Be Excellent To Each Other

I've decided to watch Seinfeld from the start again. I did this once before when I purchased the DVDs and watched the extras, etc. Best. Sitcom. Ever.

Care to disagree?

Nope. I love it.

I will be doing this soon.
I've never seen it, however. I'm pretty sure I've never watched one episode.

It's fantastic. Really hits its stride around Seasons 3/4.

It does go off the boil a little toward the later series.

And I always preferred the Larry Sanders Show which used to originally be screened with Seinfeld on BBC2 when it was first aired 10 or so years ago, IIRC

Never really watched it. Saw bits but never got drawn in by it.

Yeah, same here.

I've been drawn into lots of other stuff by catching the odd 5mins but from what I've seen of it, it just seemed meh.

I agree.

It's in my top three sitcoms of all time, alongside Father Ted and Simpsons series 2-4. You have to give it a chance though. At first I couldn't make head nor tail of it and was distracted by the comedy bass hook. But as soon as you begin to know a little about how the characters work it becomes genuinely hilarious. It also features the greatest ever weasel in the history of fiction, George Costanza. The man has no shame. He's so low he'll trample children and old people in an effort to escape a fire.

Random lines popping into my head even as I type:

George: "I know you're out there Jerry! Laughing and lying, lying and laughing!"
...
Jackie Chiles: "Your face is my case!"
...
Jerry: "Better yet, why don't we knock down the walls and make it an eight room luxury suite?"

Kramer: "Jerry, these are load bearing walls! They're not going to come down!"
...

"We've got to get everybody out of the Chunnell!"
...
"Gotta support the team!"
...

"No, no... not the feats of strength..."
...

"You're not tired you're just WEAK."
...
"Who is that, Mothra? Get out of my way!"
...
"I'm sorry I ever doubted you, Body-stocking Man!"
...
"That's a lie! I love brocolli... it's... good for you!"
...
"You know, George, the ocean called. They're running out of shrimp."
...
"Oh yeah, Riley? Well, the jerk store called. They're running out of you!"

"What's the difference? You're their all-time best seller."
...

It's one of the wittiest shows I've ever seen, outside of the terrible Seinfeld stand-up openings in the first half of the show's run. (Honestly, I don't get it. He writes half the show and is a very funny guy, but his stand-up is appalling.) Seinfeld's one of the very few shows that has memorable female guest-characters. 'Man Hands', 'Two-Face', that fantastically awful hysterical shrieking woman in Elaine's office and the 'kinda hot for a Nazi' among others. I love how uncaring they are too, how completely devoid of morality the show is. Best of all are the surreal lengths it'll go to. George building a bed inside his desk for work naps. Kramer constructing the Merv Griffin TV set in his apartment and inviting his friends over as 'guest stars'. ("And we all know what a problem THAT can be, ladies and gentlemen." "... who ARE you talking to?") Seinfeld being involved in a modern day Barber of Seville dilemma over spurning his traditional terrible old Italian barber.

"Jerry I a came to see a you. To apologise. Last night I watched a da Edward Scissorhands and the Johnny Depp he make-a me cry!"

And Frank Costanza is legendary. "I find tinsel distracting." And Newman. If they're in a episode, it's gonna be good.

Yes, watch Seinfeld. Start with series 3. It's at it's best five through seven, but I've got a lot of love for eight and nine too.

Really?

Well, maybe four actually. Series 1 and 2 have their moments, but the real humour comes later.

Hmm... if the humour relies on knowing the characters then it's odd to recommend jumping in at the middle.

I'll give it another go if I see an episode running though.

Hello...Newman.

Not really. There are no ongoing arcs or anything. It's just that once you get to know them a little their reactions become even more amusing, there's a lot of texture in the way they act. It's a big fan of the Graham Lineham style of unrelated events colliding into one huge giddy problem/adventure type of plot. It's mainly anticipation, there's a lot of references to previous jokes given new spins, or prior crimes or adventures - but these never dominate.

Look, it's just fucking awesome, okay? Ask Lord Rixondale, he was a cynic and I've completely converted him.

There's no character introduction though, and no change in their relationships, so you can jump in at any point and go through the same process of learning their rhythms.

Also S1 is only four episodes long and S2 is only 12, so it's not as big as it sounds.

My favourite moment was Costanza Sr's war story about how he gave everyone food poisoning.

Right.

old macs! mets!

That bit's awesome. Feel free to read the spoiler.

I tried Seinfeld.

Didn't like it. Also, Kramer's a racist, now.

I think he was probably a racist before, too, just quieter.

I never got hugely into Seinfeld, mainly because it was always on so late.

However, I agree with everything Pete says.

One of my favourite episodes was the one where Jerry's new girlfriend walks around the apartment naked, so he decides to do it too, to her horror and disgust. The camera cuts to Jerry's naked upper torso and head, with him miming a confused ape.

Now I'm knocked out of Song Wars, time to mosey on in here...

Seinfeld in its stride is near perfect. The characters are disgusting human beings, yet you can't help but love their flaws.

George Costanza is possibly the greatest sitcom sidekick ever as it is just Larry David's life channeled through Jason Alexander.

Pete is the most gifted person with the written word I know, dramatic and inspiring. Everything he's said in this thread about Seinfeld, however, makes it sound utterly tedious. Odd.

I think maybe not everyone likes the same stuff or whatevers.

I'm convinced that everyone would like Seinfeld if they watched a few episodes in a row as opposed to memories of five minute snippets they saw late at night on BBC2 in 1995.

It's wishy washy, hand-wringing liberal moral relativism like that which will lead us into living under sharia law whilst Brussels tells us to drink 500ml glasses of beer.

Nope. Sat through a few episodes. Dull, shouty americans.

Tosser!

Geordie!

Damn!

Said it before, and I'll say it again. Best TV show ever.

The Wire will only join it there if I still adore it over a decade after that ended, too.

FUIUD, etc.

Furtive Underdogs In Undisclosed Dungeon!

Who told you about my-

I mean, I see what you did there! *chortle*

*runs to his undisclosed dungeon*

Such is the wrong spouted in this thread that my brain's neuron-juice congealed attempting to find charming and compelling ways to tell you why you should watch Seinfeld. Plus, y'know, I was up till 1:00 writing that US Civil War thing last night.

So! Where words have failed maybe sound and vision can succeed. The first of MANY bitesize standalone Seinfeld funny moments:

Seinfeld is indeed ace. It took several episodes (under Pete's watchful eye) before I got into it, but when I finally understood the characters and their motivations, it just clicked. I think the episode that started this was the one with Kramer driving a golf ball into a whale's blowhole.

I don't think the whole slapbass end of scene music helps with it's accessibility, and Seinfeld's atrocious standup routines also don't help, but it's worth the effort.

I don't think it's as funny as Curb your Enthusiasm, but it's certainly a lot easier to watch. I'd rank it somewhere in my top 5 sitcoms of all time along with Father Ted and Fawlty Towers and some other stuff.

Do you know when you've got some really highbrow show to watch (insert 'The Wire' name drop here), but you just can't muster the energy to do so, so you watch some absolute low brow trash instead that lowest common denominators you into a little ball of pleasure so alls good, but then one day you make the effort to stretch yourself and before you know it you have the best thing ever and it's effortless and wonderful and that trash before was really, really trash?

Well thats kinda like Seinfeld, it has a weird barrier to entry completely at odds to it's pitch. It's like reading Calvin and Hobbes - a strip on its own is alright, but one after another they build into a glorious, thoughtful comedy engine. Seinfeld's like that, but the engine is powering a drill chipping away at the lies we tell about ourselves.

Watch it. You'll hate the first few episodes, the next few will be 'meh' then at some point you'll realise it's the love of your life.

I often marvel that it was the biggest show on TV. Thats the most incomprehensible thing in the world to me. It gives me hope.

Side Note - fans of Seinfeld should ensure they are watching It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia which in many ways is it's spiritual successor and is the best comedy on tv.

I keep meaning to see that, but never do. Where's the DVD release?

This is a great explanation. It took genuine effort before I got into it properly, but I'm glad I did. And not because it's particularly hard going or anything - it's a sitcom ferchrissakes - it just doesn't get funny for a while. You need to be familiar with the characters before you notice their hilarious subtleties. Absolutely worth the time.

Season 1 in region 2 is out:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Its-Always-Sunny-Philadelphia-Season/dp/B00503QPI8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317850080&sr=8-1
(Note, Danny DeVito doesn't join the cast till season 2.)

Also out of context video within spoiler:

It's entirely, selfish people never hugging or learning.

Edit: Fixed video

Yoink!

Thanks ^_^