Originally published at: The finale of Seinfeld aired on this day in 1998 | Boing Boing
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True devotees know that the real, better finale aired on 22 November, 2009
Still, it was long past the time in 1998 where you’d get a mass audience of that size watching the same show at the same time.
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I haven’t seen it since it aired, but my memory of it is not good: a mediocre setup triggers a clip show, then ends with the final joke referencing the first one from the pilot. That last bit was clever, but I want to pretend everything else didn’t happen.
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The way I remember the finale is that everyone was massively, massively disappointed by it. Even angry about it. This seems have been due to two things:
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The hype built up for the finale was bananas. It was bigger than anything I can remember. No mere episode of television could have ever lived up to the expectations placed upon it.
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Most people (myself included) didn’t get the joke. The whole overarching gag of the series was that these were terrible people that you should not root for or identify with in any way. Given that, the finale makes way more sense.
What really made that click for me was a different show that I adore: It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. That show has the same central gag, but much less… subtle, shall we say. I watch that show the way that we were all intended to watch Seinfeld– kind of in awe that any group of people could so consistently make such bad decisions and be thankful they get what they deserve for it.
It says a lot about all of us that so few in the ‘90s got that the cast were the bad guys of the piece, not people we were supposed to see ourselves in or empathize with. Sunny is the Seinfeld of the 2000s and is, in my opinion, a better show.
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How can we ever miss it if it won’t go away?
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I am really not sure it’s accurate, but I have read that even some of Frank Sinatra’s family did not hear the news of his passing until the episode was over.
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Like a lot of shows by the time you get to the finale the best years were behind it and despite the hype it felt more like euthanasia than a celebration.
Question what boggles me:
Is Seinfeld is for young people what, say, “The Honeymooners” is to my generation?
That is, a show that older folks find hilarious that annoys the hell out of their kids?
Or is Seinfeld a wittier and better written show that has broader appeal?
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On a related note, I had a trivia calendar that mentioned how when the last M*A*S*H episode ended, a plurality of NYC toilets flushed in near-unison (but it didn’t give any further context – e.g. was this the biggest load (no pun intended) that the city sewers had ever endured? Did the system handle it? Etc.) Maybe Seinfeld surpassed that; the calendar was from 1984 or '85.
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My 16-year-old started watching it recently & liked what he saw. I’m not sure if it really answers your question, though, because his musical tastes reach back to his great-grandparents’ heyday: Cab Calloway, Sinatra, Louis Jordan etc.
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About the only show that has a laugh track that I still watch. IMHO, the show was perfect in about every other way. Why laugh tracks prevailed for so long (still prevail?) is a real mystery. I guess Seinfeld was a blend of “live audience” and laugh track, but even so…
Maybe the era of premium cable shows/streaming woke some people up, although Arrested Development did pull it off and that was on Fox IIRC. I remember even as a kid being baffled by things like Flintstones and Scooby Doo having laugh tracks. Did Hollywood really think the average audience was so stupid as to need these social cues to laugh? I’m trying to imagine Arrested Development, Letterkenny, Sunny, Curb, etc… with a laugh track, and it would only soil those shows.
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I always find it amusing how the show’s rule was “no hugging, no learning”, meaning the characters are supposed to remain cynical, shallow and self-absorbed, never grow as people and be doomed to misery as a result, but all the promo stills have the cast huddled up affectionately together with giant, gleeful smiles on their faces as though they were the cast of Family Ties or Full House.
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I worked with a lot of 20-somethings at my last job, and it was nostalgic for them, in the way that Moonlighting or Three’s Company might be for me. They watched it when they were young and, while they didn’t get all the more topical adult jokes at the time, they have fond associations with it.
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The creator of The Office has talked about this in interviews. It was (apparently) the first American comedy ever without a laugh track and he had to fight tooth and nail with NBC over that. The execs were 100% convinced that the audience was too stupid to know when to laugh. So the answer to your question of why laugh tracks persisted so long is “studio execs”.
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Arrested Development predates the American version of The Office. (Also there are things like Curb and The Larry Sanders show way before - but they were on cable, so maybe they were more willing to take a risk?) But AD was also cancelled, so there is that…maybe that’s why the execs were fighting the creators of the American version of The Office - maybe they thought no social cues to laugh were why AD was not popular. Curiously, you’ll see so many of the same actors in both shows. Not sure how many people worked on both shows…
I do notice that nearly any comedy that’s current that seems to be top-notch has no laugh track and thank goodness for that…
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My housemate at the time was a huge Seinfeld fan and organized a special viewing of the finale episode(s), as they aired live. I was not as into Seinfeld. I mean, hell, for a few years prior to then, I lived by choice without a television. The finale episodes were the first I had engaged start to finish for many years. As my housemate felt disgruntled by the persecution of these four old friends, I was laughing at every opportunity. To me, the turn of events was hilarious, especially the bit about the Seinfeld creators being invited to exhibit their work of art in Paris. A sitcom? Yeah, right!
Many years later, after having seen all of the episodes multiple times, the finale seems like the ultimate closure for these jerks. Still, it surprises me now that Kramer was arrested along with the other three, because he is actually the real weasel of the bunch and should have been the one outside of jail who taunted the others while laying claim to righteousness.
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FR, I tried so hard to enjoy it. Friends of mine watched it a lot, practically ROTFL the whole time. I just cringed and squirmed in my seat. Bonus: that iconic “bassline” was played on a synth. 
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Thanks for the fact check- I kinda suspected their claim of being first.
I agree that it’s nice that all the new comedies are without it. I’d even go so far as to say it would be considered lame to go back at this point. Progress!
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I watched it as a kid when it first aired and enjoyed it, even if I didn’t get all the jokes. Recently watched it again and still found it funny though some things haven’t aged well. Though I’d say I like Curb or Sunny more.
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I’m much the same way with Friends. I know many people that like(d) it and tried to get me to watch it with them, and I did not hate it, I just never felt compelled to Tivo it when it was in syndication, watch the DVDs later, or stream it now. It’s just too…twee. I think that’s the best word to describe how I feel about Friends.
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