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There's a precursor to the TV show phenomenon of "Jumping the Shark" (of course named after the Season 5 episode of Happy Days in which Fonzie waterskied over a shark and thus outed the writers as having run out of ideas). It's what we might call "Unchaining the Monkey." Of the classic sitcoms we revisit, Bewitched lasted the very longest before throwing in the towel amd ushering in a chimp. That show made it deep into Season 5 before giving up. The worst offender, though the one show with the very best excuse, was Gilligan's Island, which made it only two episodes before going ape. But at least the jungle island setting made the casting seem less desperate. Frankly, the most painful offender of this bunch is Hogan's Heroes: a chimp supposedly having escaped from a zoo nearby the German prisoner of war camp is dressed up and becomes history's most reliable courier of the Underground resistance movement. It's tearfully unfunny.
Classic sitcoms in order of ability to delay the monkey:
- Gilligan's Island - "Voodoo Something to Me," Season 1, Episode 3
- The Addams Family - "Morticia Joins the Ladies League," Season 1, Episode 6
- The Munsters - "Come Back, Little Googie," Season 1, Episode 25
- Green Acres - "Horse, What Horse?" Season 1, Episode 29
- I Dream of Jeannie - "Fly Me to the Moon," Season 3, Episode 1
- Hogan's Heroes - "Monkey Business," Season 3, Episode 29
- The Beverly Hillbillies - "The Gorilla," Season 5, Episode 6
- Bewitched - "Going Ape," Season 5, Episode 22
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