The origin of the idiom "jumping the shark"

When a television show would reach a point beyond which the quality had begun to decline noticeably, it was said to have "jumped the shark." That phrase is now applied to virtually everything that has sunk to an irredeemable low.

Most of you older readers probably know the phrase comes from an episode of Happy Days in which a water skiing Fonzie literally jumps over a shark. For all you youngsters out there, here is the infamous scene that started it all:



Ironically, that particular episode ("Hollywood: Part 3") was very popular, and the series continued for seven more seasons.