The other day I was mentally compiling some of my favorite Seinfeld episodes and realized how many were in the last two seasons, which were after Larry David left. I love LD, his sense of humor, Curb Your Enthusiasm, etc, but I think the show continued to get better after he left. This isn't a negative reflection on Larry, just positive on Jerry I think.

Some of the highlights of seasons 8 and 9: The Voice, Serenity Now, Merv Griffin Show, Reverse Peephole, Frogger, Little Kicks, Chicken Roaster, Van Buren Boys, The Susie (my personal fav), Yada Yada, Muffin Tops, Summer of George.

Those are all classics. So what say you Entertainment Board?

I remember almost hating most of those episodes when they originally aired, they are better after watching them again but still none rank in my top 10. I think part of it was that we knew the end was coming and we wanted so much from each episode because there were only so many left. Most people I have met that prefer the later episodes never watched it live, so there may be something to it.

Huge Seinfeld fan. Seen every episode probably no less than 50 times a piece, and that's being extremely conservative as I usually have Seinfeld on the DVR as my go to sleep show.

A couple things to remember: The base team was still in place after Larry left. So while him leaving was big time, the writers and actors and production team, etc. was all in-tact. By that point, they had become a well-oiled machine.

Also, those same writers like Alec Berg were pushing ideas all the time before LD left that may not have made it to the screen. So a lot of what you saw grew from the same organic layout after LD than before.

That being said, the show did make a fundamental change. David was notorious for wanting the show about nothing, and not creating episodes based around gimmicks or ploys, but to start it out as days in the life, relate it to real-life experiences that are curious, funny, frustrating, etc., and fill in the story around that. Once he left, they really took on some broader concepts and tried to fill the real-life experiences and days in the life around the concept.

I really love almost all of the episodes in the final 2 seasons, but they do have a different feel, and now-a-days I find myself watching some of them and clearly seeing them trying too hard to deliver certain ideas and jokes or one-liners. It was fantastic, but didn't quite feel as natural as the LD years.

Now, there are those who totally love so many of the more outlandish episodes like Little Kicks, Chicken Roaster, etc., and could not stand the Parking Garage or the Chinese Restaurant. I can sort of understand that if only because it's a different type of set-up for many of the jokes.

But for me, while I love them all, episodes like the Chinese Restaurant are the ones that I truly see brilliance in. Chicken Roaster, Merv Griffin, the Butter Shave...I see hilarity, but not brilliance.

You left out Butter Shave.

That is an impressive list, but here are some with David: library cop, parking garage, pez, cheever letters, the contest, not that there's anything wrong with that, they're real and spectacular, junior mint, puffy shirt, lip reader, marine biologist, opposite george, jimmy, soup nazi, calzone, etc.

In general, I think the show got better each season. But season 8 was probably the best.

EDIT: How could I leave off shrinkage?

I cannot tell you how many Fantasy Sport Teams I have nicknamed "The Van Buren Boys" in the last 15 years.

I was umpiring a Little League game about a month ago in Houston for West U and Ken Hoffman was there (Houston Chronicle columnist and huge Seinfeld fan) and he had a custom made black/green baseball jersey with Van Buren Boys across the front. It was incredible.

Thats a great breakdown Bunk... I agree the last two seasons are "jokier" but I think there are fewer forgetable/dud episodes.

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Huge Seinfeld fan. Seen every episode probably no less than 50 times a piece, and that's being extremely conservative as I usually have Seinfeld on the DVR as my go to sleep show..

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Get out of my head!

Michael Richards playing Jerry Seinfeld doing "Jerry" and Jerry Seinfeld playing Michael Richards doing "Kramer" in the Kenny Rogers Roasters episode is one of my all-time favorite moments from that entire series.

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Michael Richards playing Jerry Seinfeld doing "Jerry" and Jerry Seinfeld playing Michael Richards doing "Kramer" in the Kenny Rogers Roasters episode is one of my all-time favorite moments from that entire series.

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so freaking good

one more question to add to the thread, is there a tv show that has ever held up as well over time as Seinfeld?

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one more question to add to the thread, is there a tv show that has ever held up as well over time as Seinfeld?

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Michael Richards playing Jerry Seinfeld doing "Jerry" and Jerry Seinfeld playing Michael Richards doing "Kramer" in the Kenny Rogers Roasters episode is one of my all-time favorite moments from that entire series.

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so freaking good

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+1

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one more question to add to the thread, is there a tv show that has ever held up as well over time as Seinfeld?

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Simpsons

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Michael Richards playing Jerry Seinfeld doing "Jerry" and Jerry Seinfeld playing Michael Richards doing "Kramer" in the Kenny Rogers Roasters episode is one of my all-time favorite moments from that entire series.

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so freaking good

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Oh I'm stressed!

Has anyone been watching in the afternoons on TBS? They have some cross promotional with Wale... Definitely one of the oddest partnerships I've ever seen.

The glorified roomba?

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Has anyone been watching in the afternoons on TBS? They have some cross promotional with Wale... Definitely one of the oddest partnerships I've ever seen.

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Is it this song? He came out with this mixtape a while ago.

Yeah apparently he's a huge fan. Making him the first black person I've ever heard of watching Seinfeld.

Gettin turnt, rapping about Big Salads



http://www.musictimes.com/articles/40827/20150613/wale-host-seinfeld-remix-show-tbs-summer-following-taan.htm

Watching it right now on Hulu! Personally I thought the last few seasons, especially the very last one, had more "trying too hard" episodes, but there were episodes already mentioned in this thread from those seasons that were great. The India episode and the one where they run into the parade...and of course the last two ever that most hated...all come to mind as ones that were trying too hard. I think many comedy shows eventually turn into a show where the main characters turn into exaggerated versions of themselves....it happened less in Seinfeld than in probably any other major comedy ever, but it still happened to some degree IMO. Regardless, great show that will hold up as well 20 years from now as it does now.

Thanks guys -- was trying to find a new show to watch/catch-up on (it's very difficult for me to get into a show, needs to hook me fast), and I had forgotten that I never really watched Seinfeld save for reruns in syndication (which I always found funny).

S1 will begin tomorrow at lunch.

A local channel here plays two episodes a night. I usually have them on in the background while I'm working out. One of the episodes nightly will be an earlier episode. The other will be a later one.

I prefer the earlier ones generally.

The show's plotting started to seem a little more contrived.

But a big reason the show bogged down was Susan. I just hadn't thought about it much with her specifically in mind before Jason Alexander's comments about her, but she really bogged the show down after a while. Some of the episodes are good. The Marble Rye. But towards the end, the episodes with her were a drag. And even after they killed her, she lingered.

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Thanks guys -- was trying to find a new show to watch/catch-up on (it's very difficult for me to get into a show, needs to hook me fast), and I had forgotten that I never really watched Seinfeld save for reruns in syndication (which I always found funny).

S1 will begin tomorrow at lunch.

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Be warned that S1 Seinfeld is a lot like many of the 1st seasons of other comedies (Parks&Rec, The Office) in that they don't quite figure out the characters and what works until the second season.

I like the final two seasons in their own way, but it had become almost cartoonish by that point. I much prefer seasons 3-5.

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Thanks guys -- was trying to find a new show to watch/catch-up on (it's very difficult for me to get into a show, needs to hook me fast), and I had forgotten that I never really watched Seinfeld save for reruns in syndication (which I always found funny).

S1 will begin tomorrow at lunch.

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Be warned that S1 Seinfeld is a lot like many of the 1st seasons of other comedies (Parks&Rec, The Office) in that they don't quite figure out the characters and what works until the second season.

I like the final two seasons in their own way, but it had become almost cartoonish by that point. I much prefer seasons 3-5.

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I think because I actually know the later episodes that I've seen in syndication are funny I won't have any problem getting through the early growing pains.

Jason Alexander was on the Howard Stern show this month since he took over the lead in David's Broadway show.

He told a story about the Marine Biologist episode... Larry added the whole "The ocean was angry" soliloquy with the golf ball reveal in a rewrite while they were shooting the episode. He said Larry left to write it & 5 minutes later they were filming it.

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one more question to add to the thread, is there a tv show that has ever held up as well over time as Seinfeld?

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Simpsons

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you could have said that if they had stopped making episodes years ago. but the crap they have been putting out the last decade knocks the show way down.

Who's Cartwright?
I'm Cartwright.

I think one of the reasons I like the later episodes more than the earlier ones are because of George. Early on George isnt quite as much of a loser or miserable. Happy George Costanza is not a funny George

Part of that is because Jason Alexander admits that he was doing a bad woody Allen knock off in the early episodes. Once he realized that George was modified Larry it got much funnier.

Of the early episode, the one where jerry and Elaine go to Florida and get in the argument over the astronaut pen is one of my favorites. Every time we go to my parents, either my brother or I will say "mrs Seinfeld I am begging you...turn the air conditioner on!"

This thread is gold, Jerry! Gold!

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"mrs Seinfeld I am begging you...turn the air conditioner on!"

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You're hot?

I always thought the funniest part about that episode was Jerry's frustration and disbelief of the way the whole astronaut pen thing became a community wide issue.

That is exactly what it's like when I go home.

The Marine Biologist episode was on here the other night. And the cigar store Indian one. Pretty incredible the way the episodes around that time were able to work so many plot threads into a 30 minute show.

Mid seasons were best.

Seinfeld jumped the shark. Making salad in the shower?

Seinfeld never jumped the shark. That show was always flat out greatness. It's one of the reasons it's so re-watchable and appeals to different generations.