Not only is "Seinfeld" vastly overrated, any claim that it pioneered the concept of "a show about nothing" is ridiculous and imbecilic.
First of all, yeah, come at me. "Seinfeld" is only kinda-sorta funny, at best. Seinfeld himself is really not funny at all. His act is perpetually stuck between the oldschool, early 1950s-style, cigar-waving "hyuk-hyuk, get a load of all my jokes about women drivers" comedians and the post-Lenny Bruce era, where everything just boils down to telling boring "slice of life" stories with mildly clever exaggerations.
Seinfeld manages to pick and choose all the worst elements of both those eras and smush them together into a tremendously boring, un-funny standup act.
Annnnd that's what gets translated to the show. Boring, egotistical, overly-New-York-focused, pretentious nonsense.
Like I said, come at me about that. I know people disagree. I truly do not care what you want to say to me, about it. You're simply wrong. If you like his comedy or his show, you just have bad taste. I can't fix that. I can't change your mind. You can't change mine, either. But I'm objectively correct that he and his comedy material both suck.
But the whole "show about nothing" thing is what really boils my ass. You can argue that the show wasn't "about nothing," in the first place. And that's, like, whatever. There are valid arguments, there. In fact, I'd like to accept those arguments, then proceed under the assumption that the "show about nothing" concept really is a "show about nothing, and therefore about everything."
This is the important point: the thing I disagree with is this wretched and insulting notion that "Seinfeld" was somehow a PIONEERING television show, in this context of being about nothing and/or everything.
That's my problem. The claim that "Seinfeld" did any of that shit first. The implication is that all prior television, especially all prior comedies, were somehow locked into a "this is a show about a particular topic" mentality. And, like, "nobody had the GENIUS and the GUTS to make a freewheeling show about just, like, whatever topics came to the minds of the genius writers, and their groundbreaking stream-of-consciousness comedy process."
That's fucking horseshit. Horseshit of the highest fucking caliber.
I suppose these turd-brained fucksticks believe that "I Love Lucy" was about a Cuban guy who had a job as a bandleader and his wife, who sometimes tried to get into showbusiness. And "The Honeymooners" would be about a guy who has a job as a bus driver. And "Taxi" was a show about cab drivers, driving their cabs.
Of course, that's not what those shows were ACTUALLY ABOUT. They were basically shows about nothing, just as much as "Seinfeld" was. They were often about relatable problems in domestic life, they were sometimes about people trying zany get-rich-quick schemes, they were sometimes about the fears and perils and hopes that surround pregnancy and childbirth, they were often about the uncertainty and passion and sacrifice that people put themselves through, for their budding careers, or their workaday jobs. And they were about a million other things that all fit the "show about nothing" mold BETTER than "Seinfeld" ever did.
I say they did it better, because they weren't exclusively about sad, angry, borderline-psychopathic reprobates, who seem to have no goals or aspirations, beyond smirking and talking shit about people behind their backs, swilling coffee, and occasionally trying to get laid. They were shitty people, with shitty attitudes. I know that's part of the joke...but it wears thin very quickly, and my point is that other shows did a similar "it's a show about nothing...but really everything" theme, but their casts of characters WEREN'T entirely populated by malignant, fundamentally worthless narcissists.
Basically, I implore people to stop worshipping that fucking show, as if it was some kind of groundbreaking, high art. There were way better classic comedy shows than that piece of shit, from its own era and the TV eras before it.
Oh, and before you point out that I accused Seinfeld of being overly New York focused, but also used three other shows set in New York as counterexamples, I realized that just now.
And I don't give a shit. I can keep going. "Green Acres" wasn't really about farming. "The Bob Newhart Show" wasn't really about psychiatry, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" wasn't really about TV production, and "WKRP in Cincinnati" wasn't really about radio production.
The shows about nothing and everything are THE MAJORITY of all the shows. Certainly, all the good ones. It's harder for me to think of reversed examples, where the show is just what it was supposed to be "about."
Like, yeah, "Flipper" really was about a fucking dolphin, and "The Flying Nun" really was about a flying fucking nun. And those shows fucking sucked.
I think I can consider my point thoroughly made.
Now, all you assholes can start typing abuse at me, for daring to dislike your idol. I won't be reading that shit. Not sorry.
Compared to "Seinfeld," yes. And it certainly wears the classic American "show about nothing and everything" mantle with more dignity and more overall quality.
I still think it's overrated, too, which I suspect you suspected, about me. But truly, it's not as overrated as "Seinfeld."
"Friends" does have a lot of the same "holy shit, these characters are borderline psychopaths" energy, going on. As does "How I Met Your Mother," which is another show set in New York, which I think is pretty dramatically overrated.
Lots of weirdly glorified psychopaths on "The Office," as well. And I think that show is more catastrophically and pitifully overrated than all of these put together. But at least nobody really comes along claiming that it's some kind of fundamental pioneer, in any important respect. I mean, I'm sure there are people out there who think the producers of "The Office" invented the concept of the mockumentary, but those people are simple and should be left alone.
See, the thing is, I actually liked the more sitcomy type shows. I liked "Full House" and "Family Matters" and "Hangin' with Mr. Cooper," and "Dinosaurs" and "Martin" and "Perfect Strangers" and "Night Court" and "3rd Rock from the Sun" and some episodes of "Boy Meets World," although it wasn't my favorite. And I'm sure I'm leaving some out.
I disagree with the premise (which someone else brought up) that "Seinfeld" was automatically superior, because it diverged from all the "happy, constructive, happy-ending, everyone comes together and learns something at the end of the episode" type shows, like the ones I mentioned.
I'm not a turbo-cynical Gen-X-er, who is fully allergic to happy endings. I don't think every character in every show has to be a genuine shithead, or else the show isn't cool.
I also watched tons of other shit. I was (and am) a huge sci-fi nerd. I would have been happy if the whole 1980s and 1990s TV schedule had just been more and more Star Trek spinoffs, along with "The X-Files" and "American Gladiators," just for variety. But I didn't reject sitcoms, on some kind of pretentious "happy endings are lame" basis.
Oh my god, also "Brisco County, Jr." That show flew under so many people's radars. And it was basically a perfect combination of sitcom tropes and sci-fi and action/pulp tropes. Bruce Campbell at his fucking finest. Fuck yes.
"Family Matters" - Bad. Corporate comedy at its worst. ( "did I do that?" )
"Hangin' with Mr. Cooper," - Bad
"Dinosaurs" - really bad (with only the final episode to make it memorable)
"Martin" - good
"Perfect Strangers" - really, really bad
"Night Court" - good, but it's premise was almost cheating because the cases allowed them to have a quick comedic trial premise jokes then back to the a or b storyline. If not for the joke trials, it would have been bad.
"3rd Rock from the Sun" - good
"Boy Meets World," - bad
Briscoe County Junior - good
Your taste in comedy is on average bad and you should feel bad.
I don't think I actually saw that episode until a few years later, when I did get it. I am indeed pretty sure that would have sailed right over my head, at age 15.