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Kids Who Made TV Shows Jump the Shark
When there’s a new kid in town, a TV show’s days are numbered
Pretty much every long-running family TV show did it. Around the time the youngest kid character entered puberty, the show introduced a new younger, cuter kid in the hopes of retaining its popularity. The gimmick inevitably failed, and the show limped along for another season or two before going to TV heaven.
Introduce a new kid and a TV show jumps the shark.
I’m not saying some eight-year-old single-handedly killed your favorite TV show. And I’m not criticizing the young actors who played these shark jumpers. Most of them grew up to be pretty cool people.
Besides, these shows were already close to running their course. But the arrival of these new, mostly bowl-haired kid characters usually delineated the moment between a great TV show and one that had well and truly jumped the shark.
Without further ado, pray to enjoy this treasury of infamous shark-jumping kiddies.
Sam — Diff’rent Strokes
Diff’rent Strokes was the tale of two African American brothers from Harlem who were adopted by a wealthy white widower from Park Avenue. It was not the tale of a red-headed Southern child who drank “gullops” of milk.
