The term "Jumping the Shark" comes from the infamous "Happy Days" episode where Fonzi jumps over a shark while skiing. The phrase is still used to highlight when television series take a turn for the worst.
My fella and I went to Best Buy tonight to take advantage of our reward zone points, and I bought the third season of "All in the Family" vol. 3 for $1.06. On the car ride home, we started discussing when the series jumped the shark. I think that it falls somewhere in between Gloria and Mike leaving and when Archie buys the bar. I can't remember which one comes first.
We then went on to discuss other popular/horrible sitcoms from our childhood. Like, "Family Matters." Anyone remember when Urkel's alter-ego is introduced and he gets the girl? "Saved by the Bell" jumped during the college years. And then there was "My Two Dads" that jumped on the first episode. BOOO!!!
Some series stop while they are ahead. I believe that "Sex and the City" was one of those shows. It didn't go on long enough to go stale and they didn't do anything too inconsistant to push it in a strange direction. I think that it was a blessing that Kim Catrall hated Sarah Jessica Parker enough not to make the movie. It would have lost what the finale gave us in my opinion.
Check out www.jumptheshark.com . You can find any t.v. show under the moon. It's very interesting what people believe ruined their favorite shows or made other shows bomb. Let me know what you think.
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4 comments:
Can you think of any current shows in "mid-jump" as we speak?
I wish I watched more television.
Can a Food Network Show jump the shark?
One show that never got a chance to jump the shark was "Freaks and Geeks."
Damn, I miss that show.
Re: All in the Family, I think it jumped the shark sometime around Mike and Gloria leaving and that little girl coming to stay with them. I rather liked the bar-owning storyline -- it seemed fitting.
The only current shows I watch are "Arrested Development", "The Simpsons" and occassionally "Desperate Housewives." It's hard to say if The Simpsons has jumped the shark yet. It is a cartoon, so it can get away with anything, and there are too many characters for it to go stale.
Reality tv made entire network tv jump the shark. There isn't enough room for bad sitcoms...all of the bad reality shows take their place.
Are we willing to admit that ER is in mid-jump, or did it jump a few seasons ago?
I think that ER continues to jump but somehow still finds an audience. I stopped watching it when Carrol, the nurse, got pregnant with twins. I pick up bits and pieces of plot with one of the nurses coming out and people getting killed off. Too dramatic for my taste. No one's life sucks as much as the character's lives on ER.
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