What is Jumping the Shark?

A Guide to the Growing Pop Culture Phenomenon of Identifying the Turning Point in a Television Show's Rise and Fall

Jumping The Shark is a relatively new idea on the pop culture landscape. The phrase Jumping The Shark refers to the moment when a hit television series peaks and begins its downward slide into obscurity. Jumping The Shark is something that happens to almost every great television show, as even the best show premises wear out after a while, leaving the writers to try and find ways to keep the show entertaining even when it is has run out of steam. Almost all of us have sadly watched a favorite show decline in quality as it ages, and many of us have noted the episode or moment when things took a turn for the worse, but it has taken until just within the few years for a catchy phrase to emerge that summed up the unique form of disappointment that this turning point in a television show’s history brings. That phrase is Jumping The Shark.

The phrase Jumping The Shark refers to a late episode of the classic television situation comedy “Happy Days” that exemplifies the kind of far-fetched plots and out of character actions that tend to overwhelm a television show in its later seasons as the writers push the boundaries of the show’s premise to try and keep things lively and entertaining. In the famously misguided episode, the character of Arthur Fonzarelli, played by Henry Winkler, takes waterskiing lessons and ends up jumping over a shark. Many television fans feel that after Fonzie jumped over the shark, the show had obviously hit rock bottom and the rest of the episodes were just a matter of passing time until “Happy Days” was canceled by the network. Jumping The Shark refers to this sad moment in television history. To say that a modern show has jumped the shark means that you believe that it has hit rock bottom and is due to be cancelled any second, and is destined to join “Happy Days” in television heaven.