It’s a testament to, if not the show’s consistency, then to its base level strength. Truthfully, the culture of Seinfeld is one in which every single viewer has their favorites and least favorites – and very rarely do opinions align. (Stay tuned…) These Golden Era lists are especially strong, for unlike other otherwise enjoyable shows (such as the just-covered Murphy Brown), adjudicating Seinfeld’s individualized hierarchy of quality is less about disqualifying installments based on missteps than it is recognizing those that boast the greatest and most rewarding results. To this point, Season Three ushers in an age of extraordinary episodic success – an approximately nine-hits-for-every-one-miss ratio that few shows (like I Love Lucy) can boast – that’ll last until the end of David’s tenure at the conclusion of Season Seven. So, Seinfeld is still an underdog, and frankly, now that quality can be guaranteed, this is its most appealing look, with the year’s fidelity to its soon-banished premise forcing the show to use only what it has: its characters and its voice. After all, the series was not yet a runaway hit – that wouldn’t happen until NBC began grooming the show to replace Cheers as the network’s crown jewel. In the second year, the writers were still discovering style, tone, and narrative timbre, but Season Three appears with an established identity rooted in its core premise – one that’s confident, but not cocky. And as we’ve seen, there’s a certain time in every show’s life when novelty meets an enhanced knowingness of premise and character for Seinfeld, that’s Season Three. There’s nothing contrived or lofty in the crusade for believable, observational laughs, and Season Three’s lack of false “typical” sitcom pretenses, along with its reality-based trope-defying storytelling, which Seinfeld started to explore last year, is a novelty. The premise is not merely something the show should feel obligated to maintain on principle it’s also conducive to success. In Seinfeld’s case, its premise is one especially worth keeping, for it rests on a simple, but focused idea that allows the writing to examine reality through a comedic lens, using creative stories taken from real-life experiences that are both relatable and amusing. This connectedness is important because a premise is a promise to the audience – and a show breaks this promise at its own peril. Seinfeld’s first full season – its third – finds the show entering a three-year stretch that I would label the series’ “Golden Age.” (Every good show has one, but few can boast an era as lengthy as three whole seasons!) While there will be funnier years ahead – particularly the upcoming two – that make a potent case for being labeled Seinfeld’s finest, the third, which was nominated for nine Emmy Awards (winning two), is unique in that its proximity to the series’ origins ensures scripts that are inherently more connected to the initial low-concept thesis that we discussed at length last week: the everyday life from which this comedian gets his material. ![]() Seinfeld stars JERRY SEINFELD as Jerry Seinfeld, JULIA LOUIS-DREYFUS as Elaine Benes, MICHAEL RICHARDS as Cosmo Kramer, and JASON ALEXANDER as George Costanza. Where does a comedian get his material? From everyday life. I’m happy to report that the entire series has been released on DVD. ![]() Welcome to a new Sitcom Tuesday and the continuation of our series on the best episodes of Seinfeld (1989-1998, NBC), one of the most popular and critically lauded American sitcoms ever produced.
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