The definitive instance they identified was from the classic, beloved TV series Happy Days, which first aired in January 1974. At the show’s peak, it had over thirty million viewers. Hein and Connolly decided Happy Days jumped the shark in episode 91 (season 5, in September 1977), when, famously, Fonzie, a character who was the leather-jacketed embodiment of cool, literally jumped over a shark.
