Rating: 
Summary: Visit the website instead!
Review: I decided to be more generous than some of the other reviewers and give this four stars, if only because I am a fan of the site. The book seems to be sloppy and drags in quite a few places. Also, there's too much space given to setting up the "shark" moment; the actual moment when a show/artist/public figure jumped merits little more than a couple of sentences in the last few paragraphs. I can't help but feel this was assembled hastily, perhaps to cash in on the popularity of the site. Also, the straying from television shows, while welcome, quickly becomes dull and rather pointless.However, I went ahead and gave it five stars because of the intent: documenting the point when celebrities started taking themselves too seriously. In our fame-obsessed culture, it's good to have barometers that measure the moment when a actor or show stops being "normal" and becomes "self-important". So the book itself serves a useful function. The website deals soley with TV, so the book's excursion into other areas is thought-provoking nevermind the absence of a satisfying result. My advice is to seek out the website first (shouldn't be hard to do ;-D), and perhaps skim through this on occasion. Hopefully any subsequent JTS efforts won't come any closer to "jumping the shark" than this one did.
Rating:
Summary: I have to disagree
Review: I don't agree with those who say this book in itself has "jumped the shark". I like that it doesn't just stick to TV shows like the website. If it were just like the site, what would the be the point in buying the book? I thought the music section was great. I didn't much care for the sports section since I am not really a sports fan, but that didn't diminish the book in my eyes. Fortunately, the book lacks something the website had too much of: arrogant posts that basically said, "If you don't like what I like, then you must be a ....." The book maintains a sense of fun without being mean-spirited, and it's an interesting read.
Rating: 
Summary: Even better than the site!
Review: I LOVE THIS BOOK! When you pick it up, you read an entry and instantly you're debating Hein on why and when something jumped the shark. It works not just for TV, but Music, Sports, Politics and Celebs too. I know a ton of people who will love this. Congratulations John, Jump The Shark hasn't jumped yet!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Germany jumped the shark when Hitler became Chancellor?
Review: I think Jon Hein is taking himself too seriously. It was a cute idea, but this book got written ass-backward. It's padded by little sidebars that might have come from an inflight magazine ("Ten Famous High Schools on TV," "TV Characters with Handicaps," that have nothing whatever to do with the topic. And then, the greatest error, expanding the concept beyond TV shows to sports, politics, world events, and so forth. Here Hein goes wrong more often than not. Sure, we all have our own ideas about success and failure, but he and his crew get dogmatic to their own detriment. Is "Conspiracy Theory" where Mel Gibson jumped the shark or is it one of his better movies? Who's to say, isn't it all a matter of taste?
Too bad, because his original idea and website made us all think and nod and shake with excitement, yes, yes, we cried, finally someone came up with a phrase to express our horror at "a very special episode," "twins being born," "we're moving to Hollywood!" and all the other bad plot lines that happen to wonderful TV series.
Rating:
Summary: It's OK. Just OK.
Review: I was a big fan of the website so naturally I had to buy this book immediately. I hate to say it but I am very disappointed because the book spends far too much time examining everything but TV shows, and the descriptions that do accompany a topic just aren't that interesting. The book comes across like a watered down version of the far more interesting website with an additional 250 pages of random topics added to the back. It just isn't fun to read! I hate to abuse the phrase, but I think that it has "Jumped the Shark". Like a TV show that completely changes direction in a desperate attempt to stay alive after all the little kiddies grow up, this book pratically abandons its core purpose: to document the point where a TV show peaks and heads downhill and instead goes off on music groups (probably due to the site's Rolling Stone connection), sport teams, actors, politicians, organizations, economic theories, and just about anything else that had good times and bad times. For example, you'll a hodge-podge with topics like communism, NASA, Iran, Major League Baseball, George Bush, and men's tennis. Where's the TV shows? I'm sure if you look hard enough you find the topic of Atlantis! I could understand branching out into other topics if this was the 3rd book in the series, but you would think that the very first book based on the "Jump the Shark" concept, a concept defined as "the defining moment when you know your favorite television program has reached its peak" would stay on topic! The book trys far too hard to be all things and cover all topics. The TV show aspect of the book suffers from this lack of direction, many of the other topics (like NASA) seem completely out of place, while others (like politics) seem so far over the author's head that it makes you wish the author would have quit before "Jumping the Shark"! If I want to read about the fall of the British Empire or NASA for crying out loud, I'd buy a book from someone who actually knows that material! Jon Hein's material is TV shows: so give me a fun book on the fall of successful TV shows! Next time I hope the author concentrates on his core material and makes a stong, and fun, book.
Rating:
Summary: Laughed on every page
Review: I've been a fan of the site for years. I was thrilled to learn that the book was coming out. What a great read! Jump the Shark applies perfectly to so many things beyond TV. The entries on Celebs, Sports, Music and Politics were all great. I've heard that a game show is in the works. I can't wait.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious
Review: I've been following the shark for years. This is one of the funniest books I've ever read. Jon Hein knows pop culture like the Pope knows Catholicism. I can't wait for Volume II
Rating:
Summary: BUY THIS BOOK!!
Review: jump the shark should be in every bathroom in america, right next to the Onion books and the Worst case scenario handbook!! even if you don't go to the website, you should get this book. it lists all the shark jumps in five different areas and gives Hein's reasoning for each one. and take my word for it -- this guy knows more about tv than you can believe. you won't be disappointed!
Rating:
Summary: Sharks have never been this much fun!
Review: Jumptheshark.com is one of those rare concepts that's so obviously brilliant that you wind up mad at yourself for not thinking of it first. Especially for those of us who grew up with '70s and '80s TV (and who rolled our eyes at the original shark-jumping episode of "Happy Days"), the whole idea makes perfect sense. Now creator Jon Hein has capitalized on his well-deserved success to bring "jumping the shark" to book form. With a quick, cheeky writing style, Hein delivers zingers that pinpoint the exact moments when our favorite TV shows, celebrities and music artists jumped... or at least went from great to not-quite-as-great. With each analysis lasting less than two pages, it's the perfect bathroom reader, though I personally couldn't put it down no matter what room I was in. You likely won't agree with each and every verdict... and that's part of the fun. The whole point of jumptheshark.com is to foster debate, and the book preserves that same spirit. TV and celebrities were made for shark-jumping, but Hein pushes it a little when he ventures into other realms. "We spotted a fin," as the book would say, in the chapter on sports. And the section on politics is shark-bait for sure. The book avoids jumping altogether, though a sequel would do well to stick closer to showbiz. There's plenty there to keep the shark well fed for a long time to come...
Rating:
Summary: Cheap and Easy
Review: On first sight, the idea of "jumping the shark" seems like an irresistable parlor game of deciding when good things go bad. This book does not merely apply it to television shows as did the original website, but also to celebrities, sports teams and political bodies (for example, Iraq jumped the shark with Hussein's Republican Guard). It is easy to apply the metaphor to other things. For example, the Oscars jumped the shark in its very first ceremony when instead of giving the best picture award to "Sunrise," one of a handful of truly great movies, it gave it to the sentimental war romance "Wings." (It also passed up the opportunity to give Charlie Chaplin its first best Actor award). When did THE NEW REPUBLIC jump the shark? Was it when Martin Peretz became the publisher? When the sinister Michael Ledeen became its corresondent from Italy? Or during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon? The concept SEEMS like a source of endless amusement. But it isn't, and problems soon start cropping up. It's not just the sloppiness with facts (the Sgt. Pepper movie the Bee Gees made came out in 1978 not 1979, Agent Scully was abducted in the second, not the third season of the X-Files.) There is also much to be said against Hein's judgement. Did David Bowie really lose it in the mid-seventies? After all "Boys Keep Swinging" and "Ashes to Ashes" are classic singles, while "Jump They Said," "The Heart's Filthy Lesson," and even "Time Will Crawl" are clearly underappreciated gems. Many critics actually think Prince's "Sign O the Times," is a fine album. How can "The Sopranos" have jumped the shark at the end of the third season, before Hein had seen any episodes from the fourth? And what are shows like "Gilligan's Island," or "Three's Company" doing here, when they were always dreadful and unwatchable? Well, that's just his opinion, one might say. Except it isn't, since the website for the shows the shark pinpoint is done by public balloting. Hein, in other words, does not have the courage of his convictions. More important, the book is not an expression of a critical temperament, but the abdication of it. There is no real argument to Hein's assertions that say, "Friends" fell apart after the third season, or that "Zooropa" is a poor album, or that Paul Newman's career ended with "The Colour of Money". Instead of critical analysis, there are just blunt assertions and cheap put-downs. How else could one explain Hein's decision to put Yoko Ono as the turning point for the Beatles, and not mention the white ablum at all, which came after her appearance. How is it that the turning point for the Democratic Party is choosing Geraldine Ferraro as its vice-presidential nominee? Hein objects to the affirmative action element of it, forgetting the decades the party ensured that African Americans would never move above railway car porters. And what about Vietnam? What Hein's book represents is not real criticism, but a journalistic substitute. There is the constant need in our age for articles that are "unpredictable" and "stimulating," but never challenge the right-centrist consensus that we live under. As an art form this is mastered by the political coverage of THE NEW REPUBLIC. In cultural criticism instead of the acute cosmpolitan coverage best associated with THE VILLAGE VOICE, we have an irritating superficial chatter where novelty and the exaggerated claim is a substitute for thought. ""The Simpsons" are in decline!" "No, it's better than ever!" "Guess what, Disco is cool again!" "It's now been decided, Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours" now sucks!" "Robert De Niro is in decline!" ""Gladiator" is the front runner for best picture!" This is not criticism at all, simply fashion, a guide to the hip from people who do not have the capacity to create or make critical judgements.
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