That’s it, I’ve had it.
If I hear one more person erroneously claim that a television
show has “jumped the shark,” I’m liable to go on
a Jack Bauer-esque rampage and shoot someone’s wife in the
kneecap.
“Jump the shark” is a term that both viewers and
critics have thrown around like it’s the latest fall fashion.
The funny thing is, I wouldn’t be surprised if 90 percent of
them have no clue what it means. It’s a little like
“The Sandlot,” when Scotty Smalls pretends to know who
Babe Ruth is.
I myself recently discovered what jumping the shark refers to.
In an episode of “Happy Days,” Fonzie literally jumped
over a shark on waterskis, which signaled to fans of the show that
the writers had run out of ideas, and the term “jumping the
shark” came to signify the moment when viewers realize that a
show has begun to suck.
Throughout the uneven second season of “Lost,” for
example, people have accused the show of jumping the shark after
almost every episode. The Charlie-centric “Fire +
Water,” the worst episode of the series so far (it’s
the lowest-rated episode at TV.com by a wide margin), received the
most intense accusations of shark-jumping; in the episode, multiple
characters acted against type and any instance of plot progression
or suspense was either a dream or hallucination.
A common interpretation of jumping the shark (there are many) is
to insert something into the plot out of nowhere after having run
out of ideas. To help discern when this has occurred, I have listed
incidents from television shows and their degrees of shark-jumping
on a scale of 1 to 10 sharks.
“¢bull; Cousin Oliver on “The Brady Bunch”: Cousin
Oliver was a younger character introduced in the final season of
the popular family ensemble to boost sagging ratings. Oliver ended
up being so annoying that he entered the pop-culture lexicon (and
not in a good way).
Sharks jumped: Eight. The introduction of a “cute
kid” to boost ratings is referred to these days as
“Cousin Oliver Syndrome.”
“¢bull; “The Simpsons” since 1999: You name it.
Maude Flanders’ death. Barney’s sudden sobriety. Patti
Bouvier coming out. The atrocious London episode in which the
family walks down the street and Lisa yells, “Look!
It’s Sir Ian McKellen,” and Ian starts talking to the
family like they’re old friends.
Sharks jumped: Ten. Painful, painful, painful. This show has
fallen so far it’s astounding. Apparently the big celebrity
guest in next year’s “Simpsons” movie is the real
Erin Brockovich. Because that’s somewhat amusing … six
years ago.
“¢bull; The third season of “24”: The first nine
episodes of the season were basically Jack Bauer’s adventures
in Mexico, diddling around with some drug lords who had possession
of a weaponized virus … but then it was revealed that they
didn’t have the virus because it was all part of some crazy
undercover plot by Jack, Tony and Gael. Basically, everything that
happened in the first nine episodes was inconsequential.
Sharks jumped: Four. Uncharacteristically poor execution on
television’s best show, though it did right itself in the
final eight episodes. It could be argued that the show jumped the
shark because ever since this moment, the show’s spontaneous
nature has become more apparent (like the delightfully outlandish
fourth season). This shark jump has yet to affect the show’s
quality, and hopefully it won’t in light of the baffling plot
twist from last week’s episode.
“¢bull; The Great Gazoo on “The Flintstones”:
Introduced to the prehistoric animated sitcom in its final season,
Gazoo was an alien who visited Barney and Fred and caused all
manner of mischief.
Sharks jumped: Nine. For the record: a science-fiction, alien
character on a show about a prehistoric family.
“¢bull; The first-season finale of “Battlestar
Galactica”: A jump-the-shark moment can occur when a show
suddenly jumps forward in time. The resulting loss of so much
narrative is viewed by many as a desperate attempt to boost
interest. In “BSG’s” season finale, the fleet
settled on a planet they named “New Caprica” after
Gaius Baltar had been elected President of the Colonies. The show
then jumped forward in time one year to show everyone living in
poverty and the evil Cylons returning to enslave humanity.
Sharks jumped: Two. The time shift is annoying, yes, but would
anyone want to watch a season where the characters built shacks and
bartered for whiskey? If you ask me, the show’s developer,
Ronald D. Moore, skipped all the boring stuff and tossed viewers
into a new scenario, which he compared to the struggle in France
during World War II against the Vichy regime and the Nazis. Sign me
up.
“¢bull; The final season of “Roseanne”: After
Roseanne got her wish for a ninth season, she delivered a story arc
in which the Conner family won the lottery. Suddenly, the show
turned completely away from its roots as the Conners became
extravagant spenders and the show began to rely on random celebrity
guest stars. It got so bad that the entire season was retconned
(short for retroactive continuity – a term for explaining something
away) as a story that Roseanne was writing to cope with her husband
Dan’s death.
Sharks jumped: Does this go to 11? Pound for pound, the greatest
shark jump I have ever personally witnessed. The fact that
everything had to be explained away by Roseanne in a 15-minute (!)
monologue in the final episode says it all.
Hopefully, if you weren’t sure if your favorite show had
jumped the shark, this rundown has helped you put things into
perspective. Remember: You may be displeased that
“Lost” doesn’t explain all of its red herrings or
you may be angry that “24” is killing off so many
characters. The key, however, is that you’re going to
continue watching these shows. You may threaten to stop watching,
but until you and others actually do so, the show has not
officially jumped the shark.
But if the Great Gazoo shows up on “Lost,”
I’ll throw my TV out the window.
If you think Humphrey jumped the shark with his
“IM-conversation-with-God” column, e-mail him at
mhumphrey@media.ucla.edu.