[Chancellor Palpatine]

The phrase "jumping the shark" is how you describe shows that pass their prime, and try and counter it by doing something so outrageously stupid that it is obvious that they are desperately trying to stay afloat. The original moment happened on "Happy Days", when Fonzie was water skiing in his leather jacket and juped over a shark.

In the case of JAG, it has jumped the shark on several occasions, including, but not limited to Harm getting his vision restored, all the CIA cloak and dagger stuff, Afghanistan combat, etc.

[Grampa Dave]

Actually it came close for us about 3 years ago when its writers went PC.

Since then they have backed away.

Thanks for decoding Jumping the Shark!

[Wright is right!]

"The phrase "jumping the shark" is how you describe shows that pass their prime, and try and counter it by doing something so outrageously stupid that it is obvious that they are desperately trying to stay afloat. The original moment happened on "Happy Days", when Fonzie was water skiing in his leather jacket and jumped over a shark."

Or, CP, you could say a show has jumped the shark when it loses sight of its original, winning premise. The West Wing jumped the shark when it became preachy at the beginning of last season. Up till then, it had been a pretty smartly-written, if liberal show. But after it jumped the shark, even my fairly lib wife couldn't stand it.

There are countless examples of TV shows jumping the shark, and one could start a very entertaining thread or two about them.

Michael