Wooster in blackface was the nail in the coffin.
That happened in the second series. There were several good bits after those so I couldn't honestly pin the minstrel act as a "shark jump" point. I tend to fast-forward through much of the footage involving their New York and American adventures to be honest. I find the portrayals of fake American characters mostly awful in all UK series.
Perhaps a special Jeeves & Wooster category - I'd name this JTS category:
"...haven't I seen this one before?"So many of the later escapades were much the same old thing told once then twice or thrice more, often with the faces changed to protect the guilty. Same character - New Actor was a major affliction for the show. It was all made worse by the plot seeming to always revolve around the same basic problem of romantic entanglements, both wanted and unwanted by Bertie and his bird-brained fellow drones.
Even the female love interests were the same four or five the whole time with performers changed round from one series to the next. I wouldn't blame it on any particular cast change though, just the overall lazy repeating of the subplots.
Eeek!!! I'm getting dressed.
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The_Other_Snowman
8 years ago
Wooster did appear in blackface in Series Two, but it was really just greasepaint so he could more easily sneak aboard someone's yacht. I think the scene the OP refers to happens in Series Four, when Wooster poses as an African chief, complete with a ridiculous accent.
For me the "Jump the Shark" moment might have been when Jeeves and Wooster leap off the side of a ship and return to London looking like Robinson Crusoe. However, I was relieved that the following episodes were still pretty good.
As to "...haven't I seen this one before?" -- P.G. Wodehouse has this to say: “A certain critic -- for such men, I regret to say, do exist -- made the nasty remark about my last novel that it contained 'all the old Wodehouse characters under different names.' He has probably by now been eaten by bears, like the children who made mock of the prophet Elisha: but if he still survives he will not be able to make a similar charge against Summer Lightning. With my superior intelligence, I have out-generalled the man this time by putting in all the old Wodehouse characters under the same names. Pretty silly it will make him feel, I rather fancy.”
"If stupidity got us in this mess, why can't it get us out?" - Will Rogers
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vinsane
8 years ago
I expect you're right about which episode the OP was referencing.
Wodehouse's rebuttal is the genius of marketing indeed.
...there is method in't.
For the record, I have actually strolled among scavenging hungry bears and have the home video to prove it.
Eeek!!! I'm getting dressed.
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