Jumping the shark

Jumping the shark is the point in a long-running TV show or movie series where it resorts to absurb plot twists in a usually vain effort to keep up flagging momentum. Thus, shows that have "jumped the shark" are sliding down the wrong the side of the bell curve. The origin of the phrase refers to Happy Days and The Fonz's jump over a confined shark while water skiing. Used indiscriminately in the last ten years to describe any number of "past it" productions, some argue jumping the shark has now jumped the shark. However, I doubt we have seen the end of this much-needed phrase. Anyway here is the original footage that inspired it all: