“Countdown With Keith Olbermann,” normally my favorite cable news show, greatly disappointed me last night by making its #1 story a discussion of whether, following the previous night’s controversial “Test Dream” episode, “The Sopranos” had “jumped the shark.”
Now nevermind that ‘Sopranos’ is still the best show on television. Or that the “jump the shark” concept is not only false (TV shows drop off and return to greatness all the time- “Friends,” for one, went through the cycle at least three times) but is played out beyond belief. The website, after all, is full of idiots bashing shows they either don’t watch or know nothing about.
Olbermann actually had on “Jump the Shark” creator Jon Hein, one of those smug late-‘90s internet people who (like Matt Drudge) came up with one semi-smart idea that for some reason took off and caused him to get rich, yet survived the dot-com crash because his operation wasn’t technically a “business.”
On “Countdown,” Hein immediately sacrificed his credibility by comparing the Sopranos dream to the Bobby-in-the-shower debacle on “Dallas,” while sharing that “dream sequences are usually a sign that a show has jumped the shark.” He went on, as Sopranos-bashers nearly always do, to talk about the greatness of the first season, while bitching about the “yaks not whacks” of Season 4.
Except that in Season 1, there were dream sequences galore. Remember the entire episode about Isabella, the hallucinated next door neighbor? The Livia-morphing-into-Melfi? The multiple Melfi sex dreams? It’s a show that has Freudian stuff all over the place –from the psychiatry to the Tony’s-mother relationship- and that means there are going to be dream sequences. And there have been since the beginning.
When asked at that panel last week why "Sopranos" has "gone soft," producer Robin Green answered that “people remember the show they wish they’d seen, not the one they actually saw.” Amen to that.
Posted by Stephen Silver at May 18, 2004 06:17 PMI interviewed John Hein a couple of years ago and it came out really good:
http://www.paulkatcher.com/fulldisclosure/jumptheshark.shtml
I don't have HBO, but people everywhere are commenting about The Sopranos. Can't be half bad.
Jumping the shark has itself jumped the shark.
Posted by: LilB at May 19, 2004 11:03 AMSooner or later, I'm sure, I'll be found out. The word will be out that I went around via Google to the various anti-Bush weblogs, and much like a busy little bee, deposited a comment in those weblogs that allow for such.
At one particular weblog I visited, the blogeuse was at the time in despair. Seemingly, indisputable files documenting Dumb'ya's misgovernance grow thicker and even more nauseating daily. Nonetheless, his lead in the polls increases. Ya'know, that's enough to blow anybody's mind. And so, I asked myself a couple questions. What could be going on? What could be the explanation?
Well, here's some of the comment I left. "Nobody cares to admit that their country willfully elevated a nincompoop to head of state. And then, not too long after that, the nincompoop went on to suborn contravening the Geneva Convention.
It's sort'a like admitting tha'cher favorite aunt gets her jollies from 'communing' with alligators. Aaay, c'mon, that's the best way I know how to phrase it ... gimme a break. For all we know, dear friend Steve, the current chairman of the Federal Communications Commission checks up on your website DAILY."
And here's the permissible portion of the comment I left.
"Recently, Ted Koppel used his allotment of television time to swirl some sobriety into this country's awareness of Iraq. As the photos of American service personnel, who had been killed in Iraq, were being displayed, Mr Koppel recited their names. As best I can, in my own small way, I'm trying to emulate the man. And so, I'd like you to consider reading the text for a "state of the union" address that I believe is imperative for this country of ours. To get to it, all you need do is click on the below enclosed U.R.L
http://www.bcvoice.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=205
By the way, the proprietors of the www.BCVoice.com website have provided a couple ways for you to leave your comments."