Jump The Shark - Ft.US Edition

vampire movies/tv shows/books/everything.

jumptheshark.com was purchased by TV Guide and ruined.

I'm still a little bitter.

Family Guy was done before it came back.

http://splitsider.com/2011/03/10-sitcoms-that-lost-their-lead-actors-and-kept-going

The only one out of that group I'd say really succeeded was Cheers. On the other hand, I'm one of the minority who found Diane Chambers a much funnier character than Rebecca Howell. She was certainly a less likable character, but the repartee between her and Sam Malone was my favorite part of the show.

MASH also pulled off replacing two of its leads and stayed great for 11 seasons.

It's really a minority? I'm with you on this one -- no question really. They did an admirable job of surviving after she left but Kirstie Alley was most definitely a downgrade.

forgive the long post, but this:

LISA
Why is that mirror sneezing?

MAN
Ah, look, it's just an old, creaky mirror, y'know, sometimes it sounds a little like it's sneezing, or coughing, or talking softly.

LISA
Hmm...

The man gives a thumbs-up to the mirror.

MAN
Now, you each have a knob in front of you. When you like what you see, turn the knob to the right. When you don't like what you see, turn it left.

RALPH
(with knob in mouth) My knob tastes funny.

MAN
Please refrain from tasting the knob.

First up, Itchy & Scratchy play pool. Itchy knocks out Scratchy's eyeballs with a cue ball and Scratchy replaces them with two pool balls. The kids laugh turn their knobs to the right. The next cartoon is set on an island. While Itchy & Scratchy sunbathe, a muscle-bound man in bikini trunks flexes in front of the camera. Nelson turns Milhouse's knob repeatedly to the right.

MILHOUSE
Hey, quit it!

From behind the mirror, Meyers and two other people watch on a monitor.

MEYERS
They like Itchy, they like Scratchy, one kid seems to love the Speedo man... what more do they want?

Back with the focus group.

MAN
Okay, how many of you kids would like Itchy & Scratchy to deal with real-life problems, like the ones you face every day? (the kids all cheer and agree) And who would like to see them do just the opposite - getting into far-out situations involving robots and magic powers? (more cheering) So, you want a realistic, down-to-earth show... that's completely off-the-wall and swarming with magic robots? (The kids agree)

NELSON
Yeah, good.

MILHOUSE
And also, you should win things by watching!

The man sighs. The light is turned on in the observation booth, and Meyers appears at the mirror.

MEYERS
You kids don't know what you want! That's why you're still kids: 'cause you're stupid! Just tell me what's wrong with the freakin' show!

He turns the lights out. Ralph starts crying and turns his knob to the left.

RALPH
Mommy!

LISA
(talking to the mirror) Um, excuse me sir. The thing is, there's not really anything wrong with the Itchy & Scratchy show, it's as good as ever. But after so many years, the characters just can't have the same impact they once had.

Meyers turns the light back on.

MEYERS
That's it. That's it, little girl! You've saved Itchy & Scratchy!

A lawyer enters the room, holding papers.

LAWYER
Please sign these papers indicating that you did not save Itchy & Scratchy.

At Itchy & Scratchy, Intl., Meyers has called a meeting of the writers (who look strikingly similar to the real Simpsons writers) along with Krusty and a female network executive.

MEYERS
I have figured out how to rejuvenate the show. It's so simple, you egghead writers would've never thought of it! What we need is... a new character! One that today's kids can relate to!

The writers look at each other, uncertain.

OAKLEY
Are you absolutely sure that's wise, sir? I mean, I don't want to sound pretentious here, but Itchy and Scratchy comprise a dramaturgical dyad.

KRUSTY
Hey, this ain't art, it's business! (to Meyers) Whaddya got in mind? Sexy broad? Gangster octopus?

MEYERS
No, no. The animal chain of command goes mouse, cat, dog. (to the writers) D-O-G.

WEINSTEIN
Uh, a dog? Isn't that a tad predictable?

EXECUTIVE
In your dreams. We're talking the original dog from hell.

OAKLEY
You mean Cerberus?

EXECUTIVE
(pause) We at the network want a dog with attitude. He's edgy, he's "in your face." You've heard the expression "let's get busy"? Well, this is a dog who gets "biz-zay!" Consistently and thoroughly.

KRUSTY
So he's proactive, huh?

EXECUTIVE
Oh, God, yes. We're talking about a totally outrageous paradigm.

MEYER
Excuse me, but "proactive" and "paradigm"? Aren't these just buzzwords that dumb people use to sound important? Not that I'm accusing you of anything like that. I'm fired, aren't I?

MEYERS
Oh, yes.

MEYERS
The rest of you writers start thinking up a name for this funky dog; I dunno, something along the line of say... Poochie, only more proactive.

KRUSTY
Yeah!

Meyers, Krusty and the network executive leave.

OAKLEY
So, Poochie okay with everybody?

WRITERS
Yeah...

An animator, who looks like David Silverman, draws a sketch of a dog.

MEYERS
No, no, no! He was supposed to have attitude.

SILVERMAN
Um... wh-what do you mean, exactly?

MEYERS
Oh, you know, attitude, attitude! Uh... sunglasses!

EXECUTIVE
Can we put him in more of a "hip-hop" context?

KRUSTY
Forget context, he's gotta be a surfer. Give me a nice shmear of surfer.

EXECUTIVE
I feel we should rastafy him by ... ten percent or so.

Silverman redraws Poochie. They're still not totally satisfied.

MEYERS
Hmm... I think he needs a little more attitude.

Silverman blackens in Poochie's sunglasses.

EXECUTIVE
Oh yeah, bingo. There it is, right there!

KRUSTY
Yeah, that's it!

MEYERS
I love it!

The next morning, The Simpsons eat breakfast. Bart notices the headline in the newspaper Homer is reading: "Funny Dog To Make Life Worthwhile".

The Simpsons stopped being funny and relevant over a decade ago. Someone please let Irish John know. I do not know of another person on the planet who has watched that show once this millennium. Actually, by now, it's like asking questions about Three's Company or The Dating Game, I guess, where it doesn't matter because it's just a TV classic.
Two and a Half Men was at one point a good show? I do not believe you.
We can thank The Office for one thing: a big shift away from taping in front of a live studio audience. As a general rule, I do not care for audience laughter. I usually like comedy to be more dry. I don't regularly watch Parks and Rec, but it has some funny stuff (Ron Swanson and Tom Haverford), and their formula clearly follows that of The Office. Same goes for Modern Family, which uses the interview shots that were popularized by The Office. I'd previously only seen that done on The Real World. Imagine Modern Family with a live studio audience. It would be drastically less funny.

I think the term JTS has jumped the shark.
The only cartoon I've ever watched was Southpark. (I never get the "Simpson's Question").
I think "An Idiot Abroad" JTS this season. (only its second one!).
I just wasn't as enamored as the first season. Karl seems like he's too in on the joke this time.

Any time a new little kid is introduced.

Absolutely. I refuse to watch shows/movies with kids in them.
They have nothing to add, unless its to make the adults look stupid.
Yech...
Kids are the kiss of death, in so many, many ways.

speaking of kids, the office jumped the shark way back when they finally let pam and jim get together, and then it jumped a whole ohter shark when pam got preggo. i still watch it as filler TV

i dont think many shows were still filmed in front of live audiences before the office, they just used laugh tracks. i find the laugh track in the big bang theory funny because its so consistently terrible.

Comedy Central

In the past, shows used to unofficially announce that they'd JTS by doing some kind of going-back-in-time/ dream sequence episode -- like maybe a b&w, hard-boiled detective thing where all the normal characters had period piece roles or whatever. I haven't seen many shows lately* -- I wonder if they still do that?

*this is not an "I don't watch TV" thing -- I pretty much only watch sports.

Portlandia. Every episode is the same lame joke. I watched the entire first season in one evening and it became increasingly tedious with each episode.

Ah - the "Oliver" effect from the Brady Bunch.

I fear you aren't part of the right demographic/subculture for it to appeal to. It really only appeals to those it parodies.

Also, you might want to doublecheck what jumping the shark is. A show that you never liked can't jump the shark.

I loved the first episode and I don't need the series explained...I get it. I could see it as a running skit on SNL but I don't think it works as a TV show. How many ways can you poke fun at a group of people before you run out of fresh material?

How long did stuffwhitepeoplelike last?

how long did it last or how long was it funny?

I guess how long was it funny? I just looked and its last numbered thing was Banksy (129) which white people most certainly do like, though Bob Marley is 125 and thats the wrong kind of white people. But the last couple pages of actual content were still pretty solid.

So like, there are at least 100-125 solid ideas to be parodied in portlandia, plus anything that has become popular since 2009 when the stopped updating thingswhitepeoplelike. Thats easily enough for the two seasons its had, and maybe a third. I don't see it being a long-running show, though.

true, i guess you only need 4-5 an episode.

speaking of things that white people like, has anyone noticed that the majority of swiss gear backpack owners are white business types?

Of course, there are no black Swiss people. :)

I may have enjoyed Portlandia more had I not done the viewing marathon. Same thing happens if you read too many Far Side comics at once. I'm not sure if this applies to anything genre other than comedy/sitcoms. I can watch well written science fiction without losing interest.

The 'business types' part of the description is more important than the skin color in this case. And yes I have noticed it. A different kind of white people, for sure.

This exact behavior is parodied in season 2 when they watch Battlestar Gallactica in its entirety.
The finale really cut like a knife with the waiting in line for brunch. Waiting an hour for brunch: acceptable. Waiting fifteen minutes to get into a bar: verboten.

You can't correct my sense of humor, or lack thereof. I won't listen. My fingers are in my ears and I'm going "naahahhahahahhamananahahah".

This sounds like a reasonable explanation. I find that only serialized (or at least semi-serialized) shows are good for marathon watching. If you aren't excited about finding out what happens next you just end up noticing all the ways the episodes are similar.

Portlandia for me, among other 30m comedy shows like Archer and Nick Swardson's Pretend Time, is a kind of time-filler show. When I don't want to commit to an hour long show or just generally want to be able to tune in and out without losing the story (cooking, writing emails, whatever) they are perfect to have around.

it's like some kind of mafia in suburban station in the morning. do they give them out for free at the departure septa stations?

Portlandia is good when you have a lot of laundry to fold.

I'm just glad Knight Rider wS canceled before it could JTS. Best theme song ever.

this just showed up in google reader for me. read the first line!

Battlestar was parody was great.
two other highlights this past season for me were the canoe dancing (Erasure, YES!) and the Portland Timbers (both for design nerds and soccer fan) skits. the brunch was a bit of a let down as a finale, despite it's collection of Fred and Carrie characters in it.
and i totally got into this show based on a marathon viewing and laundry folding.

I enjoyed the BSG skit just because I'm a fan of BSG and always want more. I'm not entirely sure I got what the joke was though. I feel like there must have been a lead up to this in other skits in the episode?

BSG didn't work for me. Way too many religious messages. There were times when I thought I was being hoodwinked buy some evangelical nerd.

That's not possible. It can't get less funny. I liked the first season. Now it's become Everybody Loves Raymond and jokes are telegraphed 10 minutes in advance. Blergh.

Correction:

…they made a US version.

Weeds jumped the shark a few seasons ago. Probably when they left Agrestic. I've watched it all out of devotion, but it really should have just stopped.

I still watch it because there ain't nothing else on Monday nights.

oh get out of here with that anglophile snobbery. the first season was more or less a scene by scene remake but for a couple seasons the US version both went its own way and was really good.

I watched the first 2 episodes. It was meh. Just seemed like a bunch of suburban sillyness with some pot smoking thrown in to make it "edgy".

i'm a huge fan of the british office, but i thought the first three seasons of the US office were hilarious.

The term "craft beer" has JTS. It's like the term "Alternative music" in the early 00's at this point.

Can't we just say something like "expanded beer menu"?

depending on the establishment that could mean they now carry bud select and guinness widget cans.

At this point, it should just be "beer". A generic term. Like car.

New restaurant coming: FOOD.

That's it. Food.

Artisinal foods, and heirloom vegetables have JTS, I'd say.

I often think this site has JTS.

Thank you. If you say you have rotating beers on tap I'm not going to assume you mean rotating between Coors Light and Michelobe Ultra.

I think using your address as a screen name has JTS.

Probably. Maybe I'll change it to something nobody would ever think of...like my initials. That would be both radical and unique.

So, did Walking Dead just JTS when that ninja woman showed up with the zombies chained to her like pets?

It doesn't suit me. Meh.

The US Office was too hammed up for me. At times I felt like they were saying to the audience "you are not smart enough to understand subtle/obscure/intelligent references so we're going to either smash you over the head with it or explain it until it's not funny." The UK version at least gave you a little credit.

i thought that myself and was gonna see if anyone thought the same thing here.
the "talking dead" aftershow said she's a main character in the comic. aside from the zombie concept, the strength of its drama and character development has largely avoided the comic book cliché. i think the new crop of characters will satisfy the fanboys but possibly alienate others.

the strength of its drama?!?!

An empty shell of a show, without Gareth.

I guess I haven't really kept up with south park but holy crap the first episode of the new season is terrible

Week in and week out it's rather exciting, emotional and unexpected. Last I checked that's a drama.

Well I wouldn't say it was any of those things, but different folks, different strokes

It was, except for the TSA ladies in the bathroom. It's like they channeled the staff at the Philly airport.

Walking Dead has gotten pretty bad, but I'm following LOST protocol: I've watched this far, so I can't stop, no matter how bad it gets.
I hate that Talking Dead exists. I watch Walking Dead On Demand, and Talking Dead gets put in the same folder, so I've started to watch it on accident, which was confusing the first time. Caring about zombies is bad enough. Caring about what the guy from MTV's Singled Out has to say about it is just depressing as a concept.

Indeed.

Yea, but Pam and What's-his-name are sooooo CUTE! (Big blinking eyes emoticon)

yo! honestly the UK office wasnt very subtle/obscure either.

I Kinda feel the same way. Lot of repetition in the last season - go to town, Shane and Old Man argue, Pregnant lady does something stupid and loses her kid. I still enjoy it though.

I don't watch the Talking thing for the same reason I don't watch any interviews with actors. If I realize how utterly stupid/annoying/vacuous they are in real life, it makes it hard to watch them act.

No one does cringe humor as well as Ricky Gervais. Period. Not up for discussion.
And I love cringe humor.

woah hold on, its hard keeping up with your moving goalposts.

Me?

everyone pretending that the US office was never worth watching.

Oh, it was fine considering the fare thats available on US tv. (I'm kinda getting annoyed with the fact that every decent show has to break that fourth wall, and acknowledge me the viewer, with smug little winks or stares, etc.)

It's kinda like watching one of those really good cover bands.
"Wish You Were Here" might be a good imposter, but it's no Pink Floyd.

arrested development was great at making subtle jokes without assaulting the viewer. i miss that show.

And it got cancelled after three seasons. While terrible shows that browbeat you with "zany" "humor" stay on for years. Blecch.

30 Rock is approaching the jump status. Jenna and Tracy are obnoxious and are rarely funny. I dislike seeing them as characters. I re-watch the first season, and feel like there's a spark missing now.

I can only take so many jokes about how tina fey's character isn't attractive

j/k i continue to watch those jokes every week because i dont have anything better to do!

i've only seen 30 rock once, and it didn't appeal to me. maybe one day i'll give it another chance. probably not, though.

Heaven forbid you might actually like something.

i like plenty of things, thank you. things that don't suck.

Sounds to me like everyone watches sitcoms incorrectly. They are candy. Some candy tastes better than others but in the end it's still just empty calories. They should be consumed as a fun snack whenever they happen to be around.

No doubt the UK office had its over the top moments as well -- nothing wrong with that when the situation calls for it. But they did a better job of balancing the zany moments with subtler, lower-key humor than the US version did. I feel the same way about shows like Family Guy. Plenty of funny ideas but it's such a constant assault there's no dynamics at all.

Alec Baldwin is the only reason to watch 30 Rock.

I'm in love with tina fey.

Its the shotgun approach to comedy. Mel Brooks invented it, I believe. Throw a hundred one liners out there, and a couple of them are bound to be funny.
I'd rather not, thank you. Some of the funniest things I've ever seen didn't need any words at all.
Brings me back to "Wilfred"...accept the premise, sit back and enjoy.
I've never seen the Australian version, but because the the same guy co-produces and stars in the American verision, and its on FX, I think its probably a close approximation.

i never watched 'Talking' until this last episode. someone didn't record the finale in HD, so i wanted to watch it again. the production insight about the burning barn collapsing was pretty cool but otherwise they're trying to extend the brand as far as possible. i remember the Project Runway aftershow a few seasons ago. why?

repetition: this season could've been edited down to 8 solid episodes. i think they made up for the inconsistency but the future of the show depends on the next season.

anyone remember newsradio? jimmy james will always be my favorite sitcom boss.

Yeah. Did you know that Ray Romano was supposed to have Joe Rogans role in that show, but tested badly.

that's pretty funny. i'm always surprised the guy who played joey in friends didn't get it.

i'm also secretly in love with maura tierney.

Joe Rogan is a class A jerk.

Oooh...pray tell. I always liked him, but of course, no personal knowledge.

http://youtu.be/-6xENiFq0B4?hd=1&t=1m38s

Even if I could, it would lose effect and context. But its just the first thing that pops into my head anytime I hear Joe Rogan's name.

I met him in person, and he was a jerk. Stuck on himself, and VERY short.

Short man syndrome, or short-something-else syndrome, perhaps.

Jerky Jerkerson.

I never really liked joe rogan's comedy, but i loved his war on carlos mencia