Seinfeld on All4

[imitationleather]

Curb is just nowhere near as good as Seinfeld. That's it's problem.

[The Culture Bunker]

Is it common enough to like CYE but never really enjoyed Seinfeld? I've wondered if I feel so because of my sympathy to Larry for the various misunderstandings he winds up in compared to having never really taken to Jerry (the character or the real person).

[thr0b]

I think Curb is marginally the better show, but without the re-watch value that Seinfeld has. (I've recently re-watched all of Curb over the space of a couple of weeks, having not watched most of it for well over a decade or more. I'm also re-watching Seinfeld in a far more lazy "background noise" kind of a way. It doesn't need my attention like Curb does.)

I appreciate Larry a lot; he is often pretty much in the right with the things he says and does, just society conventions disagree with him.

There's a bit of Larry David The Character in Kramer; "You're as pretty as any of them - you just need to fix your nose."

[BeardFaceMan]

I appreciate Larry a lot; he is often pretty much in the right with the things he says and does, just society conventions disagree with him.

I felt like this when the series first started, but the last few seasons I find myself agreeing with him less and he's acting like more of a prick.

[Menu]

To be fair, I think it was a parody of final episodes, running through the standard set of expectations that people have when a series ends: the characters might fall in love, the characters might die, etc. It's been a long time since I've seen it but I remember that being a running joke in that first part. Obviously, "will they become rich and successful?" is in there too.

Ah ok. I still don't think it works though.

[sutin]

Seinfeld's strongest moments run rings around any Curb, but Curb has been more solid throughout it's run (I can never be bothered with Seinfeld seasons 1-3, and to a degree 4).

[Menu]

Seinfeld's strongest moments run rings around any Curb, but Curb has been more solid throughout it's run (I can never be bothered with Seinfeld seasons 1-3, and to a degree 4).

I don't enjoying rewatching Curb as much as I do Seinfeld. There's too many longeurs.

[magval]

Just saw this advertised on RTE, the Irish broadcaster, who are pushing it on their streaming service. No mention of it's also being shown in TV but it was a good, long advert that nicely established the premise of the show using George's pitch to Jerry from season 4 interspersed with clips of the leads doing stupid faces, like you get in standup DVD ads.

Just wanted to share this as I'm not sure I've ever seen Seinfeld mentioned on UK/Irish TV before and I cheered a wee bit inside.

[QDRPHNC]

Seinfeld's strongest moments run rings around any Curb, but Curb has been more solid throughout it's run (I can never be bothered with Seinfeld seasons 1-3, and to a degree 4).

Can't get on board with this at all. For me, Seinfeld is frequently a 10/10 and rarely dips below a 7 or an 8. Curb is a solid 5, going down from there as the seasons progress.

There's a cheese factor with Curb I struggle to get past, and I wonder if it's partially due to its improvisational foundations. Characters are always hammering home plot points in very hamfisted ways, and the way it's shot often feels cheap and amateur. For instance, when Larry gets deafened by the toilet, we have to zoom on his face going "OHOYOYOARRRRGGGH" while "boyoyoyoing" type music plays in the background.

Larry David is a very funny man, but I do question his taste. If I remember correctly, he thought the scat version of the Seinfeld them was pretty good. Case closed.

[sutin]

Can't get on board with this at all. For me, Seinfeld is frequently a 10/10 and rarely dips below a 7 or an 8. Curb is a solid 5, going down from there as the seasons progress.

There's a cheese factor with Curb I struggle to get past, and I wonder if it's partially due to its improvisational foundations. Characters are always hammering home plot points in very hamfisted ways, and the way it's shot often feels cheap and amateur. For instance, when Larry gets deafened by the toilet, we have to zoom on his face going "OHOYOYOARRRRGGGH" while "boyoyoyoing" type music plays in the background.

Larry David is a very funny man, but I do question his taste. If I remember correctly, he thought the scat version of the Seinfeld them was pretty good. Case closed.

Don't get me wrong, I think Seinfeld is a much better show than Curb. I just can't get over how slow and lacking it is for the first bunch of seasons.

[famethrowa]

Just wanted to share this as I'm not sure I've ever seen Seinfeld mentioned on UK/Irish TV before and I cheered a wee bit inside.

Well they can't even get his name right!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nk1EOcFv3s8

[magval]

A classic!

[Gurke and Hare]

I appreciate Larry a lot; he is often pretty much in the right with the things he says and does, just society conventions disagree with him.

Yes. Curb is actually, almost certainly without meaning to be, the real American version of One Foot In The Grave.

[The Culture Bunker]

Yes. Curb is actually, almost certainly without meaning to be, the real American version of One Foot In The Grave.

Makes some kind of sense, as Victor might be seen as too much of a "loser" for American TV exec tastes - as I remember, he's laid off in the first episode. Larry, despite everything, is still portrayed as being hugely successful and wealthy.

[thr0b]

Yep.

If you watch Cosby, that is the official American version of One Foot In The Grave, except if you removed every single element of the original show and then gave him the same wife he had in the Cosby Show, and filmed it on the same set as every sitcom and he has kids and it's crap.

[Menu]

Yep.

If you watch Cosby, that is the official American version of One Foot In The Grave, except if you removed every single element of the original show and then gave him the same wife he had in the Cosby Show, and filmed it on the same set as every sitcom and he has kids and it's crap.

....and Basil wasn't even in it!

[Rolf Lundgren]

I love the early series of Curb much more than the later ones. Larry loafing around LA in 40 minute episodes. It's all so leisurely and picks away delicately at the minutiae. The later ones seem more rushed and ham-fisted.

Seinfeld is an easier show to jump into and whistle through a few episodes but you need more patience for Curb. For me it's worth it but I know people who can't stand Curb and are more receptive to Seinfeld but rarely the other way around.

If you watch Cosby, that is the official American version of One Foot In The Grave, except if you removed every single element of the original show and then gave him the same wife he had in the Cosby Show, and filmed it on the same set as every sitcom and he has kids and it's crap.

I haven't watched it for years but remember it being pretty good but only because Cosby was in it. It's certainly not OFITG and never really attempted to go near it's surreal tone but as it's own show it was alright.

[thr0b]

That was the thing about Cosby; it was an okay American sitcom that was entirely unrelated to OFITG, to the extent that them buying the rights and saying it was based on OFITG was utterly pointless.

Hilton was a grumpy man. Victor was NOT a grumpy man.

[buttgammon]

I've always seen the affinity between Larry and Victor, in that more often than not, they're the victims of circumstance or simply bad luck. Yes, Larry does put his foot in it all the time but while similar things in Seinfeld often come from how weirdly amoral the characters can be, it's normally an innocent error on Larry's part. They've made him a little more insensitive over time - something similar seemed to happen to George too - but like Victor Meldrew, he's not a miserable misanthrope, he's just someone who encounters so much misfortune that it sometimes taints his outlook.

Without wanting to make this another One Foot in the Grave thread, I always thought Margaret was by far the more ill-tempered character, especially when she gets jealous.

[El Unicornio, mang]

That was the thing about Cosby; it was an okay American sitcom that was entirely unrelated to OFITG, to the extent that them buying the rights and saying it was based on OFITG was utterly pointless.

Hilton was a grumpy man. Victor was NOT a grumpy man.

I seem to recall they directly lifted a few specific scenes though, like the one where he accidentally roasts the tortoise (it was changed to a turtle for Cosby though)

CYE definitely reminds me of OFITG though, not just the character but the dovetailing storylines.

[poodlefaker]

Just want to say that The Yadda-Yadda has an internet joke in it. A joke about the internet, in 1997.  And it's  a good one, Jerry!

[sevendaughters]

watched the Frogger episode, somewhere near the end of S9. George is a total yell-caricature but in and among 20 minutes of exhausting acting he has a great, gentle, throwaway line, a nice aside showing George wanting to insert something irrelevant into a conversation

ELAINE: Guess what I ate.
GEORGE: An ostrich burger.
ELAINE: No. A $29,000 piece of cake. Peterman got it at The Duke Of Windsor auction. It was the most romantic thing I've ever eaten.
JERRY: How'd it taste?
ELAINE: A little stale.
JERRY: Yeah.
GEORGE (nudges Elaine with his elbow): So, uh are you sleeping with Peterman?
ELAINE (nudges George with her elbow): No. He doesn't know I ate it. In fact, he almost caught me. I have to sneak back in and even it out.
GEORGE: You know, they say ostrich has less fat, but you eat more of it.

[BeardFaceMan]

Just want to say that The Yadda-Yadda has an internet joke in it. A joke about the internet, in 1997.  And it's  a good one, Jerry!

Is that the one where George tries to sell Elaine a computer by telling her she can watch porn on it? Can't remember what ep that's from.

[buttgammon]

watched the Frogger episode, somewhere near the end of S9. George is a total yell-caricature but in and among 20 minutes of exhausting acting he has a great, gentle, throwaway line, a nice aside showing George wanting to insert something irrelevant into a conversation

ELAINE: Guess what I ate.
GEORGE: An ostrich burger.
ELAINE: No. A $29,000 piece of cake. Peterman got it at The Duke Of Windsor auction. It was the most romantic thing I've ever eaten.
JERRY: How'd it taste?
ELAINE: A little stale.
JERRY: Yeah.
GEORGE (nudges Elaine with his elbow): So, uh are you sleeping with Peterman?
ELAINE (nudges George with her elbow): No. He doesn't know I ate it. In fact, he almost caught me. I have to sneak back in and even it out.
GEORGE: You know, they say ostrich has less fat, but you eat more of it.

Saw this episode last week for the first time in year - I love the ostrich burger stuff. Even better,

Spoiler alert

he mentions ostrich burgers again in the next episode!

[close]

[Bernice]

Yeah they're pulling George in two directions at the same time in the last season - one is the overcooked yelling, the other is this odd, sort of out-of-it guy who cares very little about what's going on with people around him and comes out with these funny little nuggets of whatever random shit is bouncing round his head. Like his vendetta against musicians "with their complicated shoes" in The Burning.

Watched the finale for the first time last night. It really is shit.

[poodlefaker]

Is that the one where George tries to sell Elaine a computer by telling her she can watch porn on it? Can't remember what ep that's from.

Nah, it's just a throwaway line, but it made me laugh. And it's the Seinfeld episode with perhaps the best proper gag, too ("They DO have their own schools!")

[buttgammon]

Yeah they're pulling George in two directions at the same time in the last season - one is the overcooked yelling, the other is this odd, sort of out-of-it guy who cares very little about what's going on with people around him and comes out with these funny little nuggets of whatever random shit is bouncing round his head. Like his vendetta against musicians "with their complicated shoes" in The Burning.

Watched the finale for the first time last night. It really is shit.

I enjoy the way George becomes a valve for all sorts of mad ideas but dislike the screaming and shouting; to be fair, I suspect a lot of that is Jason Alexander taking things a step too far.

Watching the final episode for the first time in many years now. Wish me luck!

[EOLAN]

About midway through a rewatch, so I may watch the Finale soon. Want to see how it holds up with more focus as a middle of the run episode; rather than the ending.

[Bernice]

(Part of) The problem is you couldn't even pretend it was a middle of the run episode - it's so insistently about Seinfeld the show in a way that the rest of the run (eventhe meta s4 stuff) never was, it totally lacks the particular fast rhythm and dense plotting of a normal episode and about half of it is just a clip show. Garbage.

Quite like the last scene in the cell though.

[buttgammon]

It's as poor as I remembered. Slow, ambling and too much unnecessary exposition. The clips are really annoying because there are some not especially subtle callbacks (like Jackie saying "they're real and they're spectacular" as he leaves the courtroom with the woman from that episode) that work much better.

Also - and this is very petty - I was quite disappointed to find out Latham, Massachusetts isn't a real place. I was hoping there was a hidden joke somewhere in the choice of that particular backwater, but it seems like it's just a generic name attached to a state that would be on a flight path from New York to Paris.