A Decade Without Seinfeld
Chris Nixon | 13 May, 2008Tomorrow is the 10th Anniversary of the final episode of Seinfeld. It’s a show that never really caught on in the UK thanks to horrendous BBC scheduling, something which also killed off the brilliant Larry Sanders Show. In the US however, Seinfeld was king.
I’m currently working through every season again, and I have to tell you, it really stands the test of time. It was a show about nothing, yet said so much about society. OK occasionally a joke about car phones may remind you that it’s not set in the current day, but everything else rings true even after all this time.
The Guardian observes:
It seems striking that while The Office, our defining sitcom of the 21st century so far, gave us an out-of-character happy ending with Tim and Dawn together and David Brent having at least not embarrassed himself on a blind date, Seinfeld ended with the four main characters, not married, not successful, not even happy, but sitting in prison about to start a one-year jail sentence. When it comes to comedy, perhaps we Brits are less sophisticated than we like to think.
There is nothing in the current schedules that matches it’s subtle humour. It would not get commissioned today. The smartest stuff never gets off the starting block, or gets cancelled early. It was American TV comedy’s finest moment.
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