Jumping the shark

So I was bored today. To amuse myself, I went to Jump the Shark. For those unfamiliar, the term refers to when a beloved television show takes a turn for the worse. It originated from an episode of Happy Days, when Fonzie did a water-ski jump over a group of sharks (school? pod? gaggle?), leather jacket and all. (If you missed the episode, Fez also does it in a dream sequence on That 70's Show).

The site has categories for various plot devices that serve as the demise of a sit-com or drama. There is a birth, a death, puberty, "I Do", actor replacement, etc. Here are a choice examples:

Tony and Angela get married. I had a problem with Who's the Boss to begin with, never really understood why the Grandma was supposed to be hot, and Angela's hair defied gravity sometimes, but the show definitely deflated like Alyssa Milano's training bras after the housekeeper and the career woman got it on.

Chrissy Seaver is born. Again, Growing Pains was painful to watch, with Kirk Cameron mugging it up for the camera every five minutes, but this was another fine example of what happens when a sit-com gives birth. Chrissy went on to age like six or seven years over the summer (you can see her all grown up in the Mel Gibson flick What Women Want and in Growing Pains reunion shows). Another fine example of a new kid ruining everything is Olivia on the The Cosby Show. Olivia is one of the reasons that even as a young person I knew that I would never produce fruit from my loins. Of course, this was a great spring board for the oh-so-talented Raven, who has now graduated to the Disney talent machine and the occasional TV Guide channel guest spot.

The Andy Griffith Show goes Technicolor. In my household, we are a bit prejudice: we don't like colored Andy. Now, to be honest, I can't recall whether Barney Fife left before or after he was colorized, so whichever happened first was the beginning of the end of Mayberry.

A Very Special Episode of (insert sit-com here). Every show had at least one episode that dealt with a very serious subject that we can all learn from, usually involving one of the children doing something horrible, getting yelled at by their parents, yelling back, storming off to their room, and then getting a heart to heart talk (cue the music). I think Full House based their entire plot structure on this, and Blossom had at least seven or eight Very Special episodes...

It's also fun to see where your favorite sit-coms stack up. I am happy to say that the Simpsons have never jumped shark after 13 years on the air. And, as much as I adore Scots in general and Billy Connolly in particular, Head of the Class did jump when he replaced Howard Hesseman (aka Johnny Fever).