Even after slipping down hill a little, I figure Seinfeld is still better than anything else, and by some wide margin too.
And now, I am thinking that the last two shows, (the talkshow/toys one and the one before that) are bringing it back up to be about as good as it ever was.
Have they got a new writer or has an old one come back or something?
I can't believe how funny Jerry and Kramer were just finding Merv's set in the trash.
Are you on crack??? These two shows have the worst I have seen, although this week was a little better. But you what, a bad Seinfeld is no longer better than a good anything else, not when there's King of the Hill, Simpsons, Austin Stories, INsert Your Favorite SHow here, etc. Even Friends has been better than Seinfeld this year. Granted, Seinfeld looks great in comparison to Veronica's Closet...
Twc6 wrote:
Well, everyone has their own tastes. Although this season has been noticeably weaker than the previous, the only true dog for me has been "The Voice".
Each episode has its strong and weak segments; in this one I particularly liked the horrified expressions when George stomped the pigeons in the park.
Anyway, although I think this season is so far a bit weak, the previous seasons have had their share of duds. Below is my list of Dogs and Gems.
Oh, and just as an aside, it seems to me that some people who won't tolerate the slightest criticism are secretly afraid that such criticism will result in the end of the show.
DOGS, season 1:
Male Unbonding
DOGS, season 2:
The Heart Attack
- I really hated the holistic healer bit; I felt that the George character would never really buy into it
The Chinese Restaurant
- I know this is a classic for some people but again I found not a single chuckle in it. Perhaps it's because I couldn't sympathize with their waiting; I would've (and felt they should've) bailed on the place almost immediately.
DOGS, season 3:
The Dog
- One of the all-time worst. I hated the writers making Jerry out to be a patsy to take care of this moron's dog. His (Jerry's) character would never do that. It's inconsistent.
DOGS, season 4:
The Old Man
DOGS, season 5:
(none)
DOGS, season 6:
The Face Painter
- I took an instant dislike to the Puddy character and his antics. He and Elaine just don't work.
DOGS, season 7:
The Wink
- This is where the show really starts to fall down. They (the writers) want us to buy into the idiot's premise that George's inadvertent winks would really cause problems. Seinfeld watchers are smarter than that: we know that George would catch what had happened and put a stop to it immediately with a simple explanation. This type of situation is typical of dumb American sitcoms, where otherwise smart characters are seemingly unaware of a misunderstanding that is so screamingly obvious. The same thing happens with Jerry in another episode when his foot falls asleep.
DOGS, season 8
The Van Buren Boys
- Just too unbelievable to extract any humor from it.
DOGS, season 9
The Voice - The relationship with Puddy and Elaine is tiresome. The Puddy character is undeveloped and uninteresting. The ongoing joke, about stomach growls being a voice, is way too juvenile and too stupid to base an entire show on.
Okay, now on to the good stuff. A lot of shows were very, very good. I think the ones below are the very best.
GEMS, season 1
The Stakeout
- Jerry's "cleverness" in meeting the woman and George's complex minutiae bring Art Vandelay to life
GEMS, season 2
The Phone Message
- Another classic example of George getting himself into trouble with progressively nastier messages and employing Jerry to help bail him out
GEMS, season 3
The Pen
- Sandy Baron (Jack Klompus) deserves an emmy for his performance. Elaine's "Stella!" had me rolling on the floor.
The Library
- Philip Baker Hall (Mr. Bookman) and his Jack Webb style of delivery has got to be one of the all time great performances in television.
The Tape
- I was truly fascinated by Elaine's performance. She has the ability, seen in this and later episodes, to appear genuinely happy, sassy, and on-top-of-the-world. I was as transfixed over her as George was.
GEMS, season 4,
The Contest
The Outing
- OK, I really liked Paula Marshall (Sharon, the reporter), so sue me.
The Pilot (1)
- I think this is one of the very, very best.
George's obsession with the white spot ("Yes!
it's white! Is it cancer?!? Do you think it's
cancer?!?), with the stolen raisins, is the
pure essence of George. The actors auditioning
for George, Elaine, and Kramer were hysterical.GEMS, season 5
The Dinner Party
- Elaine's justification for trying to get ahead in line has got to be something we've all felt.
The Marine Biologist
- Originally I didn't like this one, but came completely around upon second viewing. "But I'm not a marine biologist!" "Yes, I know!"
The Opposite
- It was funny seeing George do the exact opposite
of what we expected ("Hi, my name's George
Costanza. I'm unemployed and I live with my
parents"). The coffee table book and the "even
steven" karma of Jerry made everything in this
episode work.GEMS, season 6
The Kiss Hello
- Look at the expression on George's face when Kramer plants a whopping kiss on Jerry
The Jimmy
The Fusilli Jerry
- The whole ASSMAN thing is a treasure. That, and Frank Costanza's "He stopped short?!? That's my move!"
GEMS, season 7
The Soup Nazi
The Cadillac (1 & 2)
- Once again Sandy Baron (Jack Klompus) puts in
a great performance ("You think I've never
ridden in a Cadillac before? I've ridden in
hundreds of Cadillacs. Thousands."). The
whole Marisa Tomei thing was clever and funny.
Susan's expression on finding George "making
out" with "Marisa" was priceless. George's
paranoid use of the Art Vandalay ruse is a
classic.GEMS, season 8
The Bizarro Jerry
- A clever idea and well executed. It showed that the writers had confidence in the intelligence of the audience. An episode like this can only be done with a show that's matured.
The Muffin Tops
- A nice intertwining of funny subplots (George the "tourist") ending with Wayne Knight's unforgettable parody of _Pulp Fiction's_ "Mr. Wolf" (itself a parody).
Rick
I wrote:
OK, I'm an idiot. I meant Julia's performance.
Rick
[email] (Twc6) wrote:
If you are going to abuse people, sign your name. You should be proud of what you seem to think is a clever remark.
In , [email] (Bob Selfinger) writes:
But wait, Bob. From what I've been reading in this NG, Jerry and Kramer finding the old set is just not believable, and therefore, not funny. Remember, when they break from reality, it's not funny.
[email] (Bob Selfinger) wrote:
I didn't think the last episode was *that* great, but since you mention it, "The Merv Griffin Show" did have a new writer whose name I've never seen before, so apparently they are getting some new blood.
I read an article in The Wall Street Journal that leads me to believe that all the episodes now are cooperative efforts among the writers, and the credited writers are probably just the ones who punch out the actual script and dialogue. The article tells how Spike Feresten got the oil ball idea from a friend of his who actually got a patent for an oil tanker bladder device. This friend also happens to work as a director for NBC, so when Feresten heard about it, he told Jerry, who liked it, so they wrote it into the show. Feresten, however, was not the writer of that episode.
-Kenny