10 TV Shows That RECOVERED From Jumping The Shark

Down but not out.

By Jack Pooley /

Showtime

"Jumping the shark" is a term typically reserved for TV series which change in significant and negative ways, making it clear to viewers that the show's creativity has run its course.

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The phrase is named after the infamous Happy Days episode where The Fonz (Henry Winkler) literally jumps over a shark on jet skis, and now serves as short-hand for any media property that's limping on in spite of itself.

But as much as jumping the shark is generally seen as the irreversible death knell for a hit TV show, there are those precious few series which have actually been able to "un-jump" the shark, if you like.

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Whether simply returning to the status quo from which the shark-jump removed them, or taking a radical new route which restored the series' former glory, these 10 shows were all pulled back from the brink of mediocrity by some shrewd course-corrections.

Above all else, they provide hope that even the most doomed show has the potential to right itself, though it naturally takes an incredible amount of work to win jaded fans back...

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