When Television Becomes Fanfiction: Jumping the Shark

 There is a point in a television show where it  all goes downhill. A point where it all becomes just a little ridiculous, where the story is too contrived and the characters are completely out of character. There is a term for this phenomena. It is called "jumping the shark." The term comes from a little show called "Happy Days." You may remember it, The Fonz, Ron Howard and all their friends and family making up the quintessential all American 50's family. In the fifth season premiere, The "Fonz", the epitome of cool, jumped over a shark. Here is the infamous clip below:

 
Now, perhaps when the writers thought of this story it made a ton of sense. It was perfect, but alas it didn't do anything positive. Heck, it named an idiom that represents the decline of a television series. Tv Tropes explains it well.

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"Jumping the Shark" is an art form truly? There are so many ways to jump over that aquatic animal, however there are a few classic ways.

1. Getting rid of a popular character
2. Any type of new character ever can trigger this
3. The death of an actor
4. A lack of character development 
5. Flat characters

I wanted to take the time to aquatint you with my top five instances of the "jumping the shark" (In Increasing Order)

1. Full House: The Womanizer aka Uncle Jesse gets married. Welp there goes those few years of innuendo. AND WHAT? Now the Olsen Twins aren't the cute little babies? Nope. Sorry. Season Five has crashed and burned. Sorry Miller- Boyett Sitcom we have reached a point of no return. Plus, we didn't need those little boys anyway.They were pretty cute though. Not going to lie.
2. Glee: Glee jumped the shark purely by getting another season. Really. I mean, who thought this was a good idea? It is a dinosaur themed prom. ( This clip makes me feel ashamed that I've watched this show.) If you actually watch that clip all the way through, you are a brave solider. I am truly sorry to have even given you a link, but I think I prove my point.

3. The Nanny: Another sitcom that bite the dust. Literally. The intro sums up the whole premise of the show quite well:

All that intro leaves out is that:
    The Nanny wants to get with the boss. Basically, half of the show was setting them up to become a couple. So for five and half years, they shamelessly flirt. But then they get together and it all goes downhill. I'm telling you. They get married and it all goes under. Fran (The Nanny) pulls a Pam Ewing and goes baby crazy, so for like six episodes you sit through fertility woes. Its more depressing than funny to be truthful. I mean there was some good stuff in that sixth season, but ya know the marriage we had all been looking forward to kind of killed it for me.
4. Dallas: Do I actually need to explain this one? This one tanked at the end of the mini-series (aka Season One), and then it went on for another thirteen years. For starters, Pamela fell out of a barn. SHE. FELL. OUT. OF. A. BARN. I can't make things like this up. It is a soap opera and did have some good moments, can anyone say, "Who Shot J.R.?" Also, we can only tolerate so many fights with Cliff Barnes.
5. Brothers and Sisters: Brothers and Sisters takes the cake. I haven't seen another show "Jump the Shark" so shamelessly and so pitifully. I don't know when this show started to tank but in the beginning these guys had it made.
I mean:
Sally Fields was the coolest mom ever.

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Calista Flockhart was a Republican.

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Oh yeah Rachel Griffiths was there too:

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But then Rob Lowe guest starred and everything was right in Brothers and Sisters land. So right, that Sam Seaborn became a series regular.

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Plus Rob Lowe and Calista Flockhart were like the best Republican power couple on ABC. (Really they were the best.) How did this seemingly untouchable show tank? Well, every single member of this family got into massive pile-up that made no sense logistically. Plus, they killed Rob Lowe and Patricia Wetting lost her memory. It just got awful in ways that can not be described with words.


So yeah. Those are my top jumping the shark moments. What are yours?