“Fonzie began as a secondary character with very few lines. When he started drawing so much focus, we had to adjust the scripts.”
Garry Marshall, Happy Days creator
You can’t base a month of posts on Hollywood legend Garry Marshall without touching on one of the most popular TV shows he created—Happy Days. Especially, when his book is called My Happy Days in Hollywood. The show was not only a hit for 11 seasons in its first run, but helped coined one of the most popular phrases in television:
“People come up and ask me all the time about the phrase jumping the shark and if I find it offensive. The expression comes from a late episode of Happy Days in which Fonzie uses water skis to literally jump over a shark in the ocean. It was certainly not one of the shows I am most proud of. But I love the phrase jumping the shark and the way people use it today to signify a TV series nearing the end of its run. In 2009 I did a full stage tour of the Happy Days musical, which I wrote with Paul Williams and produced with Happy Days executive producers Bob Boyett and Tom Miller. One of the big jokes in the musical is when someone notices Fonzie is in a bad mood and says, ‘He hasn’t been the same since he jumped the shark.'”
Garry Marshall
My Happy Days in Hollywood (written with Lori Marshall)
I was in high school when that first aired and spent many happy days watching Henry Winkler, Ron Howard, Tom Bosley and the rest of the gang. Tomorrow we’ll look at the difficulties Marshall had in getting Happy Days produced, and why it was finally given a shot three years after it was written. When using the phrase jumping the shark in connection to Happy Days, it’s important to point out that Happy Days was one of the most viewed shows of its era.
P.S. According to Wikipedia, the phrase “jumping the shark” was created by Jon Hein, but if you dig a little deeper and read the LA Times article by Fred Fox Jr. you’ll see what Hein did was popularize the phrase that first came from his roommate at the University of Michigan, Sean Connolly, back in 1987 when they were sitting around drinking beer and talking about TV programs. For what it’s worth, 30 million people watched the original Jumping the Shark episode when it first aired on September 20, 1977. May all of your less than successful ideas be seen by 30 million people.
And that episode was actually in season five. Jumping the Shark doesn’t necessarily mean a show is dying. Happy Days had a six-year run after Fonzie and his leather jacket and hopped on a pair of water skis. After binge watching both Friday Night Lights and Mad Men in the past year, there were plenty of places where they both jumped the shark—both not only survived, but continued to find their way. The weekly demands on television writers and producers is tremendous—so give them a little grace before you dig their graves.
Related link: jumpingtheshark.com
Screenwriting from Iowa 