(Apologies to Mobile Users who can't watch this, CBS hates your mobile device, apparently.)
"HE'S REALLY GONNA DO IT!"
Well, organizing my recordings from the past year has led to the discovery of this little gem that I had completely forgotten about. Yes, it's the (in)famous scene from Part 3 of the Season 5 Premiere, simply titled "Hollywood", where the Fonz jumps stock footage of a shark (as well as some kid with a snorkel they got off the street.). I don't see how impressive it is, really, I jump over tapes a lot when I intern at the local PBS station. Just part of the job.
Jokes aside, this is widely considered the point to where Happy Days started to turn from a show about a 50s Family in a some what idealized version of the 50s (although I don't think Happy Days were afraid to talk about the ugly parts of the 50s) to a Greaser who might as well be sitcom equivalent of Jesus Christ. I think Family Guy tried to make a Religion about that. Of course the drifting quality of a show is a Gradual Shift, and usually cannot be pinpointed by one event (unless we're talking Saturday Night Live in the 80s, when it happened TWICE, yet bounced back from both in spades.) so, I don't really feel it's fair to pin the downfall of the Happy Days on this stunt, but I do understand why it's such a moment of infamy...My god that Hollywood special did not need to be 3 parts. The episodes move at a slow pace, bordering on tedium, and very little happens outside of the Jumping the Shark scene. Overall, 3/10, really could have used some shortening.
Anyway, clips of this on YouTube have this in pretty terrible quality, so thanks to MeTV, and some incredible foresight from me, we now have an Internet Copy of this in HD, now you can see every water droplet and every little fiber of disappointment.
Recorded on April 14, 2021 off of MeTV Knoxville, WBIR-DT2 10.2
EDIT 1/20/2024: Hi there, AARP Readers!
