Is Seinfeld the only "pure comedy" US sitcom?

Hello

I'm a French Seinfeld fan and what I particularly like about this series is that unlike most American sitcoms we can see here, it NEVER turns into , well, you know, those sentimental moralizing jelly moments when the audience goes aaaaaahhh... or ooooooooh and applaude with those characters giving one another big big big hugs and there's nothing like friendship and oh my god how difficult is getting old and love your family and your old folks and never tell a lie and respect your neighbour etc. etc. (ok ok, i know this hapens a LOT more in "family" sitcoms but you know,in Friends or Spin City sometimes, well...)

In Seinfeld, of course sometimes we can tend to feel a little bit sorry for George BUT...Seinfeld is PURE comedy from the first second to the last!

So, this is my question: please inform a poor frenchman who's completely ignorant of the glorious History of the American Sitcom and tell me: Is Seinfeld the ONLY "all-comedy" US sitcom of all times?

Thanks a lot!

Au Revoir...:-)

Alain

Actually, Seinfeld once did a parody on this. It's in the episode where Jerry is a bootlegger, "The Little Kicks". Over the background music of a sad film on the TV, Jerry gives Kramer a lesson over young children's lives. I laugh out loud every time I see this scene, cause it really shows how silly those bits are. Also, it just cracks me up when Jerry and Kramer go looking for magic markers. I don't know why, it's just so enthustiastic, in a way you rarely see Jerry.

When you hear the soft music and see Jerry sitting on his chair talking to Kramer like a father, it's so great. This episode is BTW filled with wonderful dialogues and I think Jerry really shows that he *can* act.

--- Jerry: Kramer there is no way you're giving this tape to Brody and telling him I shot it.

Kramer: Nah, he's not going to know the difference.

Jerry: I don't care about Brody. I was up on 96th Street today, there was a kid couldn't have been more than ten years old. He was asking a street vendor if he had any other bootlegs as good as Death Blow. That's who I care about. The little kid who needs bootlegs, because his parent or guardian won't let him see the excessive violence and strong sexual content you and I take for granted.

Kramer: So you'll do the movie? (Jerry watches the movie Kramer shot)

Jerry: I have to. But I'm gonna need to storyboard this whole thing. Where are my magic markers? ---

alain asked: "....So, this is my question: please inform a poor frenchman who's completely ignorant of the glorious History of the American Sitcom and tell me: Is Seinfeld the ONLY "all-comedy" US sitcom of all times?"

The wonderful (albeit short-lived) "Get A Life" springs to mind.

Bon Jour Alain,

Before there was Seinfeld, there was Cheers.

Laura

Laura Kimoto wrote in message news:Pine.GSO.4.21.0012052146080.10882-100000@uhunix5...

Although, Cheers did have this sort of moments, only they weren't that sentimental.

Alain Stimamiglio writes:

About five years ago there was a show called _Men Behaving Badly_. Its basic premise was that men are messy, beer-drinking, sports watching louts that will go to extraordinary effort to have sex or the promise of sex or even the hope of sex. I don't much care for beer and hate team sports but otherwise thought it was pretty much dead on. There were very few, if any, of the touching moments you refer to.

The stars were Rob Schneider (the annoying guy who had a desk in the Xerox room on Saturday Night Live) and Justine Bateman and some other guy. I thought the show was great the first season. But the network kept pre-empting it. I would look forward to the show and it would be replaced by a curling contest from Austria or some darn thing. There was criticism of the non PC aspects of the show (white males should only be denounced in an elliptical fashion) so I just liked it better.

The second season the other guy was replaced and the show wasn't very good. There was also buzz that Schneider was being a pain to all involved and the show was dropped.

The basic notion including the title was an import from England as was _All in the Family_ a very successful show.

This was originally English show (Men Behaving Badly) and there were some hilarious moments: on one episode they just watched old Star Trek episode on TV the whole time and waited for a pizza. (ref. Chinese restaurant).

"Noone" wrote in message news:[email]...

It is a real shame the British do not make more episodes of their comedies - in the 6 odd years of men behaving badly, there were only about 35 episodes.

Well, Simon Nye (the creator) was the only writer for the British series. If he'd written more, the work would no doubt have suffered. British sitcoms quite often only have six episodes or so each season, because they're generally written by smaller groups of writers.

Hamish T. Snowden wrote in message news:976174656.226296@news...

comedies -

episodes.

"Noone" wrote in message news:[email]...

Also if we are expanding to British shows about nothing, 'Last of the summer wine' would be worth a mention. 3 old men walking around the whole show, going to the coffee shop, and that was pretty much the show for 25 years. Of course , it got more involved as the years went by, as did Seinfeld, but still a show about nothing.