"Jump the Shark" Thread

I first heard of the term "Jump the Shark" because of the website (I haven't checked that site out in years). Knowing it was named after what Fonzie did on the show, I sort of wondered, "why not just call it 'jump the trashcans'?" Besides, I like the episode where Fonzie jumped the shark, but don't care much for the episode where he jumped over trash cans.

Because TV Guide bought the website, then did away with it. Seriously, it doesn't exist anymore.

They closed it down, aw man! I used to love that site's trivia feature. I remember being so impressed once because they had a list of unsolved stumpers and I knew the answer to one of them. It was something about The Cosby Show, which was my favorite show back in the day when it was Nick at Nite.

While not entirely the same, I'm really impressed with similar trivia and stumpers for just about everything on TV Tropes.

The creator of JtS re-launched the site as Bone the Fish.

The Smurfs- When they added the smurflings and along with that Sasette. I stopped watching them as a kid.

Patridge Family-When Little Ricky came in to the picture.
Hazel-When the Baxters were replaced with their cousins.
Big Comfy Couch-When Loonette was replaced.

The worst was when they traveled through time. And yet, the entire movie was based off of that concept. The movie was based on the concept of the worst part of the Smurfs cartoon when everyone outgrew them and stopped caring...

at least in the US.

I know there was a concept that a show could jump the shark from day one, so here's my list of shows that I think did just that:

• Baby Daddy (Seriously? A FAMILY sitcom about a baby daddy? Are you kidding me?)
• The Big Bang Theory
• Chelsea Handler's sitcom where she plays her own sister and someone else plays her (did she really even need her own sitcom in the first place?)
• Dr. Oz's new reality series (Hey, I like Dr. Oz, but do we really need a reality series about watching life-saving surgeries and operations?)
• Don't Trust the B---- in Apt. 23 (Ugly show)
• Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends (but really, almost all new Cartoon Network shows since 2004)
• Glee
• Any Kardashian spin-off reality series.
• New Girl (haven't heard anything positive about it)
• The Secret Life of the American Teenager
• Snooki's new reality series.
• Whitney (haven't heard anything positive about it either)

To name a few.

The Big Bang Theory! hahahaha... ya I really wanted to like that show

Yes, people who know me are always shocked I don't like it, they automatically assume a show about nerds would be up my alley (being the nerd that I am)... and you know what? A show about nerds WOULD be up my alley, NOT a show about sex maniacs that also happen to be nerds, but then again, what do you expect from a Chuck Lorre show?

Yeah, that was the true reason why they jumped the shark. I only went by what jumped the shark for me back then. Every year they seem to add a new character. 2nd season Johan & Peewit came around and I remember being like 'ugh' in the beginning each and everytime their cartoon came up. But then I manage to get use to them, especially seeing the Magic Flute movie. Now I love the two and wish that they were in this last movie more.

It jumped the shark for me when the stories were always and only becoming more about the smurflings and Sasette. But at times, I use to check in now and then after that. But being truly into it anymore. I remember there was grandma smurf one year. I seen a little of the traveled through time too. I remembered thinking how lame that this has become. I missed them just being in the village and having a adventure in their world.

Billy and Mandy really jumped the shark a year or two after they divorced it from Hector ConCarne... not only did Hector ConCarne really get the shaft after that (CN basically abandoned it), but soon Billy and Mandy ended up being given that really overzealous "star treatment" that CN began giving almost all of their newer shows at that point: holiday specials, special episodes, hype, etc. The first couple of "seasons" of just Billy and Mandy were tolerable since they followed the basic format (that and most of them were just repackaged from the former Grim & Evil showcase), but yeah, afterwards, it's like it had no structure whatsoever anymore, anything went, and it lost its credibility as a decent show.

Personally, I kind of think KaBlam! jumped the shark when they dropped Sniz & Fondue from the show: they say it's because the creators of that segment went on to produce an animated series of Watership Down... but have you seen that series? It looks NOTHING like Sniz & Fondue.

At least Fawlty Towers will never have the "Jump the Shark" syndrome. Twelve episodes over two seasons. Each episode was extremely well-written, the characters fully developed, chemistry was there. John Cleese took great pains to make sure everything flowed. And he insisted in no uncertain terms twelve was it, no matter how tempting the offers to produce more. Each episode is its own little masterpiece. If you ever get the chance, check out my own personal fave, "Waldorf Salad"

I really want to like Baby Daddy (the cast in it is fantastic), but there's really nothing about it that stands out from other sitcoms.

I have to politely disagree about The Big Bang Theory. While the show does have it's share of poor taste in humor, what keeps most people (myself included) attached to the show are the characters.

Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends. Again, I have to politely disagree. To me, the show still worked for awhile (again, mainly because of the characters themselves). I didn't see very many episodes from the last few seasons, so I can't really comment on the show 'jumping the shark' at any point. Although I do remember catching one of the TV movies (the one where Frankie goes to some imagniary book world), and found myself pretty bored by it.

Billy and Mandy. To be honest, I really got a kick out of the 'anything goes' humor of the show. Looking back on it now, I'm not quite as amused by the show as I once was.

I haven't seen a lot of the other shows on the list, but I do agree that a lot of reality shows overstay their welcome pretty quickly. I'm just not a fan of this so-called 'reality TV'. I could go on forever ranting on reality shows, but I think I'm going to keep my cool.

The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Only on ABC Family. Yeah, because we all know that this show (or for that matter, anything on ABC Family these days) is perfect for the family. I'm sure we all want to teach a new generation of kids about staged High School drama.

American Idol - When Simon Cowell left.
Doug - When that show went to Disney.

Another show from day one: Hey Vern, It's Ernest!

Not to repeat another lengthily post that I already made in the past, I love Ernest, and I love Jim Varney, but this show... this show just really wasn't that great... they tried, I give them kudos for that, but really, the show was just too chaotic and unstructured, it was like a faster-paced Pee-wee's Playhouse that was all over the place.

That, and the theme song is TERRIBLE! The music sounds like a chase scene from a cartoon, and it's nearly impossible to sing along, because the lyrics are like a cattle auctioneer.

The thing about the Smurfs was, well... they were a one time thing in a Johan and Peewitt comic series. But they became hugely popular and they had spinoff comics of their own. So basically, the guest stars became more popular than the actual stars of the series. I give them nothing but credit in trying to give those characters part of the show, but it just wasn't the American appeal of the Smurfs. They might have used some actual Peyo comics at the beginning, but they just couldn't get the same Euro-comics feel into the show. At least in a way American audiences liked.

Fosters is a special show. It's all about friendships and those sort of relationships. Plus, it's the most beautiful form of digital "Flash" style animation on television I've seen. Didn't see the last of the series, though... so I agree that i don't know where the drop off point is.

Meanwhile, I'm opposed to the whole "There's nothing in my taste on Cartoon Network, so everything is terrible on it" meme. That's said by some person that saw 3 minutes of an Adventure Time and 2 minutes of a Regular Show. On a bad day.

Look... anything animated on Cartoon Network is more welcome than stupid internet memes with their own show, crap movies you can see ANYWHERE else, and live action programming that's ripped off of Discovery Kids. And quite honestly, they hit a very high point recently. I still think they handled Chowder and Flapjack poorly, Symbiotic Titan was treated like garbage because no one wanted to make a toy line (like the all too well selling Secret Saturdays and Generation Rex toy lines that NO ONE can get rid of), and the fact it took them THIS long to find themselves after a million network head shifts after Mooninitegate is maddening.... but Regular Show, Mad, Adventure Time, DC Nation, and Gumball prove that the network FINALLY got back to somewhere recognizable.

besides... if CN still reran the old shows, we'd be complaining that they reran the same episodes over and over... if they brought back old shows, we'd complain that the writing isn't good enough. It's all about complaining that we're no longer little kids, isn't it?

Rugrats began to go downhill around the time Dil was added. It still wasn't a terrible show at that point, but it was slowly beginning to slip. The addition of Kimi really brought things down. She wasn't a bland character, but rather was a character that already existed in the Rugrats universe (she's sort of a female Tommy). Eventually, it looked like the writers really didn't know what to do with her. The Kimi stories themselves could be rather dull, however. All Grown Up was the final nail in the coffin. The "All Growed Up" TV special worked because it was a one-joke thing. Turning that into a series seems like the Rugrats writers and producers was of saying "we're running out of ideas". All Grown Up did have a few decent moments (though mainly from the gang's parents), however the show seemed bland overall. I'm not sure how well it was received, but I do remember that the last five or so episodes were quietly snuck into a 6:30 or 7:00 am timeslot about a year or two ago.

But...I liked All Grown Up Granted, it wasn't great. But I don't think it was as bad as everyone seems to think :/