Vote up the shows that got better by jumping the shark.
“Jumping the shark” is a phrase for when a singular novel event or episode distinctly changes the direction of a TV show. Whether it’s the tone, cast, or genre that experiences the transformation the change is usually obvious enough that you can pinpoint the episode in which it occurs. These “jump the shark” moments can vary vastly as the term has turned into more of a catch-all phrase in recent years. Originally spawning from a famous moment in the television show Happy Days, in which Henry Winkler’s Fonzi performed a water ski jump over a shark that seemed like an odd inclusion at the time, as part of a gimmicky episode in which the Wisconsinites go to California. Audiences now use the term for when a show seemingly feels they need to spice things up and make a change, or to signify that they have run out of ideas that fit in well with the story and must resort to attention-grabbing subplots to rope people into watching. Whether it is the threat of killing off a character that appears in a drama's commercials and promotions or maybe a celebrity is making a guest star appearance in a cable sitcom, jumping the shark can look many different ways.
While the act of jumping the shark has long had a negative connotation associated with it - usually being thought of as when a show turned bad or unoriginal - that is not always the case. Sometimes when TV shows jump the shark, the change they make is for the better, as maybe there was an alteration that needed to be made to make the show more interesting. Often times after shows commit the act, the story tends to have higher stakes than before and therefore ends up being more exciting from a pure entertainment standpoint. Whether a show just got wackier and therefore more fun, or if it didn't take itself so seriously after a big change, the act of jumping the shark was not a hindrance, but a blessing in these shows' cases.
Battlestar Galactica had gained a devoted and dedicated fanbase over the course of three seasons before they jumped the shark, and when they took the leap, it was no mere stunt for a rating boost. The show had always focused essentially on one thing: humanity's war with the Cylons, an evil cybernetic race determined to destroy all humans. So what happens when you find out that half the characters you have been following since the show's inception are actually Cylons? You get a lot of angry, confused fans with questions to be answered is what happens.
However, the dramatic turn would fuel the rest of the show with drama and situations that weren’t really possible before the big reveal. There had always been shocking reveals of who was really human or not but never had they made audiences question themselves and their favorite characters quite as much as this one did. This also pushed forward the main question of the show as well - how are Cylons really different from humans? We had unknowingly seen a Cylon get pregnant from a human man, so what else is there that could be a secret? As it turns out, there is plenty.
A show based around a wealthy family that’s fallen on hard times, Arrested Development is one of the most popular comedies of all time due to its self-aware humor and hilarious characters. It quickly gathered a reputation for originality and for pushing the boundaries of what is normally found in television shows. So when given the opportunity to make the most tongue-in-cheek joke possible, of course, they take their shot.
Henry Winkler, AKA the Fonz and famed actor who began the phenomena of “jumping the shark,” was a regular guest star on the show at the time, playing the family’s disturbed lawyer, Barry Zuckercorn. So after he briefs the family on some business down by a boat dock, as he makes his exit, he quite literally hops over a dead shark carcass moments before a show-changing event occurs, Buster’s hand is bitten off by a seal. This would result in Buster trying out a variety of different hands over the course of the program's remaining three seasons, with his hook hand leading to many of the show's funniest and strangest bits.
Arrested Development was a risk-taking show, and with the absurd lives its characters live, this jump the shark moment only helps further highlight the ridiculous nature of their existence.
Pretty Little Liars, much like Riverdale, began as a murder mystery set in a small town centered around the lives of high schoolers, and each week new questions were asked with few given answers. Following a group of girls who begin to get mysterious texts and threats from mystery killer “A” right after their friend Alison dies, the show would spend seven seasons gradually turning into one of the wildest and most mind-bending crazy TV experiences ever. What started as a simple mystery - who is this “A” that is tormenting our protagonists? - became the wildest of goose chases that dealt with seemingly every adult man in their town being a creep and an array of characters with their own strange issues making our core four’s lives harder at every turn.
What if they finally solved the mystery and discovered who was “A”? What if they did it in only the second season? Is the show just over? Of course not, but in the Season 2 finale when they discover who “A” is, the entire show basically turns into a never-ending cycle of new As taking over and playing copycat, and even teaming up with the original. So what’s supposed to be the biggest reveal of the entire show ends up being nothing more than a small plot twist in the confusing web that would become Pretty Little Liars after they spent a long seven seasons on the air. So while some people might not like that this reveal ends up providing little value, it is the first example of the writers just saying, “Screw it, let's make something crazy.”
There are few shows that grabbed audiences' attention as Lost did, and right from the start, the ABC drama was a smash hit. It had interesting characters with jaded and questionable backgrounds, and everyone's relationships with one another were unknown and mysterious. This all while they had to work together in order to survive on a magical island somewhere in the South Pacific following a plane crash. While undeniably popular - even winning an Emmy for best drama series in 2005 - Lost undoubtedly jumped the shark several times throughout its six-season run. From desperate attempts to increase audience viewership to completely random filler episodes, a wide variety of tricks and stunts were pulled on the JJ Abrams co-created drama.
Twenty-something episodes is a large order to fill, and especially a lot for a show that did not like answering questions, and would rather just keep asking more. This tall ask sometimes turned into dedicating entire episodes to stories that didn’t drive the plot forward whatsoever, such as the entire episode spent on the origins of a character’s tattoos. Yet, the biggest jump the shark moment happened in Season 5 when the victims who had successfully escaped the island and returned to civilization did the unthinkable and went back to their place of suffering. The mystery drew them back to the island where they had escaped almost certain death, but after rejoining society, they find they are unsatisfied with regular life, and so they decided to go back. Why on earth would they do that, you ask? Because it made for good TV and there isn’t really a show without the island is the simple answer. For that reason, people shouldn’t have been too surprised at the rash decision to make the trek back. The bold choice didn’t affect the show too poorly as it went on for another season until its end and still reached a wide audience of viewers.
Sometimes, networks just throw ideas out there to see if they stick. If the ratings are down, they must remedy that with some sort of change to the show that they can promote in commercials that grabs their viewers’ attention and leads to them needing to see more. This could mean anything from introducing a famous guest star as a new character to even more dramatic ploys, such as suggesting a character might die. The higher the stakes with these cliffhanger commercials, the better.
So when the small-town high school football drama Friday Night Lights, loosely based on a book and film of the same name, had struggled with its ratings after Season 1, NBC decided to take the drama in a new direction for its sophomore season. Thinking audiences would respond by upping the stakes, the second season kicks off with the nerdiest and goofiest character from the first season, Landry Clark, murdering a rapist and dumping his body in a river. Very different from his storyline in Season 1 in which he forms a Christian speed metal band named Crusafictorious! While NBC thought that this new criminal element would add the needed spark the show needed, they found audiences thought it was out of place and absurd. And then after just a handful of episodes, the whole debacle seemingly went away and was rarely talked about ever again. The writers discovered from that experiment they should stick to the kind of drama that they do best, which is that of football and relationships. That is exactly what they did, and from then on, whenever the stakes were raised, it was usually more like a key player says something racist and they have to decide whether to bench him or not, rather than having an honor student murder revenge plot. The show stuck around for three more critically acclaimed seasons, even snagging an Emmy for writing in its final season. A nice recovery from an unsteady beginning.
Twin Peaks is one of the most beloved cult classic television shows of all time, and with a creator like David Lynch at the helm, it was bound for a strange path from its inception. Though, when a show’s network gets involved in story decisions, things tend to stray from the original vision of the artist's work, and that is precisely what happened with Twin Peaks.
A small-town murder mystery satirizing soap operas, the show has now become recognized as one of the best TV dramas of all time, and that's in spite of revealing the biggest secret held in the writer's back pocket way before they intended. Twin Peaks, which was a relative success at the time of its release, was the recipient of some not-so-subtle pressure by their studio ABC to reveal who its killer was. The main mystery of the show and the driving force behind many of the characters' stories, this reveal wasn’t supposed to happen ever as it turns out, as David Lynch believed the mystery would make audiences continually wish to come back and watch. However, ABC thought viewers would grow tired of the mystery and in turn forced the show to reveal the dead teenage girl Laura Palmer’s killer early into the second season.
Some may point to this moment and say it was all downhill from here, but by revealing its killer, the show was then able to explore other stories and get even stranger as the second season went on. This need for fresh material resulted in more mysticism, magic, and general weirdness, to come from its sophomore season, and while it didn’t get renewed for a third, it did spark enough interest to make a prequel film, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me, and eventually after years of fans demanding for it, a third and final season. So while the path of the show may have been altered, it not only survived its jump the shark moment but thrived due to it.
