Rebirth of an Internet Classic - Bone the Fish 2009

In February of the fine year 2009, TV Guide through its parent company, Gemstar, made the brilliant decision to destroy the classic website "Jump the Shark". Now www.jumptheshark.com, is just a sub-directory of TV Guide's website...not even meriting its own web address. I had the misfortune of discovering one of my all-time favorite websites trashed beyond all recognition becoming of all things- a TV Tabloid news blog!! All of the fan's favorite parts of the site were gone: voting for that moment when a series went downhill, comments on obscure shows going back for years etc. A website that was one of the first big Internet "hits" from the late 90's was taken away from us, sold out to the highest bidder to drive traffic to the TV Guide site, or in the new Web 2.0 speak: make it more "commercially viable".

One of the things that characterized the new corporate sellout version of "JTS" was a "fun" positive spin to everything, which just rained chum by the bucket load on the old concept of hitting bad TV where it hurts for being just that- Lousy TV. Was TV Guide also doing this to stifle dissent for the product it promoted? All signs pointed to this as their goal, highlighted by the fact that the change happened with no announcement or fanfare. I was reminded of the Colts leaving Baltimore in the middle of the night to move to Indianapolis. The secrecy was a feeble attempt to mask a horrible idea.

Like an angry shark in blood infested water with nothing to eat, I went on the hunt to discover if the incredible community of fans, voters and comment makers had moved off into a fresh corner of cyberspace to plant their flag of dissent against bad entertainment. After all it was the awesome fans that made "Jump the Shark" a hit in the first place with all of the content provided for public consumption. Many fans would tell you that they loved reading hundreds of old comments from long gone shows like "Manimal" or "The Greatest American Hero". Simply put, for a website that was allegedly getting over seventy thousand unique visitors a day- where did all those fans go? Certainly they didn't care for the tabloid format forced on them by the powers that be at TV GUIDE? Did they set up shop somewhere else? If so, where did they go? Was TV GUIDE able to squelch dissension in the TV fan ranks? Or had some new underground website been secretly launched by the old vanguard of fans hoping to bring back the old magic?

No searches on official news outlets or on TV Guide's site announced the change at "Jump the Shark", but the blog internet community was taking notice. As people browsed through their favorites on the internet over the following weeks, this horrible transformation was noticed and highlighted on hundreds of angry message boards around the non-corporate controlled internet. Several blogs were written tearing into the destruction of this venerable website. The honesty in the blog community and the omission on the "official internet outlets" highlighted the fact that unlike mainstream "old media" (TV, Print, Radio) changes could apparently be done to the internet with no notice at all, not even a confession that they had changed at all. Heck, even the horrible decision to take the focus off cartoons on the "Cartoon Network" got a press release from the parent company this year! However as I continued my "Electronic Media Odyssey" there were three words that were my clues to discovering the new "Mothership" where the former "Shark Jumpers" were gathering again.... "Bone the Fish"

Destroying a long time, respected classic on the internet set the stage for the fans to build something fresh, new and not under Big Brother's all-seeing control. What I found was a piece of fan-created internet magic," Bone the Fish", at www.bonethefish.com. Several fans that were as angry as I was, but with more programming prowess, had made a duplicate of the old JTS format along with some striking additions of music groups and movies series, and even a new series of "random" topics. Did you know Ice Cream "boned" when Mint Chocolate Chip was introduced?

I doubted that BTF would become the cultural phenomenon that JTS had become, but at least I had a place to vote on when GI Joe Jumped the Shark, err, I mean BONED the Fish. The name was to me, irrelevant now that I could nominate reasons for when Galactica 1980 sucked (Flying motorcycles!) and write witty comments on the sad state of the last season of "Bonanza" again! I had to laugh along with all of the fans making fun of Gemstar and TV Guide on the site, as well as the obvious dig at the old "Jump the Shark" name with the new and fresh "Bone the Fish" moniker! Even the new logo on the site was more artful and creative than the old JTS logo that looked like it was made on a Commodore 64!

In the spirit of giving the fans an official voice in this matter, and to make it "newsworthy" I wanted fans of "Jump the Shark" to know that there is indeed hope for the internet after all, and that a simple journey online can have positive results. And the best thing is, under the "website category" at Bone the Fish, you can vote and comment on when "Jump the Shark"... Boned the Fish. In fact you could serve up the irony with some cole slaw, vinegar and hush puppies with all of the "Fish" references!

----The Author can be found "boning" his favorite televisions shows, movies and music now at www.bonethefish.com