Unpopular Opinions is a bi-weekly column in which a writer takes a stand against popular opinion, whether it's asserting the true merit of a supposedly guilty pleasure or dissenting against the universally lauded.
“Cheers is filmed before a live studio audience.” Those are welcoming words to people of a certain age. They make you think about a home cooked meal after soccer practice. Or a sack of McDonald’s you happily shoved down your throat while waiting for your mom and dad to come home from their weekly night out. Or the can of still beer you guzzled by yourself after stealing it from the front yard of a frat [...]
The Best Sitcom Episode Ever Tournament is pitting 32 of the greatest episodes of funny TV shows ever produced against each other in a single-elimination winner-takes-all (well, takes-nothing) competition. Every day, we're putting up episodes for you, our loyal readers, to vote on. Today: Seinfeld vs. Friends and I Love Lucy vs. The Dick Van Dyke Show.
Seinfeld — "The Contest," November 18, 1992 Forget best sitcom episode ever — I would argue that the funniest moment from any sitcom ever is the above, when Kramer bursts in Jerry's door, slams money down on the counter, and says "I'm out!" It still forces a belly laugh from me, even [...]
Yesterday, not long after Splitsider published an article by Samer Kalaf about the long-term health of network sitcoms with long-term arcs, Hallie Cantor followed up with a post, via The Hollywood Reporter, on how viewers and networks are giving up on shows if they’re not immediately great sooner than ever. That’s a terrifying thought, because unless your show has a pilot as strong as Cheers’ or Freaks and Geeks’, both of which Bradford and I covered in our list of the Ten Best Comedy Pilots in TV History, it means that you have less time than ever to make a strong impression on your audience, before [...]
Whatever happened to predictability, the milkman, the paperboy, evening TV…and the girlfriends and lovers of George Costanza?
One of Seinfeld’s best unexplained jokes was why dozens of attractive women would fall for guys like Jerry and George. Especially George. (I get the Kramer thing.) With the exception of Susan, who lasted longer than any female should want to in the company of George, seemingly every episode brought a new girlfriend or lover for the diminutive, balding, angry, Yankees-employed momma’s boy. Below you can find what all of George’s lady lovers from season 6-9 have been up to. (For seasons 1-5, please click here.)
You guys, straight up, Seinfeld: A XXX Parody is great. Maybe I’m just becoming more and more enamored with the genre as I go, but I feel like every porn parody I watch is better than the last. And Seinfeld is, so far, the cream de la cream.
It opens, accurately, with a stand-up bit from "Gerry" Seinfeld (played by my darling James Deen) that begins “So what’s the deal with pornography?” It just doesn’t get any better than that. From here we cut to a tonally perfect establishing shot outside a XXX video store, where Gerry and Elaina (a fantastic impression from Kristina Rose) are attempting to buy [...]
Duels, or “classy show-downs” as they are often called by no one, have been solving hot debates for ages. They're useful for delivering crowds a champion, through often unpredictable means (just ask Alexander Hamilton). Television loves a surprise, so what better way to measure and battle elements of TV than with a duel? Here, we will battle two characters in an imaginary contest of wills. Sometimes a winner will be crowned because of pertinent facts, and sometimes in spite of them.
This week’s duel? Friends' Central Perk v. Seinfeld's Monk’s Café in Online Reviews.
Central Perk 9/28/1995 ****
I LOVE this café! That blond waitress never gets my order right, but it’s [...]
The Best Sitcom Episode Ever Tournament is pitting 32 of the greatest episodes of funny TV shows ever produced against each other in a single-elimination winner-takes-all (well, takes-nothing) competition. Every day, we're putting up episodes for you, our loyal readers, to vote on. Today: Friends vs. Fraiser and The Dick Van Dyke Show vs. Get Smart.
Seinfeld — “The Marine Biologist,” February 10, 1994 The final moments of “The Marine Biologist,” in which George heroically recounts saving a beached whale in order to continue lying about being a marine biologist, is one of the funniest scenes in Seinfeld history. The reveal of George pulling out Kramer’s blowhole-obstructing golfball is [...]
This is not just a clip of Jerry Seinfeld doing standup on The Late Show. It's a mystical portal to an imaginary world where Seinfeld is still on the air, and this clip is about to lead into Jerry eating cereal in his kitchen while Elaine talks about a guy she's dating that keeps Facebook poking her. George is in a fight with some Youtube commenters, and then Kramer comes in and talks about his big plans to start his own wifi network.
What's left to say about Seinfeld? The show was famously about people who like to pick things apart, so it only makes sense that many of its fans would be the same way. Since the series went off the air thirteen years ago, it's been analyzed and dissected almost to the point of breaking, viewed under the lens of philosophy, with Jerry's habit of jokey questioning described as everything from socratic to Talmudic, or from a postmodern literary perspective, with its layered references to real world events. But there's one comparison to Seinfeld that, to my recollection at least, has surprisingly never been made. I would argue that Seinfeld[...]
Whatever happened to predictability, the milkman, the paperboy, evening TV…and the girlfriends and lovers of George Costanza?
One of Seinfeld’s best unexplained jokes was why dozens of attractive women would fall for guys like Jerry and George. Especially George. (I get the Kramer thing.) With the exception of Susan, who lasted longer than any female should want to in the company of George, seemingly every episode brought a new girlfriend or lover for the diminutive, balding, angry, Yankees-employed momma’s boy. Over this week and next, we’ll see where all the actresses who played them are today, beginning with seasons 1-5.
The Best Sitcom Episode Ever Tournament is pitting 32 of the greatest episodes of funny TV shows ever produced against each other in a single-elimination winner-takes-all (well, takes-nothing) competition. Every day, we're putting up episodes for you, our loyal readers, to vote on. Today: Seinfeld vs. The Simpsons.
Seinfeld — "The Contest," November 18, 1992 Forget best sitcom episode ever — I would argue that the funniest moment from any sitcom ever is the above, when Kramer bursts in Jerry's door, slams money down on the counter, and says "I'm out!" It still forces a belly laugh from me, even having seen this episode countless times. And what makes [...]
Comic and perennial TV show guest star Fred Stoller has written a book called My Seinfeld Year about the single year he spent as a staff writer on Seinfeld — and how he ended up off the staff and playing "Man #1 in Hockey Audience" shortly thereafter. Looks like a fun read if you've got two bucks to spare.
It’s tough enough for TV writers to make viewers laugh for 22 minutes — to extend an episode’s length to 44 minutes, even spread over two weeks, that’s just downright crazy. But every so often, a sitcom plot will be spread over two episodes (with the occasional “To Be Continued” thrown in for good measure), oftentimes with mixed results. Below we choose twelve of the best two-part episodes, some season-ending cliffhangers, some series finales, and some that work as a two-part story arc. And don't worry: some Simpsons, too.
