Better show Friends or Seinfeld?

[toobfreak]

Honestly, it is hard to imagine that this question would even be asked.
You could ask say... what is better Seinfeld or Cheers. That would at least be debatable.

Cheers would lose. While Seinfeld held its comedic quality maybe even getting better with each season, Cheers started out flaming hot with Diane, began fizzling with the Frazier romance, then really went downhill as they kept milking the show several more years with Kirstey Alley and her various predictable romances with rich guys who didn't want her and Sam.

One exception: The bald guy who took over the restaurant upstairs who used to drive Sam nuts, outsmart him at every turn and even bricked up his bathrooms.

Notable mention:

• The episode where a rich spy entered the bar and finally bought the place for a million dollars and they tore up the check.
• The episode where they took Frazier out snipe hunting.
• The episode where they got a fortune telling machine.
• The episode where everyone kept going down into the basement for a new keg during a power outage and kept disappearing.
• Any episode where Woody mentioned one of his relatives who died in a horrible freak accident.

 

[Natural Citizen]

My neighbor has one of these hangin in his baño.

First time I walked in there and saw it, it killed me. I laughed so hard I almost pissed myself. Caught me totally off-guard.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Cheers would lose. While Seinfeld held its comedic quality maybe even getting better with each season, Cheers started out flaming hot with Diane, began fizzling with the Frazier romance, then really went downhill as they kept milking the show several more years with Kirstey Alley and her various predictable romances with rich guys who didn't want her and Sam.

One exception: The bald guy who took over the restaurant upstairs who used to drive Sam nuts, outsmart him at every turn and even bricked up his bathrooms.

Notable mention:

• The episode where a rich spy entered the bar and finally bought the place for a million dollars and they tore up the check.
• The episode where they took Frazier out snipe hunting.
• The episode where they got a fortune telling machine.
• The episode where everyone kept going down into the basement for a new keg during a power outage and kept disappearing.
• Any episode where Woody mentioned one of his relatives who died in a horrible freak accident.

I would agree... similar to The Office.
The first season was actually not that good, to save the show they completely changed the character of Michael... and that changed everything. Buuut... the show started going downhill fast after about Season 3 maybe 4. Then two things happened... it became the "Jim and Pam" show. And then Carell left. A couple guest stars kept it afloat but making Andy the main character was a total failure.
My best memories of Cheers is the first seasons. I stopped watching it once Kirstey Alley came along. So when I think of Cheers that is what I think of

 

[rightwinger]

First of all I will openly admit, I never saw the talent of Jerry Seinfeld. His stand up is mediocre. His acting ability is average, and the scope of his comedy is pretty slim. A lot of the same schtick in different scenarios. Change the parameters... but it is still the same joke. (Not Seinfeld, I mean his stand up)

I agree
As a comedian, Seinfeld hasn’t aged well

Look at Everyone Loves Raymond and you can see how Ray Romanos standup moved directly to the show

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Friends never resounded with me. I tried several times, probably watched 7-8 episodes at least.
Just didn't find it that funny.

 

[rightwinger]

Friends never resounded with me. I tried several times, probably watched 7-8 episodes at least.
Just didn't find it that funny.

I have watched bits and pieces of Friends and it never really grabbed me.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

I agree
As a comedian, Seinfeld hasn’t aged well

Look at Everyone Loves Raymond and you can see how Ray Romanos standup moved directly to the show

For sure... he is the same guy. And many of his jokes made it into the show.
I saw an interview with Phil Rosenthall who immediately took to Ray the first time he saw his stand up. Literally thought to himself "this could be a show".

 

[BackAgain]

Actually, I think the comment was something like: "It's a dog-eat-dog world out there and I'm wearing Milk-Bone underwear!"

Over time the writers quit writing those Norm entrance jokes because it was so hard to come up with good lines, so started just already having Norm seated in the bar when things began!

Great writers.

Woody:
Hey, Mr. Peterson. What are you up to?

Norm:
My perfect weight — if I were seven feet 8 inches.

 

[BackAgain]

My neighbor has one of these hangin in his baño.

First time I walked in there and saw it, it killed me. I laughed so hard I almost pissed myself. Caught me totally off-guard.

He’s cancelled now. RIP.

 

[toobfreak]

I would agree... similar to The Office.

Never heard of it.

My best memories of Cheers is the first seasons. I stopped watching it once Kirstey Alley came along. So when I think of Cheers that is what I think of

Late Cheers had its moments, like Carla's haunted house, or the food fight at Thanksgiving. Someone still has the Cheers bar somewhere and I hope they find a place for it, but there just was no replacing the dynamic of Sam and Diane who milked a whole season resisting falling in love, while Sammy was hitting on hot babes every week.

As to Jerry Seinfeld, like I said, he was the backdrop for the show, he provided the medium for the episodic characters by which to bounce their comedy off of his rubber wall, and a lot of it was built on or supported by the chemistry he had with Elaine, so, all in all, the entire show was comedy magic.

• Like the episode where they found this sexy tape recording at Jerry's show and it turned out to be Elaine.
• Or the episode where they all took a bet to see who could hold out longest not to masturbate with a beautiful naked girl living across the street.
• Or the time everything failed for George so Jerry talked him into doing the opposite of everything and he became successful while Elaine became the loser, but it all worked out even-Steven for Jerry.
• And most any episode involving Kramer, Newman, or George's father Mr. Costanza.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

I gotta say it - I dislike Jerry Seinfeld so much that I made a thread about how he is the luckiest son-of-a-bitch in television history. Without Larry David - not one single person in this thread is likely to have ever heard of him. He rode David's coat tails to a sickening degree.
Larry David passionately hates attention. Hates accolades. Hates crowds. In general, he hates people. He wanted everyone to think and give Jerry the accolades. The whole reason he literally named the show after him. He let people believe that Seinfeld wrote a lot of the material etc. etc.
And Jerry Seinfeld was all over it. He basked in the limelight that was not his own. He took advantage of David's insecurities and hatred of attention. That is how he got the best deal in the history of television - still to this day. And he earned none of it. Larry David IS Seinfeld.

 

[BackAgain]

I gotta say it - I dislike Jerry Seinfeld so much that I made a thread about how he is the luckiest son-of-a-bitch in television history. Without Larry David - not one single person in this thread is likely to have ever heard of him. He rode David's coat tails to a sickening degree.
Larry David passionately hates attention. Hates accolades. Hates crowds. In general, he hates people. He wanted everyone to think and give Jerry the accolades. The whole reason he literally named the show after him. He let people believe that Seinfeld wrote a lot of the material etc. etc.
And Jerry Seinfeld was all over it. He basked in the limelight that was not his own. He took advantage of David's insecurities and hatred of attention. That is how he got the best deal in the history of television - still to this day. And he earned none of it. Larry David IS Seinfeld.

Larry David was a moving force for Seinfeld. But the humor is a clear reflection of the Seinfeld patter and delivery. Those two worked a little magic together.

And I don’t particularly like Larry David.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

Larry David was a moving force for Seinfeld. But the humor is a clear reflection of the Seinfeld patter and delivery. Those two worked a little magic together.

And I don’t particularly like Larry David.

??
You do know that numerous things that happened in Seinfeld were things that actually happened in LD's life? George Costanza is essentially Larry David. If you have ever seen David in interviews etc. It is like watching Costanza.

 

[toobfreak]

Larry David was a moving force for Seinfeld. But the humor is a clear reflection of the Seinfeld patter and delivery. Those two worked a little magic together. And I don’t particularly like Larry David.

Let's face it: Jerry by himself was not that funny. But neither was Elaine or George. Kramer was the physical comedy man. It was the CHEMISTRY between the four of them, their ability to play off of and support each other + brilliant writing and excellent supporting casts and guests that made the show so good.

Their chemistry was real so it made the situations seem real--- and believable.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Not even a contest

Mods, please close the thread right here

Thank you

 

[CrusaderFrank]

I’ve heard the George character was based on real life Larry David

There's a documentary on Manhattan Plaza which was built as artist housing and had some very famous people as resident including Larry David. The guy who inspired the Kramer character held a talent show for the residents there every Thursday, Larry never attended. During the interview for documentary Larry said that, you have to understand it was housing for artists and entertainers, some really talented people lived there. If they found out how bad I sucked, I'd be kicked out on the street!

 

[AMart]

You couldn't do either show today. There were no ongoing LGBT or Blacks characters as I recall. If you tried that today it would be racist, fascist, homophobic etc. Anything modern or hipsterish has to include the Marxist groups.

 

[The Duke]

A Festivus for the Rest of Us!

Jerry Stiller was the shit!

 

[iamwhatiseem]

There's a documentary on Manhattan Plaza which was built as artist housing and had some very famous people as resident including Larry David. The guy who inspired the Kramer character held a talent show for the residents there every Thursday, Larry never attended. During the interview for documentary Larry said that, you have to understand it was housing for artists and entertainers, some really talents people lived there. If they found out how bad I sucked, I'd be kicked out on the street!

Quintessential Larry David.
Despite decades of ENORMOUS success as a comedy writer, a net worth around a half $Billion.... responsible for launching careers of dozens of actors/writers - to this day - he still thinks he isn't talented. He IS George Costanza. Zero confidence, always thinks he is a failure, always looking to the negative and always thinking the worst is going to happen. And exactly why he isn't worth a $billion. He gave half his earnings to mainly Seinfeld, but some others because he made these deals thinking that is the only way he could talk anyone into doing something with him.

 

[Rocko]

A Festivus for the Rest of Us!

Jerry Stiller was the shit!

George’s dad was my favorite character