"Jump the Shark" Thread

[Tomservo95]

I love the 2003 TMNT cartooon so much. i think it's up there with Batman TAS and Avatar. BUT Fast Forward and Back to the Sewers.... oh man. The show totally lost it's edge when FF started. It started to resemble the hokey (but still way more enjoyable) 1987 TMNT toon. Turtles Forever was a great ending to that series though.

 

[Drtooth]

I love the 2003 TMNT cartooon so much. i think it's up there with Batman TAS and Avatar. BUT Fast Forward and Back to the Sewers.... oh man. The show totally lost it's edge when FF started. It started to resemble the hokey (but still way more enjoyable) 1987 TMNT toon. Turtles Forever was a great ending to that series though.

Fast Forward was a cynical move by the toy company. They stopped selling regular TMNT toys, no thanks to the multiple useless variant figures on the market (yet I never found the Mystic Turtles with new head sculpts at Target or anywhere else for that matter), and they needed to screw around with the format to sell new toys. And sadly, the FF toys are the best TMNT toys they ever made, an the most show accurate.

Something's wrong when you lose a WHOLE season just to sell toys that supposedly "Didn't sell." Season 5 could have wrapped up the whole series. Shell, they even REFERENCED season 5 in FF.

But the worst part is, FF was going in a better direction, getting actually GOOD before the toy company screwed them again and jumped us into BTTS. We almost had Space Usagi and a Triceriton Shredder. So it jumped the shark AFTER it jumped the shark!

 

[D'Snowth]

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.

Oh, and another oddity too is how all of the sudden, just about all the characters were suddenly getting baby siblings, from Franklin and Bear having baby sisters, and supposedly Beaver having a baby brother (I don't recall that actually)... I think that takes the whole "Cousin Oliver" trope to a whole new level.

 

[SSLFan]

SpongeBob Squarepants jumped right after the movie was released, yet it's continued on almost a decade since then. Seriously, this show needs to END. It's loooong overstayed it's welcome.

 

[Drtooth]

SpongeBob Squarepants jumped right after the movie was released, yet it's continued on almost a decade since then. Seriously, this show needs to END. It's loooong overstayed it's welcome.

Spongebob is the ONLY show Nick's got. They refuse to let anything else get the attention and episode count to even come close. They pretty much screwed Catscratch, that thing about the Luchadore, and I'm sure they're screwing TUFF Puppy as we speak. Sure, Penguins of Madagascar is doing well, but it's from a popular movie franchise. And they picked the BEST characters from the movie AND managed to make the show great (No Shaggy and Scooby effect here). Spongebob STILL manages to be profitable for Nick, people still buy the merchandising. That's what counts. Sad thing is, if Spongebob was created today, and just started airing now, we'd get a season's worth of episodes before it was dumped on Nicktoons, before it gets dumped from that too.

Seems Nick cares MUCH more about crappy tweenpop shows that even Disney doesn't bother with much anymore. Which makes me VERY nervous about the new TMNT series. The merchandise is already selling out, that stuff's gonna mak money... but I still fear for the future of the franchise. No matter what, they had better dang well keep those IDW comics coming.

I really like Spongebob, but I don't get to watch it because of my lack of cable. I don't know where the jump off point was, since I always wind up seeing the same episodes if it's even on. And even the bad episodes have to be better than Planet Sheen (Scooby and Shaggy effect time one billion).

 

[Oscarfan]

SpongeBob, for me, dipped in quality following the movie. The episodes seemed rushed and are purely an excuse to beat Squidward up (the only good thing I find from that era is the "Gary Come Home" song, which I have on my music rectangle). They have a couple of funny gags here and there, but they're over-all not great. ToonZone has a couple of great articles about it. I mean, two episodes deal with the exact same theme (restaurant atmosphere draws in customers, rather than food), which was not only already covered in one episode ("Patty Hype"), but feature virtually the same line in both ("The food's terrible, but the atmosphere/that sign is great!"). And the fact that they've made episodes based purely around using a song made for an album ("The Best Day Ever" ep. was practically made to use a song from the credits of the movie and an upcoming Christmas special is just an excuse to use the song "Don't Be a Jerk (It's Christmas)"; look up the plot and you'll see what I mean).

I really want to find a 6 year old and tell them "When I was your age, SpongeBob was funny."

 

[Lola p]

This isn't a show, but a cartoon block.

Toonami when the debuted TOM 4.....

 

[D'Snowth]

SpongeBob for me jumped the shark when he started being crammed down everybody's throats, and he became like a symbol of the Third Reich or something, like, "If you do not watch SpongeBob and enjoy it, you're a turncoat!" It was a stupid show to begin with, but when it suddenly became hype-hype-hype, that killed it even more, and actually made it impossible to even try to like it when you're basically forced to.

And if we're going to talk about programming blocks, I'd say when Cartoon Cartoon Fridays changed to Cartoon's Network's Fridays, and they scattered all these kids everywhere and had them mingle with some really ugly and poorly manipulated puppets (like that truck driving dog/bear thing, or that alley cat and lop-eyed cockroach), and they didn't even really play any good Cartoon Cartoons anymore either.

 

[Drtooth]

SpongeBob for me jumped the shark when he started being crammed down everybody's throats, and he became like a symbol of the Third Reich or something, like, "If you do not watch SpongeBob and enjoy it, you're a turncoat!" It was a stupid show to begin with, but when it suddenly became hype-hype-hype, that killed it even more, and actually made it impossible to even try to like it when you're basically forced to.

Yeah, but that's the problem with everything... Winnie the Pooh, Pokemon, Power Rangers, Elmo... Nick already did that with Rugrats. When a show is that popular, they always edge out everything else. I hated Power Rangers for years because Fox would continuously give the cold shoulder to animated programming, especially comedies.

Spongebob is one of those shows you either get or don't. I get that. But the thing is, Spongebob is sadly the only thing that's keeping Nick from being an all prefab band TV show network. Spongebob, maybe FOP and POM.... But do we REALLY need a Fred show? At least Spongebob has Plankton, Mr. Krabs, and Squidward to watch the show for. Those characters are much funnier than Sponge in question anyway.

But I'll tell you this much. I'd rather them overhype Spongebob than half their lame preschool programming. Sure, I quite dig Wow Wow Wubbzy, but everything else is the same Dora crap.

 

[SSLFan]

On the subject of FOP, that sh0w - similar to SpongeBob - jumped when its creator - Butch Hartman, left the series. Poof being born really put the nail on the coffin.

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