Seinfeld

Seinfeld is the funniest TV show in history. Built around the day-to-day life of a New York comedian, Seinfeld managed to spear every sacred cow in sight. The irreverence of the show's four main characters never let up over 9 glorious seasons. The "gang of four" were petty, childish, surly, selfish, compulsive, obsessive, and totally hilarious ... like 4 children in adults' bodies.

Jerry Seinfeld played himself and surrounded himself with an ex-girlfriend (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), a childhood friend (Jason Alexander), and a neighbor (Michael Richards). Four terrific actors with incredible chemistry among them, the four careened through 9 seasons of total mayhem. Sex, religion, politics, old age, political correctness, race, relationships, homosexuality, Los Angeles ... you name it, they harpooned it.

Great supporting cast over the years included Jerry Stiller, Estelle Harris, Barney Martin, Liz Sheridan, Wayne Knight, Patrick Warburton, John O'Hurley, Len Lesser, Heidi Swedberg, and others.

And so many brilliant actors who only showed up once or a few times: Steve Hytner as Bania, Mark Metcalf as the Maestro, Megan Cole as Peggy the germophobe, Sheree North as Babs Kramer, Charles Levin as the mohel, Elmarie Wendel as Helene the actress, Philip Baker Hall as the library detective, Judge Reinhold as the close talker, Bette Midler as herself, and so many others.

Seinfeld probably added more catch phrases to the English language than any other show in TV history. Brilliant writing that found humor in WORDS (such a concept) as well as SITUATION, Seinfeld owed much to the writing of Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David and others. So with great scripts, a perfect cast, and no respect for anything, Seinfeld marched along to his own drum and made us all captives of its brilliant wit.

One of the great things about Seinfeld was that you could see a little bit of yourself in each of the 4 zany characters. And you could ALWAYS recognize the dumb situations they found themselves in. Just brilliant!

And let's not forget that Jerry Seinfeld became the first Jewish Superman/Everyman on TV. He was everything from comic to sex symbol and everything in between.

I just can't stop binging this show. Like ever. Don't get me wrong FRIENDS is historic in its own place & I've binged that a lot too but Seinfeld just edges it for me.

Jason Alexander, you legend. George Costanza is the character that you see nowadays sitcoms are trying to pull off but they just can't. He's One of a kind. Just like Joey & Chandler. They are in a league of their own.

I review rarely and this is my first review & I'm sounding like i should be giving Seinfeld 10/10 but I've settled with 9. The reason for that is i base my rating simply on 3 factors: 1) Characters 2) Storyline 3) Screenplay i.e. length of how long a show is keeping me attached to the screen before i lose interest.

So for George, Kramer, Jerry i give it a perfect 10. But when it comes to Elaine, she's so lame. As a character, as a person i don't get her. Beauty of me binging Seinfeld is that I've chopped off her parts from all episodes. She's terrible, irritating and hardly makes me laugh. Writers haven't even attached background applause to her wise cracks. Downpoint of the show. 'Elame' Benes.

To shed a light on Jerry & Kramer, well they are the lifeblood of the show. Their chemistry makes you laugh. Kramer is very underrated. Also, Jerry & George's coffee shop chemistry. Those scenes are hilarious & refreshing. You'd never get bored watching their riddled lifestyles.

That's all, its a must watch. Even if sitcoms ain't your genre i think you must give this a try no matter what. It's just that good. And yes, first 2 seasons are a bit downer but important to watch for you to establish those characters. From season 3 you'd love the stories & start getting used to it. By season 5 & 6 you'd literally crack yourself up.

BEST SITCOM EVER MADE HANDS DOWN. Effortless entertainment. Once you watch it, mark my words you're gonna binge it. P.S: I've already crossed the 3-figures binge watching it and currently rewatching it for 183rd time. Love this show to bits. Never getting enough of this ever.

This show was totally unique. Nothing has been done like it before, or since (with the possible exception of the Simpsons, which does mimic some of the "nothing" plots a little). While it was about nothing, it was really about everything--but the little things that no one thinks about, like giving your bank code to your fiancé. I also liked how this show was the last of the "non-fashion" shows.

You always saw Kramer wear the same ridiculous jacket, pants, and shirt. George always had those too-small plaid shirts and even Jerry had the black-and-gray striped shirt we saw him wear in the one where he and George make "The Pact". Even Elaine had many of the same clothes, even after her "make-over". I mean, I LOVE the show Friends but every time the guys have a new turtleneck or sweater, and the girls always have a new dress or a new pair of pants, which is totally unrealistic (for the guys anyway).

This show had consistent humour all the way up to the last season, which is unusual for many shows. I LOVED George styling his hair to look like the bald guy from NYPD Blue, Elaine buying the JuJubes on the way to the hospital, Uncle Leo yelling "STOP THE SHOW" on the PBS special--these were just some of the great moments! This show is the best on televison, and if you haven't seen it, go and watch now!

I caught a few episodes of Seinfeld over it's final two seasons run on public channel, and made it a point to catch a lot more of Jerry and friends during it's reruns. I found it very amusing on first viewings, but as time wore on, I began to like it more and more, and to eagerly borrow taped episodes from friends, and to hunt for re-runs on syndicated channels.

Of the two comedy TV series in the history of television, I would choose both Seinfeld and Monty Python as the cultural landmarks of the medium. In Seinfeld, there is not a trace of sentimentality and glib moralizing that plagues the American sitcom genre. Characters do not hug each other on Christmas, fall in love, wax on and on about family and friends, there is no faux-cathartic season ender so favoured by the writers of, say, "Friends".

Instead, we have the narcissistic Jerry, constantly mining the minutiae of everyday detail for every bit of situational comedy; we have the hyper-aggressive Elaine, whose strings of breakups with boyfriends are as impressive as her petty neuroses leading up to the breakups themselves; the ultimate schlub-loser George, who lies to every single woman he dates, sells faulty equipment to the handicapped and muscles off women and children when fleeing an apartment fire; and the impossibly inventive physical comedy of the entrepreneur cum schmooze Kramer.

Over and over again, week in and week out, the quartet discuss trivialities with unbridled zeal, as the non-descript narrative pings from one mundane setting to another. Seldom has such wit been generated by such gargantually pointless human endeavours. That is where the brilliance of Seinfeld lies, in the ability to go to the most bizarre ends to fulfill the potential of a less than hopeful comedic premise; and the endless, pointlessly smug and nihilistic banter that almost invariably escalates into some of TV's classic lines, such as when George shouts triumphantly after winning an argument that "there is no bigger loser than me!".

Surely, we won't find something like this again, for many more years to come.

This is sort of a small tribute to the show.

It is too bad that this show is no longer being made. NBC should have used the "carrot and stick" approach with the creators and maybe the show would still be on. Instead, NBC gave them so much money that they just cut and ran. Sort of like "we'll give you millions and millions of dollars to do a short run series and then you guys can go". Which is what happened.

I am like some of the others here on this post who said that they did not really watch "Seinfeld". It took several weeks to catch on to the characters to get to like the show. Even in re-runs "Seinfeld" is still very funny.

Those people who say they do not like the show because it's about nothing are lying to themselves. They love it. They just cannot believe that someone could have been so successful with the show's premise.

You could tell after Larry David quit "Seinfeld" the difference in the shows humor and pacing. And I saw some movie Larry David made right after...stinkola. I think it was called "Sour Grapes". Maybe some sort of comment on life after "Seinfeld"?

It is extremely difficult to find anything on TV that even comes close to "Seinfeld". There just isn't any. This website suggests "Friends". Please. I think I just might throw up. "Friends" is just another of the cookie cutter sit-coms. After watching "Seinfeld", I cannot watch any sit-com, because it is just not the same. The others just fall way short of making any noticeable effort to put on some truly original humor.

I think that in a couple of years, one of the Turner cable stations will have the syndication rights to "Seinfeld". I hope that they will honor the show by always putting the show on from its first show to the last without skipping the order because a big part of the successful formula for "Seinfeld" was that the show had a distinct timeline. The way it is being aired now, on one day you'll see a show that aired in 1990 then the next day they have one on that originally aired in 1995. That really stinks.

Oh well. To all of you dyed-in-the-wool "Seinfeld" fans here is a little trivia I came across on the web.

An anagram for "Seinfeld" is "snideelf". One last one for "Jerry Seinfeld" is "friendly jeers".

Cheers to all of the creators, contributors, writers, producers, etc. of the greatest TV comedy ever.