This might not be earth shaking but I woke in the night thinking about this! (I know, it seems bizarre to be so caught up in a TV show, much less a sitcom. Maybe in Seinfeld's case, we could call it something other than a sitcom, give it a new genre lable that doesn't demean it :)) Or maybe I just have to admit I'm addicted to a..choke..sitcom. I have a feeling that Jerry and co. had no idea people had gotten so attached to the characters themselves and would take it so badly that they were tossed in jail for a year. In a way this is just an extension of the theme that appears throughout the shows, they wind up hurting someone without intending to do so, or the reward they get for all their attempts to help is ingratitude and even resentment. So in this show, it's an extreme case where they are all actually jailed unjustly (with all the unjust condemnations of them providing the list of character witnesses). I think that the show's creators just thought this was a funny extreme of this theme but did not anticipate that people really had come to think of these 4 as friends, as real people, and would take this as unacceptable. (I'm not talkingabout the issue of how funny or unfunny the episode was) I was wondering if somehow this episode has dampened many people's enthusiasm for the show in syndication repeats. I personally know a number of people who were so disgusted with the finale that they no longer watch the repeats. One of them said she'd just had enough, with all the hype and seeing them on all the talk shows, etc, but I think it has to do with disgust about the characters' fate in the finale. I'm wondering if the finale cost the show fans in syndication, on a larger scale than just a few friends of mine. Any thoughts on this? cynth
another finale thought
(To finish what I had started on my previous post): For all the connoisseurs of great comedy, however, I don't think one show ruined them. The slim pickins' (to carry on the food theme) of quality on network tv in general, let alone comedy series, is enough to keep us great comedy lovers glued to Seinfeld reruns til the millenium and longer.
alt showbiz gossip
Raining900 wrote:
I don't think that was it. I disliked the show long before the end when we learn they would be incarcerated. It just WASN'T funny. The joke of old characters coming back in cameos to testify against them is ONE joke that repeated too often. There were no subplots, the dialogue was weak, there were no intertwined threads to be resolved at the end. There were no connections or motivations for the events that took place, they were disjoint and It was too simplistic. For example - the fact that the judge was named Art Vandaley could have tied together somehow - bit it just hung out there with no reason. The Clip Show was a better way to remember them.
It just makes me enjoy the syndication episodes more as they are obviously so much better and should be treasured for their excellence.
Mike wrote a number of things about the problems in the finale which I have not included below, ending with:
much better and should be treasured for their excellence.>
I do agree with what you've said here, all of it. I think I wasn't clear in my message. I wasn't saying the finale was funny (altho I did find it better the second time around) or that all the criticisms you've mentioned here are not valid. I was ALSO suggesting that the writers underestimated the viewers' attachment to the characters. I was referring to those people (not you or me for that matter) who quit watching the repeats because they were so turned off by the end of the show. I had the idea that in the case of THESE viewers, the characters winding up in jail in the end was too much for them. This isn't to say that there weren't all kinds of other problems in the finale. It occurred to me that maybe there were a lot of people (not just a few of my friends) who were turned off by their fate in the finale and that it may have affected the popularity of the repeats. But actually I dont even know how the repeats are doing in the polls. I hope they are doing well because I will be watching for a long time.
Cynth
Raining wrote:
I am sure there were a number of people who were fed up to the point of quitting even the syndicated show by the time the disappointing finale came and went. by the time the finale came and was such a huge letdown to the majority of viewers.
alt showbiz gossip
As far as I know, Seinfeld is fourth or fifth rated show in syndication.
Sein:
Huh?! What could possibly be ahead of it?
Just read the most recent top syndicated-show list today. Seinfeld finished 3rd behind Vanna White(g) and Jeopardy. Not too shabby, when you consider the broad-based viewership for gameshows--plus, the gameshows aren't reruns.
alt showbiz gossip
Excellent (Seinfeld as #3) Now if only we can get them to show the entire shows.
Raining900 wrote:
I don't know about overall, but I do know that personally, I didn't watch an episode, quote a line, read an article, etc. of Seinfeld for a few months after the finale. All of the media hype was just too much, so rather than become sick of it, I got away from it. I just recently (a month or so, maybe 2) started watching the syndicated episodes again, quoting and discussing, analysing and reading about the show once more. Maybe what happened was some people just got too sick of the attention and the build up of the finale, and ultimately started liking the show less. Maybe in a few months, they'll start to miss the show, as I did, and return, but who knows?
For the record, I enjoyed the finale. It certainly wasn't the best, but it wasn't the worst either. It didn't live up to the hype, simply because the hype was too large. It would have been nearly impossible for anything to live up to that pressure.