When a TV show 'Jumps The Shark' it means that it has essentially veered off course, story lines aren't working anymore or it has lost what attracted viewers in the first place. Often when a show Jumps The Shark it is more often than not heading for cancellation.The origin of what is a very strange expression comes from an episode of Happy Days where The Fonz (Henry Winkler) was water skiing in swimming trunks and his signature leather jacket and jumped over a shark in the lake. This scene was aired in 1977 and plenty more episodes were made after that but it was commonly viewed as a betrayal of what made Happy Days unique as it was seen to be pandering to 1970s fads of Jaws and Evel Knievel.
Yahoo recently applied the terms to some of today's shows that may well have Jumped The Shark including America's Next Top Model, Heroes, Prison Break, Project Runway and Hell's Kitchen . I have to say I couldn't agree more with ANTM and HK as these were two shows I was loyal to but in recent seasons have given up on. Tyra Banks seems to have gone totally bonkers with her out of control ego on ANTM and HK just ended up as a shout-fest for Gordon Ramsay without the charm that moments of Kitchen Nightmares occasionally comes up with.
Of course it's all personal and many of our favorite shows have a bad season or two in their history but if the actors are good enough and the premise still original we will often see a show return after a bad season stronger than ever.
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