Posted on 09/09/2010 10:45:07 PM PDT by paudio
Fred Fox Jr. inadvertently helped create one of the most infamous TV phrases of all time when he wrote the Happy Days episode "Hollywood 3." That phrase, since used thousands of times to describe dozens of TV shows that went from good to bad, is "jump the shark."
Wikipedia has this to say about it: "Jumping the shark is an idiom used to describe the moment of downturn for a previously successful enterprise. The phrase was originally used to denote the point in a television program's history where the plot spins off into absurd storylines or unlikely characterizations. These changes were often the result of efforts to revive interest in a show whose audience had begun to decline, usually through the employment of different actors, writers or producers."
It comes from the episode in which Fonzie went to Hollywood and had to jump a shark -- on water skis, not his motorcycle -- in order to defeat a local rival for, well, some important reason at the time. It's generally considered the point when Happy Days went from a must-watch show to a can't-watch show.
(Excerpt) Read more at blastr.com ...
Did he wait this long to apologize?
The show was stupid and eventually we went from the 1050s in Happy Days to some weird time in between 1950s to 1970s. I cancelled TV a year ago due to 24x7 propaganda especially O pro in between the “dumb white man” commercials.
TV is s**t.
To me, the show jumped the shark right after season 1, after which Richie’s brother Chuck disappeared, never ever to be heard from or spoken of again. It was a cute series about an innocent time, then (to paraphrase the Fonz), Whoa!
I had to look that one up, and the widipedia entry for Happy Days actually has a subsection called “Chuck Cunningham Syndrome”. Who knew?
Another sign a show has “jumped the shark” - when a new character is suddenly added or when an unlikely pairing occurs.
Or when “they did it” after major characters actually hooked up, thus eliminating sexual tension in a show. A good example was “Frasier” where Niles finally married Daphane.
I momentarily wondered why the concept hadn’t already attached itself to another phrase, like “danced with the gorilla” or “battled the carrot,” but then I realized that by the time the most infamous episodes of Man From UNCLE and Lost in Space aired, the shows had already descended into absurdity, so the offending stories were merely low points, not turning points.
It works great on Obama quote threads, as does this:
Of course the original "Jump The Shark" hook-up was "Moonlighting"...
though Shepherd's pregnancy and Willis's movie (Diehard) shooting schedule is said to be the real cause of the show's decline because they were rarely seen together in the same show.
They ruined a great show when they started filming it in front of a live audience. The set looked cheesy, the costumes looked un-1950’s, and they ruined Fonzie’s character. He was believable and kind of mysterious in the first shows and then they overexposed him. And another little thing: They even ruined the opening credits by changing from Rock Around the Clock to that annoying Happy Days song. And another strange thing: The ratings got BETTER after all of these changes. Go figure.
My father and I long before “Happy Days” show would call it “Talking Seaweed” from the old “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea” series.
Of course just because things start to get stupid, doesn’t mean the masses will stop slopping it up.
By sheer random chance I was in the audience the night this episode was filmed. (Although the actual “jump the shark” stuff was filmed outside the studio.) My dad worked with someone whose dad worked on the show and got us tickets. Little did I know we were part of (bad) TV history.
He is signing in Turk that he is gay.
LMAO, it wouldn’t surprise me at all!
Thank you for your service to this country. More people should stop paying for the rope that is hanging US!
LOL!
(Great tagline, too.)
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