Shark Bytes

I've been looking for this show all day. Thank you keywords!

When I was young, this show was funny. Reflecting back on it, it was too light, and maybe too stereotypical; the opposite end of other shows like All In the Family.

The only shark it jumped was 'not taking chances.'

There's only one thing i remember about this show: There was a big dumb prisoner who would always appear to be listening intently to someone talk, then he would say "Huh?" I thought it was funny back then.

A very underrated "ensemble" kind of show, that really didn't whitewash prisons or crime, as it was accused of doing (though not all the jokes worked). And Fuentes (Jose Perez) wasn't a Puerto Rican stereotype (which I'm guessing was also a claim), more like a general crafty character. And Mel Stewart and Tom Poston were just right as Gibson and Sullivan, the mean guard and the nice one. The first episode managed to do something original with two very well-worn jokes (one of which you've heard literally a hundred versions of). When Fuentes arrived at the prison after serving a term there before, Gibson smiled and said, "Well, Mr. Fuentes, I knew we'd meet again. In fact, when you walked out that door, I said, 'This isn't goodbye, Mr. Fuentes.'" Fuentes: "Yes, you did, Mr. Gibson, and I said, 'Why don't you'"-- Gibson "I haven't forgotten what you said!!" Fuentes (very innocently): "And did you manage it?" Then, a doctor played by Richard Stahl was examining him. He pointed to a specimen bottle across the room and said, "Fill that bottle." Fuentes sais "From here?" And Richard Stahl gave one of those weary looks he's so great at. Since a lot of one-season shows do get repeated, I wish this one would be (it happened at least once, early on).

I also remember this show. Stereotypes and all, I thought it was pretty funny. As others have mentioned, it followed Barney Miller on Thursday nights on ABC. The network's advertising slogan for these two shows was "funny cops; funny robbers". The stupid white guy was played by a character actor named Rick Hurst who practically made a living out of portraying big stupid white guys. I think he was in The Dukes of Hazard briefly, playing the deputy who replaced Enos after Enos was spun off into a separate show. On the Rocks also had an old white inmate played by a character actor named Pat Crenshaw. Crenshaw is, as far as I know, still alive and kicking. His latest appearance was in the Will Farrell movie Old School, where he played a fraternity pledge who drops dead of a heart attack after being involved in a KY jelly wrestling match with two topless coeds. Don Rickles, by the way, was NOT in this show.

Never jumped because it was bad from the beginning. That,s why I liked it. I was known as Mr.Tv guide growing up.That is why I am not surprised noone has yet mentioned that Mr. Don Rickles,yes the hockey puck himself,was the leader of the misfit cons in that show. I have no idea what his character was called though,I was mr. TV guide,I then went through the 70s and lost part of my memory.

I actually enjoyed this show when I was young, but as an adult, I can see how moronic its premise was: that prison is a barrel of laughs for all concerned. "Oz" it wasn't!

I thought this show was hilarious. I can't remember which characters said it, but I'll never forget the best exchange I ever heard on On the Rocks. Guard: Are you a practicing homosexual? Inmate 1: What's that? Inmate 2: One who ain't got is perfect yet.

I don't think this show ever got the chance to draw breath, let alone jump the shark. It was, if I remember correctly, a US version of the long-running Brit comedy "Porridge" starring Ronny Barker. This was in a time when, Norman Lear having mined the main seams with "All in the Family" and "Sanford and Son" -- to great success -- others tried to follow suit. And so we got this and "Lotsa Luck". I didn't think it was too bad, but in a time when even tv films like "The Glass House" were showing the brutal side of US prison life, it was a little naive.

This show was actually pretty good in the Barney Miller vein. And it was on for far too short a time to jump. The episode I remember best was when Fuentes' sister arrives for a visit and through the glass he chastises her for wearing a plunging halter top and no bra to prison "where everyone can ogle your free-flowing body". She replies "oh, I'm sure no one's even noticed" and then mischievously throws her head back, and with her arms behind her head, twirls in her chair as the whole row of convicts seated behind her stand up and crane for a better look. Too funny. Damn sexy too.

I remember this show. Tom Poston's character was prison guard Sullivan. The actor who played the muscular black inmate was the same actor who played Officer Smitty on Sanford and Son. The Puerto Rican inmate fit every negative stereotype imaginable. The plots were moronic at best.

Yes, I remember this show, and just about everything mentioned above. I also know this show is about as significant as "That's My Mama" when it comes to relevancy of shark jumping.