Post by i.Sarita.com on Sept 10, 2009 20:44:42 GMT -5
Mostly for grammatical stuff, as I don't really care about the content. The teacher is a bitch and she won't give out A's anyway.
Seinfeld: The Show About Nothing
Seventy-six million people. That is the number of viewers who sat down to watch the series finale of Seinfeld on a Sunday evening in 1998. It was the second largest audience for any series finale in network television history, coming up just short of Cheers’ eighty million mark. Why is it that so many people tuned in to see the final episode of a show that was jokingly referred to as being about nothing?
I like to think that it’s because once you break down episodes of the show, you start to realize that it isn’t just about nothing, but in fact a very insightful look into the human element. The way we react to situations and the way people tend to perceive us, or misperceive us, because of those reactions. In a way, the characters on Seinfeld reacted the way that most people could only dream of. They went beyond the social norms and often did things that the general public would consider taboo. The public tuned into the show in order to see characters, which at first glance seem to be normal people, doing things that normal people would never do.
Every episode of Seinfeld contained multiple storylines designed around the four main characters of the show, often with branching results that would tie everything up in the end. A majority of the episodes involved one or more of the characters dealing with relationship issues, with every ending usually involving the end of a relationship or two. Jerry, the star of the show, would often end up breaking up with a girl because of something that would be considered shallow, harsh, or just plain evil to real life people. There was an episode in which he refused to kiss a girl because she used a toothbrush that had been knocked into a toilet, something that most people would be able to look past, even though they would rather do what he did in that situation.
It wasn’t just relationships that separated the characters on Seinfeld from true life; they also often touched on subjects that weren’t seen on network television up to that point. During an episode that took place in season four, the four main characters participated in what they called “the contest”. The contest was to see who could hold out the longest without masturbating, using an honor system between the friends to keep any of them from cheating. Even just talking about masturbating was considered to be over the line by the standards in those days, yet Seinfeld did it in such a way that allowed them to never actually even utter the word. Oh, and by the way, that episode also happened to win an Emmy for comedic excellence. Another episode involved George being cheap and buying toxic wedding invitations, which in turn ended up killing his fiancée. When the doctor comes out to break the news to him that she passed, he shrugs his shoulders and asks if anyone wants to go get some coffee.
The show not only spawned a new era in television censorship, but also influenced a number of different shows that would move away from the older, more family friendly sitcom style of the early ‘90s. Seinfeld also became part of popular culture by having many memorable lines, seemingly from each season up until the end of the show, some of which are still quoted today by fans.
For a show considered by the writers and creators to be about nothing, it has a lasting appeal to people, even to this day. The show still gets good ratings, even in syndication, eleven years since the final episode aired. Part of that appeal can be that the subject matter still applies to real life situations today, people still watch the kind of things that the characters on the show do that they themselves would never dare do, and it keeps them watching. Not one single character on the show has redeeming values when you break them down, since they have all done something so over the top, that it’s pretty hard to see them as being anything other than evil. The kind of evil that most of us wish we could be, but that few of us actually have the nerves to pull off.
Seinfeld: The Show About Nothing
Seventy-six million people. That is the number of viewers who sat down to watch the series finale of Seinfeld on a Sunday evening in 1998. It was the second largest audience for any series finale in network television history, coming up just short of Cheers’ eighty million mark. Why is it that so many people tuned in to see the final episode of a show that was jokingly referred to as being about nothing?
I like to think that it’s because once you break down episodes of the show, you start to realize that it isn’t just about nothing, but in fact a very insightful look into the human element. The way we react to situations and the way people tend to perceive us, or misperceive us, because of those reactions. In a way, the characters on Seinfeld reacted the way that most people could only dream of. They went beyond the social norms and often did things that the general public would consider taboo. The public tuned into the show in order to see characters, which at first glance seem to be normal people, doing things that normal people would never do.
Every episode of Seinfeld contained multiple storylines designed around the four main characters of the show, often with branching results that would tie everything up in the end. A majority of the episodes involved one or more of the characters dealing with relationship issues, with every ending usually involving the end of a relationship or two. Jerry, the star of the show, would often end up breaking up with a girl because of something that would be considered shallow, harsh, or just plain evil to real life people. There was an episode in which he refused to kiss a girl because she used a toothbrush that had been knocked into a toilet, something that most people would be able to look past, even though they would rather do what he did in that situation.
It wasn’t just relationships that separated the characters on Seinfeld from true life; they also often touched on subjects that weren’t seen on network television up to that point. During an episode that took place in season four, the four main characters participated in what they called “the contest”. The contest was to see who could hold out the longest without masturbating, using an honor system between the friends to keep any of them from cheating. Even just talking about masturbating was considered to be over the line by the standards in those days, yet Seinfeld did it in such a way that allowed them to never actually even utter the word. Oh, and by the way, that episode also happened to win an Emmy for comedic excellence. Another episode involved George being cheap and buying toxic wedding invitations, which in turn ended up killing his fiancée. When the doctor comes out to break the news to him that she passed, he shrugs his shoulders and asks if anyone wants to go get some coffee.
The show not only spawned a new era in television censorship, but also influenced a number of different shows that would move away from the older, more family friendly sitcom style of the early ‘90s. Seinfeld also became part of popular culture by having many memorable lines, seemingly from each season up until the end of the show, some of which are still quoted today by fans.
For a show considered by the writers and creators to be about nothing, it has a lasting appeal to people, even to this day. The show still gets good ratings, even in syndication, eleven years since the final episode aired. Part of that appeal can be that the subject matter still applies to real life situations today, people still watch the kind of things that the characters on the show do that they themselves would never dare do, and it keeps them watching. Not one single character on the show has redeeming values when you break them down, since they have all done something so over the top, that it’s pretty hard to see them as being anything other than evil. The kind of evil that most of us wish we could be, but that few of us actually have the nerves to pull off.
