Today, we look at when (or if) you folks believe that Saved By the Bell “jumped the shark.”
This is “Just Can’t Jump It,” a feature where we examine shows and whether they “jumped the shark.” Jumped the shark (coined by Jon Hein) means that the show had a specific point in time where, in retrospect, you realize that show was going downhill from there (even if, in some rare occasions, the show later course-corrected). Not every show DOES jump the shark. Some shows just remain good all the way through. And some shows are terrible all the way through. What we’re looking for are moments where a show that you otherwise enjoyed hit a point where it took a noticeable nose dive after that time and if so, what moment was that?
Quantum Leap was an acclaimed science fiction series that ran five seasons from 1989-1993 (Season 1 was a midseason replacement, hence the show only lasting four years), about a scientist, Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) who swaps places with people throughout his lifetime, putting right what once went wrong in those instances (like, in his first leap, he leaps into a test pilot who died in a plane crash, which caused his wife to go into premature labor and lose their daughter. Sam manages to survive his test flight and then get to the hospital in time to prevent the man’s wife from going into premature labor). People all see Sam as the person whose life he swapped places with, while the only person who can see Sam as himself (outside of little children and animals) is Al (Dean Stockwell), a Navy Admiral who worked with Sam on the Quantum Leap project and appears to Sam as a hologram who can tell Sam what he needs to make right in any given timeline before he “leaps” to the next life, in the hopes that eventually he will leap back into his own timeline again. It was an excellent, well-written show with outstanding chemistry between the two leads, as their friendship was a ton of fun to watch (Sam was a sort of “Aw shucks” type of guy, with his catchphrase literally being “Oh boy,” and Al was a Lothario).
So first…DID IT JUMP THE SHARK? I say no.
WHEN DID IT JUMP THE SHARK Here’s the trick with stuff like this. Almost every TV show, even the amazing ones, typically get worse over time. The issue is that the best shows do so gradually (on rare occasions, there’s truly no dropoff from start to finish), so the final season is still quite good, even if it is not as good as the show’s peak (which is usually around the third season). With jumping the shark, the idea is there is a STEEP dropoff. Shows can even RECOVER from jumping the shark, I think, like Homeland and ER, but that steep drop is still “jumping the shark.” Quantum Leap is unusual in the sense that its dropoff in its final season WASN’T gradual, it was abrupt, as show creator Donald Bellisario was doing anything he could to keep the show on the air, which meant lots and lots of gimmicks and the introduction of an EVIL leaper who was trying to put wrong what Sam had put right (after originally going wrong). There was definitely a major quality drop, so this is naturally the time when people would say, “The show jumped the shark.” My problem with that, though, is that Season 5 is still good. It’s gimmicky as heck, and the Evil Leaper plot was very ill-considered, but the show was still GOOD. So I say that the show never jumped.
Let me know what you think in the comments or on social media!
Feel free to e-mail me at brian@popculturereferences.com for suggestions for shows for us to do in future installments!
I didn’t start watching Quantum Leap until the third or fourth season. My first episode is the one where something happens and Sam and AL switches role (season finale) and Sam walks through a cannon?
Basically, I couldn’t tell you when the series jumped the shark as I haven’t seen the whole series.
This is still one of my favorites of all times. For me it was the Lee Harvey Oswald episodes. We knew Sam couldn’t save JFK.
Never jumped the shark to me. The Evil Leaper storyline was ill conceived but could have been something wonderful.
“Trilogy”, Lee Harvey Oswald and the two-part homecoming will always be my fav from the show.
The evil Leaper trilogy were some of my favorite episodes!!! All the “gimmicky” stuff was amazing tbh – swap Al and Sam, leap into an ancestor in the old west, Dr. Ruth, a chimpanzee, maybe a vampire? Pure fun! And mostly well written. Jump the shark? No way!
Heck, in the comic books, Sam leaped into an alien. It’s called being innovative.
Loved this series. If it can be said to have jumped the shark for me at all, it’s in that last terribly sad line–that Sam never made it home.
The new series addressing that–maybe–notwithstanding, that was crushing for the fans.
I’m going to second Teague. If there were anyplace that the show really stumbled and fell, it was the final episode. It all felt so absolutely out of left field, and there was the misspelled closing card as a final kick in the pants goodbye.
I would be inclined to say the Evi lLeaper – but, I also really enjoyed those episodes – in part because the Evil Leaper wasn’t “evil” herself – so there was a great mystery about the whole “evil leaper” origins and project. And there were only three – so it’s not like the entire final season was heading downhill.
I also would be inclined to say the JFK episodes, because the tone was so very different from the other episodes. It was dark, gloomy and foreboding, while the series was constantly light, even when addressing serious social issues or in the evil leaper episodes. But, that dark tone wasn’t repeated.
So, I don’t think of those as “jumping the shark” but rather what they were – exactly as you described – efforts to goose up the ratings while staying true to the show.
I agree it’s the final episode or nothing. And I enjoyed the Evil Leapers. My head canon is that Sam’s small, individual changes had a cumulative effect of destabilizing whatever future the Evil Leapers came from so their mission was to restore their timeline by undoing his work.
Two choices: Evil Leaper or the awful overwrought JFK episodes. I lean towards the JFK episodes as they bent and broke the show’s rules and were just terrible TV in general.
I don’t think it ever jumped the shark. They put together some killer multi part episodes. The Trilogy, The Leap Home, etc. were just incredible stories. The last episode itself is one of the greatest episodes of TV ever in my opinion.
It did jump the shark; 5th season no 14. the dr Ruth episode come on that was so silly…he was even trying to do her German ascent ….they should use that as the standard….they would say…..that show ” finally leaped in to Dr. Ruth”