Shark Bytes

Season Two: When the show was pulled off location, where realistic outdoor sets were used, ala the show's inspiration, American Graffiti, the show died. Fonzie was a great, menacing, MINOR character, and everything on the show felt like the '50s. Season two ended all that with cheap sets, bad acting, stupid stories. Within three years, the show not only smelled like the '70s, they made no bones about trying to have it both ways. The show was great -- for one single year.

This show really Jumped the Shark in the episode where Fonzie decides to water ski and jump that shark. Never was this show "realistic," but I think that was a serious departure from the themes that had previously been established by the show's writers.

This show really jumped the shark when Fonzie jumped the shark while wearing his leather jacket while water skiing. Maybe if he said "It ain't cool to wear a leather jacket while water skiing" and took it off, then he would have jumped the shark so much when he did jump the shark...

The last post is one of hundreds of its kind! At one point, another poster referred to what these posters are doing as "beating a dead horse"! I am going to have to say that I can understand where this poster is coming from!

How is it possible that "Fonzie jumping the shark" is not even in the top-five reasons?! Do that many people really not know that that is where the expression "jumping the shark" comes from in the first place?

I would say that for this show the reason should be "the Fonz jumps a shark on a motorbike" *by definition*...

JTS When Bag and the demons no longer appeared on the show. Anyone know what happened to Neal J Schwartz?

Albeit the obvious, did anyone notice a sharp sounding electronics in the 1976 version of the theme song? It was also present in some of the music. Electronics in music didn't come about until the early to mid 1960s. It was accurate to a large extent until 1977. It should have left in '76 but one extra season wasn't that bad. Hard to believe Happy Days lasted unti 1984!

Happy Days jumped the shark when Fonzie jumped the shark on his motorcycle. Duh.

When Richie who was supposedly stationed in Greenland (was off the show) married Lori Beth over the phone with Fonzie standing in for him.

For me, Happy Days died when Fonzie grew his beard. He lost his cool!
And the whole Joanie/Chachi thing was totally boring.
I've bought the first three seasons on DVD, and each season is better than the one before it. I think that continued until season 5, by which time it was the #1 show on television.
And it still looks great over 30 years later!

Where I live in Chicago, WWME(ME-TV) started showing reruns of HAPPY DAYS. Looking back at the old episodes(and remembering the entire run of the show) made me come to the conclusion that the show jumped when Richie left. I always thought that the show is run on the friendship between the All-American Boy(Richie) and the Rebel Without a Cause(Fonzie) along with their other friends/family members orbitting around it. Once one of the two became persona non grata, there goes the center of the show, and what do you have left?

They got rid of Chuck.


That's when it jumped.


It all went downhill after that.
Such a shame because the first season had potential

Quiksilver bathing suits and Sperry Topsiders in one dance scene which would been around 1966. Face it, the show's producers gave up with continuity and authenticity. How did Potsie go from the Naive but adventurous best friend of Richie to a blithering idiot?

Come on Harry, you really liked the seasons with idiots like Flip & Piccalo? Those were appallingly bad and just not funny.

Aaron, I wasn't around in the '50s, yet I can guarantee that guys back then...and now, and in the 1800s, and the 1500s, and biblical times, etc...were interested in getting laid.

Libidos weren't just invented yesterday, ya know.