We like the British idea of television which, in many cases, involves short seasons of only a few episodes. This episodic construction allows for shows to maintain their essence without having to worry about sudden cast changes, ratings drops or very special episodes. Examples include The Office, which was nevertheless made into a decent American sitcom, and Spaced, which is surely to be ruined by American producers. Anyone who watches It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia can appreciate the success a show can have by keeping seasons short. No one knows this better than Henry Winkler/Arthur Fonzarelli, who originally and literally mimicked jumping a shark and thus gave us the term for when things go on a bit too long.
With the robots soon to relieve us of our burdens, Gentle Ben included some video of an RC car playing the Mario Brothers theme, which is basically our delightfully sonorous death rattle according to NICKNICK:
this was the shark.
we as a species have jumped it.
it's all downhill from here.
That's borderline poetic. Of course, it's all downhill from here. We had a good run. See you at the thirty year reunion special taping!