Culture lockdown

[jlh]

Okay, made a new group for cultural literacy. Today's topic:

What TV shows had a GOOD final episode?

sub topic:

What TV shows never jumped the shark?
The list from jumptheshark.com

Jumping the shark is based on a particular episode of Happy Days where the Fonz jumped over a shark tank with his motorcycle. It was a silly stunt and pointed to the end of the show as a quality thing. Often shows jump when they bring on a new character to breathe new life into a show. This goes back to Holly's comments in Cassie's LJ about how series don't know when to quit.

By the way, Mary Tyler Moore used to be on the 'never jumped' list but isn't any more.

Comments

[nmalfoy.livejournal.com]

I think "Newhart" and "M.A.S.H" all had good final episodes.

[nmalfoy.livejournal.com]

And "St. Elsewhere".

[queerasjohn.livejournal.com]

*cocks head* What's jumping the shark? It sounds like that whale penis thing Anna had the other day...

[nmalfoy.livejournal.com]

*scrubs retinas* You had to mention the whale penis. Nevermind. I'm off to the bell tower now. Got bullets?

[evil-erato.livejournal.com]

Here's an old McPaperUSAToday article (http://www.usatoday.com/tech/2001-08-09-net-interest.htm#more) that explains it, somewhat. Basically, jump the shark means when the storyline started to go downhill, when a show/book/etc became more or less a parody of its former self.

At least, I think that's what it means :)

[jlh.livejournal.com]

check the now-edited entry. :)

[queerasjohn.livejournal.com]

Hmm.

Original Trek never jumped the shark. Not even with the movies -- V sucked but VI was great and Generations was good.

TNG had a good final ep. I liked All Good Things. Although I have yet to see Nemesis, it sounds like it's shark-jumping.

B5's final ep, too, was good. DS9's was less great, but that's because Brannon of Braga had started trying to make DS9 be B5, except suckier because they were trying to use Roddenberry characters in a JMS plot arc structure. Duh.

[marysiak.livejournal.com]

Agreed on original Trek and I liked the final ep of TNG too even though I had lost track a bit during the last couple of seasons.

I liked Nemesis a lot.

Enterprise was the true Trek shark jumping moment.

[evil-erato.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Is it a coincidence that most of the shows on the "never jumped" list are fairly old? I mean, the only one from that list that is still on the air (with new episodes, anyway) is "The Simpsons", and it's a cartoon that lampoons pop culture, so jumping the shark for them would be quite a feat.

Basically, writers these days just don't know when to let go. That's just. . . sad.

[nothingbutfic.livejournal.com]

Hrm. I'm tempted to say (insert sci-fi geekage here) that DS9, Blake's 7 and Quantum Leap all had kick-arse finales, although I'm not entirely sure if they jumped the shark or not.

[marysiak.livejournal.com]

I can't even get ep 21 to download never mind 22, I haven't even seen the last ep of Angel yet. gah!

American Gothic was good all the way through I thought, but it only did half a season.

X-Files jumped the shark, the dolphin and the whale.

Babylon 5 never jumped the shark but it was hampered by politics in it's final season. I liked it's last episode anyway.

Smallville started on the other side of the shark.

I don't remember the MASH final ep but I'm sure it rocked, MASH always rocked.