Jumping The Shark

There seems to be some confusion about just what Jumping The Shark means and how it relates to television, so for those of you not familiar with the phrase here is a brief explanation of the term and a link back to their "Official" website.

The phrase Jump The Shark was coined by a guy named Sean (according to the FAQ section of the website). He used the term to describe that point at which a TV series reaches its climax, that moment when you know that the series will never be the same, when you know that from this point on its all downhill. I believe it to be the point at which you begin to loose respect for the show, where whatever it was that caused you to enjoy the show and watch it regularly has been lost. It's the point where good TV goes bad.

As you can tell from the image associated with this entry, the term comes from the infamous episode of Happy Days where Fonzie actually does Jump A Shark. Other notable moments include Cousin Oliver's addition to The Brady Bunch, when they switch actors on you as in Rosanne or Bewitched, or when they add a new baby and then said baby ages 4 years in a season (yet miraculously, nobody else does). Jumping the Shark is a very subjective term and used only to describe the moment that YOU feel a show passed that magical moment.

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