I respect the writer's perspective, and understand his sensitivity. After all, I get upset sometimes if someone overly critiques one of my e-mails! But his assertion that "Happy Days" wasn't on the decline simply because it lasted six more years isn't the same as saying those were six *good* years. "Happy Days" was such a part of American life that it would naturally take a long time for it to become so bad--or the audience to literally outgrow its nostalgic backward look at the 50s. "Laverne and Shirley" moved locations and was noticeably less of a show, yet lasted for years after. "All in thh Family" went on for a time after many of the principals who'd help make it--the Jeffersons, Edith--but was still getting ratings. Eyeballs don't always equal quality: look at the awful dreck we have like American Idol, The Bachelor, The Real Housewives, or that sitcom with Belushi, "According to Jim", which stayed on despite being poor. "Jumping the Shark" doesn't always mean a show completely degenerates into pure crap, either. Many, many shows decline in overall quality, and aren't necessarily awful, just not nearly on the level as when they started. But as for Jumping the Shark, it's funny that he mentions the ep with Fonzie and his love Pinky: the site of Fonz and Pinky lovingly popping wheelies in slow-motion to romantic music is actually way sillier than his jumping that shark tank later. Maybe the phrase could have been "Popping a wheelie"!
And let's not talk about when Mork was brought in as the alien friend, which reminded me way too much of Kazoo from the Flintstones... ----- Original Message ----- From: "Kelwyn" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Wednesday, September 8, 2010 11:36:21 AM Subject: [scifinoir2] Writer defends "Happy Days" 'jump the shark' episode http://articles.latimes.com/2010/sep/03/entertainment/la-et-jump-the-shark-20100903 In 1987, Jon Hein and his roommates at the University of Michigan were drinking beer and had Nick at Nite playing in the background. They started talking about classic TV shows when someone asked, "What was the precise moment you knew it was downhill for your favorite show?" One said it was when Vicki came on board "The Love Boat." Another thought it was when the Great Gazoo appeared on "The Flintstones." Sean Connolly offered, "That's easy: It was when Fonzie jumped the shark." As Hein later recounted, there was silence in the room: "No explanation necessary, the phrase said it all." If I had been in the room, however, I would have broken that silence of self-assuredness, for I wrote that now infamous episode of "Happy Days." And more than three decades later, I still don't believe that the series "jumped the shark" when Fonzie jumped the shark.
