Ok, time for a new list as the last one has run its course. Now this might have come along eventually, this is thanks to the people in the last thread who mentioned the term jumping the shark.
So what does the term mean and how did it become such a cultural statement? Basically jumping the shark is that one instance or occurance that sends the show into the abyss, a great show can have that one moment where you say "Well that was the stupidest thing ever" and after that the show is never the same. Its almost like a dumba$$ reboot occured and sirens went off with a loud voice stating "This show just got stupid, man your suck stations"
At some point every show jumps the shark, its rare that a show maintains its quality to the end.
But these are the ones that stand out.
So without applause lets look at the shows that stand out for jumping the shark
1) Happy Days - The start of it all.
Happy Days is truly a cultural phenomenon, in simpler times families would gather around the TV with those stupid plastic TV dinner trays and eat their Salisbury Steak dinners with bland vegetables, while watching the adventures of the most wholesome 50's family ever and their friend the thug Fonzie.
In the 5th season though history was made as the show literally jumped the shark and became a shadow of itself. The episode took place during a family vacation, and the Fonze was goaded into accepting a challenge to water ski over a shark.
So what happened.
Well you take the coolest character in television and put him in shorts a leather jacket and a life vest and have him jump the shark, and suddenly the Fonze becomes a doofus. Also Fonzie who was pretty much a secondary character to the Cunninghams suddenly became the character and the writers got lost. the next thing you know, the Fonze is a fat leather jacket bearded auto mechanics teacher instead of the cool rebel that probably made his money stealing cars and taking lunch money from the weaker characters. In a desperate attempt to save the show, they kept introducing newer and worse characters until the show thankfully had a bullet put in it.
The writers probably regret not having the Fonze diving into the water and punching out the Shark
2) Buffy dies and goes to Heaven and then to hell
Buffy was a show that was about the empowerment of girls, you had a vampire slayer who saved the world on multiple occasions, the 5th season had it all. The strongest villain since the Mayor in Glory, strong acting, amazing episodes, the tragic death of her mother which forced Buffy into a mother role. There were strong indications that the show was going to be cancelled. Because of that the season ended on the perfect note, Buffy sacrificed herself to save the world again and the show zoomed in on her gravestone. It was sad and powerful but a perfect ending to her character.
So bringing it back on another network was the jump the shark moment. They bought back Buffy, but the show had a different and darker feel. Buffy wasn't Buffy anymore, she was gloomy and angry and dark and it didn't work, because a Buffy that doesn't care isn't Buffy. They kept trying to make the show more interesting by throwing in darker and darker story lines. Buffy bangs Spike as its the only time that she can feel. Zander dumps Anya who goes back to being a vengeance demon. Dawn steals everything, Giles goes away, Willow becomes addicted to magic. They tried to insert some levity with the Trio who were great, but the season didn't need a big bad, but we got one in Dark Willow who tried to destroy the world.
The season had some exceptional episodes, Hells Bells, Once more with feeling, the last three episodes with Willow while having dumb moments let the actors really work. It got worse in the final seventh season as the show limped along and mercifully ended.
3) The Brady Bunch gets creepy
Like Happy Days, the Brady Bunch was a cultural Icon. Cheesy with a do gooder family it connected and had good comedy and was one of the last old fashioned comedy before trash TV took over the airwaves.
But the Writers had a problem as the younger characters got older and the Writers feared that they were losing connection with their younger fans. So they introduced the creepy Cousin Oliver. Deemed as a mistake by the writers, Cousin Oliver threw the show off balance and he was just a creepy creepy unsympathetic kid.
4) Two and a Half Men - Charlie Sheen leaves to drink Tiger's blood
I used to love Two and a Half men but lets be honest, it was built around Charlie and his dry human and moral delinquency. He was a cool character with serious flaws, but it balanced off the rest of the cast. Unfortunately Charlie went completely insane in real life and was bounced from the show and replaced by Ashton Kutcher. Unfortunately it completely changed the dynamics of the show and the writers panicked and tried to rebuild the show around Jon Cryer, it also didn't help that the boy lost his mind as well.
In the end they decided to get revenge on Charlie by killing him for good in the final episode, but at that point nobody was watching.
5) Moonlighting - David and Maddie get together.
Ok, this show was great because in real life these two actors absolutely hated each other, and some how it translated into this complete sexual chemistry that always lead to the question of when they would get together or even if. They dragged this out for a few season, and then they decided that these two would get together, and it fell flatter then a anvil falling on a kitten. The show never recovered from that because they couldn't play into the dysfunction of their real life relationship and the show was cancelled.
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My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
But figuratively it happened on any show where two characters who had sexual tension actually got together. A couple off the top of my head are the I Dream of Jeannie when she got with her Master and Frasier when Niles got together with Daphne. I'm sure there is a ton of other examples. It just ruins the on-going jokes.
'The Principal and the Pauper', also known as the Armin Tamzarian episode of the Simpsons.
Edit: Thinking of this bad episode made me think about the best episode of the Simpsons ever. Perhaps your next list should be "Single Greatest Episode of a TV Show"?
Buffy is a tough one, because even after the fifth season, it was still very watchable. It's fall from grace wasn't that far. They were clinging to the ledge.
Heroes is one that fell apart after one season, but that might have something to do with the writers strike, when a bunch of producers thought writing was easy.
Mulder leaving the x-files was also a turning point. I remember how happy I was when there happened to be a decent episode after that.
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"We don't even know who our best player is yet. It could be any one of us at this point." - Peter LaFleur, player/coach, Average Joe's Gymnasium
I'd like to second the best overall episode idea. Maybe one thread for collecting nominees, and then a 'pick three' poll in a later thread. After this has run its course, of course. They are good time fillers.
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"We don't even know who our best player is yet. It could be any one of us at this point." - Peter LaFleur, player/coach, Average Joe's Gymnasium
After recovering from the abomination of the third season with the Trinity Killer storyline and John Lithgow's incredible performance in season 4, the series started a slow, then ridiculously quick slide into terrible.
__________________ "It's a great day for hockey."
-'Badger' Bob Johnson (1931-1991)
"I see as much misery out of them moving to justify theirselves as them that set out to do harm." -Dr. Amos "Doc" Cochran
Last edited by Yamer; 11-14-2017 at 04:01 PM.
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Also, in retrospect Lost, and the point was pretty much every time they wrote a new mystery with no intention of ever solving or explaining it properly.
If you look back at that show knowing how it ended you can find an accumulation of moments that were a collective shark jumping.
__________________ "It's a great day for hockey."
-'Badger' Bob Johnson (1931-1991)
"I see as much misery out of them moving to justify theirselves as them that set out to do harm." -Dr. Amos "Doc" Cochran
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X-Files: When the writers began to pull scripts out of their arses.
Edit to add:
Okay, okay, that was saltier than I intended. I think Fight the Future was when the show began to drop in quality significantly. I don't know if that was the moment the show jumped the shark (its been a long time) but after all the shadow conspirators were killed off, it felt very 'what's the point?'
Location: A simple man leading a complicated life....
Exp:
Dallas
The character Bobby Ewing is killed off in an episode as he is run down by a car as he was trying to save his wife Pamela Ewing in the 84-85 season. Actor Patrick Duffy moves on to other interests but things don't go well and Duffy decides to return the TV series next year. To bring him back the script writers decided to make the entire 85-86 a dream in Pams head in the 85-86 season finale
X-Files: When the writers began to pull scripts out of their arses.
Edit to add:
Okay, okay, that was saltier than I intended. I think Fight the Future was when the show began to drop in quality significantly. I don't know if that was the moment the show jumped the shark (its been a long time) but after all the shadow conspirators were killed off, it felt very 'what's the point?'
I thought the show still had some really solid stand-alone episodes well into season 9, and I thought Agent Doggett was a great character. The chemistry between him and Scully added a fresh dynamic to the show that I enjoyed, especially in the monster-of-the-week episodes.
But I agree, the alien conspiracy story lost steam and just became ridiculous after Fight the Future. By the start of season 7 the writers clearly didn't know how to continue or wrap up the story, and indeed pulled scripts out of their arses to try and keep the mythology going.
I only liked 3 of the 6 episodes from the revival series, and I was actually surprised it got renewed again for an 11th season. Apparently they have 10 episodes this time, so hopefully they can redeem themselves for that incredibly irritating cliffhanger from the last episode.
New List - The shows that jumped the shark
