Over hill and highway the banana buggies go

Sometimes I use the Internet for completely serious, important things. Work that advances my career, that helps others, that solves problems.

And other times I use it to see if "The Banana Splits" was ever considered to have jumped the shark. (If that makes no sense to you at all, well, then should you and I ever meet, we are probably not going to have a lot to talk about.)

The almost universal opinion is that "The Banana Splits" never jumped, though some cited the "Danger Island" segment. I don't actually remember "Danger Island," but it appears to be a scary-weird live-action segment involving cannibals and Jan Michael Vincent. (?? Did the Banana Splits turn on each other, a la "Alive"? Did Jan Michael Vincent eat somebody? Now that would have been awesome.)

Other great comments from the "Bananas Splits" Jump the Shark page:

• "If you listen closely to " Doing The Banana Split", you'll hear Snorky honking backwards "I Buried Fleagle." ...The band's eventual separation was blamed mostly after Drooper took up with the Avant Garde artist Yucky Oatmeal and recorded "Give Peas A Chance", which angered his mates even more than the time he claimed that the Splits were bigger than Jesus. Although he really meant (HAY-ZOOS) Jesus, the Spanish dude who worked on Danger Island."
• "Shows like the Banana Splits got me through a childhood with parents who belonged in the violent ward of the local mental hospital. I actually like the cartoons, especially Gulliver's Travels and Glum always saying "We'll nevvver maaake it." My father was always obsessed with "making good time" whenever our family went somewhere in the car. While he was complaining about whether he would make his ETA my brother and I in the back seat would say just like Glum, "we'll nevver maake it." My father had no idea where the phrase came from or why we said it in that funny voice but we did it just to piss him off. And because he couldn't beat us while he was driving. "
• "Nobody else remember the famous "HOLD THE BUUUUUSSS!" segment? As kids getting on the school bus back in the 60's we drove the driver to despair with our constant howls of "HOOOOLD THE BUS!" Now that I think about it the segment was nothing more than a couple of the 'splits chasing an invisible bus past a bus stop! Go figure- I actually saw a bunch of hippies do the same thing in '73- seems they left their stash on the backseat."