That still doesn't excuse the atrocity that was The Fonz and the Happy Days Gang. (pops)

Excellent use of Silly tag, Subby.

/+1 to you

Apparently self-congratulatory promotion pieces pass for news in the LA times.

"Hey guys, remember that episode of Happy Days where Fonzie jumped the shark? I wrote that. I know, right? I totally wrote that. It's become a catch phrase, but I totally wrote that. You know what else? We still had SIX YEARS of golden comedy that followed. So when I wrote the jump the shark episode we didn't jump the shark, lol!

I wrote the jump the shark episode of Happy Days."

Awesome.

Dude, that guy wrote "My Secret Identity"? Sweet. I barely remember anything about it, but I know that I loved it. I think it was about a kid with super powers. What I DO remember, seeing as how it's etched into my brain, is the theme song. It didn't have words, but my brother and I came up with some, which I now present to the world. Ahem:

"You'll never guess my secret identity!
(Unless you watch this show)"

You had to be there. It was brilliant.

OK, so I looked it up on YouTube and of course proved myself completely wrong: Link (new window)

The "You'll never guess my secret identity" was already in there. We just added the "Unless you watch this show" over the instrumental riff, which I continue to maintain was brilliantly hilarious.

Now, back to working on my PhD.

/I know, I know
//Cool story, bro.
///Literally

ftfa: "Now, whose idea was it for Fonzie to jump the shark? Amazingly, I can't remember - which is frustrating, as I can usually watch a "Happy Days" episode from any season, hear a joke and recall who wrote it. "

sounds like plausible deniability...

Despite being a little kid during the 1970's, I never got to watch Happy Days .. because we only had one TV in the house, so we watched what my dad watched (mostly westerns and baseball games).

And because my dad -- who had actually been a teenager in the 1950's -- thought Happy Days was (in his words) "a buncha bullshiat."

/happy days, indeed

Confabulat: FTFA: Fortunately, my career didn't jump the shark after "jump the shark." When "Happy Days" ended, I went directly to the ABC Paramount hit show "Webster" and, after that, wrote and produced, among others, "It's Your Move," "He's the Mayor, "The New Leave It to Beaver" and "Family Matters."

From one perspective that's sort of awesome. From another though...WTF

Interestingly enough, notice how two of those shows also have minor characters that eventually usurp the premise of the show, turn it into "The Show," and then vanish after the show mercifully ends.

If this guy isn't causing that, it's certainly interesting to see how his career veers towards that.

FirstNationalBastard: However, after jumping the shark, all pretenses that Happy Days was still the quaint little sitcom about a 1950s family were over. This was now The Fonzie Show, and you will cackle and bray like a moron when he walks onstage! And then Potsie will sing.

Happy Days also showcased the eventual evolution and death of any sitcom ever: awkward beginning, cast change, usurpation by minor character, premise forgotten, minor character gets preachy and overbearing, and eventual end followed by the show vanishing for years, remembered fondly but not with the same amount of fame it seemingly had.

Nothing against the actors or the roles, but it's interesting to see how American TV is the epitome of fame today and nothing tomorrow.

I don't care what he says about the ratings, those last few years of Happy Days sucked bilgewater.

Mini Ditka: Pump your blood (new window)

/sorry

The choreographer responsible for that abortion must be found and stopped before it's too late. If more clips like that show up on Youtube, we're DOOMED!

That catchphrase is probably the most successful thing he's every created.

When you Jump the Shark you do not ruin anything, it is an indicator that something has long since lost its creative momentum. Fonzy didn't suck because he jumped over a shark, he jumped over a shark because he sucked.

Confabulat: FTFA: Fortunately, my career didn't jump the shark after "jump the shark." When "Happy Days" ended, I went directly to the ABC Paramount hit show "Webster" and, after that, wrote and produced, among others, "It's Your Move," "He's the Mayor, "The New Leave It to Beaver" and "Family Matters."

From one perspective that's sort of awesome. From another though...WTF

by which series listed? The New Leave it to Beaver didn't last that long and was horrendous. Webster was meh, A different strokes clone.Yet, Family Matters hit into pretty weird territory near get a life when it became the Urkle show.

Randal: "Remember that time i jumped over the shark infested water?"
Dante:"That wasn't you, that was The Fonz on an episode of Happy Days."

Randal: "Boy, Happy Days sure had a lot of great memories..."

Happy Days was a monster, it took a shark jump and hiring Ted Mcginley to kill it.

invictus2: by which series listed? The New Leave it to Beaver didn't last that long and was horrendous.

Wikipedia notes that The New Leave It to Beaver lasted 104 episodes over five years and went from being a CBS reunion film to a Disney Channel regular series to being syndicated via TBS. I'm not correcting you, I'm just shocked that piece of shiat lasted that farking long. Jesus, the fashions in the '80s weren't the only thing without any taste. Gah.

Seriously, 104 episodes of a old show spinoff. And it's the second-longest running show as of this date. Jesus Christ.

Why couldn't it be known as "Getting Chachi'ed"?

Man, that was a dry, boring recounting of something that could have been a lot more interesting. That read like a sixth-grader's "What I did last summer" essay.

Mini Ditka: pumps your blood

What's worse is the commercial I saw a few years ago that used the song. Fortunately I don't remember what it was for.

Quite fascinating, really. It illustrates how unaware people can be of their idiotic creative decisions. In retrospect, from the outside,

After discussing different scenarios, we decided to take the "Happy Days" gang to Hollywood, with Fonzie invited for a screen test.

indicates that all was lost from that point. http://salvador.hardin/ has it right.

darth_nick23: Randal: "Remember that time i jumped over the shark infested water?"
Dante:"That wasn't you, that was The Fonz on an episode of Happy Days."

Randal: "Boy, Happy Days sure had a lot of great memories..."

I think that only lasted four episodes... and they ran them out of order.

I remember watching that episode and not even being able to understand the point of water skiing with a shark, let alone jumping it. That was the last Happy Days episode I watched.

FirstNationalBastard: Guntram Shatterhand: invictus2: by which series listed? The New Leave it to Beaver didn't last that long and was horrendous.

Wikipedia notes that The New Leave It to Beaver lasted 104 episodes over five years and went from being a CBS reunion film to a Disney Channel regular series to being syndicated via TBS. I'm not correcting you, I'm just shocked that piece of shiat lasted that farking long. Jesus, the fashions in the '80s weren't the only thing without any taste. Gah.

Seriously, 104 episodes of a old show spinoff. And it's the second-longest running show as of this date. Jesus Christ.

Huh?

104 episodes and it's the "second longest running show"?

Impossible.

Many shows have produced more than 104 episodes.

If you mean second longest running as in years on the air... well, Simpsons, MASH, Ozzie and Harriet, Gunsmoke, ER... All went 11 years or more.

Sorry, I was badly quoting Wikipedia: they claim it's the second longest running type of show that was based off of the original show. Which makes little sense if you include Frasier in that, or several others.

Anyway, my bad. I was stunned by the fact that the surviving cast came back thirty years later to continue the show and that it somehow lasted.

ZeroCorpse: The problem wasn't that he jumped the shark, or that he was water skiing, or that he was in Hollywood.

The problem was that he was wearing a leather jacket and swim trunks while water skiing and jumping a shark in Hollywood.

Anyway, that wasn't what killed Happy Days. Richie and Ralph leaving the show and being replaced by Ted McGinley was the real doom for the show.

And that still wasn't as bad as when Laverne & Shirley moved the whole show to Hollywood, and in some weird twist, Carmine, Lenny, Squiggy, Laverne's father, and a few others characters all moved with them... And then Shirley left the show, so it was Laverne & Shirley without Shirley!!!

And somehow everybody involved near the end had hairstyles that weren't even close to being in the '50s. They gave up the premise to make the Fonzie show.

Mini Ditka: Pump your blood (new window)

/sorry

I'll always remember that as the moment Happy Days Pumped the Blood.

the irony is that not only does this guy not realize that he made Fonzie jump the shark, but that his own career truly did jump the shark at that moment. The bilge that he lists afterwards...are you farking kidding me? His career, Fonzie, and Happy Days all truly and completely jumped the shark the moment Fonzie jumped the shark.

...and now my fark commenting career just jumped the shark by osmosis.

I Guntram Shatterhand:Happy Days also showcased the eventual evolution and death of any sitcom ever: awkward beginning, cast change, usurpation by minor character, premise forgotten, minor character gets preachy and overbearing, and eventual end followed by the show vanishing for years, remembered fondly but not with the same amount of fame it seemingly had.

I am not enjoying the fact that I know this is happening with Big Bang Theory. The first season was mean-spirited, the second kinda fun, and from mid 2nd season on, Sheldon started slowly getting more and more screen time and becoming more and more central to the plots. I figure a decade from now, people will be saying, 'bazinga!' in reference to the show when they've forgotten how roughly it started and how stupidly it died.

Please imagine I put in the appropriate italics tags around the first paragraph in my previous post...

Happy Days was never the same without Chuck.

Happy Days wasn't the only the Fonz Jumped the Shark.

Link (new window)

nccvball: darth_nick23: Randal: "Remember that time i jumped over the shark infested water?"
Dante:"That wasn't you, that was The Fonz on an episode of Happy Days."

Randal: "Boy, Happy Days sure had a lot of great memories..."

I think that only lasted four episodes... and they ran them out of order.

Actually, there were six produced episodes, only two of which were shown, the fourth was first, then the actual second episode, which contained flashbacks to the unaired first episode. The 2-disc dvd set is hilarious, especially in the commentary.

Guntram Shatterhand: ZeroCorpse: The problem wasn't that he jumped the shark, or that he was water skiing, or that he was in Hollywood.

The problem was that he was wearing a leather jacket and swim trunks while water skiing and jumping a shark in Hollywood.

Anyway, that wasn't what killed Happy Days. Richie and Ralph leaving the show and being replaced by Ted McGinley was the real doom for the show.

And that still wasn't as bad as when Laverne & Shirley moved the whole show to Hollywood, and in some weird twist, Carmine, Lenny, Squiggy, Laverne's father, and a few others characters all moved with them... And then Shirley left the show, so it was Laverne & Shirley without Shirley!!!

And somehow everybody involved near the end had hairstyles that weren't even close to being in the '50s. They gave up the premise to make the Fonzie show.

/and then Carmine sang instead of Potsie.

This guy doesn't know the difference between a downward spiral and immediate cancellation followed by obscurity.

Nobody is saying that he took "Happy Days" and overnight turned it into "Small Wonder", we're saying that from that point on, it wasn't getting better and more entertaining, it was getting less entertaining from there on.

It got progressively stupider and less realistic with every episode from there on. Fonzie could make the jukebox work because he's been hanging out there with high schoolers for so long, we get it. Fonzie is a SUPER COOL GUY who is secretly a complete loser and a bit of a dick, we got that and it was someplace the show should have explored more, but instead we went off into this unrealistic stupid crap for six seasons before someone had the good sense to pull the plug.

Oh, and we got to see Arthur hanging out with Richie's mom and talk over breakfast in about 40 episodes.

/Heeeyyyyyyy.....

All this, and no one has mentioned how very shiatty the Jump the Shark Web site has become since TV Guide bought it. It's almost as if they bought it because they have a vested interest in maintaining the illusion that no TV show, ever, has gone downhill.

As for the author of the article, yeah, he's a total whiner. The end of the article is the best: He doesn't seem to take into account that his daughter's friend's "awesome" might have been ironic.

Surely in many ways the "Jump the shark" moment is the peak of the show, the very top, the summit, and from there its either a leap off a cliff or the downward spiral round the mountain of turd.

In many ways , If I was him, I would choose to interpret it that way!

/of course thats all bushiat, but still would help him sleep at night

The "California Kid" ski boat used in that episode belonged to my auto shop teacher. He used to bring it to the shop to work on it. He had a van with a matching paint job he used to tow it with.