Seinfeld Reference: The Complete Encyclopedia (5 page)

Based on its Thursday night success, "Seinfeld" returned to Wednesday night where the pilot originally premiered.  However, after an 18-month absence, Wednesday night lacked conquering programs that could whisk wind into the "Seinfeld" sails.  When the pilot originally aired, it relied upon a solid night of programming to receive judicious ratings--"Growing Pains" (12th), "Hunter" (16th) and "Night Court" (21st).  In the course of just 18 months, both sitcoms hovered around 30th, and "Hunter" plummeted to 50th place.

The inflated Thursday ratings were unjustified because "Seinfeld" laid an egg--ratings commenced at 42nd and slowly dwindled to 59th, while viewership dropped to 13.6 million.  After four floundering episodes, "Seinfeld" was switched to Thursday night and immediately spiraled to 9th place.  The show remained a top-20 hit and averaged 22 million viewers.  Ironically, when the season finale was aired on Wednesday night--in anticipation of continuing the success--it plunged to 44th place.

When "Seinfeld" returned in the fall for its first full season and 23 original episodes, it rejoined the Wednesday night lineup.  NBC's powerhouse was the top-15 drama "Unsolved Mysteries," but the remaining shows hovered in the mid-forties.  History repeated itself as "Seinfeld" returned to mediocrity.  The entire season saw ratings drop to the mid-forties with viewership descending 25% to 16.5 million.

In the few times that "Seinfeld" cracked the top-30, credit belonged to a successful lead-in show that garnered ratings in the top-15.  By season's end, "Seinfeld" was ranked 36th with only an average ratings percentage and market share.

Thursday Night Savior.
At the start of the 1992 television season, ABC switched "Home Improvement" in direct competition against "Seinfeld" to bolster its frail Wednesday night programming.  In response, NBC heavily promoted "Seinfeld" during the Olympics, and premiered two new August episodes to accentuate the show and increase audience exposure.  The advertising ploy worked, and the "Seinfeld" episodes cracked the top-20 in ratings.  During the regular season, however, "Seinfeld" was resoundingly defeated by the family-oriented sitcom.

The future of "Seinfeld" indelibly changed when it was permanently moved to Thursday night.  On February 4, 1993 the show about nothing became a legitimate top-10 program, but this time it earned the ratings.  Even though "Seinfeld" followed "Cheers," by 1993 it was able to sustain an audience, unlike the eight million viewers that were lost in 1991.  The show built a permanent, loyal audience, and never looked back.

In anticipation of the upcoming 1993-94 television season, "Seinfeld" made a publicity assault to gain public exposure and promote the show.  Despite seizing the best time slot in television--the one vacated by "Cheers"--the "Seinfeld" creators authorized a line of greeting cards, plastered images of the cast on boxes of Kellogg's low-fat granola, and Jerry Seinfeld released a book,
SeinLanguage
.

When "Cheers" retired later that year, the next four seasons belonged to "Seinfeld," which remained the second-highest ranked television program.  The last two years it was the highest-rated sitcom, and as the 1997-98 season winds down, "Seinfeld" is assured the top spot for the third year in a row.  Moreover, it is likely to have one of the highest-rated series finales in television programming history.

Despite the overwhelming success of "Seinfeld," the series was not immune to cultural criticism.  The typical "Seinfeld" viewer was 18-34 years old, Caucasian, an Easterner, and earning over $50,000.  In various polls, Americans considered the popular sitcom the funniest program on television, and unequivocally selected Kramer as their favorite character.  In contrast, the top-rating sitcom series always lagged in the ratings among elderly and minorities--ranked 68th among Afro-American viewing audience.  Inevitably, the creators were criticized for failing to incorporate minority lead roles or greater cultural diversity into the show.  In their defense, Seinfeld and David have steadfastly maintained that the show was about comedy, not appeasing the masses.

Ratings - The Final Episode

Initial projections had the "Seinfeld" series finale eclipsing "M*A*S*H" as the all-time highest-rated program, but realists anticipated a comparable showing to the "Cheers" finale in 1993.  With the fragmentation of society and the prolific availability of cable networks and satellite transmissions, television audiences have unlimited viewing options.  It is no longer the big three networks; instead, there are literally hundreds of television signals and cable networks.

When the "M*A*S*H" finale garnered a 60.2 rating (percent of television households watching the program) only 37 percent of the homes had cable television, as opposed to 73 percent today.  In addition, personal computers, Internet surfing, and home video games have minimized the use of household televisions.  Thus, when the final numbers were somewhat depressed, it was not too surprising.

The finale concluded with a 41.3 rating, 58 share (percentage of television sets in use), and 76.3 million viewers (though an additional 10 million viewers were projected as watching the show at parties, taverns, campuses, hotels, hospitals and military bases).  This is over triple the average "Seinfeld" audience of 24.4 million (when calculated over the course of its nine-year run).  However, it dwarfs in comparison to "M*A*S*H" with 121.6 million viewers, and "Cheers" with 93.1 million.

Preceding the finale was a 45-minute retrospective of memorable moments over nine seasons.  Although the clips were excellent cerebral stimulants of past jocularity, the outtakes provided the most enjoyment for "Seinfeld" fanatics.  It also offered a unique perspective on the actors as human and fallible, and effectively illustrated the riotous and heartwarming times they had during rehearsals.  The ratings were satisfactory, with 58.5 million viewers, and it remained the second-highest rated program.

Less than a week later NBC aired an encore presentation to end sweeps week with a bang.  Unfortunately, the "Seinfeld" finale stunned media experts by finishing fourth out of five programs, and only holding the attention of 8.5 million viewers.  It was ranked 55th out of 102 programs.  Although most series finales have depressed ratings for the repeat episode, the "Seinfeld" numbers were significantly less than expected.

Impact on Television

The success of "Seinfeld" had a significant impact on other television shows, namely inflated ratings for mediocre sitcoms.  Similar to "Seinfeld" becoming a mega-hit on NBC's Thursday night Must-See TV, most of the programs in the adjacent time slot received a significant spillover audience.  However, when relocated to another night of programming, very few shows could sustain viewership.

The illustrations are endless.  The most successful follow-up show was "The Single Guy," which lasted two years in the top-10 but was canceled because it could not sustain a high percentage of "Seinfeld" viewers.  "3rd Rock From the Sun" became a hit on Thursday night, temporarily carried an audience to Sunday, but failed to maintain viewership on Wednesday night when competing against "The Drew Carey Show."

Moreover, most of NBC Monday night was a product of inflated Thursday night ratings.  "Suddenly Susan," "Fired Up," and "The Naked Truth" were all products of Thursday night hoopla.  The only sitcoms that sustained audience interest were of genuine quality, such as "Frasier" and "Caroline in the City."

Furthermore, after "Seinfeld" became an overwhelming success, the series became a model sitcom for other sitcoms to emulate and replicate.  The mid-1990s spawned numerous "Seinfeld" clones, such as "Friends," "Mad About You," "Caroline in the City," "Ellen," and "The Single Guy."  Every network, including NBC, was jumping on the bandwagon to produce another sitcom with similar characteristics and ratings success.

Distinctive Attributes

The show's motto "no hugging, no learning" epitomizes the nature of the scripts--no sentimentality, no public interest propaganda, no veneration to political correctness, and no life-affirming lessons.  In fact, unlike most long-running sitcoms, the "Seinfeld" characters never grew, never evolved, and never matured.  "Cheers" had Sam Malone confronting his sexual compulsiveness; "Mad About You" had the birth of a child; "Home Improvement" had Tim Taylor experiencing a mid-life crisis; "The Cosby Show" and "Family Ties" had the children growing up and entering college.

However, "Seinfeld" boldly wrote episodes by thinking “outside the box” of sitcom conventionality. This was especially true with their characters. The "Seinfeld" motto also meant the writers had
carte blanche
in character development. The number one rule of sitcoms is character likeability and identifiability. Somehow the writers created likeable characters who did despicable things (dognapping, public urination) or unmentionable acts (masturbation, assessing whether a man is spongeworthy). Jerry even proclaims, “Just let me finish my coffee, then we’ll watch ‘em go slice this fat bastard up [referring to Elaine’s obese ex-boyfriend].” The characters were able to say the things we were thinking (well, some of us), yet at all times they remain appealing and likeable. This was a rare amalgamation of perfect writing, acting, and delivery. Few sitcoms had success walking this fine line, though the most notable was “Married ... With Children.”

"Seinfeld" became the only series that could tackle the most sensitive, private, and politically-correct issues, yet remain immune from criticism, shock and dismay.  The writers ventured into nearly every sexual arena--masturbation, cunnilingus, orgasms, ménage à trois, homosexuality, lesbianism, casual sex--and the unspeakable private topics--constipation, flatulence, public urination, nose picking, birth control, body odor, and restroom hygiene.  They even ventured into taboo subjects, such as the physically and mentally disadvantaged, infants, elderly, deaf, blind, religious, and Nazis.  Despite stepping on many toes, the one episode that generated the most public uproar was "The Engagement" where Elaine, Kramer and Newman plot to abduct a dog.

Although the writers tackled controversial subjects without offending, they made a conscious effort to respect individual groups and knew where to draw the line.  For instance, after repeated efforts to create an episode where Elaine misses her stop and inadvertently takes the subway into Harlem, any mention of addressing or allaying her fears seemed too racist.

The conscientious agenda seemed to work until the second to last episode, "The Puerto Rican Day," where Kramer accidentally burns the Puerto Rican flag with a sparkler and then stomps on it to extinguish the flame.  Members of the community took offense, and despite only 80 protestors, Castle Rock Entertainment issued a written apology and agreed not to repeat the episode (though syndicated transmission may be exempt).

This marked the first time that the show's producers succumbed to external pressure.  Ironically, it became the second-highest rated episodic program in "Seinfeld" history, second only to the series finale.  Regrettably, after a history of snubbing convention and highlighting the idiocy of human intolerance, the producers' spineless retreat epitomizes its concern for positive publicity and financial success, rather than a commitment to artistic integrity, as the series cruised into the over-hyped series finale.

Despite tackling sensitive issues, the controversial aspect always seemed to get lost in the humor of the situation.  The seasoning of hysterics allays the offensiveness of the content.  NBC and Castle Rock had to approve all scripts, but the writing was so masterful that it artfully addressed these topics without making audiences feel uncomfortable.  It is the art of euphemism--never mentioning masturbation ("The Contest")--or flagrant promotion--mentioning orgasm 13 times ("The Mango").

With its directorial efforts and abundant scenes, "Seinfeld" revolutionized the sitcom form that had remained intact since its inception.  The series has 20-25 scenes per 22-minute episode, compared to other shows that typically have 7-10 scenes.  This is highly irregular because it is time consuming for everyone involved to create additional sets, and create new locations.  Few thought it could be done on anything but a telefilm or big-production movie, but "Seinfeld" proved everyone wrong.

NBC Censors

Considering the creators' willingness to delve into uncharted waters, NBC was constantly concerned about the show's sexual content and politically-incorrect scripts.  However, the creators, especially Larry David, fought for their artistic integrity and authorial independence.  In fact, David hoped that NBC censors would object, primarily to the masturbation episode ("The Contest"), so he could quit.  They used subtlety to convey the message.  In the episode, George discussed how his mother caught him.

George: “My mother caught me.”

Jerry: “Caught you? Doing what?”

George: “You know. I was alone”

Elaine: “You mean?!”

George: “Uh-huh”

Kramer: “She caught you?”

Jerry: “Where?”

George: “I stopped by the house to drop off car off, and I went inside for a few minutes. Nobody was there. They were supposed to be working! My mother had  a Glamour magazine. I started leafing through it.”

Jerry: “Glamour?

George: “So, one thing led to another.”

But once executives realized that the "M" word was never used, they acquiesced, and only received a few complaints from the general viewing public.

Although NBC never quelled any plot lines, they frequently called upon the creators to compromise certain points.  For example, NBC stepped in when the creators wanted to use the word “penis” in an episode. NBC did not want the term mentioned, so the creators substituted the word “IT” to get the point across (“he pulled ‘IT’ out” or proclaiming, “‘IT’ moved”). Then "Seinfeld" raised ire by having an episode accidentally “outing” a heterosexual. Although accepted today, homosexuality was taboo on television, but writer Larry Charles tactfully handled the matter by consistently and frequently adding the tag line “not that there is anything wrong with that” whenever there was an expression of outrage when accused of being homosexual. It turned offensive derision into acceptable satire. In fact, the episode won a GLAAD/LA Media award from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation for the positive portrayal of homosexuals.