Posted on 09/20/2014 8:47:19 PM PDT by JennysCool
Thanks Leaning Right.
Not having followed the show, I wouldn’t have picked up on that.
...but all night, every night involves fishnet stockings, a black leather bustier, a riding crop, and handcuffs... so it all balances out in the end.
I don’t watch anything in first run! One more reason to not buy a fancy new TV. Because I only watch old shows!
The Middle is still current - I think it is just reruns you are seeing on another channel. Good show, cute characters
I liked Seinfeld’s stand up. He was a master of the observational comedy, and it wasn’t that popular when he hit the circuits. Seinfeld basically blazed the trail for observational comedians.
But the genius of his show, and it was a genius conceit, was that while he actually played a comedian on the series, he was the straight man. The comedian wasn’t the funny one.
That’s brilliant.
George, Elaine, and Kramer were the ones that most often ended up in outrageous situations, with a very calm Jerry just making observations. Like his stand up.
It was a clever show that got more clever the more you watched it. Almost impossible to duplicate.
another good but short run show was Outsourced. the liberal pc crowd apparently complained about it and it was cancelled. it was a pretty good show. you can get it on amazon for a real good price.
your post reminded me about Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia. to me that’s like if the Seinfeld cast were meaner to each other, really mean to everyone else, and a bit more stupid.
Those are fair comments. I can only say what my take on the show was.
I am also reminded how low the ratings are on some of those HBO shows too.
They make a real big deal about how well acclaimed some of them are and then you find out how many people were actually watching them.
It isn’t always as big a number as you might think.
In Vaudeville through the 50s, I would agree. But by the time the late-70s rolled around, we had Steve Martin, Robin Williams, and Richard Pryor running the stand-up world. Loud, fast, and brash. That was what sold tickets, that was what worked on television and that was the future of stand-up.
Until it wasn’t.
Richard Belzer, Gary Shandling, and Jerry Seinfeld were the only observational stand-ups that I can recall in the early-80s. (Love Stephen Wright, but he was more a dead-pan schtick.)
Jerry, though, made observational blossom. Others picked up and modified it. People like Denis Leary and Sam Kinison made observational comedy abrasive and dangerous. Ray Romano took it toward an examination of family. Jeff Foxworthy examines redneck culture.
Yes, Jerry owes a lot to the guys working the clubs in the Catskills, but modern observational comics owe a lot to Seinfeld.
The characters in Seinfeld were IMO pompous jerks — people I would never want to meet in real life. Now a number of comedies have at least one obnoxious character, but good writing and acting can make you care about them. One of my old favorites is Frasier. The title character is a snob, but he was drawn in such a way that he was likable. It also helped to have as a counterbalance the character of Frasier's father, a former police detective and a beer drinking poker playing everyman. The ensemble cast worked well together and the characters were well defined.
I really can't watch the newer comedies. I tried watching the latest favorite, Modern Family, and found it painfully unfunny. The only gimmick that show has going for it is the gay “couple.” But a gimmick doesn't make good comedy. A comedy had to be funny and Modern Family isn't funny.
I liked Frazier too. In fact I once in a while call it up on Hulu and watch an episode.
Would you really want to meet a Nils or Dr Crane though? Good grief, both of them would have me wanting to strangle them in under one minute. The dad can drive you bonkers too, if you take it too seriously.
The same thing for the Seinfeld characters. I still found them funny, because we all know people just like them.
Besides, the situations were actually the stars of that program. Each situation was something I could easily identify with, because I had seen so many of them in my life at some point.
No, Modern Family has an agenda. That agenda is more important than the entertainment to the cast. I won’t play along with that.
The Left can pull their shenanigans all they want. And if the advertisers don’t want my money, they’ll let them get away with it.
It doesn’t glorify the drug trade or drug users in any way. And the writing is just fantastic.
Ditto that!
I refuse to watch even a trailor as the message of homosexuality lifestyle is not just OK, it is to be celebrated. Absolutely disgusting!
Sad...since Julie Bowen has been totally hot in a "girl-next-door" kinda way since I first saw her in "Happy Gilmore".
I agree with your comments.
I like Julie too.
She was on a show called “Ed” before “Happy Gilmore.”
It was actually a pretty good little sitcom for about two seasons. If you can find it on something like Hulu or Netflix, you might enjoy it.
She was real innocent on that show, and I liked it quite a bit at the time. It had some quirky players, lots of fun.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0247091/
Niles mellowed somewhat when he and Daphne finally got together. And Frasier lost some of his pomposity when he finally found the love of his life. These were signals that the show was coming to an end. Without that snobbery, the show wouldn't last much longer.
By the way, a little trivia: John Mahoney, who played the father, is in real life a gourmet and wine connoisseur. David Hyde Pierce (Niles) went to Mahoney for advice on fine wine as part of developing the Niles character.
I ran into John Larroquette at the Grove Park Inn in 1994. A time he was at the top of his game.
Went up to him to tell him how much I admired his work.
He blew me off.
Never watched anything he was in again.
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