REMEMBER THOSE SHOWS?

I used to cherish the moments spent with family watching television shows. For some reason I don't quite understand my favorite shows usually revolved around unlikely hero figures. In my list of favorite shows were the following:

• JJ Starbuck 
• The Master
• Father Murphy
• Automan 

What these shows have in common is the fact that they were short lived series for the most part. JJ Starbuck was a vehicle for the aging Dale Robertson. The show was about an eccentric billionaire trying to solve crimes that were meticulously committed. Even with some good guest stars the show itself only had a single season run spanning a total of 13 episodes. The Master was similar to JJ in that the main character was an aging badass. 

Lee Van Cleef was the star of The Master, which was contemporary to the popular A Team. The premise of the series was an old ninja master (Van Cleef was 58) that gets into super cool ninja adventures with his young protege, Max. I found the fact that an old California guy would be a ninja master simply fascinating. 

I thought the best part of The Master was Van Cleef himself. My step dad would tell me about Van Cleef's work in westerns so I felt like I knew the guy. There's Father Murphy, a Michael Landon production that only ran a couple of seasons starring Merlin Olsen as the tittle character. 

I liked Father Murphy because it really tried to teach people about values while applying a historical context. The show centered on giving orphaned children some protection while prospecting in the old west. The show was slow in terms of pace and it wasn't much for action but it was interesting to look at. In part Father Murphy was the end of an era, as its cancellation, along with Little House in the Prairie signaled the end of western themed series on television. 

Yes, Father Murphy was good but the best, in my young eyes, was Automan. 

The series Automan was particularly high on camp but incredibly ambitious for its time. The series also ran during the 1983-84 season and aired 12 episodes. The series was about a nerdy computer whiz by the name of Walter Nebicher that creates a hologram able to leave the computer and fight crime. The thing that made the show great was not the stories so much as the visual appeal. The show took a lot of its visuals from the film Tron. The car was a souped up Lamborghini Countach, conditioned to look like a futuristic car. The series was produced by Glenn Larson, whom at that time was on a major hot streak with shows such as Fall Guy. 

That time was a time when shows were being cranked out in order to really entertain people. Since that point we've really lost that in television. Right now television is a bastion for imbeciles whose poor choices make them reality stars. Perhaps there will be a return to the glory days, when the audience actually mattered to some extent. 

JUMPING THE SHARK

I have often heard the "Jumping the Shark" idiom used in a negative light. When a person talks about jumping the shark they refer to a specific moment when quality is sacrificed and what could have been great pretty much turns into self parody. So where did this come from? The shark jumping reference refers to the Happy Days episode where the Fonz decided to literally jump a shark on water skis. What made this a landmark moment was the fact that Happy Days would never be the same after.

To me it's fair to say that people jump the shark when they go overboard thinking that extreme decisions and outlandish actions will improve an idea or existing formula. To me jumping the shark is like driving a car in a foreign country, you just don't do that shit. I think we al jump the shark every day in some respect, even if it's just in terms of things we think or say.

My advice is simple, remember the Fonz and try not to jump the shark.