10 top shows that jumped the shark (and when they did it)

The gang goes to jail in the Seinfeld finale

It might be an abuse of the phrase to assign it to a show’s finale, but Seinfeld deserves it. As one of the premier sitcoms of its time, Seinfeld did a lot of heavy lifting for NBC, and became appointment TV for millions of Americans.

Quickly becoming known as the “show about nothing,” the show exceeded expectations every week. Few other shows stayed consisted to its humor and aesthetic, and it’s for this reason that the finale was such a giant bummer. The gang is arrested, and subsequently put on trial, for a “duty to rescue” violation, essentially cementing their fates with a meta joke about doing nothing.

A string of previous guest stars appear to “testify” at their hearing, and the four are sentenced to jail without coming close to a neatly wrapped ending. Even though it seems fitting for a show that relied on antagonistic humor to carry itself through nine seasons, this finale felt especially insulting to fans. Those of us who tuned into this show week to week felt mocked and cheated, and the characters felt like caricatures of the ones we’d grown to love.

In hindsight, Larry David, Jerry Seinfeld, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus have expressed regret in how the show ended. David even tried to right the ship in season 7 of his show, Curb Your Enthusiasm. If you want to talk about a show that tainted its own legacy, the finale is among the best examples in television history. Fans are still salty about it.