I agree with the first sentence. However, while F is more sophisticated, at least it appeals to a more sophisticated audience with it's high toned bon mots, Seinfeld at it's best was far more innovative and IQ packed. As I've posted before, the best Frasier's are structurally similar to Three's Company episodes. They're old fashioned farces where misunderstandings occur and hilarity ensues. (However, 3's Company was always dismissed by TV critics as dumb while Frasier is praised for its intelligence.) In short, the intelligence of Frasier is superficial. It's like one of those Porsches where they put a classy body on a Volkswagen chassis and engine.
I've split this thread to alt.tv.seinfeld as it's not polite to talk behind people's back.
BTW, I think Frasier last year was definitely better than Seinfeld is this year. They picked a bad time to go into a slump.
I agree. I am amazed by the number of people who think Frasier is an "intelligent" or "sophisticated" comedy -- it just happens to be about PEOPLE who are intelligent, sophisticated and pretentious. The writing is a LOT less clever than shows that use more physical comedy, such as Seinfeld or 3rd Rock or The Simpsons.
Why are people so easily fooled by this show? It is merely the 90s Three's Company with a classy face
The nice thing about Seinfeld is that it doesn't wear its intellect on its sleeve but submerges it on the level of intricate plotting and wry observations about the way in which ordinary men and women view the world. But don't sell Frasier short. As often as not, those bon mots (some of which, as Niles might say, really are "bon") gain much of their humor from their self-skewering quality. (Frasier: "I've always dreamed of owning a four-star restaurant!" Niles: "What growing boy hasn't?!") In other words, Frasier is a send-up of intellectuals -- but a very intelligent one.
short,
Porsches
I got sick of classic TV farce at approximately the age of 8, when I would watch daily reruns of the 50s sitcom "My Little Margie". It took me about a week to figure out the formula: Margie eavesdrops on her father, misunderstands and thinks he's plotting against her, then mounts a counterplot. Various counter-counterplots, not to mention hilarity, ensue. (Sometimes, for variety, they'd do it the other way around and have Margie's father misunderstand his daughter's overheard conversation.) It took me about a week of reruns to figure out the formula, after which I was just watching because I was afraid my mother might otherwise want me to do something useful.
What's refreshing about Frasier is that they aren't afraid to unabashedly take on a slightly broader version of the same formula, but without dumbing it down the way every earlier TV show (including Three's Company) has inevitably done. They invest it with wit, great acting, great directing and great writing -- and, whaddaya know, there's life in the old formula yet! Well, there was as of _last_ season.