When Did Diff’rent Strokes Jump the Shark?

[TMC]

https://popculturereferences.com/whe...ump-the-shark/

In a feature looking at if or when a TV series "jumped the shark," Brian asks you all to determine when (or if) Diff'rent Strokes jumped the shark.



Today, we look at when (or if) you folks believe that Diff’rent Strokes “jumped the shark.”

This is “Just Can’t Jump It,” a feature where we examine shows and whether they “jumped the shark.” Jumped the shark (coined by Jon Hein) means that the show had a specific point in time where, in retrospect, you realize that show was going downhill from there (even if, in some rare occasions, the show later course-corrected). Not every show DOES jump the shark. Some shows just remain good all the way through. And some shows are terrible all the way through. What we’re looking for are moments where a show that you otherwise enjoyed hit a point where it took a noticeable nose dive after that time and if so, what moment was that?

Diff’rent Strokes was a hit NBC sitcom (their first hit sitcom in quite a while) that ran for eight seasons between 1978-1986 (NBC actually canceled it after its seventh season, but ABC picked it up for an eighth season, but ABC also canceled it after 19 episodes of its 22-episode order). It was basically a starring vehicle for Gary Coleman, who stars in the series as one of two young Black orphans who are taken in by the rich White man who their mother worked for as a housekeeper. The rich widower, Phillip Drummond (Conraid Bain), basically adopts the two boys, Willis (Todd Bridges) and Arnold (Coleman), and they move into his penthouse apartment with his daughter, Kimberly (Dana Plato), and his current live-in maid, Mrs. Garrett (Charlotte Rae). Mrs. Garrett soon left to star in her own spinoff, The Facts of Life. In Season 6, Phillip remarries Maggie (Dixie Carter, and then Mary Ann Mobley in Season 7), who has a young son, Sam (Danny Cooksey).

So first…DID IT JUMP THE SHARK? Yes, I would say so.

WHEN DID IT JUMP THE SHARK The obvious answer is when Maggie and Sam join the show, but to be frank, the show NEEDED a spark by that point in the series. At first, I wanted to still choose the end of Season 6, but more because of the departure of Dana Plato’s Kimberly than the introduction of Maggie and Sam. Kimberly’s departure also basically meant that Todd Bridges’ Willis became sidelined, as well, and the show was just completely different, now that Arnold was essentially the new “big brother” to Sam. But I dunno, maybe I should pick a point in Season 5, when the show’s conceit had worn so thin that it really NEEDED to mix things up (kind of hard to say they jumped the shark in Season 6 if I think they probably already had jumped the shark, necessitating the drastic revamp in the first place). Season 5 has the infamous “The Bicycle Man” episode (where Arnold’s best friend, Dudley, comes reeeeeeeeeeeeally close to being molested), but I’m going to go a bit later and pick “The Reporter,” the awful anti-drugs episode guest-starring First Lady Nancy Reagan. Terrible, terrible television. The show had lost all of its initial spark by that point.

[stevea]

The writer picks the Nancy Reagan episode as the JTS moment? Come on! The writer simply disliked the episode. If any episodes lost viewers, they were probably The Bicycle Man.

The obvious answer the writer mentioned IS the answer.

The ratings were slipping in the fourth season and slipping badly the next two.

Rather that do the add-a-kid bit, they should have called it quits after the fifth or maybe the sixth season (there was no recovery in the sixth season and they definitely should have seen the writing on the wall).

Interestingly, the ratings recovered slightly for the seventh season, but NBC cancelled anyway.

[just1paul]

Diff'rent Strokes jumped the shark Season 1 episode 1.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by stevea

The writer picks the Nancy Reagan episode as the JTS moment? Come on! The writer simply disliked the episode. If any episodes lost viewers, they were probably The Bicycle Man.

The obvious answer the writer mentioned IS the answer.

The ratings were slipping in the fourth season and slipping badly the next two.

Rather that do the add-a-kid bit, they should have called it quits after the fifth or maybe the sixth season (there was no recovery in the sixth season and they definitely should have seen the writing on the wall).

Interestingly, the ratings recovered slightly for the seventh season, but NBC cancelled anyway.

I'm kind of relieved that the addition of Maggie and Sam wasn't picked as the "jump the shark" moment because it's probably the most obvious choice. I think to borrow from the old JTS website, the issue with Nancy Reagan's appearance is that it officially marked the moment that Diff'rent Strokes ceased being a situational comedy and became a sanctimonious, clumsily moralizing pulpit for '80s sterility. It also had a Reefer Madness-vibe. And knowing what later happened with Todd Bridges and Dana Plato, the whole "Don't do drugs!" message just feels really disingenuous and overly simplistic. Plus, Nancy Reagan was already the First Lady of the United States, so it isn't like she needed a pulpit like a sitcom to promote her Just Say No campaign.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by stevea

The writer picks the Nancy Reagan episode as the JTS moment? Come on! The writer simply disliked the episode. If any episodes lost viewers, they were probably The Bicycle Man.

The obvious answer the writer mentioned IS the answer.

The ratings were slipping in the fourth season and slipping badly the next two.

Rather that do the add-a-kid bit, they should have called it quits after the fifth or maybe the sixth season (there was no recovery in the sixth season and they definitely should have seen the writing on the wall).

Interestingly, the ratings recovered slightly for the seventh season, but NBC cancelled anyway.

As for the "Bicycle Man" two-parter, I really don't know where to start with that other than that should not be in a sitcom period and whatsoever. I mean, having a show that focuses on child molestation belongs on a crime procedural like Law & Order: SVU or Criminal Minds. Even for an early 1980s era "very special episode", doing an episode like was extremely dark and disturbing. I don't know if it was when Diff'rent Strokes jumped the shark per se, but it's definitely one of those episodes that still memorable for "all of the wrong reasons".

[chris jacob]

i think it jumped the shark when they added sam and maggie

[EccentricGenius]

Originally Posted by chris jacob

i think it jumped the shark when they added sam and maggie

I agree with you completely, chris jacob.

[BestTVever]

Originally Posted by chris jacob

i think it jumped the shark when they added sam and maggie

I also agree with you. The show was already stale and should have been cancelled. When Dana Plato was sort of let go is another jump the shark moment. They were furious she was pregnant and having a baby.
She does come back for one episode when Sam is around and then gone for good.
It became odd because Gary was older. He was actually getting an adult belly yet he was still playing a kid. He took on an older mentor in the Sam season. In some ways they were trying to replace his young cute character with Sam.
I just hated the mother and her bad acting esp in the episode where Sam gets kidnapped.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by BestTVever

I also agree with you. The show was already stale and should have been cancelled. When Dana Plato was sort of let go is another jump the shark moment. They were furious she was pregnant and having a baby.
She does come back for one episode when Sam is around and then gone for good.
It became odd because Gary was older. He was actually getting an adult belly yet he was still playing a kid. He took on an older mentor in the Sam season. In some ways they were trying to replace his young cute character with Sam.
I just hated the mother and her bad acting esp in the episode where Sam gets kidnapped.

I'm guessing that it became very challenging to have to write for Gary as he got older because he physically, still looked like a child, if that makes sense. Gary was I believe, actually 18 years old when Diff'rent Strokes finally ended but he was still really short and he still had a bit of a baby face due to his real life health ailments. It isn't the case with Todd or Dana, where it would in theory, be easier to write mature stories about them as they got older.

[rusty spike]

Maybe the show should have ended before Pearl the housekeeper showed up. I never warmed up to her character. Since the Bicycle Shop eps and the Reagan ep came from Season 5, it made sense to end the show after Season 4.

[Fallon97]

It never jumped the shark.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by chris jacob

i think it jumped the shark when they added sam and maggie

It appears that the basic idea behind adding Sam and Maggie was to take a family that was already a union of black and white and make it a union of north and south. But by that point, the already inconsistent writing took a considerable dive. For example, Sam's little-boy misogyny, which wasn't remotely cute or funny as it was, rarely went unchallenged outside of the Soleil Moon Frye episode.

[dee2364]

If The Bicycle Man episode wasn't a JTS moment, then adding Sam and Maggie were. Once an unasked for cute kid is added to a show, it's over (see: Oliver on The Brady Bunch and so many other shows).