SEINFELD

Here's a FQ that became an entire post.  It's from...

George Tramountanas.

I notice when you talk about your favorite sitcoms, you don't mention Seinfeld much. Maybe you've discussed this before and I've somehow forgotten, but how would you classify this type of sitcom? I mean, it definitely had its funny bits, but the characters weren't people you could care about (at least, I never did). Plus, they never seemed to grow as characters, which I suppose was the big joke of their last episode. On Cheers, you somehow made a character like Norm someone that didn't change at his core, but we did care about him. How would you explain the difference?

Disclaimer:  This is just one person's opinion.

I admired SEINFELD and at times found it laugh-out-loud funny, which very few sitcoms even come close to achieving.  

But I also found it inconsistent.   Some episodes felt forced with a lot of scenes just treading water.  

The characters didn’t grow as you said, which was very much by design.  But the problem there is that after awhile they cease to surprise you.   Once you know how they’ll react in any given situation they stop being interesting (in my opinion).

They were also basically unlikable.  But I’ll be honest, I liked that about the show.  It was refreshing that characters were created to be funny and that often means exploiting flaws.   Characters who are all sweet and sensible are murder for comedy writers.  So kudos on that front.

But this choice comes at a price.  It’s hard to care for someone you don’t particularly like. You feel less bad about their misfortunes. In some cases you're even happy.  Ideally, the viewer is invested in the series and what happens to its characters. They want them to succeed not say "Screw you, ya had it coming." Without that in a sitcom you’re pretty much only as good as your next joke.  SEINFELD was able to get away with that to a large extent because many of the jokes were truly great (and it's incredibly hard to write great jokes, especially week after week). 

To sum up, I liked SEINFELD very much.  Watched it religiously during its first run.  It was truly a delightful change from other sitcoms.  And I applaud any situation comedy that strives primarily to make the audience laugh as loud and much as possible.  But it’s not one of my all-time favorite beloved sitcoms. I ultimately need to care.  I don't get any joy out of "Screw you, ya had it coming."

What are your thoughts?

from By Ken Levine