guy who wrote "jump the shark" happy days episode reflects

[lester1/2jr]

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/sep/03/entertainment/la-et-jump-the-shark-20100903


I think what he's missing is that the act of jumping over the shark wasn't so awful, it was just about when the show started to suck.

After discussing different scenarios, we decided to take the "Happy Days" gang to Hollywood, with Fonzie invited for a screen test. One of the plot lines would be Fonzie clashing with "The California Kid," a cocky local beach boy. Since Henry water skied in real life, it was suggested the characters race and then, as a tiebreaker, have to jump a shark in a netted area in the ocean.

[Flick James]

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/sep/03/entertainment/la-et-jump-the-shark-20100903


I think what he's missing is that the act of jumping over the shark wasn't so awful, it was just about when the show started to suck.

After discussing different scenarios, we decided to take the "Happy Days" gang to Hollywood, with Fonzie invited for a screen test. One of the plot lines would be Fonzie clashing with "The California Kid," a cocky local beach boy. Since Henry water skied in real life, it was suggested the characters race and then, as a tiebreaker, have to jump a shark in a netted area in the ocean.

I think the main issue was that the Fonz started out as a side character (albeit an important side character) who was just a cool edgy rebel the goody-goody kids went to for advice on girls. Then he slowly morphed into some kind of super-cool heroic character who first jumped trash cans and would eventually jump sharks in California. Particularly funny is that he was still wearing his leather jacket.