Vote for why you think it jumped
Exit...Stage Left (Richie)
Fonzie-mania
70's style in the 50's
Live (Studio Audience)
Theme Song Change (Rock Around The Clock to Happy Days)
Shark Bytes
I agree that the show jumped the shark when they went to a live audience that applauded every time any actor appeared on camera, and they made Fonzie a regular. He was a facet of the life Richie lived, and should not have been made a main character.
The show originally worked because when it first came out, it gave a glimpse both into the nostalgia, and into the uncomfortable comformity and hypocrisy the white culture lived in, trying to insulate itself from real issues that encroachd anyway. Some of the early episode were relevant in that respect, and they should have pushed that; the racial tensions, the injustice, the antiseptic and suffocating conformity that any adolescent could relate to. They lost all that relevancy when they turned it into a "sitcom". The sad part is, fans like me would tune in hoping for a return to something that made some kind of a statement, and it was a disappointment every time, until I (and many others) stopped watching.
Then we had "Joanie Loves Chachi" (I can hear you gagging now); a distillation of the worst elements of what the show became. Too bad... the show and the fans deserved better
The show originally worked because when it first came out, it gave a glimpse both into the nostalgia, and into the uncomfortable comformity and hypocrisy the white culture lived in, trying to insulate itself from real issues that encroachd anyway. Some of the early episode were relevant in that respect, and they should have pushed that; the racial tensions, the injustice, the antiseptic and suffocating conformity that any adolescent could relate to. They lost all that relevancy when they turned it into a "sitcom". The sad part is, fans like me would tune in hoping for a return to something that made some kind of a statement, and it was a disappointment every time, until I (and many others) stopped watching.
Then we had "Joanie Loves Chachi" (I can hear you gagging now); a distillation of the worst elements of what the show became. Too bad... the show and the fans deserved better
HAPPY DAYS jumped the shark after the "Love American Style" episode aired. It was an atrocious show from the get-go. That's the irony of naming this site for an episode that obstensibly signaled a decline in quality of the show...because the show was ALWAYS BAD!
Every couple of weeks it seems people ask about why there is no 'Fonzie jumps the shark' option in the voting. And every couple of weeks there are answers to that question that make sense. I was wondering this too but as I have read many posts, I understand why. Maybe those of you who actually care about this ought to go back and do some reading. This tired argument gets recycled so often it makes my head spin.
Moderator: Maybe you should just add a 'Fonzie Jumps the Shark' option, just so we don't have to keep reading this same, worn out post every other week. Isn't there a way someone can just add it themselves, come to think of it? Below the options it says, "Don't see your reason? Submit it here." Maybe someone should just add it themselves instead of beating a dead horse.
Moderator: Maybe you should just add a 'Fonzie Jumps the Shark' option, just so we don't have to keep reading this same, worn out post every other week. Isn't there a way someone can just add it themselves, come to think of it? Below the options it says, "Don't see your reason? Submit it here." Maybe someone should just add it themselves instead of beating a dead horse.
i agree with lisa! who names this website about the fonz jumpimg the shark as a pit fall for a show and doesn't even use it as an option?! obiously we are dealing with a new kind of idiot!
This website jumped the shark when it failed to offer me the episode where the fonz jumps the shark as a voting option. Really? It coined the phrase.
Good post, Mack. I would also add for consideration a couple of other Supreme Court decisions made in the early 60s that have only brought darkness on our land.
I am currently watching HD late at night on cable, and they are jumbling the show order up, leading me to ask "when DID it all go downhill?" I mean, I saw most of the episodes the first time they ran, but with the benefit of hindsight... It's still going to take some time to do the research! Tonight's episodes were obviously early in the run, and they were good. Hadn't jumped yet, and Joanie was still cute.
BUT STILL: I think someone needs reading glasses here. The "guest" was making a comparison to post WWII life in the USA during the 50's which by most accounts was much the same social conformist vision as Germany was in the 40's. Everything's white. clean, and neat.
It's interesting to note that there hasn't been a show about the swinging 20's, which was when things were really interesting in the USA - before the great depression, before the government started really truly fucking things up, before the solidification of the two-party system that passes as democracty here.
Before all the commercialization started ruining personal expression. Think of all the indie pop and candy manufacturers in the US that were around up until even the 70's, now we got BOTH KINDS: Coke, and Pepsi!
BUT STILL: I think someone needs reading glasses here. The "guest" was making a comparison to post WWII life in the USA during the 50's which by most accounts was much the same social conformist vision as Germany was in the 40's. Everything's white. clean, and neat.
It's interesting to note that there hasn't been a show about the swinging 20's, which was when things were really interesting in the USA - before the great depression, before the government started really truly fucking things up, before the solidification of the two-party system that passes as democracty here.
Before all the commercialization started ruining personal expression. Think of all the indie pop and candy manufacturers in the US that were around up until even the 70's, now we got BOTH KINDS: Coke, and Pepsi!
I saw the original pilot "Love & the Happy Days" on Love American Style way back in the early '70's. The first two seasons were great, but then they changed to a live studio audience, changed the theme song, changed the house, got rid of Chuck Cunnigham and made Fonzie a regular. In my opinion, that's when it jumped.
Last year the show appeared daily and I tried to watch what I believe was season 4 or 5 and found it extremely cringe-worthy.
Last year the show appeared daily and I tried to watch what I believe was season 4 or 5 and found it extremely cringe-worthy.
If there is but one phrase that does not exist in the mind of a network executive, it is "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
You see it in show after show, decade after decade. Shows like Happy Days. It began as a nostalgic look back to yesteryear. Everyone could relate - even kids of the time who knew only what their parents told them of life in the 50's.
Then it became popular. Then they destroyed the nostalgia, and produced tripe. And the really discouraging thing was that IT WORKED. Think about it. The live audience, the overacting, the ridiculous story lines, Super Fonzie, Chachi, - it made the show last many more seasons than it probably would have, because people kept tuning in.
So it's almost as if we're both right and both wrong. Most of us agree the later seasons were ridiculous and the show was ruined by the changes. But the network suits would say, "Hey, you kept tuning in..how do you think we lasted 10 seasons?"
You see it in show after show, decade after decade. Shows like Happy Days. It began as a nostalgic look back to yesteryear. Everyone could relate - even kids of the time who knew only what their parents told them of life in the 50's.
Then it became popular. Then they destroyed the nostalgia, and produced tripe. And the really discouraging thing was that IT WORKED. Think about it. The live audience, the overacting, the ridiculous story lines, Super Fonzie, Chachi, - it made the show last many more seasons than it probably would have, because people kept tuning in.
So it's almost as if we're both right and both wrong. Most of us agree the later seasons were ridiculous and the show was ruined by the changes. But the network suits would say, "Hey, you kept tuning in..how do you think we lasted 10 seasons?"
This show JTS when it portrayed Fonzie raping Joanie. Since when does the Fonz have to do something like that to get some tail??
To the last poster as "Guest:" the Nazi Holocaust was in the 1930s and 1940s. There were no Nazi concentration camps in the 1950s. Try getting a clue...
This show JTS when Mrs. Cunningham became a mega-bitch. She began to wear some supposedly contemporary but hideous hairstyle and went around yelling at everyone - to Howard for example - 'MAKE YOUR OWN LUNCH DAMMIT!!! I have hated that bitch ever since then and it only got worse when she carried her bitchiness on to the apple juice commercials she did and bitched about her kids always telling her they were thirsty. what a bitch!
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