Sharks & Minnows Trivia Quiz

Answer: None immediately, "Happy Days" ran for six more seasons

"Happy Days" ran for eleven seasons on US television between 1973-1984. During its fourth season (1976-1977) the show was the highest rated show in the US. "Happy Days" was a situation comedy that focused on the coming of age of "Ritchie Cunningham" played by Ron Howard, his friends and family. The show was set in Milwaukee Wisconsin in the 1950s. "Happy Days" was a family show intended to invoke the nostalgia of the "Baby Boomers" high school days. Henry Winkler played a character named Arthur Fonzarelli. Fonzie as he was called by the younger characters of the show, was the "leader of the pack" stereotype who wore a leather jacket, dropped out of high school, rode a motorcycle and could charm any girl simply by looking at them. Intended to be a minor character Winkler's charm as the bad boy with a good heart soon became the central driving character.

The challenge of all episodic televisions is generally how to sustain the interest and relevancy of the characters. In "Happy Days" three part fifth season opening episodes, the writers took the cast to Hollywood where as part of an elaborate plot device, Fonzie was challenged to use a water ski to jump over a tiger shark to prove he was not afraid. In the climactic scene clad in a leather jacket Fonzie literally "jumped the shark". While the episode was seen as the turning point when "Happy Days" started to decline creatively, it did not mean the show was immediately less popular. The fifth season saw "Happy Days" end up the number two show on US television and it was number three rated show in its sixth season. It was not until the eleventh and last season that "Happy Days" fell out of the top 20 US rated shows.

Answer: Fawlty Towers

"Fawlty Towers" was a comedy starring Cleese, his then wife Connie Booth, Prunella Scales and Andrew Sachs which ran for six episodes in 1975. Cleese played Basil Fawlty, the rude and cranky owner of a seaside hotel who had to navigate between his surly wife and odd guests.

The show was so popular that despite the fact that he and Booth were in the middle of a divorce, Cleese created six more episodes for viewing in 1979. Despite having completed only twelve episodes the show is nonetheless at the top if any list of the UK best television shows. Cleese's decision to walk away from the iconic character is a model of the "leave them wanting more" school of television.

Answer: ER

One of the essential characteristic of a television show that has "jumped the shark" is the longevity sufficient to allow the writers to exhaust creative and rational plots. "ER" was the engaging story of the trauma and drama of life in a teaching hospital in Chicago Illinois. "ER" ran on US television for 15 years. During the first eight seasons "ER" was either the first, second or third highest rated show in the US and spawned global careers for stars such as George Clooney, Julianna Margulies and Noah Wylie.

However in season nine many people started to see the water ski being hoisted over the shark tank when the hospital chief of staff, Dr. Romano, lost an arm to a helicopter blade on the roof of the building. For most people the show took an inevitable sharp decline when the same character, who had developed a healthy fear of helicopters, overcame his phobia to save a patient only to fall victim to a freakish windstorm that plunged a flaming helicopter onto his head.

Answer: Judd Apatow

"Freaks & Geeks" is perhaps the best example of a "minnow" a show that was canceled in its first season that in hindsight deserved more episodes. A young Judd Apatow produced this situation comedy about high school outsiders in the Detroit, Michigan suburbs. Amazingly the cast of this show included Seth Rogen, Jason Siegel, Linda Cardellini, James Franco and Busy Phillips, all actors who have since become hugely successful. "Freaks and Geeks" lasted only twelve episodes (three more were shown later as part of a campaign by cult fans) before it was canceled. Apatow and friends from "Freaks & Geeks" have gone on to create such hit movies as "Pineapple Express", "Anchorman", "40 Year old Virgin", and "Knocked Up".

Answer: Roseanne

"Roseanne" was based on the stand up comedy of star Roseanne Barr that ran on US television for nine seasons between 1988-1997. The show followed the exploits of the sarcastic Roseanne Conner, played by Barr, and her husband and children amidst various friends and other relatives. The show was a huge hit and ranked in the top five of US shows for each of its first six seasons. "Roseanne" survived as few shows have with the aging and changing circumstances of the family members as well as cast changes and additions.

However, by the ninth year of the show the creative energies of all involved seemed to have run dry. The "jump the shark" moment seemed to occur when the lower middle class Roseanne won a mega-lottery instantly making the family wealthy. This in turn led to the father played by John Goodman to opt out of the marriage (and the show). Declining ratings forced the show to be cancelled but the final nail was a bizarre last episode where it was revealed that most of the story for the past nine years had been a figment of "writer" Roseanne's imagination to cushion rather depressing "real" events in the fictional characters life.

Answer: Claire Danes

Claire Danes starred as the high school girl whose diary-like narration anchored the coming of age US television show "My So Called Life". Danes has since go on to star in movies and the hugely popular series "Homeland". "My So Called Life" was a big favorite of critics but performed only average in the ratings as it faced nearly insurmountable odds being shown at the same time as the top rated "Friends".

After the first season, which ended in a "cliff-hanger" the show was not renewed for a second season.

The show was notable for not conforming to the idea that teen years were filled with light-hearted issues and that any problem could be resolved in a thirty or sixty minute episode. "My So Called Life" predated and became a model similar shows such as "Dawson's Creek" and "Felicity".

Answer: The entire season was a dream

"Dallas" was one of the truly iconic American television programs that became a world-wide phenomenon. The story of the Texas oil family, the Ewings, their ruthless pursuit of money, love or revenge defined an era in US television programs and perpetuated an image of life in the US that colored international perspective for years to come. First broadcast in 1978 the show ran for fourteen seasons and was the first or second highest rated US program from 1980-1984 (seasons three-eight). The third season of the show culminated in the famous "Who shot J.R.?" cliffhanger where star Larry Hagman as J.R. Ewing was shot by an unknown assailant. The fourth season episode where the shooter was revealed, entitled "Who Done It", was for a time the most watched television show in US history.

The eighth season finale featured the death of series star Patrick Duffy who decided not to return to the show for the ninth season. However when both the star and the show's producers had a change of heart, the dilemma was how to bring Duffy back to the cast and Bobby Ewing back to life. In the ninth season finale, the final scene was of Bobby's wife Pam waking from sleep and instead of finding her new husband (she remarried during season nine) in the shower, she found Bobby. In the tenth season's first episode we learned that the entire ninth season was a dream and none of it happened. While "Dallas" remained on the airwaves for four more years, the ratings and creative energy that marked the initial years could not be recaptured.

Answer: Wonderfalls

"Wonderfalls" was a unique, quirky, well written, innovative and therefore totally unsuccessful program on US television in 2004. The show was created and written by Brian Fuller, starred a young, mostly unknown, cast including the lovely Canadian actress Caroline Dhavernas as Jaye Tyler, a recent college graduate who avoided her overachieving family and perky friends by working at a small tourist oriented gift shop. However the inanimate animals on sale in the gift store began to talk to her and offer both life advice and cryptic passages that forced Jaye to seek out and help people. Only four episodes were shown on US television before the program was canceled while another nine were made available online and in DVD.

"Wonderfalls" creator Brian Fuller came back to US television with an even more innovative and quirky show in 2007 called "Pushing Daisies", that was a combination homage to pies, love story, detective procedural, where the lead character could bring dead people (objects) back to life with a touch and kill them instantly with a second touch.

Answer: The Cosby Show

"The Cosby Show" was the brilliant situation comedy created by and starring Bill Cosby. Cosby played OB/GYN Cliff Huxtable who. with his attorney wife played by Phylicia Rashad, raised their four girls and one boy in Brooklyn, New York. "The Cosby Show" was an outgrowth of the tremendous success comedian Cosby had with a stand up routine that detailed his own children and the trials of raising a large family in the "modern" world of the 1980s. "The Cosby Show" was an instant success, becoming the third highest rated show for the 1984-1985 season and thereafter the top rated show for five successive years (1985-1990).

However, like all family driven shows, children grow up and by 1991 the Huxtable children had become adults. To return the show to its light family roots, the writers took one of the older daughters, Denise, played by Lisa Bonet and gave her a husband and a step-daughter named Olivia. The adorable Raven-Symone initially brought a renewed energy to the show but ratings started to slip in the seventh season. By the end of the eighth season, "The Cosby Show" remained in the top 20 but had lost the interest of the series stars and was ended rather than see further quality erosion.

All of the shows mentioned here are known for important character additions. "The Brady Bunch" added a younger cousin Oliver in its last season and was roundly criticized for the action. "Growing Pains" added two new children over its run, the later being a teen-aged foster child played by a young Leonardo DiCaprio. By far the most innovative child cast addition was in the late 1970s situation comedy "Mork and Mindy". When the titular couple played by Robin Williams and Pam Dawber had a baby, instead of a small infant, Mork hatched an egg "delivering" a backward aging Jonathan Winters. Despite the chance to see the unrivaled ad-lib energy of Winters and Williams together, the show was canceled after its fourth season.

Answer: Serenity

"Firefly" was a US television program that aired 14 episodes in 2002 and was canceled due to poor ratings. The story followed the crew of the spaceship Serenity which was a Firefly class ship that looked form the outside like the insect. The show was created by Joss Whedon who created both the iconic "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel" programs to tremendous success. Nathan Fillion starred as Serenity's Captain and the crew included other successful and fan favorite actors like Gina Torres, Adam Baldwin, Summer Glau and Ron Glass.

The show exhibited a Whedon characteristic of light-hearted dialog set in a dystopian universe that relied heavily on the chemistry between the actors. "Firefly" was hailed by the critics and created a small but loyal fan base that pines for the return of the show.

After cancellation, "Firefly" won a US Emmy and spawned the follow up movie "Serenity" and several graphic novels.

Answer: Neighbours

"Neighbours" was first broadcast on Australia's Channel Seven in 1985 and was canceled a year later, but was immediately picked up by rival Channel Ten where it remained a staple for the next 25 years before settling into a new home on Channel Eleven. Neighbours has been broadcast in over fifty countries at one time or another and was tremendously popular in the UK for much of its existence. The premise of thew show is quite simple - the stories follow the lives of the people who move in, live and leave on a fictional Ramsey Street in a middle class area Melbourne.

Soap operas by nature require giant leaps of logic and expect outlandish plot turns. There is a proud history in all such television shows of using, reusing and stretching any plot device to interest viewers. During the late 1980s, "Neighbours" introduced a popular character named Bouncer. Bouncer was a Labrador retriever who literally bounced from owner to owner amidst the Ramsey Street families. Bouncer was in a fire, lost and feared dead, run over by cars and hospitalized and was even poisoned from eating tainted mushrooms during his tenure on the show. At one point Bouncer was considered the most popular character on "Neighbours" and was paid accordingly. However, amongst the over 6000 episodes of the show there was no stranger moment then in episode 1254 when Bouncer was shown asleep and we visited his dreams where he was happily getting married to Rosie, a sheepdog who lived next door. It is a testament to how popular Bouncer was in Australia; in an era when interracial marriage was still controversial, none raised an eyebrow over the portrayal of interbreed marriage. Bouncer remained on "Neighbours" until cancer claimed his life at the age of seven in 1993.

Answer: Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip

"Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" was an all-star heavily promoted "show within a show" that detailed the efforts to produce a live sketch comedy show that looked and felt very much like "Saturday Night Live". "Studio 60" was created and produced by Aaron Sorkin who had tremendous critical and rating success with "The West Wing". Despite being named as 2006's Best New Show by US critics and receiving five US Emmy nominations, "Studio 60" did not generate success in the ratings and was canceled after one season.

The fate of "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" illustrates the difficulties many actors who appeared in long running television series face in launching new shows. These stars and their shows carry large budgets and high expectations and often cannot repeat the earlier success. Take Matthew Perry as an example. Since he stopped playing the likable Chandler Bing on "Friends" in 2004 he has starred in three different series -"Go On", "Mr. Sunshine" and "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip". Each was heavily promoted and anticipated and each was canceled after one season.

Answer: Fox

David Duchovny starred as Fox Mulder in the popular and iconic US television show "The X-Files". "X-Files" ran for nine seasons from 1993-2001 as well spawning two movies, 1998's "The X-Files" and 2008's "X-Files I Want to Believe". "The X-Files" followed Duchovny's Mulder and his partner Dana Scully played by Gillian Anderson as FBI agents assigned to the strange and paranormal cases. The show's tag line was "The Truth is Out There" that reflected both the dichotomy of a willing paranormal believer Muldur and rationale skepticism in Scully. Like many episodic serials of this type there was a central "conspiracy" that played a role in the series' overall mythology but also numerous single issue side stories. The complexed central theme involved alien infiltration and eventual attack on Earth, the abduction of Fox Mulder's sister and a myriad of interwoven characters.

However like any successful episodic television show the real success was in the chemistry of the cast, here the relationship between Duchovny and Anderson. At its height, the show kept a low boil of sexual tension, but a high comfort and believability to the "partner as closer than spouse" ethos. In 1999 after the shows seventh season and the release of the highly successful "X-Files" movie, Duchovny opted to leave the show and deprive the writers of its central thematic purpose. An attempt to reboot the show with less emphasis on the conspiracy storyline and develop a new FBI agent in the form of veteran actor Robert Patrick did not succeed and "X-Files" plummeted in ratings and creative energy. By the end of the ninth season in 2002 the series was canceled.

Answer: The Prisoner

Patrick McGoohan was born in New York but was raised in Ireland and England. During the Cold War Era as James Bond books and other "spy" stories were coming to favor, McGoohan staked a prominent place in the genre with the 1960's "Danger Man" (called "Secret Agent" in the US). "Danger Man" started off life as a thirty minute US show with an espionage theme but more "realistic" than the larger than life events in a Bond story. The series premiered in 1960 but was canceled after one season. After the tremendous success of the Bond movie "Dr. No" in 1961, which McGoohan auditioned for but lost out to Sean Connery, the producers of "Danger Man" gave the series another chance producing three more years of the show between 1964-1968.

When "Danger Man" ended McGoohan had an idea for a show that centered around what happens to spies when they don't want to spy anymore and quit their agency. "The Prisoner" was the answer, seventeen episodes about former spies(moles and other plants) sent to a mysterious isolated village where they no longer had names but only numbers. The show focused on getting McGoohan's character Number Six to answer questions about his reasons for leaving the spy game. Number Six at the same time remained defiant in refusing to cooperate and worked to escape the village and thwart whatever purpose the intelligence gathering was designed to accomplish.

The sparse and self-contained seventeen episodes of "The Prisoner" were a model for dystopian spy and science fiction programs that have followed. McGoohan's Number Six embodied the dark side of what happens when you reduce men to numbers and served as a counterpoint to the Double 00 designations of the Bondian MI-6 universe, while also reminding viewers of the popular theme song from McGoohan's "Danger Man" where Johnny Rivers was heard to croon "They have given you a number and taken away your name".

Answer: The Simpsons

Even though I risk the ire of the majority of the FT community I cannot stay silent any longer. I never liked "The Simpsons" and so to me every episode is a shark jumping moment. However there is no arguing that since 1989 "The Simpsons" has been a cultural and ratings juggernaut that resulted in over 500 weekly episodes, is shown world-wide and is translated into dozens of local languages. However there are only so many times Homer can be fired or Bart can upset Principal Skinner or Maggie can get lost. Nevertheless and perhaps because of a perceived ramping up of the crazy factor and a lessening of the high quality of satire prevalent in the early seasons of the show, "The Simpsons" has endured for many years, even branching to movies where 2007's "The Simpsons Movie" yielded over $525 million in box office revenues.

"Family Guy" and "South Park" are also long running animated comedy series that remain popular but whose allure alluded me from the start, while the erstwhile "Flintstones" was the original adult oriented animated television show and based on Jackie Gleason's "Honeymooners".