When Good TV Goes Bad

They call it jumping the shark: the moment the writers of a TV show run out of ideas, named after that infamous episode of Happy Days where the Fonze does just that - jumps over a shark on waterskis. It was the end for Happy days and the saying has been around ever since.

Traditionally shark-jumping involved the addition of a new character - in a sitcom almost always a cute child or an amusing neighbour (fat kid from Hey Dad, anyone?) - but these days shark jumping seems to be more about the writers having total amnesia and giving all their characters the stupidest, most contrived plotlines ever, especially in the soap-drama genre.

It's kind of fun trying to spot the shark jump in any used-to-be-good-now-bad TV show. The Simpsons jumped the shark quite literally when Homer recreated that scene from Happy Days - but I believe I may be alone in thinking that it hasn't jumped the shark for reals yet. The OC jumped the shark when Marissa became a lesbian for three episodes. SVU jumped the shark when Olivia got a rapist for a brother. E-Street jumped the shark with Mr Bad.

What's more interesting, though, is when there is no shark-jump, no contrived lesbian plotline, no little green alien. When a show is still exactly the same as it was on the day it aired, and yet, it goes from being must-watch to shoot-me-now.

Take Spicks and Specks. Man, I loved Spicks and Specks when it first started. I loved it so much I taped House to watch it - because as adorable as House was, Spicks and Specks had me in stitches. I loved Adam. I loved Myf. I loved Alan. I loved the guests. I loved the kooky theme music. I probably would have ranked it as one of my top five TV shows - that's how much love their was.

And then one day ... the jokes weren't really that funny.

And someone was singing from the stupid 1975 Torana Owners Manual again.

And it occured to me that Alan's chin was the scariest thing I'd ever seen on the TV and Myf's voice made me want to take a power drill to my ears.

It was the strangest thing but I was overcome with loathing for this stupid show, and I flicked over to House.

I tried again a few times to watch it, and every time the hate grew more pronounced. It was funny - because the show itself had not really changed - they were still making jokes and obviously they were kind of funny because the audience was laughing, and there was still trivia - but the whole thing just really annoyed me. Kind of like when you're eating dinner with the man you've been married with for twenty years and suddenly you notice that the sound of his chewing is actually rather revolting, and you have to fight the urge to leap over the table and puncture his oesophagus with your butter knife, I suppose. Except it's television.

And it's not just Spicks and Specks. I feel the same way about that sacred cow of Australian comedy: Thank God You're Here, except that I only moderately liked it to begin with. Still, now there's hate. Pokey-eyes-out hate.

So the question for the square eyes is this: what makes good TV go bad? And once it's gone bad - is there any way back?