Conrad Askland The Language of Film and TV Assignment 6

HAPPY DAYS Fonzie Jumps the Shark

“Happy Days” is a tv sitcom that ran from January 15, 1974 to September 24, 1984 and was one of the highest rated television shows of the 1970s.1 The fifth season premiere, which aired September 20, 1977, featured an infamous storyline in which the character Fonzie (Henry Winkler) accepts a challenge to jump over a live shark on water skis.

I saw this episode as a 10 year old when it originally aired. I was a huge Happy Days fan, but this episode really bothered me even back in 5th grade. This was the episode that lost my childhood interest in the series. It seems I was not alone as “Jumping the Shark” is a phrase used now to describe hype on products that are past their prime.2 So now, with adult ears and eyes, let’s look back at the elements that disappointed a large viewing public and one 10 year old boy.

Sample of Episode 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=825IofflHfU

Happy Days had many elements that were common to their regular episodes. Clothing was 1950’s preppy with poodle skirts and cardigan sweaters for most characters. Dialogue was filled with witty one-liners that were regularly accented by a laugh track. There was usually no music underscore except for stingers between scenes or 1950’s style music from the jukebox. The first two seasons were shot with a single camera and laugh track.3 In the third season they did switch to a multi-camera setup and live studio audience. The early sets for Happy Days were usually clean interiors with wide shots of multiple characters and very sparse changing of camera angles.

Fonzie Jumps the Shark - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4ZGKI8vpcg

In the “Fonzie Jumps the Shark” episode the first difference we see is costumes. Although Fonzie still has his trademark leather jacket, he’s now wearing blue shorts which is very unlike anything his character would normally wear. In fact, it would be the very last wardrobe item he would probably ever wear.

The scene is fully underscored with music typical of 1970’s drama and cop tv shows. Gone is the standard 1950’s music that helped identify Happy Days. When the shark appears we hear a not-so-clever reversal of the famous “Jaws” theme played by the brass. The dramatic music loses it’s steam very quickly as it continues it’s cheesy pulse to extended cutaways of Fonzie just idly water skiing. As we wait in boredom for Fonzie to jump the shark, the music takes a sudden turn to upbeat half time music that sounds like an underscore from a high school

1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Days

2 http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/JumpingTheShark

3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Days_(season_3) production of “West Side Story.” By the time the music returns to the dramatic setup for the shark jump we can feel our fingers twitch to reach for the remote to change the channel.

The upbeat music change before the shark jump is accompanied to shots on land of the viewing spectators. The spectators appear very nervous for the upcoming shark jump but then we cut to Ralph and Pottsie for a typical Happy Days one-liner exchange. The dramatic build is diluted and now the intended building tension for the shark jump is muddled and confused. Is it funny or dramatic? The confused mixture of elements makes it neither.

The mis-en-scene of the spectators is a very tight shot, much tighter than is normal for Happy Days. It gives the impression that it was shot on-scene and the crew did not block off enough space to film an actual crowd, or the directors thought that showing 8 people squished together would give the audience an impression of a large crowd on the perimeter. The mixture of the live motorboat and water skiing scenes do not create continuity with the small crowd scenes because of the apparent location difference.

The film footage of the shark is a very different quality than the rest of the footage and not just because it’s underwater. It looks like stock shark footage that was bought from National Geographic and inserted into the scene. This lack of continuity is another element that adds to pale the intended dramatic arc.

When Ritchie yells, “Fonz, are you sure you want to do it?” - the ADR sounds very much like a studio overdub. The voice is clean and close-mic’d and not yelling loud enough that the Fonz would actually hear the voice if he was water skiing. Another continuity error layered on top of continuity errors in film type, music underscore and mis-en-scene elements.

When the Fonz finally jumps the shark, the footage goes into slow motion, perhaps to make sure no one viewing at home missed the final payoff.

Back in fifth grade my classmates were really into Happy Days. We had the Happy Days lunch boxes and when we played music in class it wasn’t uncommon to play the Rock Around the Clock theme song on our 45rpm record player. At recess we would say “Ayyyy” like the Fonz and I think I wasn’t the only one who practiced looking at their hair front of the mirror just like the Fonz.

I remember this shark episode was really advertised heavily on tv. We all had to watch this episode. It was also hyped that the actor who played the Fonz, Henry Winkler, was actually going to jump the shark and not use a stunt double.

When the night came for the episode to air, I remember it was such a let down. The final slow motion sequence only added to the agony of the episode not living up to the hype. It’s very interesting after all these years to now look at the film footage, mis-en-scene, audio, costumes, continuity, dialogue and music underscore to see how these elements layered to create such a disastrous flop.

But there is one good outcome from this episode: We acquired the phrase “Jumping the Shark.”