"Jump the Shark" Thread

[D'Snowth]

It depends on how much dedication the rest of the crew: writers, producers, directors, etc. have to the project as to whether or not a series will continue to be successful after the creator departs: M*A*S*H is an example of just that, creator Larry Gelbart left after Season Four, and it lasted for seven more seasons afterwards. Seinfeld was kind of mixed after Larry David's departure, some people think the show became too bizarre and absurd, though I personally like those last two seasons the best. Then a show like Hey Arnold! gets screwed by the network in situations like this: Craig Barlett quit during the final season because he wouldn't sign a contract that would forbid him from also doing work for Cartoon Network, so Nickelodeon stopped airing the new season for like three years or so.

 

[Drtooth]

Nickelodeon itself jumped with the introduction of that horrid show "Naked Brothers Band." Remember that show? Ick!

I was mentioning those. I understand that Nickelodeon was always a potpourri network of animation and live action... but this lame "We wanna be Disney Channel" thing that they've been on ever since. It's perpetually 2005 to them. I heard a Naked Brothers song about Banana Smoothies... I thought it was a child band version of The Wiggles. That was the most childish, babyish song I've ever heard. Barney could have sang it.

 

[Hubert]

When I think about it as far as kiddie shows go, I think Franklin starting jumping the shark after a couple of seasons or so (I don't know why, but I hated when Bear suddenly started wearing that blue vest), then it just kept spiraling downward from there... I think they realized how silly it was that Franklin was the only character with an actual name, so then we started getting a bunch of other characters with actual names.

I heard they actually started a new, and not surprisingly all-CGI, series... how does THAT compare?

If I remember correctly, Bear started wearing the vest at the start of season two...but the show never really did seem to jump the shark to me. It seemed like all of the episodes were of equal quality...if anything, I like the later episodes better than the earlier ones...

But the CGI series is awful. Just plain awful. It does try to capture the spirit of the original Franklin, but the CGI animation is just so cheap and terrible...I think I could've done a better job with the animation. And that's saying a lot.

 

[SSLFan]

American Idol - When Simon Cowell left.

American Idol needs to DIE.
Dancing With the Stars needs to DIE.
Jersey Shore and all it's "spinoffs" need to DIE.
VH1 needs to DIE.
Reality tv needs to DIE.

A fad that's run it's course. It amazes me that people still watch this garbage.

 

[Drtooth]

Yeah, but you miss the point. They don't care if they don't get a single viewer or not, it's just much MUCH cheaper than hiring union staff and celebrities (minus hosts). They don't have to pay contestants squat. It's sweatshop programming.

Now for someone who's jumped the Shark and back numerous times,

Scooby-Doo

Now, Scooby-Doo is an amazing story of television animation. The show virtually has been on since 1969, the only lull being in the 90's where the franchise subsided in reruns and direct to video movies. And the amazing part is, for most of the run, it used the exact same, militantly formulaic story elements. There were cases where they tinkered with the concept (The New Scooby-Doo Movies, when they added Scrappy at first to combat low ratings, and A Pup named Scooby-Doo to name a couple), but not the formula.

However, such a formulaic television show needs to remain fresh... so they changed the whole series on occasion ONLY to switch back to the original format when it wasn't quite successful or good.

First off was Scooby's All Star Laff-a-lympics which was technically a programming block that included the Laff-a-lympics... Scooby was there, but in a cast of many, and the only one from Scooby-Doo in the series (you won't believe the underhandedness they have in advertising the new 13 episode set, splashing the rest of the crew on there because of a cartoon special they added on).

Then, while Scrappy was a ratings stunt, the show didn't change initially (still were going after imaginary ghosts), they changed the format to the New Scooby and Scrappy show, featuring the WORST cartoons of the franchise... the ones where Shaggy and Scooby run away from some big giant guy. To say nothing of Yabba-Doo.

This was followed by 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, which wasn't so much bad as misguided, and Scrappy actually has some genuinely funny moments (mainly because Flim Flam surpasses him in annoyingness and makes him seem milder as a character... plus Scrappy only said "Puppy Power" like once or twice). The show has some genuine moments of really funny, weird fourth wall destroying stuff... though I have trouble with an episode featuring an obvious parody of Ed Grimley with a voice actor who clearly never heard of the character, making the wrong and annoying infliction in his catchphrase, pronouncing it "I MUST say" (rather than Martin Short's "I must say!" I'm a huge Grimley fan). But there's great comedic acting from Vincent Price. The only reason to watch the series. Oh, and they caught 11 Ghosts. Only 11. The last in a pretty anti-climactic ending episode.

And last, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo get a Clue. it's not as bad as everyone says it is, but only because the villain is so over the top. Not quite Doofenschmirtz over the top, but hammy enough to make this entire generic series (you could put ANYONE in Shaggy and Scooby's roles) tolerable. Especially the big reveal in the last episode.

 

[Lola p]

It depends on how much dedication the rest of the crew: writers, producers, directors, etc. have to the project as to whether or not a series will continue to be successful after the creator departs: M*A*S*H is an example of just that, creator Larry Gelbart left after Season Four, and it lasted for seven more seasons afterwards. Seinfeld was kind of mixed after Larry David's departure, some people think the show became too bizarre and absurd, though I personally like those last two seasons the best. Then a show like Hey Arnold! gets screwed by the network in situations like this: Craig Barlett quit during the final season because he wouldn't sign a contract that would forbid him from also doing work for Cartoon Network, so Nickelodeon stopped airing the new season for like three years or so.

When Laruen Faust left My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic, It did well.

I am hoping season 3 is just as good!

 

[MuppetSpot]

the powerpuff girls jumped the shark when the first Cartoon Network movie came
in 2002
foster didn't jump the shark yet but the last episode goodbye to bloo bloo was literally jumping the shark.

 

[Lola p]

I'm kind of afraid Friendship is Magic is about to jump the shark with the next episode....

 

[D'Snowth]

I kind of feel that World's Dumbest... is sort of teetering on the fence right now... while the show is still good and still hilarious, I've noticed they haven't been doing any of the Criminals, Drivers, or Outlaws episodes in a while, and I think that's what really made the show, because most of those clips are unintentionally funny, whereas some of the more current volumes, like Performers or Inventions, the dumbness of the clips is far more obvious, which makes the clips themselves less funny, even with the commentary.

 

[snichols1973]

Yeah, but you miss the point. They don't care if they don't get a single viewer or not, it's just much MUCH cheaper than hiring union staff and celebrities (minus hosts). They don't have to pay contestants squat. It's sweatshop programming.

Now for someone who's jumped the Shark and back numerous times,

Scooby-Doo

Now, Scooby-Doo is an amazing story of television animation. The show virtually has been on since 1969, the only lull being in the 90's where the franchise subsided in reruns and direct to video movies. And the amazing part is, for most of the run, it used the exact same, militantly formulaic story elements. There were cases where they tinkered with the concept (The New Scooby-Doo Movies, when they added Scrappy at first to combat low ratings, and A Pup named Scooby-Doo to name a couple), but not the formula.

However, such a formulaic television show needs to remain fresh... so they changed the whole series on occasion ONLY to switch back to the original format when it wasn't quite successful or good.

First off was Scooby's All Star Laff-a-lympics which was technically a programming block that included the Laff-a-lympics... Scooby was there, but in a cast of many, and the only one from Scooby-Doo in the series (you won't believe the underhandedness they have in advertising the new 13 episode set, splashing the rest of the crew on there because of a cartoon special they added on).

Then, while Scrappy was a ratings stunt, the show didn't change initially (still were going after imaginary ghosts), they changed the format to the New Scooby and Scrappy show, featuring the WORST cartoons of the franchise... the ones where Shaggy and Scooby run away from some big giant guy. To say nothing of Yabba-Doo.

This was followed by 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, which wasn't so much bad as misguided, and Scrappy actually has some genuinely funny moments (mainly because Flim Flam surpasses him in annoyingness and makes him seem milder as a character... plus Scrappy only said "Puppy Power" like once or twice). The show has some genuine moments of really funny, weird fourth wall destroying stuff... though I have trouble with an episode featuring an obvious parody of Ed Grimley with a voice actor who clearly never heard of the character, making the wrong and annoying infliction in his catchphrase, pronouncing it "I MUST say" (rather than Martin Short's "I must say!" I'm a huge Grimley fan). But there's great comedic acting from Vincent Price. The only reason to watch the series. Oh, and they caught 11 Ghosts. Only 11. The last in a pretty anti-climactic ending episode.

And last, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo get a Clue. it's not as bad as everyone says it is, but only because the villain is so over the top. Not quite Doofenschmirtz over the top, but hammy enough to make this entire generic series (you could put ANYONE in Shaggy and Scooby's roles) tolerable. Especially the big reveal in the last episode.

And then there was A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, which changed Daphne's character from a trendy teenage girl who gets captured by the bad guys into a snobbish, spoiled younger version of herself, while Freddy was so over-confident, it's almost as though he was like a young blonde version of Reggie Mantle; young Scooby would often say "I don't get it" after laughing at a joke, and then Red Herring would show up in virtually every episode as one of the potential suspects, only to be found innocent once the mystery was solved....