For over a hundred years some of the greatest video treasures of all time have been produced. Some have been lost in the sands of time and others, soon to be rediscovered, will become fan favorites for a whole new generation.

 Each week we will feature just one of the many hidden gems that you can see on the Astound Broadband TV Network with insights and commentaries on classic television shows and legendary cinematic performances.

You can make a serious argument that Bob Hope was the most famous entertainer in the world in the 20th century.

Very few people, if anyone, will ever accumulate more awards, honorary degrees and other accolades from as many countries while starring in more shows, movies and special programs and hosting as many galas, events and award shows than Hope.

One could also argue that very few public figures have had a more polarizing effect from fans and followers worldwide.

Today we shall examine the optimistic view and share some of the many positives in the legendary career of one Leslie Townes Hope.

While many regard him as one of the greatest Americans ever, it’s ironic that he was not born in the USA.

Originally a product of Eltham, London (now the Royal Borough of Greenwich), Hope’s family (which included seven boys in all) immigrated to Cleveland, Ohio when Bob was eight years old.  By the age of 12, he earned pocket money singing, dancing and performing comedy on the street.

Hope spent a brief amount of time as a boxer, a butcher’s assistant, a lineman and a tree surgeon, among other odd jobs.  While some rumors indicate his boxing career gave him his now famous odd-sized nose, he actually had his face smashed while clearing trees, which forced him to have reconstructive surgery on his face.

Hope initially decided to become a dancer–Fatty Arbuckle gave Bob one of his first big breaks.  While having success in vaudeville, he failed his first screen test for a French film company in 1930.

Undaunted, Bob continued to develop his now patented rapid-fire comedic delivery on the radio, on the stage and then, eventually, in pictures.  His big break came in 1938’s The Big Broadcast, in which Hope’s comedy not only stood out amongst the star-studded cast, but he first sang the song that would become his trademark, “Thanks for the Memories” (which also won an Academy Award as Best Original Song).

His star power now established in films, Hope would continue to build his legacy in all forms of media, but became particularly entrenched in the fabric of America with his tireless work performing for the military in World War II.

Between 1941 and 1991, Hope made 57 tours for the United Service Organizations, entertaining active duty American military personnel around the world. In 1997, Congress passed a bill that made Hope an honorary veteran of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Hope became internationally famous for his highly successful projects in virtually every media avenue possible for an entertainer…and then some.

We could probably spend several blog entries just talking about the many other great things that Leslie Townes Hope did for America and for the world.

But there is another side to Hope – a side that is much darker – one we will explore in two weeks here at “The Showplace.”

In the meantime, you can see Hope starring in films like My Favorite Brunette, this Monday at 2:30pm, along with his scene-stealing guest starring appearance in various classic television situation comedies on Astound Broadband TV Network.

To view the complete rundown of classic programming on ATVN, check out the weekly listings here on our website.

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Astound Broadband or any other agency, organization, employer or company.

We changed the calendar this past weekend but the local sports storylines keep coming in as we edge closer to the spring scholastic postseason.

A few include:

• Northampton baseball team scored a major win this past week by beating the defending league and district champs from Emmaus–a team that entered the previous week undefeated.  The ATVN cameras were on the scene of one of the biggest upsets of the spring.  If you missed the highlights and post-game interviews on last week’s “SportsTalk,” Astound Broadband customers can watch them again for free at any time On-Demand!
• Speaking of the Northampton/Emmaus game, special thanks to ATVN’s own videographer, Alyssa Sheckler, who stood out in the rain in the nearly three-hour contest with me capturing all those big moments (there was no press box, overhangs or coverings so we really appreciate her efforts!)
• The DCIAA in Washington, DC officially kicked off its 2022 flag football season in the DMV, with Bannecker playing Coolridge in the first game of the year.  After so many hurdles for this particular sport to get on the field, it was great to hear that they have played a week’s worth of games without any difficulty.
• Freedom’s lacrosse team is still undefeated heading into the last week of the regular season.  After Easton girls pulled off a major upset a year ago, it would be quite an accomplishment for the Patriots to run the table in a very competitive EPC season.
• Our scheduled games to cover over the next few week include: Liberty vs. Freedom, Easton vs. Nazareth, Whitehall vs. Allen, Central Catholic vs. Bethlehem Catholic and Parkland vs. Emmaus.
• I had some great comments from viewers about our spring coverage so far at the annual EPC baseball Play Days this weekend (of course, the last game was postponed due to rain).  The ATVN cameras will also be joining me for a rare Colonial League doubleheader this Wednesday.  The weather “should” be better (we also had a game rained out this past Sunday, so a sunny/not cold day would be welcomed and much appreciated!)

 Keep checking back to the “SportsTalk Shop,” as we continue to follow the high school sports teams in our area and have interviews with local coaches and athletes every Thursday at 7pm on “ATVN SportsTalk.”  Our scheduled guests include local assistant coaches from our area to talk about their roles with their respective teams.

Don’t forget to chime in with a question or comment during our live show or suggestions of which teams we should try to focus on this spring by emailing us.

Now, here’s our next installment of the best plays from our ATVN sports broadcast season to date: 

1. Astound Sports: Northwestern Lehigh vs. Palmerton (3/22)
   
2. Astound Sports: Northampton vs. Nazareth Wrestling (1/22)

3. Astound Sports: Northampton vs. Nazareth (1/22)
   
4. Astound Sports: Northampton vs. Central Catholic (1/22)
   
5. Astound Sports: Allentown Central Catholic vs. Parkland (1/22)
   
   

 Check back next week for more information on ATVN’s coverage of local sports in our area and also to see more of our top highlights from the past sports season to see if your favorite teams and players make the list!

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company.

For over a hundred years some of the greatest video treasures of all time have been produced. Some have been lost in the sands of time and others, soon to be rediscovered, will become fan favorites for a whole new generation.

Each week we will feature just one of the many hidden gems that you can see on ATVN with insights and commentaries on classic television shows and legendary cinematic performances.

In 1950’s television, program ideas were still very fresh and–except for radio shows that transitioned to TV–there were many “new” origins for programming in the early days of the medium.

One of these original ideas in the 1950s was Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion.

The show was based on using real-life stories of the French Foreign Legion and was filmed on location on often dangerous deserts of Morocco.  The producers would actually work with the members of the French Ministers of National Defense and commanding generals in the French Army.  They would also interview Legionnaires in Zagora, Rabat, Marrakesh, Taroudant and Agadir to come up with realistic story material–a technique later used by producers on shows like M*A*S*H.

The extreme long takes of scenes highlighted by the vastness of the wide open deserts for many of its episodes allowed audiences a chance to experience a realistic view of “traveling along” with the Legionnaires, although several real-life incidents forced the production company to eventually change filming locations to more safe locales in Italy during the show’s run.

To further hype the show, the producers brought in ultra-popular film star Buster Crabbe, who was a hero to many young people in the 1930s and 1940s as the titular character in some of the previous decades’ popular movie serials, Flash Gordon, Buck Rogers and Tarzan.

Crabbe has just finished a successful run hosting his own program, The Buster Crabbe Show, which against the backdrop of a ranch foreman’s bunkhouse featured Crabbe engaging his viewers with games, stories, craft-making, hobbies, informational segments, and interviews with guest performers and personalities.

Crabbe was also an international hero with medal victories in the 1928 and 1932 Olympic games.

Joining Crabbe in the cast was longtime western star John Forrest “Fuzzy” Knight, who was largely responsible for the “lighter” moments on the show.

Knight’s first major picture role was with Hollywood icon Mae West.  He went on to be  a very popular western film star himself from 1928 through the mid-1940s, appearing in over a hundred films.

According to the book, “The Hall of Fame of Western Film Stars,” Knight was named one of the Top 10 Money-Making Western Stars in 1940 and appeared in as many as 10 films in a single year.  His film role offers were beginning to dwindle in the mid-1950s, but his appearance on this show reintroduced him to a brand new audience.  Knight would go on to appear in movies and television shows through 1967, when he retired from show business. 

Rounding out the “Foreign Legion” cast was a newcomer – Buster’s own son – Cullen “Cuffy” Crabbe, who made his acting debut on the program.   

The show produced 65 new episodes and was very popular in syndication for years.  Due to its popularity, three of its episodes were edited together into a full-length motion picture entitled Desert Outpost, which was distributed and released in Europe.

Be sure to watch or set your DVRs for Captain Gallant of the Foreign Legion, airing for the first time ever on ATVN this spring.

To view the complete rundown of classic programming on ATVN, check out the weekly listings here on our website.

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Astound Broadband or any other agency, organization, employer or company.

OK, I admit. I’m looking ahead just a little bit and took some liberties with the use of the term “summer” basketball in this week’s blog title.  Perhaps, I’m still feeling a little chilly inside after sitting through a couple local scholastic baseball games this past week in which the temperature dipped down into the 40-degree range (and later, that evening, the 30s!), before things warmed up this past weekend.

However, believe it or not – the spring/summer high school basketball official league schedule will be starting in just a couple weeks.  It has become a key time of year for gauging how next season’s varsity teams will shake out and will factor in for our thought processes when it comes time to put our winter sports season together for the following school year.

History has shown us that, while the final scores of these games may not be as important as other times of the year, it is important to keep an eye out for developing players, unique storylines and the ever-changing landscape of local talent–whether it be players coming in or moving out of the region.

A few items to keep an eye on as we approach the first set of games:

• Teams like Northampton, Nazareth, Central Catholic, Bethlehem Catholic, Parkland and Allen–to name a few–have lost some very big names to graduation after this past winter season.  Which players will step-up to fill their shoes and how will the chemistry be trying to replace so many talented athletes?  All of these teams had success during the ‘21-22 seasons and each program will be in the spotlight with high expectations for the season going forward.
• Northampton’s Coy Stampone recently stepped down after 10 years as the head coach of the Northampton boys basketball program (if you missed his appearance on our ATVN SportsTalk show, ATVN customers can hear his comments for yourself through our On-Demand services, available for free).  Who will take over a program that has had so much success in recent years and how smooth will the transition be?
• There’s rumors of other coaches who may be on the move in Eastern Pennsylvania and also in our Washington, DC region..which coaches will stay and which may move on?
• The Easton girls teams had one of the most successful seasons last winter–yet had no title to show for it…how will the Rovers respond and who will step up to take over running the offense and distributing the basketball as the squad graduated its starting point guard?

Also, here are a few pictures for last year’s summer hoops action that never made it to publication.  See if your favorite sports stars are listed in the gallery below.

Keep checking back to the “SportsTalk Shop,” throughout the spring and summer months as we continue to follow the action on the Lehigh Valley basketball courts, bringing you news, rumors and developments on local storylines, along with pictures of the “new” basketball season coming up.

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Astound Broadband or any other agency, organization, employer or company.

For over a hundred years some of the greatest video treasures of all time have been produced. Some have been lost in the sands of time and others, soon to be rediscovered, will become fan favorites for a whole new generation.

 Each week we will feature just one of the many hidden gems that you can see on ATVN with insights and commentaries on classic television shows and legendary cinematic performances.

Pick any era and you will have a great technological invention.

In 1953, CinemaScope burst onto the scene with, at the time, the greatest visual images ever produced on any video screen.

Beneath The 12-Mile Reef was one of the first movies using this innovation. The plot was loosely based on William Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” but shot in and around a seafaring town –  with picturesque views for CinemaScope to use and enhance the beauty of the images.

Academy Award-winning Robert Webb took over the reins as director.  For a big box office draw, up-and-coming star Robert Wagner was teamed with established film star Terry Moore for the leads.

Wagner’s star power would later grow with starring roles in “It Takes a Thief” and “Hart to Hart“. He also would be involved in the scandal regarding Natalie Wood‘s death a few years later.  For younger audiences, Wagner would go on to play Austin Powers‘s “Number Two” and had the recurring role of Teddy on the hit TV show, “Two and a Half Men.”

Moore, meanwhile, already was a part of hits in numerous successful films in the 1940s and had just been dubbed “Hollywood Sexiest Tomboy” in an early July, 1953 edition of “Life” magazine.  Moore had her own sea-related scandal a few years later regarding a debated marriage to Howard Hughes while aboard his yacht.

With two big stars on board, a top-notch director, a solid supporting cast (anchored by Gilbert Rowland and Gloria Gordon) and the breathtaking scenery filmed completely in CinemaScope, it was targeted to be one of the biggest films of the year.

The initial reviews for “Reef” were mixed. Viewers loved the picturesque views and storyline but critics blamed Webb’s lack of direction as to the cause of an alleged lackadaisical performance by Wagner. Movie reviewers were further critical of the director, saying that he didn’t use enough exterior shots, especially below sea level, to take full advantage of the new technology.

Still, the film has grossed over $7 million in movie rentals over the last several years alone (it cost just $1.5 million to shoot.)

It is also an historical flick, being just the third film ever shot in what would be the most popular visual movie innovation of the 1950s. Check it out and see what a vast improvement it was over films produced before 1953 – you’ll notice a big difference.

Beneath the 12-Mile Reef will be featured in the ATVN Movie Vault this Saturday, at 9:30 p.m.

To see the full listing of classic programming on ATVN, check out the weekly listings here on our website.

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Astound Broadband or any other agency, organization, employer or company.

With Mother Nature finally helping out our spring sports teams with more than two consecutive days of “playable” weather (and subsequently adequate field conditions) this past week, there have been a number of interesting developments in Lehigh Valley scholastic sports to emerge.

A few include:

• In a crowded field of talented baseball teams this spring, it looks like Emmaus and Parkland are two of the teams trying to separate themselves as one of the elites in the region.  Parkland just routed another strong program–Nazareth–by a 14-2 score.  Emmaus also crushed a very good Freedom team, 9-1, over the weekend and also remains undefeated. Easton and Liberty are also among the “big schools” that have been playing well.  It should be another exciting finish in the league and district playoffs, which start less than a month from now.
• As expected, Northampton, Bethlehem Catholic and Southern Lehigh have dominated girls softball so far.  All three teams boasted a strong returning core of players and have looked very solid through the Easter weekend.
• Northwestern High School has continued its “upward trending” across the board, with all of its spring sports performing well.  The Tigers are returning baseball and softball champs and last week posted a solid victory on the lacrosse field, plus have several talented individual performances in track and field and on the tennis courts.
• The Whitehall volleyball team remains the only undefeated team in the Lehigh Valley.  The Zephyrs were denied the chance to defend their district title in the spring of 2020 due to the start of the COVID pandemic, but fields another strong team again this spring as they look to reclaim the title from Parkland.  Easton, Emmaus, Freedom, Nazareth and Northampton also have winning records in the area’s largest classification.

Keep checking back to the “SportsTalk Shop,” as we continue to follow the high school sports teams in our area and have interviews with local coaches and athletes every Thursday at 7pm on “ATVN SportsTalk.”  Among our scheduled guests include former Easton great and new Freedom Baseball Head Coach John Bisco III, members of the Central Catholic lacrosse team, and more!

Don’t forget to chime in with a question or comment during our live show or suggestions of which teams we should try to focus on this spring by emailing us. 

  Now, here’s our next installment of the best plays from our ATVN sports broadcast season to date: 

1. Astound Sports: Pleasant Valley vs. Liberty (2/22)
   
2. Astound Sports: Pocono Mountain West vs. Nazareth (2/22)
   
   
3. Astound Sports: Wilson vs. Notre Dame (2/22)
   
4. Astound Sports: Allentown Central Catholic vs. Parkland (1/22)
   
   
5. Astound Sports:  Southern Lehigh vs. Palmerton (2/22)
   
   

 Check back next week for more information on ATVN’s coverage of local sports in our area and also more of our top highlights from the past sports season to see if your favorite teams and players make the list!

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company.

Before we continue our look back at the best plays of our recently completed high school sports season on ATVN, here’s a quick look at some of the teams and spring sports games that we’ll feature on upcoming editions of our  “SportsTalk” show, seen live on ATVN every Thursday evening at 7pm:

• Wilson vs Saucon Valley Tennis
• Whitehall vs. Allen Softball
• The Pates Park Colonial League Softball “Playday”
• Central Catholic vs. Nazareth Lacrosse
• Liberty vs. Easton Baseball
• Parkland vs. Freedom Volleyball
• Catasauqua vs. Pen Argyl Baseball
• Emmaus vs. Northampton Softball
• CL & EPC Tennis Tournaments

Keep checking our website as we look to add more teams and games as the spring season rolls on (obviously, Mother Nature will play a role in our schedule as games are frequently canceled/postponed this time of year!)
Also, don’t forget to chime in with a question or comment during our live show by emailing us.
Now, here’s our next installment of the best plays from our ATVN sports winter broadcast season…

1. Astound Sports: Bethlehem Catholic vs. Liberty (2/22)

2. Astound Sports: Freedom vs. Liberty Wrestling (1/22)
   
3. Astound Sports: Nazareth vs. Bethlehem Catholic (2/22)
   
4. Astound Sports: Dist. XI Team Finals Nazareth vs. Becahi Wrestling (2/22)
   

5. Astound Wrestling: District XI Team Finals (2/22)
   https://youtu.be/rS5WUp69FUs

Check back next week for more information on ATVN’s coverage of local sports in our area and also more of our top highlights from the past sports season to see if your favorite teams and players make the list!

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company.

Last week, we here at the Showplace began our countdown of the five best examples of a “shark jumping” ploy created by a television series’ creative brain team.

Look back to last week’s entry to find out more about this oft-used TV term and for the first two entries.

This week, we continue our countdown:

#3: Las Vegas

In 2004 one of the hippest shows on TV capitalized on the Las Vegas craze with a mystery program revolving around the behind-the-scenes views of the fictional Montecito gambling resort.

Anchored by Sonny Corleone-actor James Caan and up-and-coming movie star (and future Fergie husband) Josh Duhamel (Life As We Know It, Transformers movies), the show thrived on Monday nights despite heavy competition from Monday Night Football, Everybody Loves Raymond, Joe Millionaire and other hit shows in that same timeslot.  It regularly brought in nearly 12-million viewers each week and was a perennial Top 30 show in the lucrative 18-49 demographic throughout its first two years.

In addition to great acting, innovative technical innovations and suspenseful episodes, it was great at creating some great cliffhanger moments that keep bringing the audience back for more.

Unfortunately, at the end of season two, it went a bit too far.

In addition to leaving its audience hanging regarding one of its key cast members and an unresolved ending to who the new casino owners are and what they might do to the existing employees, the season two finale ends with the casino inexplicably being blown to the ground.

There was no mention during the episode that it was about to happen and it went down without any warning…leaving viewers shocked at what had just happened (and why?) through the entire summer hiatus.

The season three premiere introduced a new owner who announced she wanted to build a brand new, innovative casino–which looked remarkably similar to the old one.  Behind the scenes however, its parent network NBC, spent, at that time, a record amount in building a “new” set, one that inflated the program’s overall costs.

The new owner (Lara Flynn Boyle, who came with a hefty price tag after starring in films like Men In Black 2) did not test well with audiences, and she was subsequently killed off after seven episodes.  The series’ overuse of teasing cliffhangers at the end of season two started a steady decline in the show’s ratings, which suffered from the season three premiere onward.

Show creator Gary Scott Thompson, failing to learn from previous mistakes, doubled down on his jump the shark technique a year later, proclaiming (according to a March 5th, 2007 article in the “Las Vegas Review Journal”),”I’m gonna make this the biggest cliffhanger anyone’s ever seen. And if you cancel us, you’re gonna have 15 million fans pissed off at you, not me.” (By this time viewership has actually fallen below 10-million fans).

The final season never made it to the end of its contracted 20-episodes.  The final episode? An unresolved cliff-hanger.

#2:  Felicity

In 2007, the rookie season of Felicity not only garnished some of the world’s greatest awards for a television show, “Time” magazine anointed it, after just 20 episodes, as one of the “Top 100 TV Shows of All-Time.”

Led by creator JJ Abrams and titular star Keri Russell, the show focused on the four college years of a female student, tackling typical issues young people face, with each of the show’s seasons representing a freshman, sophomore, junior and senior years.

On hiatus between seasons one and two (and before the show would be enshrined as a television classic based on its phenomenal year one reviews), legend says that the show’s creators came up with a great idea for the second season premiere:  cut Russell’s famous golden hair as an appropriate step for the actress to take–symbolizing a year of growth and development for the on-screen character between her first and second year of college.

Following the season two premiere, the show instantly lost HALF of its audience (from 4.4-milllion to 2.2-million viewers) and, despite the actress quickly adorning a wig to try to cover her trimmed, prized locks, the damage was already done.

While some viewers eventually returned (along with the return of Russell’s naturally longer hair), the show never pulled in the ratings it once had, and never won another major award again for the remaining three seasons it was on the air.

#1: Twin Peaks

The ABC Network, which has quite a history of giving bad instructions to its hit shows (see last week’s list for just one other example), had a surprise hit on its hands with the quirky cult-classic Twin Peaks from 1990-91.

The show, whose RERUNS were topping television’s #1 rated show, Cheers, for two months, was built around the “Who killed Laura Palmer” mystery that was driving the exposition for delving into a world of unique characters and supernatural events.

Despite protest from series creator/director David Lynch that revealing Laura’s killer would effectively “kill the golden goose” by removing the show’s unique suspense factor that drove the series, ABC ordered for the resolution to the show’s main mystery halfway through its second season.

The show became rudderless without its main mystery for not just the fans, but for the actors and show’s creative brain-trust alike.  With Lynch and co-creator Mark Frost distancing themselves from the show, series star Kyle McLaughlin and other actors also lost interest in the project.

The show’s ratings fell hard and was canceled at the end of that second season.  Its “traditional TV” days were history.  The central mystery premise, however, would later see life in a full-length film and a “Return” series on the Showtime Network, 25 years later.

What did you think of our all-time best/worst shark jumping list?  There were clearly other examples in TV history in which a show “jumped the shark.”  Which ones did you come up with? Email your feedback and responses to us and perhaps we will revisit this list in a future blog entry!

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Astound Broadband or any other agency, organization, employer or company.

Before we continue our look back at the best plays of our recently completed high school sports season on ATVN, here’s a forward look at our scheduled guests and topics on this week’s “SportsTalk” show, seen live on ATVN every Thursday evening at 7pm:

• The Liberty swim team brought home individual and team gold medals at both the District XI and statewide PIAA meets. Plus, this winter there was an extra special accomplishment for the Hurricanes program. Tune in to find out more about them.
• A developing major issue over the last few years has been a shortage in the incoming group of referees, umpires and officials across the board in all sports, from the elementary/little league levels up to varsity high school and collegiate sports. People may not realize some of the more drastic measures that are seriously being considered that would radically alter the layout for the scheduling of middle school and high school sports for this fall season.  We’ll talk with local officials about the recent changes and proposals that are likely to take place if more officials are brought in over the next few months.
• ATVN basketball analyst and former college/scholastic coach Megan Kane will be filling in for co-host Keith Groller to discuss the relationships between coaches and referees on the basketball courts and the important dynamic that exists between them.

Keep checking back to our website for more information on future show topics and guests.  Also, don’t forget to chime in with a question or comment during our live show by emailing us.

Now, here’s our second installment of the best plays from our ATVN sports winter broadcast season…

1. 1. 1. 1. ATVN Sports: Allen vs. Northampton (1/22)
            
         2. ATVN Sports: Whitehall vs. Freedom (1/22)
            
         3. ATVN Sports: Nazareth vs. Easton (1/22)
            
         4. ATVN Sports: Allen vs. Parkland (1/22)
            
         5. ATVN Sports: Bethlehem Catholic vs. Northampton (2/22)
            

Check back next week for more of our top highlights from the past season to see if your favorite teams and players make the list!

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of RCN or any other agency, organization, employer or company.

The ATVN Programming Department is busy putting the final touches on our new spring broadcasting lineup–set to debut in a few weeks.

In the meantime and in honor of the 45th anniversary of television’s first official “Jump the Shark” moment, we here at the Showplace are going to do something a little different this week and will be starting our countdown of the top five “shark jumping” moments of all time!

Wait…you’re not familiar with the television term “jump the shark?” OK, here’s a brief history…

In 1977 the show Happy Days, a perennial Top 5 Nielson show for its four previous years, came up with the wildest plotline in the show’s history to that point–in which the program’s most popular character, The Fonz, would jump over a shark on water skis.

The idea of the small town Wisconsin cast of characters suddenly traveling to the west coast culminating in an event that was clearly created just for a rating spectacular caused loyal fans (and many of the show’s cast and crew members) to surmise that the writers had either lost their minds or were so desperate to create an event that would bring in viewers that they took this drastic course of action.  

The result was a catchphrase that was made up for television fans and critics that has been used to describe a hit show taking a drastic change in plotlines just to create a rating grabber–only to have the ploy backfire and lead to the eventual cancellation of the show.

(Ironically, the term attributed to this show is a bit of a misnomer.  Happy Days went on to have several more successful years ratings-wise and, arguably, had several other “shark jumping” type of storylines throughout the show’s final six years before falling ratings led to the eventual program’s demise).

Today we are going to start the ultimate collection of the top five “jump the shark” events in TV history that eventually led that same show down a path towards oblivion.

Keep in mind, these are not the five wildest plotlines ever created, nor are we citing shows that employed a ratings-grabbing event, only to have the show sustain or even increase its television shares after the event took place. We are strictly adhering to the requirement that the show’s ratings would never return to the same levels after such a stunt was created/written into the show’s canon.

#5: Pretty Little Liars

The teen mystery show was a hit with the key 18-49 demographic when it launched on the scene in 2010, following the success of several novels written by Sara Shephard. The television show centers around four high school girls whose clique falls apart after the disappearance of their leader. One year later, the estranged friends are reunited as they begin receiving messages from a mysterious figure named “A” who threatens to expose their deepest secrets.

The program consistently attracted between 2.5 to 3.7-million viewers for its first four years while its audience became perpetually puzzled at the identity of the mysterious “A,” whose actions were becoming more and more devious.

 During season five, ABC Family was anxious for a big ratings event to coincide with its recent relaunching as the “Freeform Network” and billed an episode in which “A’s” identity would finally be revealed.

It was…but the network had ordered two additional seasons of the show–one that just resolved its central mystery.

The result was that another “A,” (called “Uber A”) was created to keep the mystery going. Needless to say, storylines pretty much spiraled in several different directions through the remainder of the program’s run. Along with it went viewership totals that dropped steadily through the show’s final two years.

#4:  House, MD

British Actor Hugh Laurie played the titular character to the hilt and reinvented the way many medical dramas had been previously produced. Though brilliant but flawed, Laurie’s character would solve medical mysteries with an arrogance rarely seen among the genre’s doctors, but was becoming increasingly dependent on drugs himself. This story built for four solid years with the risks and the tensions building throughout each season.

Then, in season five, following two dramatic episodes in which fellow main character, Dr. Wilson, loses his love–partially due to House’s drug dependence, the flawed Dr. House finally checks himself into a state hospital.

After a five-year buildup to this key point of recognition and responsibility the show really set the stage for some great possible storylines involving this multiple award winning actor dealing with this serious topic, while also potentially opening up a fascinating abundance of stories involving Laurie’s character interacting with other patients going through their own medical mysteries while dealing with their own dependencies.

Instead, the culminating episode, which felt more like an after-school special, featured House joking around with another drug dependent patient–nearly resulting in the latter’s loss of life, to which House suddenly realizes abusing drugs are bad, and then he returns to his regular hospital, and resumes his old job, as if nothing had ever happened.

The show finished in the Nielson’s Top 10 throughout seasons two, three and four and attracted between 17.5-20 million viewers each week up until that point. Following House’s about-face in the season five opener, the show’s viewership quickly dropped to less than half the viewers it had sustained through its first four seasons and was never ranked higher than 42nd in its final year.

Show Producer/Film Director Bryan Singer said that the official reason the show did not return was a dramatic increase in the cost of each House episode, making it unprofitable for parent company Universal to continue the show. However, the badly bungled season five anti-climax leading to the dramatic ratings plunge and massive viewership slide in the program’s final year-and-a-half suggests otherwise.

Our list continues…next week!

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