Seinfeld, then Friends

Seinfeld : four friends go about their daiy lives and discuss them all either in their apartments or at the coffee shop

Friends : Imagine if Seinfeld had a baby with a normal "sitcom". then u have this half-baked show with an un-original idea.

It pains me to hear a sitcom being described as a "Friends clone".
As if Friends would have even existed without Seinfeld.
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Dave wrote:

i don't think that's what cmputachic meant... she is saying exactly what dave is saying... that friends is the "seinfeld clone" not the other way around.

but of course no other show, besides maybe 'Mad About You', ever really attempted to emulate the dialog and style of Seinfeld. just the premise, which was insanely cloned (like most current NBC sitcoms and that 'women leaves man at alter to begin lively new york city singles life). So "Friends" being the first 'sitcomish' Seinfeld clone, that became the buzz-word for any other show that jumped in on the friends/singles-in-the-city bandwagon. all of which, including FRIENDs, are tiring and weak in my insignifigant but seemingly shared opinion.

A die-hard Seinfeld fanatic myself, I kind of enjoy Friends too and think it's way underrated by a lot of people who talk about it. Obviously not in the same league, stratosphere, universe, can't even be mentioned in the same breath as Seinfeld, but still, the performances and the writing I think are funny and well above the sitcom average.

I actually thought Friends would have been the most logical successor to Sein's time-slot because it is closer in style and attitude to Friends. Mad About You, and Fraser, both great shows, but each with its own unique tone and character, not really similar for my money to Seinfeld.

seinfeld

In article , [email] wrote:

either

have

	Seinfeld is not an original.   The main thing they did was take what has been
done for years on the big screen,  and adapt the style and high quality
routinely found there to the half hour television form.   Next time you watch
anything from "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles"  to "City Slickers", to "What
About Bob"-  or any other A list, major, main stream theatrical comedy,  think
back to Seinfeld and try imagining the characters from the show in the movie
you are watching.  and that the film is a 90 minute, 3 part episode of
Seinfeld.  I think you'll see what I mean if you can do this little exercise
mentally.  Seinfeld simply is the first show so far to take the theatrical
approach to tv situation comedy.
	More than any other source, Seinfeld owes a huge debt to Woody Allen's ground
breaking big screen comedy  "Annie Hall",  a film so important that it is
included on the elite National Registry of films and the AFI 100- both of which
recognize very little comedy.  Also the detail of the small parts in each
episode of Seinfeld,  owes a great deal to John Hughes'  "Planes, Trains, and
Automobiles"  (think about the detail they got in that movie in guys like
Doobie the cab driver,  or Gus the hotel owner,  the airport "vallet",  the
owner of the motel who takes Steve Martin's wristwatch in exchange for a room
for the night,  the rental car lady and on and on.  Seinfeld copied this
approach to spending real attention to detail on small bit parts and a certain
style of comic exaggeration of the eccentricities in everyone from soup chefs
to street cops etc. etc..   Finally Seinfeld owes a great deal to American
comedy styles pioneered on Saturday Night Live  (where both Larry David and
Julia Louis Dreyfous spent some time on staff and cast years before Seinfeld.)
 Seinfeld was very high quality comedy, with a lot of originality and depth in
the specific stories they told, and the people who produced it are extremely
talented, and brilliantly subtle compared to the usual people relegated to the
sit com dumping ground-  but Seinfeld was not a true original,  just an
innovation.  They took high quality to a place that has traditionally been
confined to half assed crap-  a fine tradition which continues.  I loved it!

Seinfeld is original because of the reasons you have given. The show took movie concepts and shrank them down to a 22 minute sitcom. That approach to TV comedy is innovative and ORIGINAL. Maybe it's a matter of semantics?

Anyway, I appreciate your article, your insight.

The first thing I noticed about Seinfeld(compared to other sitcoms) was the faster pace, meaning more scenes and more pages of dialogue per episode, which had the effect of increasing the energy level. -Doug (aspiring TV comedy producer)

Jet B Me wrote:

dugster wrote:

It's true.  The average Seinfeld script was about 20 pages longer than
the average pre-Seinfeld sitcom script.  If you're interested in
learning HOW to write a Seinfeld style sitcom, check out this link:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/188071731X/qid=911224232/sr=1-25/002-1329316-9484606
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One of the things I consider most ingenious is the way in which scenes can be comprised of a single line, an image, and with so little time, so much can be conveyed, and such a long story told in such a short timespan.

Has this ever happened to you? You ask someone if they've seen a particular episode and they say no, so you start to explain it to them...

And the explanation takes 22 minutes,
as long as it would have taken to watch the episode!
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Rat:

particular episode and they say no, so you start to explain it to them...

And the explanation takes 22 minutes, as long as it would have taken to watch the episode!>>

:) With the memory you have by now of the details, this would not surprise me. Whenever I do attempt to describe a Seinfeld (as I did recently, doggedly going on way beyond anyone 's interest) I am humbled by my total inability to recapture the feel of it. I need to carry a portable VCR/TV with me along with all the episodes and whip em out when applicable. It happens at least once a day that I feel like I'm IN a Seinfeld episode.

Start with Seinfeld, take the four male friends & one female; move them from NYC to the midwest; have them drink beer instead of eat diner food; substitute the overweight, obnoxious neighbor with an overweight, obnoxious co-worker; give them all jobs.....and you have The Drew Carey Show.