yn0t_I think we really need to clearly define our definition of "jump the shark" here,

wfaulk:Oh. I see. I use the term "jump the shark" to indicate where it obviously became bad, not the step right before

I am no media maven, but I feel that "Jump the Shark" (a metaphor?) has been somewhat abused. My sense (using the original Happy Days cases) was that JTS was significant of the moment when, faced with flagging interest in their product/art, the creators/artists/writers ran out of good ideas and resorted to trying something....anything! .... to revive interest. But perceptive fans/customers could perceive this act of desperation and know for a fact that things were defintely going downhill.

I submit that some artists never jump the shark. They try this, they try that. Some of it works, some doesn't. Some of it we like, some we don't. Do they sit in their producers meetings and say "Hey. how about we have Fonzie water ski over a shark?" I don't think so.

Could an album that contains "What's The Frequency Kenneth?" be fairly compared to Happy Days' shark indiscretion? I don't think so.