretty popular despite being the umpteen-trillionth version of Superman's origin and advertised as somehow similar to The Twilight Saga. Batman: Earth One — as the umpteenth-billion version of Batman's early days — was nothing special, especially since it was released just after DC's New 52 line hit the stands, and Volume 2 of the Superman series tried to be Spider-Man 2 but was more of a Star Trek Into Darkness.
  • My Little Pony: FIENDship Is Magic: While the second and third issues have divided the fanbase on if they're good or not, Sombra's issue is not only agreed to be excellent by most, but is considered better than either of the two issues following. Issues #4 and #5 got back some of that affection, but only the latter is considered a challenger to the quality of Sombra's issue.
  • El Eternauta: The original is widely regarded as a masterpiece and the greatest Argentinian comic ever made. Perceptions of the various sequels and follow-ups range from okay but not as good as the first, to angry leftist propaganda disguised as comics, to cheap, disgraceful tie-in crap that has no right to exist.

    Fan Works 
  • "The Bitch Fight of Canary Wharf" is the oldest video in The Bugger Anthology. It is also by far the most popular installment, having over four times as many views as the next most-viewed video and often having particularly memorable lines quoted whenever the episode it's based on is brought up. Its status is fueled primarily by the Daleks/Cybermen sass-off from "Doomsday" already being highly memetic and the dub adding goofier dialogue on top of it.
  • A New Hope (Danganronpa): The first fanfic, the eponymous A New Hope is the one that, to this day, has the most engagement online. The sequels, while also receiving attention, don't get the attention that ANH had. An attempted reboot was created, but shelved due to minor lack of interest.
  • The infamous Rugrats story The Rugrats Theory is actually a two-part story. Most people only know the first part, which is about how the series is all just a hallucination of Angelica's. It doesn't help that the popular Vocaloid song only adapts that portion. The second part revolves around All Grown Up! and ends in a Downer Ending where Angelica dies alone of a drug overdose at only thirteen.
  • In regards to the Victorious fanfic series The Wolf in me, the first story remains the most popular and best-reviewed work of the series. It is also one of the author's most popular stories. While the sequels are far from being considered bad by the fanbase, none were quite the hit that the first one was. It helps that, unlike the sequels, it's a mostly straightforward supernatural romance story, while the others often got lost in world-building and lost focus on the romance most fans were there for. Many also felt that it had the best villain from the series in Livia.

    Films — Animation 
  • Recess: School's Out is a lot more well known and more well received by fans than either Recess: Taking the Fifth Grade and Recess: All Growed Down. Plus, the other two were released Direct to Video, and Recess: All Growed Down consisted of three previous episodes of the show it's based on, a never-before-seen origin story, and linking material, though Disney refers to it as a movie.
  • Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first film in the Disney Animated Canon, is often considered the best of Walt Disney's films. Walt Disney viewed Bambi as the best, leading to Magnum Opus Dissonance.
  • Every single Disney Animated Canon film with a direct-to-video sequel is always better remembered than its sequel. This is the main reason why Melody, Ariel's daughter, is not considered as an official Disney Princess, despite her own mother actually being considered as one.
  • Winnie the Pooh is a more complicated example than most of the DAC due to its enormous supply of follow-up material, including a sequel made by WDAS, four B Team Sequels, a live-action adaptation, four TV shows, and a near-endless amount of holiday specials. While The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is usually the most well regarded with Disney buffs, a lot of its continuations are still praised for being rare effortful Disney follow ons, with many Pooh fans praising cases such as Pooh's Grand Adventure, The Tigger Movie or even The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh TV series as Growing the Beard moments for the franchise due to more poignant and consistent storytelling.
  • An American Tail has three sequels; Fievel Goes West, The Treasure of Manhattan Island, and The Mystery of the Night Monster. Of the four movies, the original remains the best remembered, probably thanks to the involvement of Don Bluth, although Fievel Goes West is a bit of a Contested Sequel and has its fans.
  • The Land Before Time. The original film is by far the most popular. It's considered to be an excellent piece of work, even for adults... the musical sequels on the other hand tend to be quite disliked. Still, they have scores of fans and a forum.
  • LEGO:
    • BIONICLE: Mask of Light is a nostalgic early-2000s Direct to Video film for many. Its two prequels are mostly only remembered by fans. The fourth movie is at times neglected even by them.
    • The LEGO Movie remains the most critically and financially successful of LEGO's theatrical films. While most of the later ones also received warm receptions in their own rights, the majority of viewers seem to find the novelty of the toys reaching the big screen, with more charm and depth than the average Merchandise-Driven cartoon, felt freshest in the original.
  • The first Ice Age film is the best-reviewed of the series and the only one nominated for Best Animated Feature. Granted, the series has a status as a Franchise Zombie and while the sequels do have their fans, none of them are considered universally good by even the fans of the original.
    • Ice Age: The Meltdown: More like first sequel in this case. The Meltdown is the best-reviewed Ice Age sequel among critics and audiences, receiving praise for being a natural continuation of the first movie's story and having mostly good additions to the cast as well as some positive critics and fans arguing that this film is just as good as, or an Even Better Sequel to the original movie.
  • Though the other two How to Train Your Dragon movies have their fans, both are also contentious for different reasons, like the Big Bad Drago being a Flat Character, several characters being underutilised and a poor tone balance in the case of the former and a highly divisive ending for the latter. As a result, there are plenty of fans who prefer the first movie for its charm and lacking said contentious elements, and this is reflected in its 99% rating on Rotten Tomatoes compared to the sequels' lesser (albeit still high) 92% and 91% respective ratings.

    Live-Action TV 
  • 13 Reasons Why caused a huge impact upon its release. The following seasons, on the other hand, are considered exploitative and non-sensical and gathered negative reviews all around (the Rotten Tomatoes score dip is particularly impressive: 78% for the first season, 27% for the second, and everything after scored on the 10% mark).
  • AMC's first two original scripted shows in its current format, Mad Men and Breaking Bad, are two of the network's three best-known shows (the other is its fourth).
  • Downton Abbey: The first season is regarded the most favorably with almost universal appreciation. The second season is reasonably popular but criticized for its more soap-opera like elements, the third is disliked because of Sybil and Matthew's deaths and the fourth went past the point of no return for a lot of viewers.
  • Family Feud has run non-contiguously since 1976: from 1976-85 with Richard Dawson; from 1988-95 with Ray Combs (except for the last season, which reverted to Dawson); and from 1999 onward with four different hosts (Louie Anderson, Richard Karn, John O'Hurley, Steve Harvey). Despite the contemporary incarnation running longer than its two predecessors combined, the original Richard Dawson version is still what most people think of when they think of the Feud, and the persistence of the Dawson and Combs eras in reruns has not hurt either.
  • Many fans feel this way about the first season of Glee. More charitable ones will extend it to the first lineup of the titular glee club.
  • While Grey's Anatomy has been around for a while, many fans feel it was at its best with the original five interns - Meredith, Alex, George, Izzie, Cristina - and feel that it lost some magic after George died in Season 5.
  • Heroes, as the first season is the only one which didn't disappoint most of the fanbase.
  • VH1's I Love the Exties miniseries has spun-off many different incarnations of decades, toys and holidays, but I Love the 80s (and in particular the first two of the eventual three collections) remains the most memorable. Although I Love the 70s also has its share of fans, it's not nearly as celebrated as the 80s by the mostly Generation Xers or Yers who tuned in (and most noticeable, while many people complained about celebrities who were born in the 1980s being commentators for I Love the 80s, the latter series had far more celebrities born in the 1970s as commentators, yet these ageist "experts" suddenly fell silent.)
  • The first Kamen Rider series is the one most recognizable in Japan. Not to say that other, more recent series (like Den-O) haven't enjoyed their share of success, but the first series is the one that started it all. Takeshi Hongo, the first Kamen Rider, is also the most iconic character in the franchise by extension, with Hayato Ichimonji, his successor turned ally, as a close second.
  • Virtually any Lost parody will focus on elements introduced in the first season - the survivors, the Others, the Hatch, the Monster, the Numbers, and the polar bears. Nearly the entire remainder of the series' pop culture reputation comes from the second season, with DHARMA Initiative. The first season is also the least disputed one as all five that followed are accused of Seasonal Rot, if only for making the plot weirder as it went. The fact that the show completely changed focus around Season 3 makes it very easy to identify someone who hasn't watched the show since the first season, and the fact that it continued changing focus every season after that makes it also easy to identify when someone stopped watching.
  • The L Word: Any trouble digesting the ridiculousness of the latter seasons will either be soothed or completely exacerbated by the dramatic superiority of any episode from the first three.
  • The Mandalorian remains a bigger crowd-pleaser than its spin-off shows. The majority of fans believe that its peak lasted through either the first or second season, the latter of which marked the last one Disney+ released prior to the spin-offs.
  • Marvel Cinematic Universe:
    • When it comes to MCU Netflix shows Daredevil especially its first season is considered the absolute best despite Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and The Punisher having their fans (Iron Fist, not so much). Daredevil is also considered superior to the official Disney+ Marvel TV shows which have plenty of broken bases and critics. Such is the acclaim and popularity of Charlie Cox’s Daredevil that he’s the first Netflix Marvel character to make his way into a mainline film: Spider-Man: No Way Home.
    • Concerning the Disney+ MCU shows, easily the best reviewed, the most bang for the buck, least controversial (barring its final episode) and most liked all around is WandaVision the first one. WandaVision's refreshingly different and weird direction for the studio and generally good pacing and character drama make it effortlessly the favourite of the bunch.
  • Metal Heroes:
    • The first installment in the series, Space Sheriff Gavan, is by far the most iconic and Gavan himself is the Metal Hero most subject to getting homages, even getting his own movie decades after the series ended.
    • In Brazil it's a different case. Kyojuu Tokusou Juspion is the fourth installment of Metal Heroes, but it was first Metal Hero series to be brought over there, and to this day remains the most popular. In fact, when Jikuu Senshi Spielban was brought over next, it was called "Juspion 2: Spielvan".
  • The Muppets:
    • There have been follow-up series after The Muppet Show, but the first is the most famous. The other shows used new settings, while the Muppet Theater setting is usually the one depicted in merchandise. The Muppets (2015) put the show in a different format from the previous shows, and following that show's cancellation, the Muppets have done a number of live shows invoking the classic Muppet Show format. But then again, all the follow-up shows were Short-Runners.
    • Gonzo and various members of The Electric Mayhem have changed their default outfits over the years, but in merchandise and illustrations, the characters are generally depicted in their original outfits.
  • The first season of Once Upon a Time is generally the best received and least controversial season with fans due to having a more cohesive storyline compared to the following seasons that suffered from The Chris Carter Effect and got divisive reception at best.
  • When you ask a non-fan about Power Rangers, it would be something about Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (and most likely the first season of it), or to a lesser extent, the Zordon Era in general; every Intra-Franchise Crossover episode with more than one returning Ranger team has featured a Mighty Morphin' cast member without fail and every Power Rangers parody is based on Mighty Morphin'.
    • When Disney did a poll for the five most popular Rangers, the only non-MMPR to make the list was Andros from In Space. Not a single Disney-era Ranger charted. In this case, first production company wins. Though it helps by the cast staying around for a lot longer than most of the other Rangers, rather than being replaced every year.
    • It seems like Saban understood this, as when they bought back the franchise, they made sure Power Rangers Samurai was as campy and over-the-top as the original.note 
    • Bandai themselves seemed to love MMPR too, to the point where they seem to have forgotten that their 20th anniversary toyline is for the anniversary of Power Rangers as a whole, not just MMPR.
    • When the franchise was purchased by Hasbro, they too made sure to produce lots of toys around MMPR. In all fairness, they have made sure to produce more merchandise for other seasons like Wild Force or S.P.D. for both collectors and the general consumer, but MMPR toys still outnumber the rest and take more prominence.
  • For Red Dwarf the biggest Broken Base among fans is over this, as there’s a good amount of fans who prefer the very first series simply for being an irreverent and darkly humorous comedy about three guys and a computer stuck alone in deep space — rather than the more wild and adventurous Monster of the Week Star Trek/Doctor Who-esque show it became despite the gags being better than ever. Worth noting the series does go back to having lower stakes like the first two seasons in the VIII series and Revival series.
  • If you count Saved by the Bell as the same show as Good Morning, Miss Bliss, then it is by far considered the best show in its franchise. Saved by the Bell: The College Years, while it has its fans, lasted for only one season, and isn't nearly as well-remembered. Saved by the Bell: The New Class, despite lasting even longer than the original show, is considered the worst show in the franchise.
  • While everybody agrees that The Sopranos was a great show through and through, most point to the first season as its best overall.
  • Soul Train is known as an embodiment of The '70s (in music, style, and culture); however, many are unaware it ran over 30 years, ending in 2006.
  • Stargate SG-1 has lasted the longest of all the shows in the franchise and has the largest following, given how many times it was Un-Canceled. Stargate Atlantis lasted several seasons, while Stargate Universe (having a different format) was canceled fairly quickly. No mention of Stargate Infinity, a (non-canon) short-lived cartoon series. Surprisingly, the original installment, the Stargate film, is something most people who are fans of the series must be introduced to the film retroactively only after watching the series. Understandable with it being a relatively obscure sci-fi film from the 90s.
  • In the Star Trek canon, none of the follow-ups or films will match the cultural significance of the Original Series. Furthermore, Star Trek: The Next Generation was much more popular than the other Star Trek shows created after the original. Out of the later shows, Next Generation was the only one that became a film series. In fact, TNG was, by most metrics, more popular than the original series had been during its first-run... but the financial success of the TOS-based movies remains unmatched.
  • For a lot of people the first season of Stranger Things will always dwarf the second and third seasons, simply for having the right combination of 80s grittiness and heart with its cast as well as having enough unexplained mystery and intrigue. When discussing the series, the now iconic moments of Joyce using the Christmas lights to communicate to Will and Eleven saving Mike and Dustin before having a Group Hug are brought up far more than moments from the second and third seasons. Incredibly, the fourth season, thanks to numerous great scenes and new characters and what is generally considered a huge improvement from Seasons 2 and 3, has managed to rival the first, being extremely acclaimed and discussed, even if the first season is still the best liked overall.
  • What applies to Power Rangers also applies to Super Sentai.
    • While some series had more postmortem popularity than others (Choujin Sentai Jetman and Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger being respective examples in the early 1990s and the 2000s - and the latter has two 2010s post-series productions to back it up and the pre-Gokaiger Blu-Ray releasenote ), it is Himitsu Sentai Gorenger, the very first Sentai, that still gets the most exposure and is the subject of most homages and parodies, both in and outside the series. And just like the aforementioned Dekaranger, it got the Blu-Ray release. Albeit compared to Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, Goranger does not get as much special attention in Intra-Franchise Crossover stories nor in toylines (though the latter one is explained by Goranger predating Sentai's shift to a Merchandise-Driven nature).
    • Choudenshi Bioman gets this in the Philippines and France as the first Sentai broadcast there, despite Bioman itself being the 8th installment in Super Sentai.
  • The Twilight Zone (1959). While it had a few revivals that were quickly cancelled and forgotten, generation after generations go back to the original with its stark black-and-white images and Rod Serling's hypnotic voice doing the opening and closing narrations.
  • In the Ultra Series, the 60s and 70s series (especially the original Ultraman and Ultraseven) are far more famous and popular in Japan (and the west, to a lesser extent) than their 90s-onwards counterparts. That's not to say those series don't enjoy their share of success (as is the case with Ultraman Tiga and Ultraman Mebius), but there is a reason why most people think of the older shows when they think "Ultraman" (or even be unaware the franchise is still producing shows today) and the producers tend to bring back older monsters over newer ones.
  • The Walking Dead Television Universe: While many fans have numerous complaints about the later seasons, they tend to still hold the original series as being superior to any of the various spin-offs.

    Music 
  • This applies to almost everyone participating in the entire genre in rap/hip-hop. Most knowledgeable listeners are very likely to say that Nas can never top Illmatic, any member of the Wu-Tang Clan will never make an album on the level of their first solo records (with the possible exception of Ghostface Killah); the list goes on and on.
  • Garth Brooks had a decade of solid country albums, but his most remembered hits are The Dance, from his first album, and Friends in Low Places, from his second.
  • Of Carl Orff's Trionfi trilogy of secular choral music, Carmina Burana is by far the best known. Catulli Carmina is far less popular, and Trionfo di Afrodite is outright obscure. And Carmina Burana is known mostly for its first (and last) song, the first to be composed: "O fortuna."
  • Pearl Jam's Ten. Depending upon who you ask, their sophomore effort, Vs., can also be considered this. For certain though, their third album, Vitalogy, definitely falls under this trope for many casual fans, since it includes a good number of massive hits like "Corduroy", "Better Man", and "Spin the Black Circle". It wasn't until No Code that the band really started to hemorrhage casual fans.
  • Guns N' Roses Appetite for Destruction works here. Not only is it the highest-selling debut album of all time, it also has "Sweet Child O' Mine", which is one of the most famous songs of the 80s. "Welcome to the Jungle" and "Paradise City" are pretty famous, too. Some fans argue that Appetite is the only good album the band has ever released. In either case, only very few even consider Chinese Democracy a Guns N Roses album instead of "Axl Rose and whoever wanted to record with him".
  • Aimee Mann is a critically-acclaimed and incredibly respected songwriter who crafts smart, witty, memorable, and utterly catch pop songs. She is widely considered to be one of the finest songwriters of her generation but, if you bring her name up, most people's eyes simply glaze over. Then, inevitably, you sigh and say, "You remember the chick from 'Til Tuesday who sang that 'Voices Carry' song? Yeah, her." At which the response is inevitably "Oh, the one with the funny hair, yeah, I remember that song! Is she still around?"Devoted Rush fans know her as the female vocalist who sang on the chorus of "Time Stand Still" and whose laughter was heard at the start of "Force Ten."
  • Frankie Goes to Hollywood's first album Welcome to the Pleasuredome is easily their most famous album.
  • Tori Amos' first two solo albums Little Earthquakes and Under the Pink are her most critically-acclaimed albums (especially the former). Critics tend to not pay attention to the rest of her albums.
  • Disturbed's best known and best selling album, The Sickness gets this quite a bit despite some Early-Installment Weirdness. It contains some of the band's most iconic songs, including "Down With The Sickness."
  • The first Kittie album, Spit, is easily their most iconic, and a notable part of the Nu Metal movement of the late 90s. Their subsequent albums have their fans, but aren't as well-known, not just because of the fall of Nu Metal in the 2000s, but because Kittie themselves shrugged off Nu Metal, and got Darker and Edgier and less accessible over time.
  • Liz Phair's Exile in Guyville got a huge amount of praise, and is considered one of the best albums of all time. Too bad the rest of her albums didn't match up to the success of her debut. Not the same level of critical success perhaps, but they got a lot more radio airplay.
  • Is This It by The Strokes is widely considered their masterwork by fans and critics alike, and is arguably the definitive record from the garage rock revival era. Only their second album, Room on Fire, really seems to compare favorably to their debut, with subsequent releases receiving a decidedly more lukewarm critical and commercial response.
  • Manolo Escobar's Mi Carro might hold a record at this: The beginning lyrics (Where the singer says his cart got stolen) are well-known by everyone in Spain, which led to many jokes about how "maybe Manolo Escobar hasn't found his cart yet" or somesuch, when if those people bothered to listen to the entire song, they would know he finds his cart at the end of it.
  • Silverchair's Frogstomp debut album is massively more popular than their other 4 albums, despite being their least critically acclaimed.
  • A subset of fans maintain that R.E.M.'s debut album, Murmur, is their best (although it's not their breakthrough). Another subset considers their second album, Reckoning, to be this as well. A sizeable portion of their fanbase feels their entire I.R.S. Records catalogue to be better than anything they put out from Green onward.
  • Crazy Rhythms, the first album by the Feelies, frequently makes critics' lists of best alternative rock albums, best 80s albums, and so on. Their other albums, on the other hand, are rarely, if ever mentioned on similar lists.
  • Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill. Although her two subsequent albums both went platinum in the US, her first album (at least, not counting her teen pop career) is still her most remembered and popular.
  • Boston's self-titled debut is their best selling album by far and contains most of their classic rock radio staples, including Signature Song "More Than a Feeling" (which, itself, is the first song on the album).
  • Linkin Park's Hybrid Theory. Audiences saw Meteora as a recycling of the album prior, and a combination of Hype Backlash and name-sullying left the public to ignore and/or disavow the remainder of their catalog.
  • Although some fans seem to consider her second album her best, Tuesday Night Music Club is Sheryl Crow's strongest album to date.
  • Even critics of Creed will admit that the band's first album, My Own Prison, is genuinely good and, while not nearly as popular, is certainly better than their later output.
  • Natalie Imbruglia's debut, Left of the Middle, is by far her most successful and churned out "Torn", her only American hit to date.
  • The Cars' self-titled debut album, The Cars, is still considered their best in terms of sales (going 6x platinum), critical reception, and radio play (most of the songs still receive some degree of airplay on classic rock radio).
  • Foo Fighters have either their debut, which is arguably the one that got most acclaim, or The Colour and the Shape, the first as a full band (as Foo Fighters is really a Dave Grohl solo album), sometimes called their masterwork, and the most commercially successful with songs such as "Monkey Wrench", "My Hero" and their possible Signature Song "Everlong".
  • Annie Lennox's first album, Diva, remains her best album to date.
  • Hootie & the Blowfish's Cracked Rear View. With the exception of Fairweather Johnson which had its predecessor's success to fall back on, none of their subsequent albums achieved its fame to any degree, thanks to changing musical trends (folk-rock was on its way out by the end of the 90s), Hype Backlash, and dwindling ability of the band to write hit songs. The lead singer pivoted to a very successful solo country music career, putting the band on ice for over a decade.
  • Norah Jones' first album, Come Away With Me, remains her most liked among both fans and critics, probably because of her subsequent straying from Jazz music.
  • Did you know that Franz Liszt wrote five Mephisto Waltzes (if you count the Bagatelle Ohne Tonart)?
  • Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote three piano concertos as well as a concert fantasy for piano and orchestra. Only the first concerto is known by most people.
  • Johann Sebastian Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, a.k.a. 48 Preludes and Fugues. The entire work is a masterpiece, but the first Prelude remains its best-known portion.
  • Sergei Rachmaninoff wrote 24 preludes for solo piano. His first, in C♯ minor, overshadowed the rest in terms of popularity, much to the consternation of the composer, who considered it the weakest of the set.
  • The somber, melancholic first movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Sonata no. 14 is widely recognized as the "Moonlight Sonata" and frequently performed as a standalone piece. The more upbeat second movement and the frenetic third movement are nowhere near as familiar to the general public, even though they are from the same composition. Ironically, Beethoven himself meant for the final movement to be the main focus of the work when he wrote it.
  • Flo Rida's debut single, "Low", is still a beloved 2000s pop classic, contrasting with the rest of his music often falling under Critical Dissonance at best.
  • Although Pink Floyd released the entire "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" suite on the Wish You Were Here (1975) album, most people remember the (album-opening) first half of it better than the (album-closing) second. The band themselves rarely played the second half of it after the Animals tour. Pink Floyd also had in interesting case regarding their first album, The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, their only album with Syd Barrett as frontman. For many, many years, nothing they did quite measured up to their debut album, completely fitting this trope... until they released their seventh album. That album was The Dark Side of the Moon, and became so incredibly popular it eclipsed the now-obscure Piper. Still, you will find some die-hard Syd Barrett fans who claim that the band was never as good again after Barrett left them after their first album.
  • Australian Rockabilly band The Living End and their self-titled debut album is considered an Australian rock classic. Hardly anyone even knows they made more music after it.
  • According to most of the general public, Live only had two albums: their grandiose U2-esque folk-rock debut Mental Jewelry and its Darker and Edgier, grunge-styled and stylistically chaotic commercial breakthrough Throwing Copper. Everything afterwards doesn't actually exist.
  • Metal purists will swear by Fear Factory's debut Soul of a New Machine and especially their follow-up Demanufacture, considered a masterpiece and one of the most influential metal albums of the 1990s. The jury is still out on its successor, the concept album Obsolete, though there is a small faction that considers it to be the band's finest hour.
  • Not only is Silence considered to be Sonata Arctica's magnum opus by most of the band's listeners, but quite a few consider them to have jumped the shark with Winterheart's Guild and never looked back. Some take it even further and swear by their debut Ecliptica and have little interest in anything further.
  • Our Lady Peace's debut Naveed is widely considered a masterwork of concise, well-written Alternative Rock that the band has never come close to reproducing.
  • Andrew W.K. achieved moderate commercial success with his debut album I Get Wet and the hit song "Party Hard". Merely a year later, The Wolf was released to lukewarm impressions, likely due to his decision to go in a more ambitious direction rather than make another album of "Party Hard"s. It wasn't until three years later that Close Calls With Brick Walls was released... in Japan only.
  • Deicide's 1990 self-titled debut (and, to a lesser extent, its follow-up Legion) is hailed as a Death Metal classic. Any amount of anger and blasphemy within the genre was taken Up to Eleven, and all of the sudden a genre dedicated to having fun shocking people was dead serious. As it turned out, band mastermind Glen Benton didn't actually have anything else to say or take his music, and album after album of the same detuned riffing and Religion Rant Songs got old fast, leaving people to wonder why Benton and his cohorts decided to keep making them long after the well of enthusiasm and originality had dried up.
  • None of George Harrison's post-Beatles solo albums ever matched the success or acclaim of his 1970 solo debut All Things Must Pass.
  • For fans of the band Morbid Angel, their first three albums (Altars of Madness, Blessed are the Sick, and Covenant), especially Altars, are regarded as their best and most influential works, with their remaining albums succumbing to various degrees of of Contested Sequel, Fanon Discontinuity, and, with their post-2000 releases, Seasonal Rot.
  • Venom's first two albums, Welcome to Hell and Black Metal, were massively influential, being the Ur-Examples for Black Metal (for which the latter album is the Trope Namer), Thrash Metal, Death Metal, and all of their derivative genres, as well as making them the Trope Codifier for Rock Me, Asmodeus!. Beyond that, At War With Satan and (if you're lucky) Possessed may get mentioned in passing by metalheads, but anything beyond that is almost completely unknown outside the band's fans.
  • Stevie Nicks' solo debut Bella Donna is still her most popular album.
  • Madness' first album One Step Beyond Album is still the one that usually represents the group in "best album" polls and has a book written about it. This is perhaps a little strange, since although there's certainly an almost-universal affection for the LP, few fans or critics actually consider it their best.
  • The Stone Roses' debut The Stone Roses is widely considered their best. Their second album never quite managed to get the same kind of praise.
  • The Shaggs' debut Philosophy Of The World has become a Cult Classic, but more because it's So Bad, It's Good. Later albums, where the band reunited and actually sounded more skilled, are dismissed by most fans because they lost the amateuristic charm of the original.
  • Wild Man Fischer's best loved album in his career is still his debut, "An Evening With Wild Man Fischer", which, due to a falling out with its producer Frank Zappa, had never received a re-release on CD until 2016.
  • Heavy metal band Machine Head's first album Burn My Eyes is widely considered a groove/thrash metal classic and one of the most influential metal albums of the 90s. None of their subsequent albums have managed to garner the same level of acclaim or long term popularity. Especially not the band's two "nu-metal albums" (The Burning Red and Supercharger).
  • Moanin' in the Moonlight by Howlin' Wolf is widely regarded as his best. It has all the songs he is most well known for.
  • Evanescence's debut album Fallen is seen by many as not only their best, but it's their biggest seller by far. Even after their time in the spotlight ended, Fallen is a steady seller to this day.
  • Bullet for My Valentine: Their debut album The Poison is widely considered to be the their best so far, though it's follow-up Scream Aim Fire and Venom aren't that far behind.
  • DJ Shadow's debut album Endtroducing..... is seen by many as not only his best, but one of the greatest and most influential albums of its time. Nothing Shadow has put out in the future received the same unanimous celebration as Endtroducing.
  • Possessed produced two solid works after their debut album Seven Churches, but those will forever be in the shadow of that monster. Churches is widely considered one of the most influential metal albums ever and one of the earliest albums to give rise to Death Metal.
  • While Massive Attack's first three albums are all critically acclaimed, their debut album Blue Lines is seen as one of the greatest and most important albums of all time, and it also boasts the fact that its track "Unfinished Sympathy" is hailed as one of the greatest songs ever made.
  • While the New York Dolls' albums since their reformation avert the typical reaction for reunion albums by being fairly well-liked, their reputation rests (and probably always will) on their first two albums from their original stint.
  • Son Volt's debut album, Trace, is their best-selling album and their most well-liked album by critics and casual fans.
  • The Stooges have a similar case with their first three albums being the most widely liked (although Fun House and Raw Power are usually considered Even Better Sequels to their self-titled début).
  • The Velvet Underground's first four albums are universally regarded as classics. By contrast, no one ever talks about Squeeze. Amongst the VU's albums though, their first album, The Velvet Underground & Nico, is the most widely renowned of all.
  • While their other two albums are fairly well liked, Television's Marquee Moon is universally regarded as their masterpiece.
  • Van Halen's first lead singer, David Lee Roth, is perhaps the best known of those they've had. Some could argue that their first, self-titled, album is their best too - though the competition from 1984 (the last before Roth left) is tough.
  • Though Edward Elgar wrote six Pomp and Circumstance marches, the last of which was left incomplete when he died in 1934, the most familiar is the first in D.
  • While most of their other albums are regarded to be good, Dismember's Like an Ever Flowing Stream is considered a classic album and a staple in both Death Metal and Melodic Death Metal.
  • Selected Ambient Works 85-92 by Aphex Twin is considered a milestone of electronic music and by far his most popular and critically acclaimed album.
  • The Wiggles will always be remembered as Greg, Anthony, Murray, and Jeffnote — not the version with Sam replacing Greg, or Anthony and the new Wiggles.
  • Many Country Music artists are susceptible to this:
    • Many feel that the only good single released by Dustin Lynch was his very first one, "Cowboys and Angels", since it was the only one that actually sounded like a country song, and not like the trend chasing "bro-country" sounds of all his subsequent releases.
    • Some fans believe that Brett Eldredge's debut single "Raymond" is his only good song, due to it being a well-written Tear Jerker, while the rest of his career has been largely criticized for a string of same-sounding ballads (e.g. "Beat of the Music", "Mean to Me") punctuated by the occasional "over the top" uptempo ("Drunk on Your Love", "Somethin' I'm Good At").
    • Luke Bryan's debut album I'll Stay Me is usually considered his best, due to it being his most indebted to country and free from the "bro-country" that has inundated all of his subsequent albums.
    • A similar opinion is often held to Jason Aldean, as his first two albums are usually considered his strongest, due to similar reasons as Bryan — those two albums were simply the countriest-sounding, and put out before Aldean became a big star.
  • Flyleaf's first album is their most well-known and features its most hits.
  • Max Bruch wrote three Violin Concertos. The first is one of the most popular Violin Concertos in the entire classical repertoire, while most people don't know the other two even exist.
  • Weezer's first two albums, The Blue Album and Pinkerton, are the most celebrated albums in their discography. While some of their later albums are also well-liked in their own right, it is generally agreed that Weezer never did top their first two releases (and while fans argue that Everything Will Be Alright in the End, The White Album, and OK Human came close, these albums never saw the commercial success of Blue and Pinkerton).
  • The music magazine Kerrang! published a readers' poll of the best British rock albums. Top of the list was the debut album by Black Sabbath.
  • The Four Seasons by Antonio Vivaldi are some of the most popular pieces of classical music ever written. They are also the first four Violin Concerti in a set of twelve, his Op. 8, published as Il cimento dell'armonia e dell'inventione (The Contest Between Harmony and Invention). To say No. 5–12 in the set are underplayed is a major understatement, with most having never heard of their existence.
    • Of The Four Seasons themselves, the first movement of the first season, Spring, is the most well-known.
  • The first movement of Palladio by Karl Jenkins is by far the most well-known of the three movements, to the extent that many recordings that feature the composer's music only include the first movement, even recordings by Jenkins himself. Its recording debut on the 1996 CD Diamond Music remains the only one with all three movements that Jenkins conducted, and violinist Ara Malikian recorded all three movements for his 2007 album Meeting with a Friend, but to this day the second and third movements remain extremely obscure.
  • While Maroon 5 have had great commercial success throughout much of their career, their debut album, Songs About Jane, is by a huge margin the critical favourite, with a number of fans calling most of what they made after it Fanon Discontinuity. Though, a lot of people will also say that It Won't Be Soon Before Long is at least a decent album too, while Hands All Over also has its defenders, but noticeably fewer than the first two albums. The albums after that, however, are considered Audience-Alienating Era by most fans.
  • Pioneering female rapper MC Lyte's debut album Lyte as a Rock is considered her best album, as well as one of the greatest rap albums of all time.
  • Ratt's debut album Out of the Cellar is regarded as a Hair Metal classic and their best album. Their later work often received mixed reviews from critics.
  • Many Country Music fans think that Lonestar's first two albums are their strongest, due to their considerably more country sound absent from the bloated pop excess and sappy nature ("Amazed", "I'm Already There", etc.) of their later efforts.
  • Electronic music duo Justice reached early acclaim with their debut album † (Cross), universally praised for its uniquely raw, commanding "opera-disco" dance sound, becoming one of the most famous Electro House albums of the Aughts. Future albums have garnered more divisive reactions from audiences and critics as the duo sought to move onto sounds more inspired by their personal influences, including the Progressive Rock leanings of Audio, Video, Disco and the psychedelic Disco tinges of Woman. Reactions are so polarized that there's significant schism among audiences and critics alike, colloquially joked as "Those who like Justice, and those who like Cross".
  • Cyndi Lauper's first solo album She's So Unusual was a massive hit in 1983, making her the first female singer to have four top five singles on the Billboard Hot 100 from one album. While Cyndi's later albums have also been well-received, many with bona fide hits of their own, none of them matched the stratospheric heights of her first.
  • Although critics will point to recent albums by The Killers like Imploding the Mirage and Pressure Machine as arguably the band's best, the band's recognition mostly comes from debut Hot Fuss, source of Signature Songs "Mr. Brightside" and "Somebody Told Me".
  • King Crimson's first album, In the Court of the Crimson King, is arguably their most popular release, and generally regarded by casual listeners as their best. Fans and musicians, on the other hand, disagree widely about different periods, lineups and albums. It's their highest-charting release in the US, their highest-rated album on Rate Your Music (and one of the highest-rated albums on the site overall), and the only one of their albums to be certified Gold (500,000 copies) in the US and UK.
  • Metallica's four albums from the 1980s are considered their best albums by most fans. Some fans will throw in their fifth, self-titled album as well, but after that, the albums range from "good, but not as good," to So Okay, It's Average, to terrible, depending on who you ask.
  • Though Suicidal Tendencies' early career has a lot of acclaimed releases (leaving their best album among hardcore fans a source of debate), their debut album is their best known release and is generally regarded as one of the iconic rock/punk albums, especially with it containing the famous "Institutionalized".
  • Trans-Siberian Orchestra's Christmas Eve and Other Stories is their most celebrated album and the one most frequently chosen for the centerpiece of their annual Christmas season tour. "Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24" is included on the album.

    Professional Wrestling 
  • Gimmicks come and go so frequently in pro wrestling that they are often forgotten by all but the most diehard fans after a relatively short period of time. Usually when people picture a star wrestler, they have the most enduring - and usually the first - gimmick in mind. To wit:
    • John Cena will always be a rapper to casual wrestling fans, even though he hasn't acted as a rapper for the majority of his career. (And ironically, while the rap shtick was one of his first gimmicks, it wasn't the very first one.)
    • The most iconic incarnation of The Nexus is still the seven-man tandem they were introduced as.
    • Despite it barely lasting half a year, Doink the Clown's initial heel Monster Clown run is generally considered the only aspect of the gimmick worth watching.
  • While the WWE NXT developmental brand is much more popular than the competition ever was, few will argue that the first season of the competition is the most remembered and the most successful (most likely because it had a particular goal in mind). It most successful alumnus, Daniel Bryan, even ended up becoming the most popular wrestler the company has had in over fifteen years.
  • Despite its short length, Brock Lesnar's original WWE run from 2002-04 is significantly more revered than his 2012 return. This is because unlike his second run, Lesnar made regular appearances, had a more diverse moveset, actually did his own promos, and in general at least appeared to give a damn about his work.
  • Usually, when a wrestler changes their theme song, the new one quickly becomes more iconic than the previous ones. One exception is Sheamus's "Written in My Face", which has become so iconic thanks in no small part to its memetic mishearings that it will be difficult to top.
  • The original Big Gold Belt used in NWA and WCW from February 1986 to January 2001 is almost unanimously considered to be superior to the versions that replaced it, especially the ones made by WWE. note 

    Software 
  • This trope might have hindered Linux adoption on the desktop. If you're not a geek, why install Linux when you have a perfectly good Windows OS on your machine?
  • This is certainly the case with many experienced users preferring Windows XP over the subsequent releases: Vista, 7, and 8.
    • Though XP is itself at least the fifth major version of Windows (assuming you consider 98 to be "95.5" and ME to have not existed at all), it's the first version that was unambiguously a complete operating system in its own right (versions prior to 95 were just graphical shells running on top of MS-DOS, and 95 and 98 needed to boot to MS-DOS briefly as part of their loading process).
    • The UI also falls into this. One Microsoft blog said that they were toying with the idea of putting the taskbar on the left side instead of the bottom by default, but...
  • One of the early architects of the World Wide Web, Robert Cailliau, was quite aware of this being a possibility, and insisted that those who designed HTML should design a client-side script with it. They didn't and NetScape came up with JavaScript, which he claims is the worst programming language ever and the most hideous kluge in computing. He also admitted that this trope is the reason we're stuck with it.
  • The same with Flash. It was supposed to be a vector animation-based media container to keep animation sizes small in the early days of the web. Then Adobe (who purchased it from Macromedia) added all this other stuff on top of it. Flash just eats memory and CPU cycles and has become the de facto media container. HTML5 is supposed to remedy this, but Flash went kicking and screaming until its end-of-life date on December 31, 2020.

    Sports 
  • The Old Course at St Andrews is by far the most famous among the courses on its property, and most casual golf fans outside of the United Kingdom probably couldn't name another course on said property through fact alone. Some might be able to deduce the presence of the New Course because of the name of the Old Course, but don't expect much else.note  This example may even encompass the entire sport as it is recognized as one of the oldest active golf courses in the world, and is in fact the only golf course to appear in a rotating major championship on a consistent and uniform basis (although unwritten, it has hosted the Open Championship exactly every five years since 1990 and is generally assumed to uphold this interval unless stated otherwise by the Royal & Ancient sanctioning body, headquartered next to the Old Course).

    Tabletop Games 
  • While generally considered good by those who did play them, none of Azul's sequels came close to the popularity of the original.
  • The original, "0th" edition of Dungeons & Dragons has a devoted following to this day, despite being released in 1974 and having (depending on how you count it) six versions after it. This is mostly averted in the wider fandom sphere, though, where the most widely played editions overall are 3rd and its variants (which caught both the dawn of large-scale internet access and a massive boom in interest in fantasy, and stayed supported well into the mid-10s by products like Pathfinder) and 5th (which rode a second boom and became the edition of choice for shows like Critical Role), and the most widely played "old-school" edition likely being AD&D 2nd (the last edition to be made by TSR and have a clear lineage to OD&D, and also the one with the most official settings).

    Theatre 

    Theme Parks 
  • The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror drop ride attraction in the Disney Theme Parks has many variants throughout the world. However, the best version of the ride is considered to be the Orlando version. The reason for this is that the alternate versions do not include a famous portion of the original ride. Even in lists of best drop towers, the Japan, California & Paris, and Orlando versions top the list with the Orlando version often being No. 1.

    Toys 
  • BIONICLE: The original 2001 run is by far the best-known, even if most people only have a vague recollection of it. A person who once collected the sets but grew out of the hobby will most likely remember the "big robot warriors and small robot priests on a tropical island", but the conversation would get one-sided if you mention the Order of Mata Nui, the Shattering, the rest of the Makuta's race, cyborg gladiators, or indeed anything after 2002 (with the sole possible exceptions of the 2003 animated movie and video game). Even more so with the reboot. The original ran for 10 years and was hugely popular. The relaunch never caught on and was cancelled after just a year and a half, with many former fans not even realizing the franchise came back to begin with. This was in part due to LEGO's reduced marketing at the time.
  • My Little Pony:
    • The first generation/line from the 1980s and early 1990s is still the one that collectors care about the most, not to mention that, even though said original line of My Little Pony toys ended years and years ago, it still seem to be what most people think about when they think about the toyline (rather than any of the more modern, redesigned incarnations). Even the massively popular Generation 4 line doesn't seem to be able to do much to change the public perception of what a My Little Pony toy looks like.
    • The Brony phenomenon means that Generation 4 is the first one where many people can recognise individual characters. The consensus seems to be First Installment Wins for the toys but Sequel Displacement exists for the cartoon adaptations.
  • All these years later, the original 1977-1985 line of Star Wars action figures by Kenner is more fondly remembered than the "Power of the Force" relaunch in the 1990s and later, even though the "Power of the Force" versions were more realistic in design (especially Chewbacca, who looked like a shaved Cousin Itt in the original line). In fact, the '70s and '80s figures are so highly regarded that Hasbro (which eventually bought out Kenner) started putting out figures based on the prequel films that were packaged in authentic vintage style (which, yes, makes them a Genre Throwback of a Genre Throwback!).
  • Transformers suffers this as well. No matter how well engineered, articulated, proportioned, and so on, no figure can live up to the "legendary" Generation 1 figures in the minds of a large chunk of the populace. Even though, for the same price as the original Autobot cars (or for only 25%-30% more) you get a figure that stands an inch and a half taller, has an alt. mode that is just as realistic, much better robot mode and articulation, etc., nearly 27 years later when almost everything else has doubled or more in price for the same product.

    Visual Novels 

    Web Animation 
  • Fan re-dubbed clip-shows, originating from god-knows-where, are generally referred to in their respective forms and themes by the originators of them. Examples include: AMV Hell, which has become a catch-all term for any clip show featuring several different Anime series; Phoenix Wrong, for Flash-made Ace Attorney-based clip shows.
  • RWBY': A lot of spin-off material such as RWBY Chibi, RWBY: Ice Queendom, the manga anthologies, and various games are all either set during or use outfits from the Beacon Era (Volumes 1-3) with very rare exceptions. The first three volumes are also the most iconic ones and the ones generally better regarded.

    Webcomics 
  • Not an instance involving nostalgia or memories, but: the first episode of Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff is by an enormous margin the most oft-quoted and most subject to Memetic Mutation outside the Homestuck fanbase. Virtually everyone knows about stairs and warnings thereof, but the chances of hearing about any other quotations from the series aren't all that great. This is partly because that first entry is always the one that comes up when you load the comic's home page (as it displays the first comic, not the most recent one), and partly because it's one of the more commonly-referenced pages within Homestuck itself.

    Web Original 
  • SCP Foundation:
    • The first SCP made (173) is the highest-rated and locked from editing.
    • Defied by wiki staff with regards to contributions. In their How To Write An SCP guide, they make it a point that if you're going to cross-reference other SCPs, you shouldn't just reference Series I SCPs (SCPs 1 through 999).

    Web Videos 
  • Everyone's heard of Ben Drowned. Greatly fewer have heard of the Moon Children, and hardly anyone outside of Within Hubris has heard of Ryukaki.
  • Twitch Plays Pokémon. It started with Red, and became a sensation almost overnight. By the time it finished, over 100,000+ people had participated, over 20 million people saw it and many memes and religions were formed. Then it moved on to Crystal, and almost overnight the participants plummeted to around 10,000, and continued to halve for the next few runs. The viewer count continued to fall over the years, until it settled on a constant 100-200 viewers that it still maintains to this day.

    Western Animation 
  • The Ur-Example of western animation: Oswald the Lucky Rabbit starred in 192 shorts from the late 1920s to the early 1940s and during this time period had several different iterations, but the most famous is by far the original 26-short run of the character done by Walt Disney from 1927 to 1928 before Disney was forced off the series.
  • ''Steamboat Willie", Mickey Mouse's first sound appearance, is by far the most referenced of Mickey's shorts. Fortunately, it also happens to be one of the funniest of Mickey's cartoons.
  • Bojack Horseman: Not the series in and of itself, but as the first animated series created by Netflix. So far, it is their most well-known and well-received cartoon among both general audiences and critics, and is generally considered one of the greatest adult animated series ever created.
  • One of the most famous of Disney's Silly Symphonies is "The Skeleton Dance", the first one ever made.
  • The classic era of Thomas & Friends, particularly the episodes based directly on stories from "The Railway Series", are the best known. Also, Ringo Starr is the best-known narrator despite only having been around for the first two seasons and Michael Angelis outlasting him by fourteen seasons and nearly two decades.
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender remains the most popular installment in the franchise of the same name, having near-Sacred Cow status among the fanbase, while the various comic book follow-ups and Sequel Series The Legend of Korra are viewed as being inferior in comparison. Even individual moments and story arcs that are highly-regarded (such as Book 3 of Korra) are nevertheless seen as failing to reach ATLA's own narrative peaks.
  • Whenever Transformers is ever referenced in popular media, the references will almost always be about the original cartoon (with occasional mentions of the AllSpark). By now, though, the movieverse has eclipsed all else when it comes to what the world at large (as opposed to actual fans of the franchise) thinks of when they think of it; by now, you'll hear the name "Bumblebee" even more than "Optimus Prime" in passing due to 'Bee's increased screentime. However, the franchise deserves special mention in terms of this trope because of the purist fans - to them, G1 isn't just the most memorable, but They Changed It, Now It Sucks! as practically a religion. It's hard to find a Star Trek fan who hates TNG for simply not being TOS, but if you dare suggest something not G1 is something other than garbage, let alone better, well... it won't be pretty. This has improved somewhat in recent years, though, largely as the original G1 fandom has been fairly willing to admit the original cartoon was none too hot itself.
    • The TFwiki also discusses "GEEWUN", about parts of the Unpleasable Fanbase who only like the G1 stuff.
    • Within the franchise itself, Beast Wars's corner of the continuity has this going on. The original Beast Wars is seen as one of the pinnacles of the franchise, while everything to do with the Beast Era since then (Beast Wars II, Beast Wars Neo, Beast Machines, the Universe and Collector's Club comics, IDW's Gathering and Ascension, Dawn of the Predacus), has been at best controversial, and more than a few attempted followups contradict or outright ignore one another, only taking the original cartoon as canon. The only one uncontroversially seen as good is Beast Wars: Uprising, which, on top of being far more obscure, is also an extremely heavy Alternate Universe. Depictions of the characters, such as their Masterpiece toys, also almost invariably use their Season 1 designs.
  • Ben 10 has five entries: the original, the Time Skip sequel, the other timeskipped sequel, the other-other timeskipped sequel, and the continuity reboot. Most fan loyalty goes to the original series, which is viewed as having the perfect balance of action/adventure and comedy that its subsequent iterations lack. Alien Force and Ultimate Alien gained mixed reception due to their more serious tone while Omniverse and the reboot are equally contested thanks to having a more comedic bent.
  • My Little Pony: Until the introduction of Friendship is Magic (which has quite thoroughly displaced all previous incarnations in public perception of the franchise), the first of the My Little Pony TV Specials was considered the pinnacle of the franchise. The second special is a Contested Sequel while everything afterwards is a polarizing deal, even the aforementioned FIM. Speaking of Friendship is Magic, the first season is the most iconic and recognizable to many inside and outside of the fanbase for its many establishing moments and songs, as well as Lauren Faust being the primary showrunner (She left during Season 2).
  • The first four seasons of Family Guy seem to be the most popular, considering it was mainly before the show was Un-Canceled. The gruesome and brutal content after the show's cancellation, however, are contested at best and hated at worst.
  • The first five seasons of The Fairly Oddparents are regarded as the best (or narrowed down to the first three or four seasons by some fans, with Seasons 4 and 5's Flanderization of some of the characters). Everything else onward depends on others opinions.
  • While not the first Marvel Animated Adaptation to include X-Men characters, the mutants’ first stand-alone adaptation X-Men: The Animated Series still remains supreme in the public zeitgeist as the most influential depiction of the Children of the Atom. X-Men: Evolution and Wolverine and the X-Men despite both having plenty of fans (especially the former) are still greatly overshadowed by the 90s series. This sentiment was only reinforced when X-Men '97 a continuation of the Fox Kids show was released on Disney+ to massive critical and audience acclaim.
  • Scooby-Doo:
  • Mario had three TV shows in the late 80s, early 90s. There was The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!, The Adventures of Super Mario Bros. 3, and Super Mario World (1991). While they are all infamously memetic in their own rights (especially World), the first one, however, is the one most people think of and is the one referenced most often.
  • For Cyberchase, fans generally consider the first five seasons to be the best. Some narrow it down further to the first four seasons, feeling that Season 5 recycled too many plot concepts and was sloppily animated due to them being animated with pens/markers instead of pencils. Regardless, the interpolated puppet-rigged animation from Season 6 onward has disappointed both camps.
  • While the Total Drama series incorporates New Season, New Name, Island is the only season to get near-universal acclaim by the fanbase. Characters that succumbed to Flanderization in later seasons retain their charm, Chris is not as callous towards the cast, and the romantic subplots aren't as heavily focused on compared to later seasons, with the fan favorite couples flourishing here. As a result, the original 22 contestants are the most well-known and beloved, and Camp Wawanakwa is the most iconic location of the series.
  • The first season of Winx Club is the best-received and arguably the most memorable, and the others are criticized for creating good plots and characters and then wasting them, having anti-climatic resolutions, the Power Ups and Frilly Upgrades causing the main characters to lose the beauty and their simplicity, etc. Among the fandom, the first four seasons have been generally much better received than the Nick-produced Seasons 5 and 6.
  • Looney Tunes:
    • Rabbit Fire is the best remembered and the best known short of Chuck Jones' "Hunting Trilogy". Though, some fans see the other two shorts as Even Better Sequels.
    • The first Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner short, Fast and Furry-ous, tends to be considered the best. Also, the Chuck Jones Road Runner shorts in general are considered to be superior to the two Robert McKimson shorts, the Friz Freleng short with Sylvester and Speedy Gonzales, and especially the eleven Rudy Larriva shorts (nicknamed "the Larriva Eleven").
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles:
    • While the 2003, 2012 and 2018 shows have their share of fans, the original 1987 cartoon remains the most well-known and popular. The first season is also called the best by several fans of the show, due to having the best animation in it and for allowing the turtles to use their weapons more.
    • Speaking of the 2012 series, a good portion of that show's fandom also feels the first two seasons were the best, due to being the only seasons the original crew worked on.
  • As campy and cheesy as He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983) might be, it will forever be the most beloved and referenced facet of the Masters franchise, despite such incarnations as the 2002 continuity reboot and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power being much better received critically.
  • You're unlikely to see any references to anything after the first three seasons (though the fourth season, after being Vindicated by History, is generally seen as pretty good in its own right and the fifth is polarizing) of SpongeBob SquarePants, after which point the series creator Stephen Hillenberg and most of the writing staff stepped down, causing a widely-perceived decrease in quality. Even though reception has been more positive with Hillenberg's return in Season 9, you'll still see few people discuss them.
  • The Powerpuff Girls:
  • Much like SpongeBob, the first three seasons of Rugrats are also generally considered the best. Some will throw Seasons 4 and 5 in with the first three, but beyond that, the seasons get pretty divisive. Also, of the four shows in the Rugrats franchise, the original 1991 series is, by far, the most remembered, and is the one that is looked back on most fondly.
  • While the whole series and depending on if it's a good show or not depends on others opinions, the first season of Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends is the only full season all fans accept.
  • While there have been many animated TV specials made of Dr. Seuss's books (and some specials with original plots), How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (the 1960s version that Chuck Jones did for television) will always be the most iconic and well-known of these specials.
  • Between the four Futurama direct-to-DVD movies, Bender's Big Score is by far and away the most popular with fans, with some even wishing that we had gotten a theatrical Futurama movie based on its storyline, rather than the four DVD movies (and later Comedy Central seasons) that we actually did get.
  • Miraculous Ladybug is this for Zagtoon as a whole. It was their first released show, and is far and away the most popular one that's been released so far; meanwhile, all their other projects (both released and currently in development) have gotten far less interest outside of the occasional accusation of them ripping off other shows.
  • The Jetsons:
    • The first season has an overall stronger reputation among animation fans than the second and third, which Hanna-Barbera produced over 20 years later. The inaugural season remains the only one to air in primetime, and the era most heavily circulated in reruns and home media.
    • The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones, the first of the Jetsons' four feature-length endeavors, has proven the most iconic, especially among children of the '80s and '90s. Among the three in Warner Bros.' possession, it became the only one included in the Jetsons Complete Series DVD boxset.
  • The Penguins of Madagascar: This show is easily the most popular and well-liked of the three shows Dreamworks Animation made in association with Nickelodeon (partly because Legends of Awesomeness is very divisive among the Kung Fu Panda fanbase and Monsters vs. Aliens (2013) is universally regarded as a weak effort). Some fans would go further and argue that this show is still the best show based on a Dreamworks movie, although Dragons: Riders of Berk and All Hail King Julien have solid fanbases who disagree.

    Real Life 
  • Everyone in the Western World at least knows the name of Hannibal Barca, who famously led an army from Northern Africa across Western Europe, eventually crossing the Alps with his elephants into Italy. His younger brother, Hasdrubal, did the exact same thing but did it second so no one cares. Speaking of the Punic Wars, a lot of really famous things and people actually came out of the Second War: Hannibal, Scipio Africanus, the crossing of the Alps, Fabian tactics, war elephants, etc. If one were to ask about the Punic Wars, or Carthage, Hannibal would come to mind first, despite being in only one of three, and at that the second, thus averting this trope in a larger sense.
  • If asked to name Roman Emperors, most people will reel off the names of the very earliest ones, like Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius and Nero. Slightly later names like Hadrian, Trajan and Marcus Aurelius are usually recognised, but anyone after 200 AD will be virtually unknown. The only exception to this rule is another example of it. Most people will have heard of Emperor Constantine I, but know him simply as Constantine, despite the fact that there were a further ten Emperor Constantines after him. He's also known as the founder of the city of Constantinople and, by extension (in popular culture), the Byzantine Empire, so there's that angle as well. The mere fact that every Roman Emperor after called himself "Caesar" shows that the first guy truly won in the minds of other Romans, though Julius Caesar never bore the title of Emperor.
  • The First Crusade is one of the most infamous of The Crusades, changing the course of history in both Europe and the Middle East, and the only one that was successful in its aim of bringing Jerusalem under Christian control. The next two Crusades are somewhat well-known, with the Third arguably rivalling the First in notoriety, but from the Fourth onwards, they became relatively minor historical footnotes.
  • Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon. Though he managed to get his fair share of recognition by punching a Conspiracy Theorist in the face after being constantly harangued to the point that a judge ruled that the punch was self-defense. There have, in fact, been 10 other men who walked on the moon. You need The Other Wiki to find out who they are, though.
  • In economics, this is known as a network effect.
  • Ladies and gentlemen, The Presidents of the United States.
    • George Washington fought for the country's independence and later became the first president under the Constitution. (The Presidents of Congress under the original Articles of Confederation are mostly forgotten.) In doing so,he set the tone for his successors. He's consistently considered one of the two greatest presidents, with the other one being...
    • Abraham Lincoln: the first Republican president, and arguably considered to be the only one who can one-up Washington. Related to this, an old piece of folk-wisdom says there's only five presidents the American public can be counted on to know at any given time: the guy in office right now and the four guys on Mount Rushmore.
  • Everyone knows that smallpox was the first infectious disease to have been fully eradicated from the wild. Hardly anyone can name the second (rinderpest, declared eradicated in 2011.) This is in large part because, unlike smallpox, rinderpest only affected even-toed ungulates, not people.

Alternative Title(s): First Instalment Wins

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