Firepower

I agree. I think people use the phrase 'jump the shark' too broadly and misapply it half the time.

What the producers should have done after Wilcox left was a spinoff with the brothers and maybe Ponch getting promoted and overseeing them, joining them on special cases. That would have made it a separate, new show.

Fans are comparing the sixth season with the first five and people who resist change are going to find all kinds of faults with it and cry 'jump the shark.' I think the sixth season was vastly entertaining and stands on its own merits. I love all the episodes with the motor bike racing scenes. There is a lot of action in these later episodes and they're fun to watch.

I think many people erroneously apply the 'jump the shark' idea to significant cast departures and additions. 'Scarecrow and Mrs. King' and 'Friends' are the only two hit shows I can think of that had the same main cast from the pilot episode until the finale. So cast changes are the norm on network TV shows and that would mean 97% of the hit shows on TV jumped the proverbial shark because of cast turnover.

Also, if we define JTS as being a decline in quality that is not going to work either. Some shows decline then regain in popularity. 'Gunsmoke' was almost cancelled in 1967. It was given a last minute reprieve, and the color episodes produced in the late 60s, until 1975 were very successful. L.A. Law hit a terrible slump in season 7 after Susan Dey left, and mid-way through that year, Bochco came back and retooled it. It wound up getting renewed and season 8, the concluding year, was considered very good by critics and fans.

So if we are going to say that a show jumps the shark due to a decline in quality, we also have to be able to say that it can jump back over the shark and return to where it was. Not all shows that jump the shark are automatically headed for cancellation.

Can someone fill me in on what happened?

And somebody just posted that Bobby has a mustache?

Yes, they shoulda called the episode Starpower.