Ever wondered where the phrase 'Jump the Shark' comes from? Something is said to have 'Jumped the shark' when it becomes irretrievably bad. It's usually TV series which jump the shark; One event will act as a very clear marker for the point at which the show begins its steady decline into a quagmire of suckage. For example, we firmly believe the TV series Roseanne 'jumped the shark' when the family won the lottery and they started doing all those serious episodes. Top of the Pops jumped the shark when they started trying to be like CD:UK, with all those rubbish interviews and 'backstage' things.
Anyhow, thirty years ago today, the phrase 'Jump the Shark' was born. 'Happy Days' was a great TV show. We used to watch repeats every Saturday morning on TV-AM in the 1980s, and loved the antics of the Cunninghams, Potsie, Ralph and the Fonz (not so much Chachi. Never liked him). However, one day the show ran out of steam and went bad. It was a very clear moment; It was the episode in which the Fonz attempted a daring water-ski leap over a vicious razor-toothed sea-creature. Yes, this was the moment at which Happy Days Jumped The Shark.
But, we hear you ask, how bad could it possibly be? Well, we've tracked down the video to show you. Believe us; When you watch this, you'll instantly forget the emotive episode when Fonzie went blind, and the gripping 'To Be Continued' two-parter when his garage exploded with him inside.
Please view the following shark-jump with caution.
And here's something to leave you with better memories of the Happy Days gang; The video for Weezer's 'Buddy Holly', directed by the obscenely talented Spike Jonze (and not that dreadful 1980s time-travel cartoon 'The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang' which, if we remember rightly, included a cartoon dog, for no apparent reason other than it was a cartoon, and every cartoon had to have an animal in it).
PS It's still Magazine Week, if you're interested.
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