The phrase “jumped the shark” has come to mean that precise moment when a TV show (or more broadly any human endeavor in sports, politics, media) went too far and began going downhill.
But many people don’t realize that the phrase refers to an actual episode in 1977 from the TV show Happy Days when Fonzie literally “jumped a shark” on water skis. There is even a website http://www.jumptheshark.com devoted to the fatal missteps of hundreds of other TV programs.
Today comes an article in the Los Angeles Times by Fred Fox, Jr., the writer of that Happy Days episode defending it, but conceding that the phrase, much to his embarrassment, has now entered the lexicon of public culture.
Check it out HERE.
(Reprinted from USA Today)
