Here are some differences though: i) You can jump in and watch any episode of Seinfeld and understand it without needing the context of the rest of the series. This is not the case with at least this season of Community.ii) The humour in Seinfeld does not generally rely on layered cultural references. You don't need to know a bunch of other things to get the jokes on Seinfeld. I often think that e.g. as much as I love "Abed's Uncontrollable Christmas", no one will find much of it funny in 20 years when Bjork, Tim Burton, and Lost are no longer current (or recent).
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Friday, 11 May 2012 05:27 (twelve years ago) link
My parents can get The Office but not 30 Rock or Community.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Friday, 11 May 2012 05:29 (twelve years ago) link
in fact, ppl forget this, the merchandising predated the show somewhat
Absolutely true. Just recently came across my Simpsons trading cards...which featured stills from the Ullman shorts.
― You Don't Throw Oranges On An Escalator (Deric W. Haircare), Friday, 11 May 2012 05:29 (twelve years ago) link
yeah community is weirder but i think in comparison to sunny, 30 rock, happy endings, himym it's not as far from the norm as seinfeld was in comparison to cheers, cosby, friends, raymond. i guess the main difference is community's weirdness frequently dominates the entire episode whereas w/ seinfeld it was usually just the kramer plot. still before troy and abed in the morning there was this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4SewgD0Vz0
― balls, Friday, 11 May 2012 05:30 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, as much as I love these serialized sitcoms, I don't know how NBC fails to realize that they also need some sitcoms that people can just dip in and out of. The investment necessary to really enjoy their current Thursday night crop is an awful lot to ask of the casual viewer.
― You Don't Throw Oranges On An Escalator (Deric W. Haircare), Friday, 11 May 2012 05:32 (twelve years ago) link
They can get Monty Python and Woody Allen btw so it's not just a 'weirdness' issue.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Friday, 11 May 2012 05:34 (twelve years ago) link
The humour in Seinfeld does not generally rely on layered cultural references
30 Rock's recent live show may be an extreme example of this.
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Friday, 11 May 2012 05:41 (twelve years ago) link
the show i'm holding my breath for renewal on is happy endings, which i like at least as much as community (tbh more this season)
otm
― da croupier, Friday, 11 May 2012 11:44 (twelve years ago) link
You guys are reading into and basing A LOT on a few largely speculative articles. I wouldn't be surprised if most of these ended up being given longer than 13 eps, there's nothing suggesting they likely won't*, NBC is just being cowardly and faffing around as is apparently usual.
*Except maybe for 30 Rock, which is something of a special case.
― Homosexual Satan Wasp (Matt DC), Friday, 11 May 2012 11:56 (twelve years ago) link
yeah tbh i wouldn't be surprised if NBC's slate of new fall comedies fails so immediately that they start ordering more episodes from the older shows.
― some dude, Friday, 11 May 2012 12:55 (twelve years ago) link
iirc those Butterfinger commercials had a hand in blowing Bart up--since they were pure Bart-being-badass snippets
― President Keyes, Friday, 11 May 2012 14:02 (twelve years ago) link
I think the days of a sitcom like Seinfeld finally finding its audience three seasons in are over.
― Fas Ro Duh (Gukbe), Friday, May 11, 2012 12:16 AM (9 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
This is the way major labels treat bands now too, sadly
― thommys got bendz (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, 11 May 2012 14:13 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, the days of a Laurie Anderson getting a seven-album deal with a Warner Bros. are pretty much over.
― You Don't Throw Oranges On An Escalator (Deric W. Haircare), Friday, 11 May 2012 14:24 (twelve years ago) link
From a business standpoint, it's often a sound decisions to order third and fourth and partial fifth seasons of a very middling, only moderately popular show /w cheap production costs (multicam, standing sets, low cost actors at launch) to get to the traditional 100 episode syndication watershed. Since a lot of shows run in the red until they're sold off/stripped/sent overseas, it's not that risky to expect that a long-running show w/ poor ratings to be given a final run of episodes that won't garner many viewers as 'new TV' but will position it for a longer cable or syndicated run.
― remy bean, Friday, 11 May 2012 14:25 (twelve years ago) link
yeah i don't know if america will ever get behind these shows in a major way, but shows that hit a niche are probably as likely to get a decent life somewhere on tv today (esp if the cougar town tbs shift works out) as they ever where.
― da croupier, Friday, 11 May 2012 14:27 (twelve years ago) link
i thought 30 Rock's overall ratings/cultural profile would raise after syndicated reruns started this past year, but if anything the opposite has happened.
― some dude, Friday, 11 May 2012 14:30 (twelve years ago) link
a thousand points to the first web journalist to find a kid raised on 30 rock reruns who had no idea NBC was a real network
― da croupier, Friday, 11 May 2012 14:35 (twelve years ago) link
lol
― some dude, Friday, 11 May 2012 14:36 (twelve years ago) link
― EveningStar (Sund4r), Friday, May 11, 2012 12:27 AM (11 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
OTM, at its base, seinfeld was about really primal human stuff - vanity, hate, boredom, pettiness, etc
tbh i sometimes see early 30 Rocks on syndication and some of the references are already starting to become incomprehensible
― Bandersnatch Cumberbund (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 11 May 2012 17:01 (twelve years ago) link
For all I know, Bjork and Tim Burton will be taught in schools 20 years from now
― da croupier, Friday, 11 May 2012 17:41 (twelve years ago) link
like, yeah, there are alienating elements to these shows that make them less likely to achieve Wings-like ratings, but if these shows age like SCTV...I'm fine with that.
― da croupier, Friday, 11 May 2012 17:43 (twelve years ago) link
wings was p dope overall
― Bandersnatch Cumberbund (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 11 May 2012 17:46 (twelve years ago) link
i didn't mean to suggest wings wasn't mad fresh
― da croupier, Friday, 11 May 2012 17:49 (twelve years ago) link
church
― Bandersnatch Cumberbund (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 11 May 2012 17:49 (twelve years ago) link
i) You can jump in and watch any episode of Seinfeld and understand it without needing the context of the rest of the series. This is not the case with at least this season of Community.
I think Community is off-putting for new viewers, (Seinfeld probably was too--taking several episodes for viewers to figure out who you were supposed to be rooting for: no one) but it's not really any more of a serial comedy than most other sitcoms--certainly not like Parks and Rec with its season-long story arcs. What do you really need to know about the Community mythos to enjoy that Law & Order parody? These characters are wacky?
― President Keyes, Friday, 11 May 2012 18:37 (twelve years ago) link
ooh a law and order parody i bet that was funney
― thommys got bendz (Whiney G. Weingarten), Friday, 11 May 2012 18:41 (twelve years ago) link
dear community,
your arms are too short to box with god.
http://www.emcblue.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/law-nd-order-svu.jpg
― Bandersnatch Cumberbund (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 11 May 2012 18:43 (twelve years ago) link
Parks renewed for 13 episodes and slated for the fall, so a back 9 isn't out of the question. Up All Night also renewed. Not so much with the overhaul, then.
― Fas Ro Duh (Gukbe), Friday, 11 May 2012 19:08 (twelve years ago) link
ughhhhh fuckin Up All Night
― some dude, Friday, 11 May 2012 19:12 (twelve years ago) link
ParkandRec has been renewed for 22 episodes, not 13!
Whitney also renewed.
― polyphonic, Friday, 11 May 2012 19:21 (twelve years ago) link
haha jesus christ
― some dude, Friday, 11 May 2012 19:22 (twelve years ago) link
Outsourced aside, pretty much all the new comedies NBC has canceled in the past 2 years are far more tolerable than the ones that have been renewed
― some dude, Friday, 11 May 2012 19:23 (twelve years ago) link
HAPPY ENDINGS will be back for a full season of 22 episodes.
― polyphonic, Friday, 11 May 2012 19:25 (twelve years ago) link
^^^Important news not to be slept on^^^^
― Fas Ro Duh (Gukbe), Friday, 11 May 2012 19:29 (twelve years ago) link
Yay for P&R, Up All Night and Happy Endings!
Hope that The Office really does go away, but it probably won't.
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 11 May 2012 19:43 (twelve years ago) link
Parks renewed for 13 episodes and slated for the fall
Good news for Schur's proposed arc to have Ben working in D.C. through the first week of November.
― Carrie Antwoord (jaymc), Friday, 11 May 2012 19:52 (twelve years ago) link
glad for 'up all night' even though i've never watched it tbqf, a friend of mine is on that show.
― omar little, Friday, 11 May 2012 19:58 (twelve years ago) link
more interested in watching 'parks and rec' or 'community' at some point.
― omar little, Friday, 11 May 2012 19:59 (twelve years ago) link
are you friends with the baby
― max, Friday, 11 May 2012 19:59 (twelve years ago) link
is the baby ur friend on up all night
Up All Night has the same general feel as Modern Family to me, except there are fewer characters to follow and it's (thank goodness) not shot documentary style.
I do not watch Modern Family regularly, though, so I don't have the same sort of attachment to any of its characters as I do Up All Night.
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 11 May 2012 20:00 (twelve years ago) link
hooray for everyone!
― Nhex, Friday, 11 May 2012 20:01 (twelve years ago) link
max otm
― omar little, Friday, 11 May 2012 20:03 (twelve years ago) link
Up All Night has the same general feel as Baby Blues comic strips to me
― some dude, Friday, 11 May 2012 20:03 (twelve years ago) link
lovin this tv analysis
― flopson, Friday, 11 May 2012 20:10 (twelve years ago) link
some dude, have you watched Up All Night at all since, say, December?
― Johnny Fever, Friday, 11 May 2012 20:15 (twelve years ago) link
Really glad Parks & Rec got the full pickup. It's the least niche-y of the ones I watch, and I feel like it could really catch on with more people if, like, more people would watch the fuckin' thing. Plus this last season was so good. So yay. Also yay to Happy Endings, which I only really caught on to shortly before the season ended, so I have some catching up to do.
― You Don't Throw Oranges On An Escalator (Deric W. Haircare), Friday, 11 May 2012 20:17 (twelve years ago) link
probably, but not much -- i made some effort to give it time to improve, but obv once it starts to feel like a conscious effort to 'keep up' it becomes kind of a lost cause to do so (xpost)
― some dude, Friday, 11 May 2012 20:18 (twelve years ago) link
so community is on for a fourth season reduced?
― flopson, Friday, 11 May 2012 20:22 (twelve years ago) link
yessssss, so glad parks and rec got the full 22!
― the minister of RAILWAYS (reddening), Friday, 11 May 2012 20:31 (twelve years ago) link