We’re all familiar with the phrase “jumping the shark”, yes?
Well what would be a phrase that describes the opposite effect?
That is, at what point does a TV show shake off the early season awkwardness, pull things together and really hit its stride?
In order to serve as a parallel expression, the phrase would have to come from a relatively well-known series and indicate a point of reference that most viewers would be familiar with.
The only thing I can think of would be from Seinfeld. I say that the turning point for the show comes not from the Contest episode (though others may disagree) but when Kramer goes out to California to make it big. Incidentally I didn’t look online to see when exactly this episode falls in the series run. Some might say that the turning point of full-character development and then trade-mark Seinfeldian humor comes from an earlier or different episode such as the subway ep., the Contest, etc.
Anyway… I can’t find a suitable phrase that might match Jump the Shark. I know I’m supposed to offer one up to get the ball rolling and the only one I can think of might be “Kramer off to California” but I find this to be relatively lame.
“Faces its demons”? (from Buffy Season 2, when Angel and Buffy do the nasty and out comes Angeles [soulless-demon part of Angel who proceeds to wreak much havoc in Sunnydale]. Many think this season is when the show really hits its stride)
It could be said that Taxi took off when they made a regular of Rev. Jim. Maybe it could be called “Yellow Lighted”.
This was the 3rd show of the second season: Reverend Jim: A Space Odyssey. They had some very good shows before this and some lame shows. After Space Odyssey the show hit its stride. It gave us one of the most humorous scenes in TV history:
“Reverend Jim” Ignatowski: Pssssttt… what does the yellow light mean?
Bobby Wheeler: “Slow down.”
“Reverend Jim” Ignatowski: What… does… the… yellow… light… mean?
Bobby Wheeler: “Slow down”!
“Reverend Jim” Ignatowski: Whaaaat… dooooeeees… theeeee… yeeeel-looowwww… liiiiight… meeeeaaan?
So far this is older than the others and actually dates fairly close the the Jump the Shark episode of Happy Days which BTW, probably had already jumped the shark before that episode.
Jim
I see from the other thread, I had an older example and catch phrase:
**TDN ** suggested we call it “When the show got a BJ”.
But yet, when they killed off Yar, I felt better about the show.
I think they looked at the way Patrick Stewart had his scenes with the Oil Slick of Doom and the way Marina Sirtis had her scenes with the OSoD and they realized who their heavy hitter was.
I think Family Guy dramatically improved when it went from a show about Stewie trying to take over the world to a buddy comedy about a talking dog and gay, British baby.
I’d suggest the phrase “Took the Road to Rhode Island.”
The Superman franchise finally came into its own when the Man of Steel adopted a less pansy-lookingS, and learned to fly and not just kangaroo-hop everywhere.
The Simpsons really became master of its domain in the episode Blood Feud, at the very beginning of season 3. This was when it not only turned the focus from Bart to Homer, but made Homer not just stupid, but wacky-stupid. The creators of the show acknowledge this episode as the turning point.
Marge vs the Monorail is the other big ‘master of its domain’ episode since it was the first episode where the writers broke the rule of not doing episodes that wouldn’t have been possible on live action shows. From that point on, things got bigger and crazier.
Seinfeld definitely hit its stride in “The Chinese Restaurant,” one of the last episodes of season 2 and the first classic Senifeld episode. It was also a full two years before “The Contest.”
Chin up!
