Over at Procrastinators Club, Greg makes some interesting observations about Star Trek: Enterprise, mainly that it jumps the shark in every episode as a method to maintain viewership. By ensuring that no one episode can be any worse (or better) than any other, viewers are never insulted or suprised with the content.
I’d like to propose that many long living series end up in a similar boat, symbolicly jumping the shark every episode so as to have a sufficiently enticing ‘hook’ in their 30 second preview for next week. ER is an almost perfect example of this. As the original stars depart (and return and depart again) for greener pastures, the writing of the show must get more and more outlandish to convince viewers to keep watching. At a certain point, the shark jumping begins and we get to watch a road rage inflicted driver shoot at and run the car carrying 2 romantically involved, medium length stars and a heart wrenching guest star off a bridge.
The other genre that has developed along these lines is the mostly non-connecting series, where you can miss a week (or more) and not worry that you are missing substance. Law & Order is probably the longest running example of this right now. Sure, you might not get some of the finer details about Lenny’s alcoholism or daughter’s suicide, but you don’t really need them to watch one show.