Teletrivia Episode 3: Jumping the Shark

The Simpsons jumped the shark around season 9 all right. The Office jumped the shark just by being remade from a British sitcom. I never watched House or Desperate Housewives.

.....and how could anyone in their right mind, or for that matter a so-called fan of HIMYM and/or Neil Patrick Harris say that the Suit *vs* Girls episode was horrible..yea..RIGHT! Like Dr. Horrible , horrible???? ...or did you miss the awesome tongue- in- cheek action (and the nod to Joss Whedon's "Once More With Feeling???...duh! ) on that one as well? Amateur.....lol

I agree with will_of_the_D..people have no clue but use it any whichway..and FYI, for those who really dont know...the shark was the one the Fonz jumped over..its when a show gets desperate for ratings so they make some outlandish #$%* happen within the so-called plot, they now refer to that as "Jumping the shark, cuz thats when you know the end was near for HAppy Days as we knew them. And yes, House+ Cudtey after all these years ala Sam & Diane sadly DID jump over that darn shark... I iove(d) House but im taping it this year in favor of something more original

Have you posters who think House has jumped the shark actually watched the other shows on TV. It is still far and above the rest of the shows on today.

thank god most people or a lot anyway understand what jumping the shark means. Yes, rosanne did it when they won the lottery. xena did it when they came back to life after being crucified. Buidam2005 nailed it when he says it happens when a show has an episode that makes the whole show lose credibility from there on. I would also add that it seems to happen when the writers start to take themselves just a little bit too seriously and start to believe that they no longer have to stay true to anything. It's never pretty. It can only happen to a show that HAD gotten very good and was being watched by a lot of people. Or at least had a serious cult following. Sometimes a show can appear to jump the shark but then recover but not often. Bringing people back from the dead is often a sign that a show is about to jump the shark.moreless

House and Simpsons have not jumped the shark. A good example of a show jumping the shark was when Roseanne won the lottery.

Jumping the shark seems to have no meaning since people use it every time a show does anything they don't like. The moment a show even has a downtime, it's "jumped the shark." Or if there is a twist a person does not like, even if it is perfectly sensible within the show's world(ie everything on Lost), it's "jumped the shark." Who is this shark and why is jumping him such a bad thing anyway? xD

Its all a matter of personal opinion one viewer thinks House jumped the shark when he was committed or when he and Cuddy got together others like the storyline and think they are natural progressions for the show. One person saying this show or that show has jumped the shark doesn't make it so, for me i could say the horrible musical number Barney sang about girls and suits as much as i hated it doesn't mean HIMYM has. I didn't like them bringing Tony back to life in season 7 of 24 and didn't like much about the final season at all, still doesn't mean the show had jumped TS. Yes The Simpsons has been going downhill for over a decade, but i still wouldn't say it's jumped the shark clearly it still has viewers otherwise it wouldn't have just gotten re upped for a 23rd season. I think the first time Dr mcwhiney and Dr mcdreary spoke Grey's Anatomy jumped the shark but it's just my opinion. I strongly disagree about Seinfeld jumping the shark at all let alone with the funny story about George's fiance dying and none of them caring of course they didn't they were a bunch of selfish characters that they were like that was what made the show. I know what has jumped the shark though, the expression jumped the shark it comes from Happy Days which ended what early 1980's time to find a new catchphrase perhaps?moreless

House jumped 2-yrs ago. Really tiresome listening to someone who is that manipulative. But, now House jumped again with the relationship with Cuddy. I just don't care.
Don't watch the other shows and they may have jumped the sharp upon their first episode.

For me, jumping the shark means the series is going downhill from there. After jumping the shark I would expect the series to end and go out on a high note, not drag on and on.

One last try to get people to understand what "jumping the shark" means. It has nothing to do with whether an episode was "one of the best" or "one of the worst".Rather than use an actual episode that somebody has an emotional attachment to, I'm going to try a hypothetical example.Let's suppose in the next episode of Walking Dead, the lead actor becomes attracted to zombies and has a one-night stand. It might be a terrific episode, but it will be forever changed.Or, let's say, in the next episode of How I Met your Mother, the two lead characters come out of the closet. Show changed forever after that episode.Or, let's say in the next episode of Glee, Spanish teacher Will Schuester accidentally kills the girl next door, hides the body, and doesn't get caught. Very interesting! Show not the same show anymore, right?Finally, let's say in the final episode of Lost, it turns out that they are actually lost souls on their way to the afterlife and absolutely nothing you watched for six seasons prior made any difference or sense at all. Ok, bad example, that would never happen.moreless

The glue episode in Seinfeld was one of the best!

How has House not jumped the shark? Nice to set up a negative that must be proved (sarcasm). BUT, I could understand why some fans would consider the Season 5 finale as jumping the shark. Not in the romance side everyone seems obsessed with, but due to the mental problems House was having. But given the absurdity of many of the show's previous episode, I don't see how this stands out as any crazier. But I could understand the argument that once House's invincibility is pierced...ie a weakness in his brain...it might be hard for people to accept him as a medical genius that hospitals would trust with the care of patients in future Seasons. I don't agree with that, however, because I view it as a logical progression of story line that helps me accept the earlier absurdities of the show. Anyone, in my view, who thinks House jumped the shark has been taking the show way to seriously. But when it all comes down to it, it's personal opinion. What's fun about "jumping the shark" is not pointing out why you don't like the show anymore, but instead highlighting ONE SPECIFIC episode that identifies the turning point in an absurd or poignant way. That said, let's not forget, Happy Days jumped the shark in Season 5 of 11 seasons, and it was still a hit show after that.moreless

How has House not jumped the shark? The sexual tension between Cuddy and House was one of the major reasons why the show was a success...and unfortunately, at this point it's starting to become a cookie-cutter medical series.

Who knows? I don't watch any of those terrible shows except the Simpsons. The Simpsons has gone from a can't-miss show to a watch-once-every-blue-moon show. It's still funny occasionally, but nothing like it used to be.

IMO The Office jumped the shark after season 4. Let's be honest, there's so much you can do with life in an office.

I was wrong in an earlier post when I described Fonzi's outfit during his jump scene. The illustrating photo above is probably to blame. But I just saw a photo that had Fonzi wearing his white T-shirt and black leather jacket while water skiing (which is even more ridiculous looking).

Just because you don't like a show anymore, or disagree with a plot point, doesn't mean it has "jumped the shark." It's not unreasonable for a doctor of House's stature to become involved in a relationship with the hospital administrator. Now, that might not be interesting to some people, but it just doesn't qualifty as jumping the shark, and if it does, then jumping the shark has no special meaning at all.

Agree with House, the entire show is now just a romance, and The Simpsons, which basically jumped the shark in the first episode i every watched. I don't think The office or desperate housewives could.

I don't think House jumped the shark, in fact, I think the new dynamic between Holmes, I mean, House, and Cuddy is the best thing to happen to the show in years.

Writerpatrick, you're right that jumping the shark is about a particular episode, but not because it's strong: shows are labeled as jumping the shark when the plot goes to such ridiculous lengths that it loses credibility. As BarryDalton states, the literal shark jump in Happy Days made its devolution as a series so obvious because of the ridiculousness of its plotline that the show tailspun. "Jump the shark" has nothing to do with greatness and a series' pinnacle (though it often comes sometime thereafter).

Blah blah blah, jumping the shark, blah blah blah. Whatever. Ssshht! What I want to know is where can I find TV Guy?! He's cute.No, okay. Let's stay on topic. Is everyone in agreement that Grey's Anatomy jumped the shark when Izzie began seeing Danny's ghost? That's when I stopped watching. Tsk!

I don't think House has jumped the shark.

Wow, writerpatrick. Your reimagining of what "jumping the shark" means is absurd. Everyone else is right and you are wrong, my friend. Read staind45 and Builddam2005. Together they are pretty much on the money. The "one episode" is a starting point, as to when the show stopped functioning in its own universe. Happy days began as a show about teenagers in the 1950s and gradually evolved into a show about a superhero named "Fonzi" who could fix anything with a bump, get girls with a snap, and could master any discipline with little or no training. So, when Fonzi was jumping cars on his motorcycle, it was still within the original universe, but when he went to hawaii looking as a middle aged man wearing a bermuda shorts and a Hawaiin shirt and then decides to jump a....OMG! a shark! on skis! That's when people realized they had been watching the decline of a great show and now every episode after is either nearly as bad or so tainted by that one episode people can no longer take it seriously. Kind of like a photoshopped oversized head superimposed on a normal sized body in order to simulate mouth movements. This works when talking about silly topics but when offering "serious" commentary, it jumps the shark.moreless

Many people don't understand what it means for a show to Jump The Shark. Basically, it means the show has such a strong, exciting episode that no other episode afterwards can measure up to it. But one has to be able to point to a specific episode in order to claim a show has Jumped The Shark, such as the shark jumping episode of Happy Days.

Jeez people that are so quick to jump on the 'jump the shark' bandwagon is kinda irritating. So community had an average episode, I agree it wasn't the best, but to call 'jumped the shark' after one off-ish episode is just idiotic. Not every episode can be 10/10. If you are going to have that mentality then watching tv shows is probably not for you.

I'm not sure about any of these shows jumping the shark (can a cartoon that's in constant stasis jump the shark?), as I only watch The Simpsons, but shows--even those that are serialized and not procedural--CAN jump the shark. It's not just about having a new story (a new story does NOT inherently mean character development), but having a story that arises organically, that makes sense and isn't wholly ridiculous for the universe the show operates in (this is why the already mentioned Glee example doesn't work--that show is supposed to be absurd; it would have to become infinitely more absurd in order to jump) is good narrative. When a show becomes ridiculous (Grey's Anatomy, anyone?) and has to constantly outdo itself with tricks and insane plots, THAT is jumping the shark. Narrative rethinking is fine (like season five of Angel), but it has to make sense (as it does in season five of Angel).moreless

In the final episode - this season, hopefully -I think the Desperate Housewives should all board a plane bound for Sydney Austrailia and become stranded on a mysterious Island, whereabouts unknown...

How can you say Community jumped the shark with the zombie episode? IT was the best episode of the whole season. Some people, man.