Issue Date: March 21, 2004
I used to love that show
Determining the exact moment your favorite series started to slide.
By Paul Bond
"Everybody Loves Raymond" may or may not be back next season. No matter, some say: The show hasn't been funny since Robert married Amy, anyway. And does a married Grace make for a less funny "Will & Grace?"
In Happy Days' fifth season, Fonzie literally jumped the shark, the origin of the phrase.
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If such TV trivia occupies your thoughts, then think about sharing your opinions with hordes of like-minded tube buffs at JumpTheShark.com. The Web site lists 2,500 shows and chronicles when each "jumped the shark," a phenomenon that site founder Jon Hein explains as "a defining moment when you know your favorite television program has reached its peak. That instant you know from now on ... it's all downhill." Naturally, there's not always a consensus on when a particular program jumps, and the site's visitors -- a million a month -- are encouraged to join the debate.
Jump-the-shark episodes?
Grace married Leo on "Will & Grace."
Joey and Rachel gave it a shot on "Friends."
After five years, "Bewitched" switched from Darrin No. 1 (Dick York) to Darrin No. 2 (Dick Sargent).
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"Jumping the shark" alludes to the multi-part "Happy Days" episode that had the Cunningham family and friends visiting Hollywood. In his trademark leather jacket, Fonzie water-skied over a penned-up shark. Afterward, it was virtually impossible to take the show seriously.
Hein has developed various categories of jump-the-shark moments, such as "Same Character, Different Actor" (think Darrin on "Bewitched" or Chris on "The Partridge Family"). Shows might jump when a character hits puberty, when an episode is billed as "very special," when someone's hairstyle changes drastically or -- and this is the part that seems especially relevant nowadays -- when primary characters suddenly tie the knot.
Some shows jump when a formerly platonic pair "does it," which raises the question: How many times will Friends have jumped by the end of its 10-year reign May 6?
Other sites critique TV even more irreverently -- some of the better ones are TelevisionWithoutPity.com, TVTattle.com and TVParty.com -- but only Jump the Shark has created a catchphrase in the pop-culture lexicon. Even "The Simpsons" has referenced it -- one of several instances of TV shows doing so.
Minor celebrities have weighed in, too. Robbie Rist, better known as cousin Oliver, e-mailed Hein to say he's proud to have been the catalyst for "The Brady Bunch" jumping the shark after he became a regular on that show in its last season.
"The people who come to the site really know their stuff," Hein says. "That's what makes it work."
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