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« Hein Sight
Jumping The Shark in '07
The end of the year means cold weather, holiday parties, and lots and lots of lists. 2007 was not a banner year for TV. No breakout series, way too much reality programming, and the writers are still on a loooooong break.
It’s a good thing that we can count on the brilliant network minds to slap on the water skis and send a few shows over the fin every year.
Without further adieu, here are my most notable shark jumps in 2007:
The Writers Strike: I hope the writers get what they’re asking for, because having hardly any new TV just plain sucks. More rejected reality and scripted series will keep my DVD player quite busy until everyone comes back.
24: Coming off a stellar fifth season, 24 was a major disappointment right from the get go. Even Jack looked bored as he tracked down his evil dad, and I think CTU might have to close shop as this FOX drama needs to reinvent itself.
American Idol: It was the year of Sanjaya, and we had a blast trying to make Ryan Seacrest name him your next American Idol. But once Sanjaya was voted off, Idol had zero personality. Jordan defeated the beat-boxing Blake, but can you remember anything else about this blasé season? The ratings are there, and will remain thanks to the writers' strike, but interest is starting to wane.
The Sopranos: I can’t really call it jumping the shark because it happened at the end of its run, but that blackout still rubs me the wrong way. I miss the series, and I still wish I could actually see how it ended as Steve Perry’s vocal echoes in my head.
Entourage: HBO should just rename the show “The Wacky Adventures of Drama and Turtle”. How can you let this happen, E?
The Price Is Right: There’s nothing Drew Carey can do about this. It’s impossible to replace an icon like Bob Barker. Now go have your pets spayed or neutered.
Heroes: I’m still watching, but even the show’s creator admits there were a lot of mistakes made in Season 2. It reminds me too much of the second season of Lost— I stayed with the show, but recognized that some of the magic was gone.
John From Cincinnati: It’s David Milch, so you had to give it a couple of weeks. I did, and the most enjoyable thing about this confusing program was recognizing the actors from Deadwood.
Next week, I’ll cover the high points of the year in TV, and all that we have to look forward to in 2008.
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Dec 25, 2007 9:19 PM
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Also:
Donald Trump: Apprentice jumped the shark long ago (in its second season) but as long as Trump keeps touting it as "the #1 show on TV" and continues his shenanigans for publicity, like he did at the start of 2007 against Rosie O'Donnell, he will always go shark-jumping.
Deal or No Deal: They can gimmick it all they want but I've grown so tired of people selecting from suitcases that I'm almost apathetic to anyone ever winning the million-dollar prize.
The crime-procedural genre on CBS: If you look at the ratings outside of the original CSI, most of these crime dramas decreased 10-20% from last season.
Cane: The show that wanted so much to be like Dallas but didn't live up to it. The episode where Jimmy Smits' and Nestor Carbonell's characters were held hostage by a trio of gang members and then Smits' character sympathized with one of them, reminded me of other recent grossly manipulative, off-the-track episodes of Dawson's Creek (where Joey sympathized with her attacker) and Six Feet Under ("That's My Dog!").
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Dec 26, 2007 12:25 AM
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Scrubs. But actually it happened last season. If I had to narrow it down to a single factor I'd say it was knocking off LaVerne. Uneccessary and borderline sadistic-towards the viewers. Why put us through that?
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Dec 26, 2007 2:06 AM
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Good points, guys.
sonofthebronx - Excellent call on Deal or No Deal. The season began by adding a million dollar case after every game, and we also lost two of the Lucky Case girls. It made a ridiculously simple game show TOO ridicullously simple. Cane never got started, I can't tell the difference between any CBS crime drama, and Trump jumped a looooong time ago.
DaMess - I still enjoy Scrubs and I'm not sure it jumped, but everyone becoming a dad has put if awfully close. We know JD is going to end up with Eliot, so his parternal struggle was more annoying than anything else. The janitor and Dr. Cox are also getting a bit too soft, but the show still makes me laugh and I'll stick with it until the end.
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Dec 26, 2007 9:22 AM
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Thanks to the Writer's Strike I am watching less and less TV these days.
As the network digs into earlier episodes of the programs I like to watch I am seeing the quality of some programs are not there today.
When the Strike is over I will not be one of those who will be waiting for the new episodes of many programs. I was caught up in the programs because I felt a connection to the characters but this short season compared to the first 2 or 3 seasons seems bland.
Besides I've found other things to do with my time.
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Dec 26, 2007 5:41 PM
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You're right Jon. Scrubs is still watchable but, as you said about the janitor and Cox, it is getting too soft in general.
I wonder what the need is to make every character on American series lovable. The Brits don't sem to need to do it. Basil Fawlty, though often a sympathetic character, was always the put-upon, frustrated often petty weasel that he started out as. Ditto for Ricky Gervais's David Brent.
It's been done well enough on American TV that you'd think the lesson had been learned-Frank Burns and Angel Martin were consistently shifty and unreliable yet that didn't inhibit our enjoyment one bit.
Scrubs' tone has always veered too close to that of the emo music that peppers its soundtrack but used to be redeemed by it's writer's willingness to go for the jugular as well. Now, I hate to say, I'm not all that unhappy about seeing the series come to a close. Too bad. Not enough sitcoms as it is and rare few good ones at that.
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Dec 27, 2007 2:58 AM
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Jon Hein wrote:
I can't tell the difference between any CBS crime drama
Technically, you can separate CSI: Miami from the other CBS crime dramas despite its ratings decline: the enhanced coloring of the Miami setting looks great on television...
and the fact that it's currently CBS' #1 comedy! 
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Dec 27, 2007 7:25 PM
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Great one sonofthebronx. Another way to tell is that CSI:Miami is the one featuring the buffoonishly pretentious acting of David Caruso.
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Dec 28, 2007 3:45 AM
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I thought maybe I was the only one who was no longer laughing while I watched Entourage. I stuck out the entire thing thinking I was eventually going to laugh. I take it back. I did laugh at M. Night Shyamalan's cameo.
Much as it stings, I'm putting my vote in for "Law & Order: Special Victim's Unit". Last season was stellar in EVERY way. Casting, storytelling, compelling personal drama in the character's life (well, Olivia's at least).
This season we have: one very stilted performance by Adam Beach (and why add another character??? why???); very little Munch! (I mean, come on, It's MUNCH!); uninteresting casting (Aidan Quinn is just no Ludacris); and this totally hyped story about Stabler going blind and it was one episode (ONE EPISODE!).
I shouldn't care as much as I do, but I really love my SVU. This year it's unrecognizable, difficult to watch, and BORING.
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Dec 28, 2007 3:53 PM
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I think the current season of Scrubs (7) is making up for the serious missteps from last season (6). I sure do hope it gets a proper series finale.
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Dec 29, 2007 7:22 PM
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I have to (unfortunately) agree with the SVU vote. For me it wasn't the blindness storyline (although that came really, really close, if only for the overblown promotion), but the "Olivia is the only one who can save Eliot's wife and baby after a car crash" storyline. Ugh. That took the ridiculousness way too far.
I don't think all CBS crime procedurals have jumped the shark, but I think CSI: Miami did a long, long time ago, despite viewers still (dear God, why?) tuning in.
I'm not sure I'd say that Heroes jumped the shark yet. The second season was dreadful, but I still have hope. Lost managed to recover from a not-so-stellar second season with a pretty darn good third season (especially the last few episodes), so I have hope that Heroes can rebound as well.
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Dec 31, 2007 11:23 PM
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I too love L&O SVU but the episode that did me in was the was an anti-war, pro terrorist storyline that had nothing to do with SVU, only Dick Wolfe's hatred of the war. I don't like war either but this episode was pure Anti-American and it totally hit me the wrong way.
After 24's great Season 5, S6 was a let down but still better than 95% of all the other junk on TV, so it is still good to me.
I will hang with Scrubs to the end because it has a heart, the ability to make you LOL and I have watched it since the beginning. So writer's strike depending...I will finish the season.
And please writers...I know you deserve so much more than you are receiving but you are killing us. Please resolve soon so us TV watchers can get back to it!
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Jan 1, 2008 10:26 AM
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