1. RED HERRING: Only Fools And Horses
That whole list consisted of American TV shows that it felt only fair to choose a show from the UK to end on, and not just any show; a TV sitcom voted the best UK Sitcom of all time. Indeed Fools and Horses still stands in popularity to this day because it is well written in terms of characters, stories and the comedy itself; to this day I still find myself laughing as if I had seen it for the first time. This is not just my opinion either though, Fools is constantly re-run on UK Gold and still pulls in ratings to this day, creating new fans in new generations. So how can this show be a Shark Jumper if it is so damned popular to this day? Two words: Christmas Specials. Now that is a bit too absolute, that majority of the Christmas Specials were good too, it was the last few that really brought the show down; to be more precise, the specials that occurred after the Trotter brothers had finally realised their dreams and become millionaires. Originally Fools was supposed to finish winter 1996 with the final episode Time On Our Hands, which for all intents and purposes it did with record number ratings; 24.3 million people tuned in to watch it (myself included) a record which is still untouched to this day by any other UK TV show, the show itself was also the perfect send off for the Trotter family; their whole lives they have been scrimping, saving, ducking and diving, wheeling and dealing their whole lives in the hopes of getting that one deal which earns them millions of bunce, to borrow a phrase from the show, and all along sitting in their garage from day one they had an antique watch that was essentially priceless to antique dealers that ultimately went for a whopping sum at an auction house. The show ended with them walking off into the sunset from their old life contemplating investing their new fortune in the stock market (something that long suffering Rodney and Uncle Albert are reluctant to do considering Del Boys business acumen). A perfect farewell to the Trotter family, something that is hard to pull off these days with most shows being run into the ground and ending on a sour note. Well this is where our fairytale ending does turn sour; five years later the BBC (I assume) thought they could make some more money from the Only Fools and Horses franchise by churning out another 3 episodes, after all the last one had a third of the country tuning in because they thought it was the end, imagine how many more would tune in for the return? Well John Sullivan (creator of Only Fools and Horses) did indeed give us not just one, but three more Christmas Specials for the next three years. These shows ultimately undone the Trotters dream of being millionaires and put them back in Nelson Mandela house wheeling and dealing again. To myself and many fans of the series this was a slap in the face, you ended this franchise on such a high note and so perfectly and managed to undo all that by beating the dead horse. All the characters were too old now really, Del had long retired his bachelor lifestyle and was having to bring up his teenage terror Damian along with his long term partner Raquel. Rodney, despite being fully grown and married and trying for a baby, was still a clueless little boy really (something which they couldnt really pull off anymore), sadly Buster Merryfield (Uncle Albert) had died a few years prior to the re-launch, as had Kenneth MacDonald who played Mike (the local landlord), everyone else was really just too old to really reprise their roles properly. Im not going to deny, I watched them out of curiosity and there were storylines which hadnt been concluded, i.e. the Freddy The Frog Robdal story, but it felt as though these questions could have been answered years ago when the cast were younger and it also felt as though these specials were just an excuse to rekindle fan affection for the franchise so they could launch Rock and Chips (prequel spin off following Del in his youth) and The Green Green Grass (spin off with Boycey and Marlene) I will never forgive them for forcing another three Christmas Specials after they ended it so well, even Roger Lloyd-Pack (Trigger) admitted it was a mistake to go back and make three more. The thing is they didnt need to do it, not even to use them as a launching platform for the spin-offs, they would have probably been as popular, if not more so, if they had made them on the back of the original finale. So why is this a Red Herring? Well because the entire run of the show is pretty much perfect, yeah there are a few pot holes here and there but ultimately Only Fools and Horses is untouchable, it was only when they made the poor decision to make 3 more specials that they Jumped the Shark, but its a Red Herring because some people actually choose to ignore the last three specials and still treat Only Fools as if it had ended in 1996. Me personally I acknowledge the three specials as canon, but I have not (and will not, if I can) watch the shows again; to me it is a prime example of someone getting too greedy and ending up like that scene from Monty Pythons Meaning of Life; just one more little bit and before you know it youre guts are exploding all over the other fat cats. Dont be greedy and leave well enough alone and we may have no more Shark Jumps, but lets face it thats never going to happen and that would give the internet one less thing to talk about, and we cant have that!