Seinfeld's REAL turning point?

Hi all, I've been a lurker for along time, and in the midst of the ongoing Larry David debate, I've never seen this theory: Regardless of how you feel about the past couple of seasons (I happen to enjoy them immensely), the show actually began to take its current shape while Larry David was still involved, especially during season seven.

Coinciding with the removal of Jerry's monologues from the show (correct me if I'm wrong), "Seinfeld" lost much of the observational humor that had been taken straight his stand-up act, and became much more plot oriented. To me it makes a lot more sense that the show diverged because of the major change in which the show was formulated, and not because of the departure of a single person. Though just as funny, most of these episodes (ie "The Wink," "The Sponge," "The Postponement," which was written by David) all seem a far cry from the simpler episodes of the first five or six seasons.

So it's my conclusion that everyone involved, including David, decided that they had taken the material in Jerry's stand up act as far as it could go, and the show would begin to take a more surrealistic, black comedy approach. And the episodes written by David actually seem to be the most neo-Seinfeldian of the bunch.

So is there any way this post will get people to believe that Larry David's departure is NOT the catalyst of the show's marked change? Or at least not the only one? Well, probably not, at least not the ones who call it a "downfall". :) Any thoughts?

I've always noticed how different episodes from later years are, compared to earlier episodes. In earlier episodes, the story flow seemed more natural, and there seemed to be a central story with just minor incidents (or nothing at all) happening to each of the characters separately. But as time went on, each of the characters had their own subplot in each episode, and each subplot seemed to unfold within the first few minutes of the show instead of coming about naturally. This is most common in the latest episodes, I believe.

Also, the show seems much more fast paced nowadays than it did before. As a matter of fact, most of the shows on NBC seem that way, compared to years ago.

Interesting point . . . I guess I have to agree with that. It is true that the show lost some (or all) of its observational and bitingly true insights into our lives, and it did indeed seem to coincide with the removal of the stand-up routine segments, even just at the beginning or the end of the episode. The question is, did the material matter run simply dry, or was it the loss of Larry David? I think that it may be both . . . that David's touch with intertwining plots (or in many cases plots that come crashing together at the end) helped to cover the changes isubject matter.

Admitted.

Seinfeld's real turning point isn't when Larry David left (no matter what anyone tells you). Both co-creators (Larry and Jerry) say that the turning point for the show was in "The Junior Mint", when Kramer dropped a junior mint inside the guy that the doctors were operating. Larry and Jerry were surprised that they got away with it, and then they said to each other "you know, if we can get away with this..."