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[Seinfeld]

Seinfeld was never really big over here (UK) from what I remember, wheres Friends was HUGE. From what I've seen of Seinfeld the characters are incredibly irritating wheres in Friends they really balance each other out. Don't think they would be as lovable if they were all like Monica or all like Ross etc but the mix just works really well.

As I said in a previous post on Seinfeld’s lack of success in the UK...

I've heard people say Seinfeld is too "American" or it's too "Jewish", and they're such lazy assumptions!

It's no more American than say Friends, Cheers, Frasier, Roseanne, Will & Grace or any other American sitcom for that matter. Poor scheduling by the BBC was the main reason why it never really took off in the UK. Seinfeld did have success in other countries like Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Israel.

I'm convinced Seinfeld would have been very popular here if it was aired on Channel 4 and was given a good time slot like all the other big American sitcoms had in the '90s.

And this is how Bal described the genius of Seinfeld...

You could do worse than it! It's very eccentric and absurd at times and the concept is 'mundane everyday events turned up to the extreme/on their head' but it's hilarious and witty and very smart with its humour. It also lends itself to a fair few ideas that appear in Friends.

Not the most loveable of casts but that's the point! They are everymen, people next door; flawed, useless, deranged at times - VERY relatable.

A wittier, more eccentric and 'alternate' Friends.

what is a seinfeld?

Seinfeld is an American live-action sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld for NBC. The show stars Seinfeld as a fictionalized version of himself, and mostly focuses on his personal life with a handful of friends and acquaintances, including best friend George Costanza (Jason Alexander), friend and former girlfriend Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), and neighbor across the hall Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards). Seinfeld is set predominantly in an apartment building in Manhattan's Upper West Side in New York City. It is often described as being "a show about nothing", as many of its episodes are about the minutiae of daily life.

Seinfeld was produced by West-Shapiro Productions and Castle Rock Entertainment and ran from 1989 to 1998. In syndication, the series is distributed by Sony Pictures Television. It was largely written by David and Seinfeld with script writers who included Larry Charles, Peter Mehlman, Gregg Kavet, Carol Leifer, David Mandel, Jeff Schaffer, Steve Koren, Jennifer Crittenden, Tom Gammill, Max Pross, Dan O'Keefe, Charlie Rubin, Marjorie Gross, Alec Berg, Elaine Pope, and Spike Feresten. A favorite among critics, the series led the Nielsen ratings in seasons six and nine, and finished among the top two (with NBC's ER) every year from 1994 to 1998.

Seinfeld is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential sitcoms of all time. It has been ranked among the best television shows of all time in publications such as Entertainment Weekly, Rolling Stone, and TV Guide. The show's most renowned episodes include "The Chinese Restaurant", "The Parking Garage", and "The Contest". In 2013, the Writers Guild of America voted it the No. 2 Best Written TV Series of All Time (second to The Sopranos). E! named the series the "Number 1 reason the '90s ruled", and quotes from numerous episodes have become catchphrases in popular culture.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seinfeld