# Classic series that jumped the shark **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 20, 2009, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-series-that-jumped-the-shark/486769 "2009-02-20T20:54:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MacSpon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@MacSpon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacSpon)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-series-that-jumped-the-shark/486769/1 "2009-02-20T20:54:58Z")
It’s pretty common to talk about modern series, whether TV, film or literary, jumping the shark. But what about classic series? Can anyone think of examples of series more than, say, eighty years old, that jumped the shark? I would propose Conan Doyle’s “Professor Challenger” series, that went totally off-track with “The Land of Mist”. Any others? ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-series-that-jumped-the-shark/486769/2 "2009-02-20T21:20:56Z")
> [@MacSpon](#): > > It’s pretty common to talk about modern series, whether TV, film or literary, jumping the shark. But what about classic series? Can anyone think of examples of series more than, say, eighty years old, that jumped the shark? > > I would propose Conan Doyle’s “Professor Challenger” series, that went totally off-track with “The Land of Mist”. > > Any others? The New Testament. Once they wrote Jesus out of it, it went straight in the toilet. ---
**Author:** ![Fiddle\_Peghead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddle_peghead/32/3506_2.png) [@Fiddle\_Peghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiddle_Peghead)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-series-that-jumped-the-shark/486769/3 "2009-02-20T21:26:54Z")
My memory is vague, but I think _All in the Family_ jumped after the arrival of little Joey. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-series-that-jumped-the-shark/486769/4 "2009-02-20T21:32:59Z")
The Professor Challenger series is an excellent example; but I’ll be danged if I can think of any others. …Although I do remember some literary critic’s comment that Holmes never seemed quite the same after the fall at the Reichenbach. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f0a364/32.png) [@Rube\_E.Tewesday](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rube_E.Tewesday)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-series-that-jumped-the-shark/486769/5 "2009-02-20T21:35:10Z")
Everyone’s heard of _Tom Sawyer_ and _Huckleberry Finn_, but there are probably good reasons why _Tom Sawyer Abroad_ and _Tom Sawyer, Detective_ are less well-known. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-series-that-jumped-the-shark/486769/6 "2009-02-20T21:37:43Z")
There are literary examples, but most of the ones I know aren’t that old. L. Sprague de Camp, for example, once wrote that his own series of Johnny Black stories (Who? I hear you ask. Never mind) went downhuill after the very first story. In today’s language, it “jumped the shark” after the first installment. One old example I’d give is the Christmas Books of Charles Dickens. He wrote five, of which “A Christmas Carol” was the first, and by far the best. I know there are folks who’d disagree with me, but I couldn’t stand any of the others, though I worked my way through them. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-series-that-jumped-the-shark/486769/7 "2009-02-20T21:42:10Z")
Speaking of Jumping the Shark, the official “Jump the Shark” Web site has jumped the shark big time. Last time I checked it was part of TV Guide’s Web site, and they don’t have crap on there anymore other than a few celebrity news stories. I used to love their searchable database of TV shows and read the comments people had left. ---
**Author:** ![cjepson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cjepson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cjepson)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-series-that-jumped-the-shark/486769/8 "2009-02-20T22:34:55Z")
> [@Rube\_E.Tewesday](#): > > Everyone’s heard of _Tom Sawyer_ and _Huckleberry Finn_, but there are probably good reasons why _Tom Sawyer Abroad_ and _Tom Sawyer, Detective_ are less well-known. Yep – I have “Tom Sawyer, Detective” and it’s a total pot-boiler. I guess the Oz books might qualify… there were 40 of them, written between 1900 and 1963… various writers took over after L. Frank Baum’s death, including the illustrator, John R. Neill, and some of the results were pretty spotty. ---
**Author:** ![Scarlett67](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scarlett67/32/7387_2.png) [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-series-that-jumped-the-shark/486769/9 "2009-02-20T22:41:31Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > L. Sprague de Camp, for example, once wrote that his own series of Johnny Black stories (Who? I hear you ask. Never mind) L Sprague was the model for Isaac Asimov’s Black Widowers character Geoffrey Avalon. Sheesh, **everybody** knows that. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Strassia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@Strassia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strassia)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-series-that-jumped-the-shark/486769/10 "2009-02-20T23:06:26Z")
> [@Rube\_E.Tewesday](#): > > Everyone’s heard of _Tom Sawyer_ and _Huckleberry Finn_, but there are probably good reasons why _Tom Sawyer Abroad_ and _Tom Sawyer, Detective_ are less well-known. I would say that Twain jumped the shark when Tom showed up near the end of Huck Finn. From then on it was kiddie adventure time that continued in the latter books. Detective was a fun read for a 12 year old, but the first part of HF will always be a classic. Jonathan ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2009, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-series-that-jumped-the-shark/486769/11 "2009-02-20T23:40:38Z")
Anne of Green Gables is a classic. Anne of Avonlea is pretty good. The rest of the series is meh. Anne isn’t nearly as charming as an adult. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-series-that-jumped-the-shark/486769/12 "2009-02-21T00:20:46Z")
> [@Fiddle\_Peghead](#): > > My memory is vague, but I think _All in the Family_ jumped after the arrival of little Joey. But I did like the scenes where Archie was complaining about Warren G. Harding. _psst_ read the OP a bit more closely this time. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-series-that-jumped-the-shark/486769/13 "2009-02-21T00:22:29Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > There are literary examples, but most of the ones I know aren’t that old. L. Sprague de Camp, for example, once wrote that his own series of Johnny Black stories (Who? I hear you ask. Never mind) went downhuill after the very first story. In today’s language, it “jumped the shark” after the first installment. I never could bear that series. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-series-that-jumped-the-shark/486769/14 "2009-02-21T00:25:12Z")
I read a lot of the first batch of Tom Swift books, which actually got better with time - for a while. By the mid-30s, the one I read had Tom fomenting a revolution in a South American country in order to get the metal he needed to build an ocean platform. I suspect Howard Garis had stopped writing them by that time, and it showed. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-series-that-jumped-the-shark/486769/15 "2009-02-21T00:33:16Z")
Homer’s Trojan War series really jumped the scylla before he reached _The Iliad_. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-series-that-jumped-the-shark/486769/16 "2009-02-21T00:33:22Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > By the mid-30s, the one I read had Tom fomenting a revolution in a South American country in order to get the metal he needed to build an ocean platform. _Tom Swift and his Ugly American_ ? ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-series-that-jumped-the-shark/486769/17 "2009-02-21T01:06:06Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I never could bear that series. I saw what you did there… ---
**Author:** ![MacSpon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@MacSpon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacSpon)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-series-that-jumped-the-shark/486769/18 "2009-02-21T01:25:39Z")
I’ve been trying to decide if Gilbert & Sullivan jumped the shark, or if they just became less popular because of (a) changing fads and (b) the fact that they weren’t working well together any more. I suspect that their last couple of operettas are more or less unknown because of (b), rather than any particular shark-jumping, but I admit I’m not an expert on G&S. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-series-that-jumped-the-shark/486769/19 "2009-02-21T03:38:57Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > Speaking of Jumping the Shark, the official “Jump the Shark” Web site has jumped the shark big time. Last time I checked it was part of TV Guide’s Web site, and they don’t have crap on there anymore other than a few celebrity news stories. I used to love their searchable database of TV shows and read the comments people had left. Just confirmed that you are right! I mean all that’s left of the original is a menu of common shark jumping categories-everything else is gone zip kaput, click on a category and you get one short example, nothing else. Damned shame. ---
**Author:** ![Petrobey\_Mavromihalis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/bcef8e/32.png) [@Petrobey\_Mavromihalis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Petrobey_Mavromihalis)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2009, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-series-that-jumped-the-shark/486769/20 "2009-02-21T07:43:24Z")
> [@Just\_Some\_Guy](#): > > Homer’s Trojan War series really jumped the scylla before he reached _The Iliad_. We’ll forget about the whole authorship problem, but two other points: It’s generally agreed that _The Iliad_ predates _The Odyssey_. Are you saying both are bad? Are you just saying _The Iliad_ is bad? Please give it another go if so. Book 2 is a drag (although it sounds good in the original), but the rest is fabulous. Try Robert Fitzgerald’s translation, or Christopher Logue’s retellings. Maybe I’ve misunderstood you, though. ETA In fact I think I have, and you were just making a joke! I’ll let this stand, though, just in case. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/classic-series-that-jumped-the-shark/486769.md?page=2)