'I lasted until the CGI tiger': Dutiful 'Walking Dead' fans lament over the moment they lost faith in the franchise

Jesse Kessenheimer • Writer and Editor

May 16, 2024 7:00 PM EDT

If you're not familiar with the term 'jumping the shark', it's a phrase that was coined in 1985. Do you remember the show Happy Days? It was the most popular TV show of the time and by the mid-80s, it started to feel like there wasn't much left in the story to tell, but the writers were instructed to push the envelope further and further with each episode, leaving fans with an overall exasperated feeling about the show. When viewers finally had enough, the writers did the unthinkable–they randomly included an insanely impossible stunt where Fonzie jumps over a shark with a pair of waterskis.

Viewers were outraged and stopped watching the show completely. Hence, the show made them 'jump the shark'.

This phenomenon has happened countless times since then in the industry and therefore the term has become cemented in TV history. Unfortunately, there are a lot of great shows that were ruined with their own version of 'jumping the shark'. Like in Game of Thrones and the entire last season, or in Buffy the Vampire Slayer where Buffy gets resurrected, or even in Lost where they discover a weird foot statue.

But the show with the greatest variety of 'jumped shark' moments would have to be The Walking Dead (and subsequent spin-offs). Scroll for all of the moments that made us sigh in exasperation at the zombie show that started it all and sealed its fate as one the most disappointing TV shows of all time.