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It's Settled Now For All Time: The Simpsons Is Better Than Seinfeld

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by Uncle.Ruckus, Mar 20, 2013.

  1. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    I'm not sure why, because I loved it when it was on, but I have a hard time watching Seinfeld in syndication. I don't want to say it doesn't hold up, because the stuff is still funny, but it loses a lot when you've seen it all before, something I never thought about Frasier, Cheers and Everybody Loves Raymond, which I still watch now and then.

    By no means am I saying that Raymond was a funnier show than Seinfeld, just that it's an easier show to watch multiple times...
     
  2. Songbird

    Songbird Well-Known Member

    One thing I'm appreciating about Seinfeld now for some reason is the opening and closing monologues.

    At the time I never paid much attention to the fact the show sprung to life because the NBC guys watched one of his sets and wanted him to consider doing a TV show.

    I guess I got so tied up with the (nothing) storyline of the week and never paid much mind to those monologues. They were funny but didn't have an impact until now.

    I love the show dearly still although a few episodes have become somewhat hokey.
     
  3. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    I actually miss the days when they would take a comedian and form a show around their stand-up act...

    Everybody Loves Raymond, Home Improvement, Roseanne, Seinfeld, The Cosby Show all did pretty well essentially following that formula...
     
  4. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    Everybody Loves Raymond is just fucking awful. And I have no idea how it's based around his standup career. It's a rote family sitcom. The same is true of Roseanne. I suppose The Cosby Show used a lot of Bill Cosby rambling, but that was a family sitcom, too.

    Louie is more directly what you asked for than even Seinfeld.
     
  5. dreunc1542

    dreunc1542 Active Member

    Saying that Everybody Loves Raymond is more re-watchable than Seinfeld is one of the wrongest things ever posted on this board.
     
  6. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    The first few seasons of Roseanne regularly used lines directly from her act... Same for Raymond, same for Home Improvement and Cosby Show...
     
  7. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    OK, so you mean they fall in line with the standup of the lead character. I get that.

    Standup comedians today are very specialized, though. Most struggle with acting. Hell, Louie does but uses it to his advantage because he's a genius. That said, if the lead comedy actors of today still did standup, I'm sure 30 Rock and Curb Your Enthusiasm would be very close reflections on the standup of Tina Fey and Larry David. Aziz Ansari's Tom Haverford pulls a lot of his character, particularly the vulnerable moments, out of his standup.

    They just don't have to do standup anymore because they're paid enough and because there are others who are more focused and better at it.

    Does anyone want a Dane Cook sitcom? Standup comedians now get put on shows like Key and Peele, Tosh.0, The Jeselnik Offensive, etc. Or they will do something completely ridiculous, such as Children's Hospital. Those allow them to show off their standup comedy more directly. It's a matter of specialization, and it's one reason why there are so many good 30-minute comedy choices out there right now.
     
  8. Buck

    Buck Well-Known Member

    Mizzou's right. The jokes and storylines for many of those shows were derived from the setups and anecdotes fromt the comedians' stage material.

    I just don't get 'Seinfeld' not be re-watchable. I love 'The Simpsons,' but I don't watch those reruns anymore. The same is true of 'Cheers.'

    I don't watch 'Seinfeld' reruns with great regularity, but I still watch them.
     
  9. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    I find it the most rewatchable show I've seen. I've watched every Seinfeld episode at least three or four times but can watch it whenever I see it on and still throw in the DVDs when I want a laugh.
     
  10. dreunc1542

    dreunc1542 Active Member

    Thanks to reruns always being on when I was in high school and college, I probably watched each episode at least five times. The show I rewatch the most (per episode), though, is Arrested Development. I'd guess I've seen each of those episodes at least 10 times.
     
  11. Versatile

    Versatile Active Member

    I've seen all of Seinfeld Seasons 3, 4, 5 and 7 at least 10 times for mostly the same reasons. Probably close to as much for Seasons 1, 2 and 6. I never bought Seasons 8 (which is really good) and 9 (not so much), so I can't make the same guarantee.
     
  12. Mizzougrad96

    Mizzougrad96 Active Member

    Part of the problem is that there are so few sitcoms these days... Tina Fey never did standup. She came from improv like Amy Poehler.

    There are a lot of great comedians whose acts are too dirty to translate into a good sitcom, like Jim Norton, or Jeselnik or Tosh or but I could see someone like Jim Gaffigan or Brian Regan doing well in that format.

    Tom Haverford is kind of similar to Ansari's stand-up act, just as the characters David Spade has played on Just Shoot Me, 8 Simple Rules and Rules of Engagement are pretty similar to his stand-up act.
     
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