Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes – The Walking Dead _ Season 8, Episode 4 – Photo Credit: Gene Page/AMC
When a show has big ideas, but can’t really follow through, it often results in disaster. These 10 shows jumped the shark and now we can never go back.
The phrase of jumped the shark was coined by Jon Hein and his website of the same name. It originated in the fifth season of Happy Days (see below) and has since come to describe the moment when a show veers off course, asking audiences to believe or invest in stories that are inherently bad or ridiculous. Jumping the shark happens most often in long-running shows when showrunners and producers are scrambling to keep the series fresh and interesting. Sometimes, it can lead to innovative storytelling that sets a show apart for all the right reasons. Other times, however, it can leave an indelible mark on a show’s legacy that can’t be erased.
These 10 shows definitely jumped the shark in some way or other, although I can still acknowledge the value of the contribution. Just like it’s often impossible to judge a show by it’s pilot, it’s also unfair to assign value to the whole of the show based a few ill-advised and desperate plot lines.
It’s arguable whether these “jump the shark” moments were the death knell for some of the featured series, but there are some in which you can draw a clear line from the moment featured to its inevitable end. Loyal viewers will accept a lot from their favorite shows, but sometimes writers can overestimate that loyalty. You decide which shows still deserve our respect after reading about how they jumped the shark.