* The Seinfeld thread *

Postby kopphanatic » Sun Mar 22, 2009 15:40:21

TenuredVulture wrote:I don't think the problem with Cheers is its not aging well. I think the Kirstie Allie episodes are weak, and while Norm and Cliff and Sam and even Woody are still funny, without Diane, the show lost the zing that made it one of the best sit coms ever.

I always liked the later ones with Rebecca better. Maybe I havent seen enough of the early ones. The Simpsons has gotten unbearable in recent years. Anything past 1998-99 has been pretty bad.
You're the conductor Ruben. Time to blow the whistle!

kopphanatic
There's Our Old Friend
There's Our Old Friend
 
Posts: 3617
Joined: Mon Jul 14, 2008 20:51:34
Location: middle in

Postby FTN » Sun Mar 22, 2009 15:40:31

35-50 range

FTN
list sheriff
 
Posts: 47429
Joined: Thu Dec 28, 2006 18:42:28
Location: BE PEACE

Postby FTN » Sun Mar 22, 2009 16:38:03

yeah probably closer to the 50 side. I like it, but it doesn't blow me away

FTN
list sheriff
 
Posts: 47429
Joined: Thu Dec 28, 2006 18:42:28
Location: BE PEACE

Postby FTN » Sun Mar 22, 2009 23:18:13

"Are they war veterans?"

FTN
list sheriff
 
Posts: 47429
Joined: Thu Dec 28, 2006 18:42:28
Location: BE PEACE

Postby philliesphhan » Mon Mar 23, 2009 03:52:45

I'm watching my height. My doctor doesn't want me to get any taller.
"My hip is fucked up. I'm going to Africa for two weeks."

philliesphhan
Plays the Game the Right Way
Plays the Game the Right Way
 
Posts: 36348
Joined: Sun Jan 28, 2007 14:37:22
Location: the corner of 1st and 1st

Postby Wolfgang622 » Mon Mar 23, 2009 16:27:06

FTN wrote:The Chinese Restaurant has one of the best scenes ever though. When the girl calls for George and the host yells Cartwright. I could watch that scene on loop


Somehow, I believe this is one of the very few episodes I've never seen.
"I'm in a bar with the games sound turned off and that Cespedes home run still sounded like inevitability."

-swish

Wolfgang622
Plays the Game the Right Way
Plays the Game the Right Way
 
Posts: 28653
Joined: Sat Jan 06, 2007 23:11:51
Location: Baseball Heaven

Postby Wolfgang622 » Mon Mar 23, 2009 16:29:23

FTN wrote:its not in syndication because people complained.


I've seen it in syndication one time since it aired originally, so it is part of whatever they buy, but it gets run very sparingly indeed.
"I'm in a bar with the games sound turned off and that Cespedes home run still sounded like inevitability."

-swish

Wolfgang622
Plays the Game the Right Way
Plays the Game the Right Way
 
Posts: 28653
Joined: Sat Jan 06, 2007 23:11:51
Location: Baseball Heaven

Postby dajafi » Mon Mar 23, 2009 16:44:31

I'm probably the only person who thinks this, but IMO the last season of Seinfeld might have been the best. In addition to the ones Floppy mentioned (Festivus, Serenity Now) you've got

The Voice-- in which Kramer got an NYU student as an intern. This episode prompted a friend of mine to remark that it was scary how much better Seinfeld was than anything else on TV

The Betrayal (aka the Backwards Episode)

The Dealership -- featuring the candy lineup. THEY'RE ALL TWIX!!! IT WAS A SETUP!!!

The Wizard, in which Kramer runs for the presidency of Jerry's parents' development

The Frogger, in which George convenes a team of crooks and idiots to get a Frogger video game that represents his greatest lifetime achievement home from a failing pizzeria

All-time best, though, might be the marble rye episode and the one where Kramer is gambling at the airport with a Texan, and is bailed out by Newman showing up with Son of Sam's mailbag as collateral.

dajafi
Moderator / BSG MVP
Moderator / BSG MVP
 
Posts: 24567
Joined: Thu Dec 28, 2006 20:03:18
Location: Brooklyn

Postby Bakestar » Mon Mar 23, 2009 16:58:39

"The Wizard" is incredible and replicates itself annually during our condo board elections. There are hit pieces and pieces of smear journalism left all over the complex. Someone jumped in front of my car once to get me to sign a petition.
Foreskin stupid

Bakestar
BSG MVP
BSG MVP
 
Posts: 14709
Joined: Thu Dec 28, 2006 17:57:53
Location: Crane Jackson's Fountain Street Theatre

Postby Wolfgang622 » Mon Mar 23, 2009 17:03:25

TenuredVulture wrote:I don't think the problem with Cheers is its not aging well. I think the Kirstie Allie episodes are weak, and while Norm and Cliff and Sam and even Woody are still funny, without Diane, the show lost the zing that made it one of the best sit coms ever. So, those episodes no longer seem all that funny.


Cheers is the only American television show of which I own the complete run (I also have Fawlty Towers and I gave my wife Monty Python's Flying Circus), and is likely ot be the only show I will ever own in its entirety. Definitely my pick for greatest television show of all time.

The thing about Cheers is that, due to cast changes during its run and the period over which it was originally filmed (the early 1980s through to a post-Seinfeld world of 1993), the show is a transition show. The first five seasons have episoides featuring Larry David's despised "hugs and lessons", especially during the Coach years: Sam learns not to be bigoted toward homosexuals in a first season episode, we learn the true meaning of beauty from the relationship between Coach and his daughter, we see the true meaning of friendship when Norm is forced to tell Cliff that Carla's "sweet sister" isn't the girl Cliff thinks she is, etc. The moments don't come as often as they might in a more melodramatically written show, perhaps (such as All in the Family or even TenuredVulture's beloved Taxi), but they are there: during the first five seasons, Cheers is an expertly executed 70s/80s style sitcom.

After Nicholas Colastano passed away, the show made a move in the direction it would take more definitively later by bringing on Woody Harrelson, who played essentially the same character but absent much of the pathos that often defined "Coach episodes," but the real break comes when Diane leaves. I think, to the eternal credit of the creators of the show, the writers took the opportunity to reinvent Cheers; until it came time to wrap up the show with a final season, for the most part, any pretense that anything these people do really matters, or that they should be pitied by the audience, is abandoned. It essentially became a proto-Seinfeld in this sense; very rarely is the audience asked to do anything rather than laugh at, and not with, the characters. The show is then free to put characters in increasingly embarassing situations, without fear of losing the audience: the things that Rebecca and Cliff go through, for example, would be impossible for an audience who truly liked those characters to endure. But, for the most part, these episodes work, and there are many worthy classics among them: almost all the episodes involving Robin Colcord are among the show's best, as are shows featuring Frasier and Lilith. The episodes at the end of the season ten, centering around the unseen nuptials of Woody and Kelly, are very fine examples of how the later ensemble works together.

By the end, the show was, granted, losing a little steam (but two of my top-10 Cheers episodes date from this season: the last, and a very funny episode titled "Sunday Dinner"), and the humor was not helped by two decisions evident in the writing: one, to virtually retire the notion that Sam Malone (played by a Ted Danson who seems to have aged hard between the end of season 10 and the opening of season 11, partly because they've allowed his hair to go a lot lighter in color) is a relentless "babe hound" and two, to try to reintroduce some of the pathos the show had more or less dropped for the previous five seasons. The problem was, with almost no fresh material left to cover and with an important plot point closed off to the writers (Sam's sexual prowess), the pathos is too often only lightly accompanied (if at all) by hard-edged humor, and so the show can become more maudalin than funny at times. It is telling that in the final season, a third go-nowhere pathetic barfly (Paul), who had been one of the many extras given occasional lines ever present in the bar since the show began, suddenly develops a bigger role, as a sort of comic relief from the rest of the characters.

That said, the final season isn't terrible; there are some memorable episodes and the strength of the characters the writers have drawn over several years plus the nostalgia that was present throughout the show's final season carry it through to an ending that was one of the best-executed in television history, and provides a nice link between the two distinct phases of Cheers.
"I'm in a bar with the games sound turned off and that Cespedes home run still sounded like inevitability."

-swish

Wolfgang622
Plays the Game the Right Way
Plays the Game the Right Way
 
Posts: 28653
Joined: Sat Jan 06, 2007 23:11:51
Location: Baseball Heaven

Postby FTN » Mon Mar 23, 2009 17:08:27

Season 9 is so hit or miss. Lots of gems, lots of average shows.

Season 7 is the strongest for me, then 4 & 5

FTN
list sheriff
 
Posts: 47429
Joined: Thu Dec 28, 2006 18:42:28
Location: BE PEACE

Postby philliesphhan » Mon Mar 23, 2009 17:28:28

dajafi wrote:
The Voice-- in which Kramer got an NYU student as an intern. This episode prompted a friend of mine to remark that it was scary how much better Seinfeld was than anything else on TV


This little speech by Kramer gets me every time

You know Darren, if you would have told me twenty-five years ago that some day I’d be standing here about to solve the worlds energy problems, I would’ve said you’re crazy… Now let’s push this giant ball of oil out the window.
"My hip is fucked up. I'm going to Africa for two weeks."

philliesphhan
Plays the Game the Right Way
Plays the Game the Right Way
 
Posts: 36348
Joined: Sun Jan 28, 2007 14:37:22
Location: the corner of 1st and 1st

Postby stevelxa476 » Mon Mar 23, 2009 17:50:21

What about Ketchup and Mustard in the same bottle?
Yes son. I'm the best mono-thingy guy there ever was.

stevelxa476
Dropped Anchor
Dropped Anchor
 
Posts: 8234
Joined: Tue Jan 02, 2007 10:32:37
Location: The Legit Republic of Blanketsburg

Postby FTN » Mon Mar 23, 2009 18:58:45

My fav part of that episode is where they are at the coffee shop, and jerry comes back to the table while darren is informing kramer what he missed. and he mentions george using jerry's water to freshen up. the look on george's face is priceless.

FTN
list sheriff
 
Posts: 47429
Joined: Thu Dec 28, 2006 18:42:28
Location: BE PEACE

Postby Wolfgang622 » Mon Mar 23, 2009 19:44:05

mozartpc27 wrote:
FTN wrote:The Chinese Restaurant has one of the best scenes ever though. When the girl calls for George and the host yells Cartwright. I could watch that scene on loop


Somehow, I believe this is one of the very few episodes I've never seen.


Lo and behold, this episode is airing right now on TBS. Missed the first few minutes, but finally getting to see it.
"I'm in a bar with the games sound turned off and that Cespedes home run still sounded like inevitability."

-swish

Wolfgang622
Plays the Game the Right Way
Plays the Game the Right Way
 
Posts: 28653
Joined: Sat Jan 06, 2007 23:11:51
Location: Baseball Heaven

Postby stevelxa476 » Mon Mar 23, 2009 20:00:17

mozartpc27 wrote:
mozartpc27 wrote:
FTN wrote:The Chinese Restaurant has one of the best scenes ever though. When the girl calls for George and the host yells Cartwright. I could watch that scene on loop


Somehow, I believe this is one of the very few episodes I've never seen.


Lo and behold, this episode is airing right now on TBS. Missed the first few minutes, but finally getting to see it.


She yell curse word. I hang up.
Yes son. I'm the best mono-thingy guy there ever was.

stevelxa476
Dropped Anchor
Dropped Anchor
 
Posts: 8234
Joined: Tue Jan 02, 2007 10:32:37
Location: The Legit Republic of Blanketsburg

Postby FTN » Mon Mar 23, 2009 20:01:17

but you're not cartwright.....








OF COURSE IM NOT CARTWRIGHT!!!

FTN
list sheriff
 
Posts: 47429
Joined: Thu Dec 28, 2006 18:42:28
Location: BE PEACE

Postby TomatoPie » Mon Mar 23, 2009 22:00:30

mozartpc27 wrote:
mozartpc27 wrote:
FTN wrote:The Chinese Restaurant has one of the best scenes ever though. When the girl calls for George and the host yells Cartwright. I could watch that scene on loop


Somehow, I believe this is one of the very few episodes I've never seen.


Lo and behold, this episode is airing right now on TBS. Missed the first few minutes, but finally getting to see it.


I watch SF reruns all the time and that may be the one I've seen most often.

TomatoPie
Dropped Anchor
Dropped Anchor
 
Posts: 5184
Joined: Sat Mar 24, 2007 22:18:10
Location: Delaware Valley

Postby TomatoPie » Mon Mar 23, 2009 22:00:58

Worst episode: the one in which they wander around a parking garage for 30 minutes.

TomatoPie
Dropped Anchor
Dropped Anchor
 
Posts: 5184
Joined: Sat Mar 24, 2007 22:18:10
Location: Delaware Valley

Postby TheDude24 » Tue Mar 24, 2009 10:31:59

TomatoPie wrote:Worst episode: the one in which they wander around a parking garage for 30 minutes.


I liked episodes like that one, when it was more a show about nothing, when it was more like real life. Like "The Subway", "The Movie", or "The Heart Attack", or even "The Contest".

TheDude24
There's Our Old Friend
There's Our Old Friend
 
Posts: 2786
Joined: Wed Jan 03, 2007 01:54:08
Location: Media, PA

PreviousNext