Fonzie Woz 'Ere: TV Programming That Jumped The Shark

[Daisy]

Xena: Should have when Xena and Gabrielle were nailed to the cross. I don't mind the later seasons (only some episodes) but that's just it. only some episodes. 

 

Buffy: should have stayed in heav-un... should have stayed in heav-un. (honestly. it was the perfect way to end the series).Buffy died saving the world. A Lot. is how it should have ended.

 

Gilmore Girls: Kinda sorta wish the show ended either Rory realising she was not a special snowflake and life is hard and she could go discover America or something (with Jess) or  end it after Graduation (this can go with a tonne of high school shows. we don't need to see you go to college). Which is why Felicity always works so well. 4 year glimpse. graduate that's it. we're done. 

 

Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman: Was happiest when Katie was born. I think the show ended to early but I remember they were struggling to keep it a float for two years after the baby. so should have ended it. 

 

Scandal: all the B613 crap

 

Grey's Anatomy Sometime between izzy screwing ghosts and Webber ignoring DNRs (Meredith's drowning can work too). 

[Chaos Theory]

I know people like to say Buffy but that show never actually Jumped the shark as in got so bad it's funny. The quality dwindled toward the end but the show never got to a point where a good show became a bad one.

[Ambrosefolly]

Gilmore Girls: Kinda sorta wish the show ended either Rory realising she was not a special snowflake and life is hard and she could go discover America or something (with Jess) or  end it after Graduation (this can go with a tonne of high school shows. we don't need to see you go to college). Which is why Felicity always works so well. 4 year glimpse. graduate that's it. we're done. 

I actually liked Rory's ending on the show. The job she wound up with, writing for an online magazine, wasn't that prestigious and didn't pay well, but she was happy with it and was going to see America following Obama around the country.  I think Rory realizing she wasn't a special snowflake should have been the arch of the last few years of the show.

[WhitneyWhit]

Gossip Girl: Chuck sleeps with Jenny. The show had been heading downhill before that, but for me, that was the moment when it crashed and burned. It was gross enough on its on, but add in the fact that Chuck tried to rape her in the pilot, and it was beyond disgusting. And if that wasn't bad enough, Jenny was vilified for it with her father actually sending her away.

 

But then again, this show seemed to take great pride in treating their female characters like shit, despite the male characters being just as bad, if not worse.

[topanga]

Party of Five, a show I loved, when the family kept experiencing one tragedy after another. I can't even remember which season that was. But one day I was like, "God, this family is depressing," and stopped watching. 

 

Psych, for numerous reasons. One jump occurred when Henry started working at the police station again. The show lost something special that season. I liked it better when he was Shawn's secret consultant on cases. 

 

Alias, after they blew up SD-6 and somehow stopped the Alliance...I can't even remember the details. But the show just stopped being good at the end of season 2. Oh, and when Bradley Cooper and Sidney's roommate were the victims of body-switching

[Blergh]

Chico and the Man-  While the violent death of the 22-year-old title star Freddie Prinze, Sr. SHOULD have ended this show altogether immediately thereafter, it actually limped away on some time later. Although, truth to be told, even without this horrific tragedy, with Chico and Ed having become friends and Ed having significantly toned down his bigotry, the show already had had to bring in side characters   Della the caterer (played by Della Reese) and to a lesser extent Ed's old pal Louie (played by Scatman Crothers) for Ed to spar with. 

   Alas, rather than just end the show,  they tried to extend the shelf life by having Ed and Louie take a fishing trip to Mexico and have a preteen orphaned stowaway called Raul Garcia (Gabriel  Melgar  who, as per IMDB, hasn't been in any TV or movierole since 1979) cross back over with them in the car trunk- THEN Ed wound up adopting Raul while having Raul helping him out in the garage but never seeming to have him in school. Even back in 1977, this was questionable at best. Then, oddly enough, they tried to have a little more conflict by having his Aunt Charo (played by- you guessed it- Charo) show up  from Spain and vie for custody but, in the meantime, sing a few songs! I know this was a sitcom and not a documentary but why would California or any other state have truly considered that Raul staying with an unrelated old man was BETTER than living with his blood aunt (who never was hinted to be the slightest bit abusive or neglectful despite the character's temperament )!  Yet, they soon decided that this new kid and his aunt weren't all the show needed so they had Ed's 18-year-old niece show up and take residence in the Original Chico's Van!  Thus   the show that started out with the Young Mexican and Curmudgeon Old US Man Odd Couple wound up with Ed, and Della, and Louie, and Raul and Aunt Charo and Ed's niece  and the show limped off into the sunset a year and a half after Freddie Prinze Sr.'s death  with virtually no one noticing! 

[topanga]

1 hour ago, Blergh said:

Chico and the Man-  While the violent death of the 22-year-old title star Freddie Prinze, Sr. SHOULD have ended this show altogether immediately thereafter, it actually limped away on some time later.

Thanks for this. I never even knew the show continued. I thought the show ended with his death and never even looked for it again on the TV schedule. 

[Spartan Girl]

Game of Thrones. Need I even elaborate?

[Dr.OO7]

On 3/2/2016 at 3:03 PM, topanga said:

Party of Five, a show I loved, when the family kept experiencing one tragedy after another. I can't even remember which season that was. But one day I was like, "God, this family is depressing," and stopped watching. 

Jeez, yes. 

[Blergh]

On 6/21/2019 at 12:47 PM, topanga said:

Thanks for this. I never even knew the show continued. I thought the show ended with his death and never even looked for it again on the TV schedule. 

I can't blame you! If only it had DONE so! Sad thing is that they restarted the show by pretending that the Original Chico had never existed and that the new kid was supposedly  being launched to superstardom via this show but this show was virtually his only vehicle. Somewhat midway in the last part of it, they had a Very Special Ep in which young Raul discovered the existence of the Original Chico and ran BACK to Mexico with Ed seeking him out. It was only at that point that Ed revealed the the Original Chico had, in fact, died. 

[catlover79]

On 7/18/2014 at 1:11 PM, CoderLady said:

Oh, my gawd. Mork and Mindy was the first show I remember abandoning because it had turned into a giant ball of suck. First the stupid egg thing, then having both Jonathan Winters and Robin Williams in the same show.

Jonathan Winters as a baby would have made a nice 5-minute improv sketch, but it sucked as an ongoing plot device. Plus, I'm imagining there must have been heaps of wasted time and film (video?) because the two of them would not stop with the riffing and improvising, and what didn't end up being cut wasn't all that great. Yes - ugh.

When I was still in single digits, I would watch the reruns of M&M every night on one of the local stations. Mearth TRAUMATIZED me. Something about this big, grown man wearing a diaper and babbling baby talk absolutely terrified me. I refused to watch any more episodes with him. (Though I did like Jonathan Winters on the later sitcom, Davis Rules.)

[Blergh]

8 hours ago, catlover79 said:

When I was still in single digits, I would watch the reruns of M&M every night on one of the local stations. Mearth TRAUMATIZED me. Something about this big, grown man wearing a diaper and babbling baby talk absolutely terrified me. I refused to watch any more episodes with him. (Though I did like Jonathan Winters on the later sitcom, Davis Rules.)

If Fonzie hadn't jumped the shark, Mork definitely LAID THE EGG on the latter's show! Truth be told, it was really only worthwhile the first season with the concept of the Fish Outta Water learning about Earth's ways (and vice versa), his budding romance with Mindy and interactions with her family and friends.  They more or less ran out of 'innocent' things for Mork to discover and ponder by the end of that season and became more cartoonish by that point. Of course, having Happy Days chuck the original idea of Mork having been dreamt up by Richie and having become a real part of the HD gang didn't help that show either! 

[Silver Raven]

Both "The Time Tunnel" and "Sliders" degenerated into "every week we have to deal with aliens", which was never the premise of either show.

[Shannon L.]

4 hours ago, Blergh said:

If Fonzie hadn't jumped the shark, Mork definitely LAID THE EGG on the latter's show! Truth be told, it was really only worthwhile the first season with the concept of the Fish Outta Water learning about Earth's ways (and vice versa), his budding romance with Mindy and interactions with her family and friends.  They more or less ran out of 'innocent' things for Mork to discover and ponder by the end of that season and became more cartoonish by that point. Of course, having Happy Days chuck the original idea of Mork having been dreamt up by Richie and having become a real part of the HD gang didn't help that show either! 

I love fish out of water shows, but they rarely stay good for too long as the character becomes accustomed to the new ways. 

[CoderLady]

8 hours ago, Shannon L. said:

I love fish out of water shows, but they rarely stay good for too long as the character becomes accustomed to the new ways. 

Like another of my lost (sob!) favorites: 3rd Rock From The Sun. I loved the first season or so while the aliens were just beginning to learn about Earth culture and relationships, but towards the end they got jobs in network TV and the writers began using them for nonstop venting about the absurdities of the business. I doubt if anyone outside the industry actually gave a shit about that stuff, but they went at it and kept at it until the show died. The show also got moved around the schedule a lot, which didn't help. First season was gold, though.

[Mabinogia]

17 hours ago, CoderLady said:

Like another of my lost (sob!) favorites: 3rd Rock From The Sun. I loved the first season or so while the aliens were just beginning to learn about Earth culture and relationships

I loved that show, well, the first few seasons at least. Season 1 was brilliant! But it is the kind of show that has an expiration. 

[DearEvette]

For me, jumping shark isn't necessarily a show going bad or sliding down.  It is one specific event or plot point is so fucking ridiculous that you can tell at that moment that the creators have lost their damned minds.  And of course it leads the show into something you no longer recognize.

For me that was the introduction of B-613 on Scandal.  Prior to that, the first 2 seasons of Scandal were fantastic.  The election stealing plot, the assassination plot, the episodic stuff with Olivia as a fixer.  Great stuff. 

But then we meet her parents.  Her mom is a terrorist and her father is the head of a shady organization and suddenly so is everyone else around her and it has cannibalized the show.  Everything became about B613 and its spy vs. spy shenanigans.  Two seasons worth of character development was shit canned, personalities were retconned and the show went from a nice serialized show with some soapy elements to a murky conspiracy laden crap fest.  I could never watch again after season 3.

Edited June 25, 2019 by DearEvette

[Ohwell]

Sounds like jumping the shark to me. 😉

[Annber03]

4 hours ago, DearEvette said:

For me, jumping shark isn't necessarily a show going bad or sliding down.  It is one specific event or plot point is so fucking ridiculous that you can tell at that moment that the creators have lost their damned minds.  And of course it leads the show into something you no longer recognize.

Agreed. I think that was the initial definition for that term, but people have taken it over the years to mean the first part of your post. Which can be a tough call to make as well, because sometimes people (speaking in general terms here) tend to think that if they don't personally care for a storyline/character direction, the show automatically sucks as a result. The two things aren't always one and the same. 

[AntiBeeSpray]

5 hours ago, DearEvette said:

For me, jumping shark isn't necessarily a show going bad or sliding down.  It is one specific event or plot point is so fucking ridiculous that you can tell at that moment that the creators have lost their damned minds.  And of course it leads the show into something you no longer recognize.

For me that was the introduction of B-613 on Scandal.  Prior to that, the first 2 seasons of Scandal were fantastic.  The election stealing plot, the assassination plot, the episodic stuff with Olivia as a fixer.  Great stuff. 

But then we meet her parents.  Her mom is a terrorist and her father is the head of a shady organization and suddenly so is everyone else around her and it has cannibalized the show.  Everything became about B613 and its spy vs. spy shenanigans.  Two seasons worth of character development was shit canned, personalities were retconned and the show went from a nice serialized show with some soapy elements to a murky conspiracy laden crap fest.  I could never watch again after season 3.

Sooo much this with the XF. I didn't recognize any of the characters in s10 and 11 due to that.

[DrSpaceman]

On ‎6‎/‎21‎/‎2019 at 4:56 PM, Spartan Girl said:

Game of Thrones. Need I even elaborate?

No.  No you don't. 

[DrSpaceman]

On ‎3‎/‎2‎/‎2015 at 5:44 PM, Chaos Theory said:

Dexter:  The end of season 4.  Season 5 wasn't horrible but after that there was a steady decline in quality so I am saying end of Season 4.  

Yes, this is one where it is pretty clear and I think most agree. 

I recall trying to limp my way through season 5 and finally just thinking, this is boring and sucks, turning it off, never watched again

[Chaos Theory]

3 hours ago, DrSpaceman said:

Yes, this is one where it is pretty clear and I think most agree. 

I recall trying to limp my way through season 5 and finally just thinking, this is boring and sucks, turning it off, never watched again

I really liked the Luman storyline and if the show stuck with her instead of Hannah I would have been ok with that.  I thought the juxtaposition between The innocent and naive Rita and the increasingly violent Luman was a good one.   But the show had to go and fix Luman in the end which made no sense to me.  

Edited July 26, 2019 by Chaos Theory