As we as individuals try to find ourselves in society, we are influenced by what we see or who we respect in this short life. This goal may revolve around the one act of escaping boredom in my generation: television. As children, we were fascinated by fictional characters labeled as "super heroes" or something to that extent. At that age, we would imagine ourselves to grow up being just like them. As age overcomes our innocence, we begin to watch television for other reasons. We enjoy watching programs that we can relate to in one of the aspects of our everyday lives. "That 70's Show" was and still is one of the best recreational shows that had ever been created. Each character seemed to resemble some aspect of life in my opinion. The most influential character that symbolized an aspect of my life was Eric Foreman. This character was an average teenager venturing through high school, and dealt with what high school had to offer. The show basically revolved around him. His character progresses from him not standing up for himself to his parents, to being an individual who is confident and does what he says he will do after standing up to his parents. Eric was like the backbone of the entire show, and without him, the show would surely fail. This turned out to be true when That 70's Show's "Jump the Shark" moment was Eric leaving for Africa for the rest of the show. The one person anybody could relate to, was now gone. To try to make up for it, the character "Randy" was introduced to replace him. This resulted in disgust by many viewers, refusing to consider him a part of "That 70's Show".
If Eric remained in the show, the result would phenomenal. Eric left at a critical moment that could have occurred if he stayed between his friends and his relationship, but that hope was destroyed forever. Eric had a connection between all of his friends. They've known each other since childhood, and the audience felt a connection between all of them just from the way they act towards each other. I could connect to his decisions and his interests like his immense excitement from Star Wars. He didn't care what people thought about him, and went through with his decisions no matter what negative response he received. When Randy was introduced, I couldn't connect to the show in any emotional way. To me, his character seemed to be the "douche-bag" version of Eric. He just seemed to be a character that was the feces of Hollywood and somehow was seen to be the logical choice for the show by the creators. His character just seemed fake, and if I wanted to relate to that I would befriend the other 60% of students in high school.
Comedy was what this show was based off of, and when it is mixed with something I can relate to, it is something that I will definitely watch. Eric was a funny character. He might have not had been like Kelso(the goof-ball), but was still exceptionally comedic. Randy was not even remotely funny in any way. His jokes were boring, his appearance was fake, and his attitude made him seem like he shouldn't even be apart of the show. He also affected the story line by trying to get with Eric's girlfriend while he is away. If I was in Eric's shoes, I couldn't stand the fact that someone who was dear to me was seeing another guy and I couldn't do anything about it. His character gave every reason to dislike him, especially since he makes an appearance far after the show began. The creators of shows always seem to ruin some aspect of a show or movie we enjoy greatly. We as the audience need to deal with this, although I don't realize why we would need to if we've already given so much support to that specific group by watching their program. There are many more shows out there with "Jumping the Shark" moments. It seems as if we have to endure the poor decisions made by writers who make extremely horrific twists and endings to many great stories.
Don't even get me started with the Sopranos.
Before "Jumping the Shark":
After "Jumping the Shark":
(He tries to make himself seem like he played his character well)
I almost feel like Eric going to Africa was perfect. What better way to start the slow death of a series about the 70's than to invoke a shark jump. What else could the writers have been thinking? At the very least it makes the event more palatable. Think of it as a meta-homage.
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