25 years since Seinfeld debuted
Yada, yada, yada.... 25 years later, a show about nothing still has plenty of something.
- Published by David Knox
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July 5th marks 25 years since Seinfeld first debuted on American television.
The ‘show about nothing’ began as The Seinfeld Chronicles pilot starring a stand-up comic as a fictionalised version of himself, obsessing on the minutiae of life.
There was no Elaine, Kramer was called Kessler and Jerry and George were hanging out at a different coffee shop. Yet to find its comic voice, it didn’t seem likely to continue.
But three more episodes aired after Cheers, which led to a 13 episode season. It would run for nine seasons, still hailed as one of the greatest sitcoms of all time.
A number of US media are reflecting on its legacy on this anniversary:
The Week:
Seinfeld’s genius, of course, was turning “nothing” into comedy gold. Significant time was spent on magnifying everything, from waiting for a table at a Chinese restaurant to the importance of shirt button placement to the best kind of babka. The comedy wasn’t in the situation — it was in the characters’ reaction to it. That made it unique among all sitcoms of its era.
TIME:
Some TV shows are classics because of all the followers they influenced. Seinfeld is one great that’s never truly been imitated……Seinfeld, on the other hand, is at best echoed, and only rarely well. Excepting Curb Your Enthusiasm–can Larry David be influenced by himself?–maybe the only current comedy that’s reproduced Seinfeld‘s gleeful mercenary approach to comedy is It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. For the most part, though, after 25 years, Seinfeld is like its quartet of incarcerated characters were at the end of its finale–alone in its world, sufficient unto itself. That’s not a criticism of Seinfeld. It’s one more reason the show is great.
NY Post:
Among the many terms and phrases invented by “Seinfeld,” four stand out.
The “close talker” (n., kloz-tokr), anyone who stands too close when he speaks to you.
The “low talker” (n., lo-tokr), the quiet person who murmurs their questions and traps you into doing crazy things. (See shirt, puffy.)
The “sideler” (n., sid-ler), an underling who sneaks up alongside you to take a share of credit for your work.
And, of course, the two face (n., too fas), the woman who will look attractive one minute, ugly the next.
Global News:
Here are some of the important lessons that Seinfeld taught us. There are lots of reasons why you can break up with someone. The perpetually single stars of Seinfeld dated plenty, and over the show’s nine seasons taught the public that breaking up with a partner doesn’t have to be a slow, thought-out process. In fact, some of the accepted reasons for breaking up with a person include:
They eat their peas one at a time
They have “man hands”
They walk in a weird manner
They’re bald
They’re too tanned
They’re too good
They dated Newman
HitFix:
Many networks tried to copy “Seinfeld,” including NBC. (Seinfeld always believed that “Friends” was a naked rip-off of his show, minus the rules he and David established against hugging and the learning of lessons.) But neither the show nor its bizarre path to success were easily replicable, other than on “Curb” (which is essentially about a world where George Costanza is obscenely wealthy and immune from consequence), which even managed to provide a better “Seinfeld” finale than the one David wrote for the original show. Which, again, speaks to what a weird, wonderful beast “Seinfeld” was. How did that show about nothing become something that everyone wanted to watch for a few years? Because it was great, but also because it was in the right place at the right time a bunch of times in a row.
Happy 25th and thanks for years of laughs, love and support from frank and Estelle’s baby boy. Serenity Now!
— jason alexander (@IJasonAlexander) July 3, 2014
16 Responses
Seinfeld is one of my fav sitcoms and it just shows you a shaky start and look what it become. I wish networks weren’t so quick to cancel shows now, it seems to get worse every year.
This show still comes to my mind constantly. I was trying on something in a shop the other day and wondering about “skinny mirrors.” I often remember the episode about losing the car in a carpark and having to pee. Or uncomfortable sofa beds. Or soup nazis. Or close talkers. This show really infiltrated our everyday thinking to such a huge extent. Like MASH it still makes me laugh after all these years.
Serenity Now, love this show still and have seen every episode more than a few times. The dvd’s have to be one of the best TV dvd collections with so many extra’s from commentary to outtakes, I have found extra bits of information by selecting the “notes about nothing” option. I often use so many of the famous quotes in my own life, for a show about nothing it sure has kept on going and going not there’s anything wrong with that.
I am now enjoying Jerry’s web series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee it is really well done, just watched the ep with Sarah Jessica Parker it was wonderful and once again it’s Gold Jerry Gold.
No one seems to have mentioned Woody Allen-that’s the genesis of the New York neurosis of the Seinfeld universe-very funny and well done but hardly original…
Yes, I think it started on nine here in late 1993 before moving to its more succesful run on ten in 1994. It started from the third season here, it wasn’t until a few years into it that they showed episodes from the first two seasons. Seasons 3 and 4 were my favorites.
Nine had the rights initially but thought it was “too American” and unlikely to appeal to Aussies so they confined it to a late night timeslot. After a few months they sold it to TEN which screened it at 7PM Monday to Friday and it became a hit show. Seinfeld and The Simpsons were the two programs which helped TEN get re-established after the media takeover frenzy and receivership/liquidation in the late 1980s/early 1990s.
7 hasn’t opted to do anything for this.
Everyone eat a Snickers with a knife and fork to celebrate.
Such a great show.
Side note, cool to see It’s Always Sunny mentioned in the Time piece.
An absolute classic. Very understated but extremely well crafted. They don’t make them like that any more. Curb and Sunny are good but not quite there.
It was a Festivus Miracle. Let The Airing of Grievances commence.
my 2nd favourite show of all time
Seinfeld quotes remain in my vernacular to this day. Glamour magazine scored a reference last week.
Seinfeld was a product of its time. Younger viewers might not be aware of the geopolitics that underpinned Seinfeld.
The Berlin Wall came down in 1989, heralding the end of the Cold War. Francis Fukuyama declared “The End of History.” There were no longer any ideological rifts in the world – everyone would live in a liberal democracy and be happy forever, engaging in an endlessly orgy of consumption in a monolithic McCulture of self-absorption. This was the year in which Seinfeld was born.
In the same way that The Young Ones was a reaction against Thatcherism, Seinfeld was a reaction against a world in which there was no longer a battle of belief systems. Capitalism and the Me Generation had beaten everything else. Hence Seinfeld’s seeming nihilism. You had to be there in the 1990s to appreciate just how on-the-money Seinfeld was. Of course, September 11 changed everything…
Brilliant comedy.Totally out of the box situations but oh so true.The minds of Larry David & Jerry Seinfeld made the mundane of life a treat to watch,and yes everyone should celebrate festivus Lol.
This is the show that I feel defined my generation. I love it as much as I did then.
It truly is a great TV show, and is one of my favourites ever, we love watching them on DVD and on repeats. Even though I was born while the show was in its later end I still love them!
David, how do the repeats of Seinfeld usually rate on 7mate, because I think it would be a huge loss if they were to get rid if it!
Happy birthday Seinfeld!
Do we put up our Festivus pole in celebration for the 25th anniversary ?