SHARK WEEK: "AIR JAWS: FIN OF FURY"
Discovery, 8:00 p.m. ET
Since 1987, Discovery Channel has been mounting Shark Week, and it’s become one of the most tenured institutions in cable television. Spoofs and spinoffs litter the TV landscape, and even Discovery presents specials this week that are as tongue in cheek as they are sharp of teeth. The week of shark-related specials begins at 8 p.m. ET with Air Jaws: Fin of Fury, described as “the search for a missing mega shark” (think Loch Ness Monster Week), and includes, later this week, Paul de Gelder in another Shark Week special. De Gelder, a former shark-attack victim who lost an arm and a leg to a Sydney Harbor shark attack five years ago, continues to swim intentionally, and excitedly, in shark-infested waters. It reminds me of the time in 1975, right after the release of Jaws, when I got in trouble as a student intern at the Gainesville Sun in Florida, where every real-life shark attack was big news that summer. One young man had lost a leg to a shark while surfboarding off the coast, yet while interviewed afterward in the hospital, announced his determination to continue surfing as soon as possible. Editors at the paper did not appreciate the three-deck, single-column headline I wrote for that story: “ Surfer Yearns to Hang Five.” True story.