Why do we say "Jump the shark"?

Meaning:

.

Background:

.“Jumping the shark” refers to the moment when a TV show or movie plot point becomes ridiculous, or when something is randomly inserted in an episode as a publicity stunt to increase interest in a failing show. As Collider puts it: “[I]t's the moment a television series goes from not sucking to outright sucking.”

The idiom was originally coined by students at the University of Michigan in 1985. During a late-night bull session among classmates, the TV series Happy Days (1974-1984) came up, and the group started debating when the show went from having really great writing to where it was no longer entertaining. The consensus was that the turning point came in season 5, episode 3, "Hollywood: Part 3.” In that episode, Fonzie goes waterskiing (in his trademark leather jacket) and literally jumps over a shark to prove his courage. This led to someone – either Sean Connolly or Jon Hein (which one, exactly, is up for debate) - coming up with the phrase “jump the shark” to refer to the moment when a show’s quality took a marked downturn.

According to The Fonz himself (aka Henry Winkler):

This storyline was apparently inspired by a highly publicized television event that never wound up happening. On January 31, 1977, Evel Knievel was going to jump on his motorcycle over a tank full of sharks, and it was to be hosted by Mr. Telly Savalas and Miss Jill St. John. Not to be missed. I still remember the excitement I felt as a little kid seeing the newspaper ad for the broadcast. Picture a full-page ad in TV Guide, the shark from the Jaws poster, and Evel sailing over it on his bike wearing his boss bicentennial jumpsuit and cape. 8:30 on CBS, baby! I was so there. I also still remember my bitter disappointment when my Uncle Ricky gleefully informed me that afternoon that the stunt had been cancelled due to a Knievel accident earlier in the day.

(Fun fact: As a young man, Henry Winkler was actually an experienced water skier and instructor. He performed all the waterskiing in the episode himself, except for the final jump.)

Regardless of who came of with the phrase, Hein capitalized on it. A decade after leaving college he created a website called JumpTheShark.com, which allowed visitors to vote on TV shows, asking them whether a series had passed its prime (“jumped the shark”) or not. In 2002, he also published a book - Jump the Shark: When Good Things Go Bad - which looked at more than 60 TV shows and discussed when each had gone downhill (their “jump the shark” moment). Heiz sold Jump the Shark, Inc. to Gemstar (the owners of TV Guide) in 2006 for $1 million, and later went on to work for The Howard Stern Show.

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