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Yes, deadcat, Jump The Shark is a lot of fun! It does prove that most people do indeed have an instinctive, almost communal feel for what makes a show good and what makes it bad--or makes it start going bad! Hey, we know what we like. Not sure about HAPPY DAYS, but for me, the height of outrageousness with that show (and even as a kid I thought this) was when the alien, Mork, came to visit. I was appalled at the absurdity of that. Actually, most shows have several different times that they technically, "jumped the shark" by the time they're done.

Robert:

You're absolutely right about NIGHT FLIGHT and its content, as well as the logo! Man, they just don't make 'em like this anymore, do they? I really do miss shows like that and rampant, all-across-the-dial bizarre weekend programming like that! It simply isn't around anymore, yet back then, that was the norm for weekend television programming. You could always find lots of wild, strange things on TV. Wow.

Now it's all homogenized and all the same.

Exactly, Robert! I'm really wired like this... almost every show I've ever watched regularly, got filed away in my brain (or the empty space between my ears where a brain would normally be) under its original timeslot, and it then forever will remind me instantly of that time of day or night, and carry with it, whatever subconscious feeling or mood I have attached to that certain time. Therefore, every single show always has an identifiable "vibe" for me that differentiates it.

As a corollary, I often look at years in much the same way--as they relate to some of my favorite movies or shows. Like, "Hmm, OK, so that show I used to watch on Saturday mornings began in September of '77...the same time shooting began in the Monroevill Mall for DAWN OF THE DEAD!" Or, "Whoa, that drive-in closed in 1968...right around the time NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD was released..." Or, "Oh! So that cool TV movie I remember my family watching that night it premiered in late October of 1975, was right around the time of that Sir Graves Halloween double-feature special where he showed the Black Lagoon flicks..." Or, "Hey, this guy moved to Michigan in '83?? That was the last year of The Ghoul Show on WXON..." Or, "Hmm, that year in England when this incident happened, was also when filming had just begun near Cornwall on Plague of the Zombies..." Etc, etc, etc....

It's kinda' weird. And I tend to do it about everything--just to get an instant timeframe going, for some perspective on how it relates to me in my life. Most things with me, I have to relate somehow to my favorite movies, drive-ins, horror hosts, or TV shows. The "time stamp" phrase you mentioned is right on. I time stamp everything...but in some very strange ways (my family often rolls their eyes at the decidedly odd ways I put this perspective on things that pop up. Hehehe).

That's cool, Johnny... Glad I mentioned it then! Keep up the good work!