# When Did Stephen King Jump the Shark? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 10, 2004, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-stephen-king-jump-the-shark/233540 "2004-03-10T20:11:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Baranlaith](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@Baranlaith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baranlaith)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-stephen-king-jump-the-shark/233540/1 "2004-03-10T20:11:39Z")
When Did Stephen King Jump the Shark? [http://www.bookslut.com/fear\_factor/2004\_01\_001311.php](http://www.bookslut.com/fear_factor/2004_01_001311.php) Does half-assed crap like \*The Girl Who Loved of Tom Gordon \* make \*Carrie \* and \*Salem’s Lot \* any less readable? But before we dismiss King faster than I got rid of my copy of _From a Buick 8_, let’s consider what he’s really done. Until early 1987, King was nearly perfect as a horror novelist. His first five novels (not counting works written under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman), _Carrie, Salem’s Lot, The Shining, The Stand,_ and _The Dead Zone_ still rank today as five of the best horror novels written. King continued his streak well into the '80s, with hardcover releases consistently hitting the bestseller list, and sorties into new genres (like the high fantasy _Eyes of the Dragon_ or the pulp throwback _Cycle of the Werewolf_) were just as successful (qualitatively as well as commercially) as his mainstream horror works. This peaked in 1987, when _Misery_, his first novel (not counting the Bachman-written Rage) not to feature any elements of the supernatural, was published. Alas, King seems to have jumped the shark (and the editor) immediately after, following up with _The Tommyknockers_, still the worst 800 pages he’s ever published… This schlock was followed by the self-indulgent (but blessedly short) _The Dark Half_. The barrel kept rolling when King released _The Stand: The Complete And Uncut Edition_. The original version of _The Stand_, as I’ve already mentioned, was phenomenal… The additional scenes and characters did nothing but bog down the already-long book. King’s scattershot approach continued during the '90s. He hit the bullseye a few times (notably in the gimmicky \*The Green Mile \* and the beautiful _Bag of Bones_, quite possibly his best work of the decade), and did a wonderful job with his ongoing labor of love, \*The Dark Tower \* series. He also published more drek than I’ve got space to gripe about in this column. Which takes us back to the original question. Most of what King has written since editors lost control of him has been trash (bestselling trash, but trash nonetheless). As time goes by, his lesser works will easily be overlooked in favor of his phenomenal first fifteen years of writing. * * * Carrie - 1974 ’Salem’s Lot - 1975 Rage (as Richard Bachman) - 1977 The Shining - 1977 Night Shift (a collection of stories) - 1978 The Stand - 1978 The Long Walk (as Richard Bachman) - 1979 The Dead Zone - 1979 Firestarter - 1980 Roadwork (as Richard Bachman) - 1981 Cujo - 1981 Danse Macabre - 1981 Creepshow (Comic format) - 1982 The Running Man (as Richard Bachman) - 1982 The Gunslinger: DT1 - 1982 Different Seasons (four novellas) - 1982 Christine - 1983 Pet Sematary - 1983 Cycle of the Werewolf - 1983 The Talisman (with Peter Straub) - 1984 Thinner (as Richard Bachman) - 1984 The Eyes of the Dragon - 1984 Skeleton Crew (a collection of stories) - 1985 The Bachman Books (Four early novels by Stephen King) - 1985 It - 1986 The Drawing of the Three: DT2 - 1987 Misery - 1987 Jumps the Shark here The Tommyknockers - 1987 Nightmares in the Sky - 1988 My Pretty Pony - 1988 The Dark Half - 1989 Dolan’s Cadillac - 1989 The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition - 1990 Four Past Midnight (four novellas) - 1990 Needful Things - 1991 The Wastelands: DT3 - 1992 Dolores Claiborne - 1992 Gerald’s Game - 1993 Nightmares and Dreamscapes (collection of stories) - 1993 Insomnia - 1994 Rose Madder - 1995 The Green Mile (a six-part Serial Thriller) - 1996 Desperation - 1996 The Regulators (as Richard Bachman) - 1996 Wizard and Glass: DT4 - 1997 Bag of Bones - 1998 The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon - 1999 Hearts in Atlantis - 1999 ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-stephen-king-jump-the-shark/233540/2 "2004-03-10T20:26:26Z")
I pretty much gave up on King at about the shark-jumping point you’ve identified–having read everything up to that point, and precious little after. For me, though, it’s the inverse relationship between pages and quality. His Big Books (It, Tommyknockers, Needful Things) are bloated, repetitive self-indulgent pointless piles of crap. But to answer the OP: I think it was The Talisman, with Misery being an exception. ---
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-stephen-king-jump-the-shark/233540/3 "2004-03-10T20:45:16Z")
I read a lot of King’s early stuff when I was probably too young to appreciate it, simply because my dad left it lying around. (Small child-rearing hint, here–never leave your 12-year-old daughter home alone on a stormy night with a copy of _Salem’s Lot_.) I can’t say I enjoyed _The Tommyknockers_, but then, I never made it more than fifty pages into _Pet Sematary_ either, and that’s supposed to be one of the best. I’ll agree that _Tommyknockers_ is a bad, bad book, but I enjoyed _Dolores Claiborne_, though I didn’t read all of the intervening books, but I didn’t hate King … until _Insomnia_. Worst. Book. Ever. The story is an instant cure for the title. _snore_ I know I read the whole thing. All I remember is some vague impression of the Fates, and _that’s_ only because the name Atropos is vaguely similar to Athos, and gives me a small Three Musketeers mnemonic connection. _Insomnia_ was where I gave up. I know I read _Rose Madder_ and was deeply disappointed. I read _Desperation_ and enjoyed it a little, but I’ve pretty much given up. I’ll watch the movies and miniseries (I liked the film version of _Dreamcatcher_, and am thus far enjoying _Kingdom Hospital_), but I can’t bring myself to read another book. ---
**Author:** ![Munch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/munch/32/5281_2.png) [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-stephen-king-jump-the-shark/233540/4 "2004-03-10T20:58:07Z")
As much as I hate to say it, he jumped the shark post drug rehab. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-stephen-king-jump-the-shark/233540/5 "2004-03-10T21:06:14Z")
You might have something there, **Munch**. ---
**Author:** ![Interrobang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/interrobang/32/17463_2.png) [@Interrobang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Interrobang)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-stephen-king-jump-the-shark/233540/6 "2004-03-10T21:22:08Z")
I can’t draw a hard line between any two books – _Tommyknockers_ was pretty crappy, but I did like _Needful Things_, _Dolores Claiborne_, _The Green Mile_ and about half of _Four Past Midnight_. So when did he jump the shark? Apologies to the series’ fans, but I think he jumped when he started devoting so much energy and fictional real estate to the Dark Tower series. For one thing, I’ve never been crazy about those books. I still think King is at his best when he’s adding a bit of unfamiliar to the unfamiliar. The Dark Tower books don’t play to that strength. More importantly, from a shark-jumping perspective, I remember when it was fun to catch the little references he made in one book to stuff that had gone in other books. There was Castle Rock, of course, and sometimes references to that weird town 'Salem’s Lot. Cujo became almost an urban legend in _Pet Sematary_, as I recall. But with the Dark Tower series, King started taking the whole Kingworld concept too damn seriously. I don’t want his whole universe woven together tightly; loose, offhand connections work far better. So: King jumped the shark when the Dark Tower series started really clipping along. Alternate moment: King jumped the shark when he destroyed Castle Rock. ---
**Author:** ![glas\_onion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9dc877/32.png) [@glas\_onion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glas_onion)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-stephen-king-jump-the-shark/233540/7 "2004-03-10T21:34:20Z")
I liked _Insomnia_. I feel like a fool now. ---
**Author:** ![Ferrous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Ferrous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferrous)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-stephen-king-jump-the-shark/233540/8 "2004-03-10T21:53:56Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > I pretty much gave up on King at about the shark-jumping point you’ve identified–having read everything up to that point, and precious little after. Yeah, same here. I read everything he wrote up to Tommyknockers, which I don’t recall if I even finished. It was at that point I decided was officially Over him. Although recently a friend loaned me the Green Mile series and insisted I read them. They were pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![Mal\_Adroit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df788c/32.png) [@Mal\_Adroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mal_Adroit)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-stephen-king-jump-the-shark/233540/9 "2004-03-10T21:58:11Z")
I’d go back farther. _Christine_ was the first (glaring) sign that the man wasn’t a god. _Stepford Wives_ the work of a hack? There’s an odd contention. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-stephen-king-jump-the-shark/233540/10 "2004-03-10T22:14:42Z")
In _On Writing_ (which is as much an autobiography as it is a writing guide [not to mention the best thing he’s written in years]) he talks in detail about his drug and alcohol abuse. He specifically says that he has almost no memory of writing _Cujo_ and very few of writing _The Tommyknockers_ and that when he was writing the latter he actually had wads of cotton in his nostrils to hold back the blood from his cocaine damaged nasal linings. I’ve wondered if the reason for some of his recent less-than-great offerings could be due to the pain from being run down by the van (which he admits tempted him to use drugs again) and from trying to write as much as possible before he’s totally blind. ---
**Author:** ![FisherQueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@FisherQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FisherQueen)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-stephen-king-jump-the-shark/233540/11 "2004-03-10T22:21:13Z")
I’ll basically agree with your jumping the shark point. There are, however, two pieces in the post-shark period that I like. I disagree with you about the long version of ‘The Stand.’ I like the long version better, and I think several of the added scenes do add to it. However, this doesn’t really count as post-shark, since the material was written much earlier. I also thought that ‘Dolan’s Cadillac’ was possibly the best short story he’s ever read, and one of my favorite short stories, period. The rest, though, I wouldn’t feed to my cat, though I still keep reading them and hoping. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-stephen-king-jump-the-shark/233540/12 "2004-03-10T22:28:48Z")
That’s a pretty good jump point, but maybe he’s unjumped with stuff like _Black House_ and _Wolves Of Calla_. Obviously, some disliked these books and will disagree, YMMV, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-stephen-king-jump-the-shark/233540/13 "2004-03-10T22:42:44Z")
I dunno. Tommyknockers blew, and _Four Past Midnight_ was jawdroppingly stupid, and _Nightmares and Dreamscapes_ actually had, I shit you not, a story about a pair of wind-up gag teeth that was supposed to be scary. “Chattery Teeth,” it was called, IIRC. But I kinda liked _From a Buick 8_: it was a story about the people who survive in a Call of Cthulhu universe, and that basic premise – of people who are smart enough not to get their fool selves killed – kept me pretty entertained. Near as I can tell, that man does the hokey-pokey across the shark’s back. Daniel ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-stephen-king-jump-the-shark/233540/14 "2004-03-10T23:09:47Z")
Stephen King jumped the entire shark as soon as he got his first check for _Carrie._ ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-stephen-king-jump-the-shark/233540/15 "2004-03-10T23:18:55Z")
Two words: **Maximum Overdrive**. ---
**Author:** ![FilmGeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@FilmGeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FilmGeek)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-stephen-king-jump-the-shark/233540/16 "2004-03-10T23:38:04Z")
(on preview: this is to everyone who feels that SK no longer writes well… not just the OP. I don’t want to come across as attacking anyone) – FG What makes you think he’s “jumped the shark” (to use the phrase I currently hate the most), exactly? You don’t like his books now? Maybe it’s you who have done the jumping. 🙂 **glas onion** Insomnia is a wonderful book. It gets a bit slow in the middle, but it is a wonderful book. Don’t let anyone make you feel that if you like something they don’t that you’re a fool. > [@Interrobang!?](#): > > More importantly, from a shark-jumping perspective, I remember when it was fun to catch the little references he made in one book to stuff that had gone in other books. There was Castle Rock, of course, and sometimes references to that weird town 'Salem’s Lot. Cujo became almost an urban legend in Pet Sematary, as I recall. > > But with the Dark Tower series, King started taking the whole Kingworld concept too damn seriously. I don’t want his whole universe woven together tightly; loose, offhand connections work far better. Have you read the Dark Tower series? The thing is chock full of subtle (and blatant, too, I’ll admit) references to other books. Look at the first pages of Wolves of the Calla and count the bolded book titles. They all have connections to the Dark Tower and to one another… some are hard to find. As for the OP’s point of shark jumpitude, I can’t agree that SK or ANY author hits a point where he or she no longer can write anything worthwhile. I think that simplifies things way too much. Also, it doesn’t take into account the fact that people might have opinions different than yours. Uh oh, someone wrote a bad book. They must suck now. Come on. **The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon** is one of his top three BEST books. I suggest you read it again and try to see how fantastic it is. Carrie, on the other hand, was boring, IMO. Is it only SK that’s getting beaten on for writing differently than he used to? Or am I just not seeing the articles/threads about other authors? ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-stephen-king-jump-the-shark/233540/17 "2004-03-10T23:46:27Z")
I’ve never read a Stephen King book in my life, but questions such as this always make me wonder, “Jumped the shark?..Says who?” If his later books were “trash” but they were “bestselling” trash, who has the moral imperative to declare them as such? Clearly, lots of people enjoyed them and were willing to spend money to buy them, so doesn’t it become merely a matter of semantics? One person’s trash is another persons favorite, and who is to say which is which? I’ve heard these same kinds of criticism levelled at Steely Dan, Madonna, The Stones, Charles Schulz, etc. These people are creating products. Maybe you like their work, maybe you don’t. But I think they should have the right to do their work in any way they wish without being accused of coming up with some sort of gimmick (“jumping the shark”) to stay in the game. I admit that Architectural Digest is a much classier magazine than The Globe. I’m not saying there’s no such thing as quality, but should a writer or entertainer always be compelled to cater to the high-minded at the expense of sales and/or even his or her career? ---
**Author:** ![cichlidiot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5f9b8f/32.png) [@cichlidiot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cichlidiot)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-stephen-king-jump-the-shark/233540/18 "2004-03-10T23:47:25Z")
> [@glas onion](#): > > I liked _Insomnia_. > > I feel like a fool now. I don’t, and I liked it, too. I found it to be pretty original, and while not my favorite, I didn’t dislike it either. For me, I don’t consider King as having jumped the shark, rather like anything in life, having hits and misses. I hated The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, thought it was Cujo - Outside Of The Car. His misses for me, are books that seem to be a repeat of earlier works. To me Black House was The Talisman all over again, without improvement. I couldn’t put a line in that list, because the entire thing reads to me like, “no, no, yes, no, yes, yes…” The books that are good in later years, are as good as the books in the earlier years, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Interrobang](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/interrobang/32/17463_2.png) [@Interrobang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Interrobang)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-stephen-king-jump-the-shark/233540/19 "2004-03-10T23:53:41Z")
> [@FilmGeek](#): > > Have you read the Dark Tower series? The thing is chock full of subtle (and blatant, too, I’ll admit) references to other books. Look at the first pages of Wolves of the Calla and count the bolded book titles. They all have connections to the Dark Tower and to one another… some are hard to find. I’ve read all of them up through **Wolves of the Calla**. Given that I’ve actively disliked every single Stephen King work that mentions the Dark Tower, especially the Dark Tower series, it’s unlikely that i’ll be picking up WotC anytime soon. But my point is not that he doesn’t cross-reference his “universe” anymore. It’s that he turned what was a fun game into a mind-numbing chore. He overindulges in the crossovers to an absurd degree. It was fun to catch the Cujo reference in **Pet Sematary**. It’s annoying to have every damn book he’s ever written folded into a series that I find feeble and dull. Your mileage, obviously, may vary. That all said, I don’t find everything King wrote post- **Misery** bad. I just think his record is spottier than it was, that the Dark Tower series is uninteresting and that he spends too much time on it, and that his record from **'Salem’s Lot** through **Misery** produced more hits than misses while his record since then has reversed the hit/miss ratio. (I’d also like to make it clear that I recognize that other people like just about every King book that I don’t, so I’m not trying to make some authoritative statement about his objective quality. I figured that since we’re hashing this out in Cafe Society, people would recognize that every word written in this thread could be prefaced with IMHO and wouldn’t need to have it spelled out.) There’s deadwood before **Misery** , there’s good stuff after, and the phrase “jump the shark” has indeed become a silly cliche. But I do think that, overall, King’s work has become less interesting. ---
**Author:** ![summerjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@summerjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/summerjack)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2004, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-stephen-king-jump-the-shark/233540/20 "2004-03-11T00:00:55Z")
> [@Starving Artist](#): > > Clearly, lots of people enjoyed them and were willing to spend money to buy them, so doesn’t it become merely a matter of semantics? One person’s trash is another persons favorite, and who is to say which is which? hmmmm…you are forgetting what it means to be a best seller, or a number one movie or number 1 album…these things are [usually] based on presales or “expected sales”. Many of King’s post shark jumping novels dropped right off the list. Or are so well timed that they stick it out until the next Harry Potter book comes out. Your argument supports the idea that sequels are stellar movies because they usually are GIGANTIC sellers…in the first weekend anyway…Their real quality is let out via critics and second weekend sales. Same with King’s crappy books…The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is the worst thing he ever put to paper. Which is when I believe he “jumped”. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-stephen-king-jump-the-shark/233540.md?page=2)