About nothing--I think not!

I'm a little tired of the oft-quoted "show about nothing" description of Seinfeld. Aside from the fact that so many things are going on during the best Seinfeld episodes, I feel that a show such as, say, "Who's The Boss" or "Friends" are more adequately described as shows about nothing because nothing interesting ever happens in shows such as those. Or, in fact, "Caroline in the City", "ER", "Millenium" all shows that the world could do without and nobody who cares about substance would miss. But aside from that, I think Seinfeld is a show that is truly and deeply about SOMETHING and that is: The importance of trivia and minutiae in everyday life. We would all like to think that it's the big profound factors that shape our lives, but in fact if we pare things down to the essentials, most of us probably do make decisions on breaking up with a boyfriend or girlfriend on something as ridiculously unimportant as the fact that she may have brushed her teeth with a toothbrush that fell in the toilet. The gang on the show have made a religion on making major and minor decisions about their lives based on completely inconsequential reasons. And if we truly look at ourselves, we probably can all identify with that, which may contribute more than we realize to the show's popularlity. To a certain extent, we are all self-centered and totally obvlious to the world around us in terms of it shaping the way we lead our lives. Perhaps not to the extent that these characters are, but I'll wager that you probably know something who is more closely attuned to the personality of a George Constanza or an Elaine Benes than you ever were to a Sam Malone, Diane Chambers or, especially, a Roseanne Conner, a Robert Petrie, an Alice Kramden or a Hawkeye Pierce. Seinfeld is less a show about nothing than is is a celebration of the importance of things that other people dismiss as being "nothing worth worrying about."