reminisco wrote:wow, is Seinfeld really so old now that there are people who don't catch the references all the time?
yeah, i guess so. i mean, it ended when i was still a teenager, so yeah, i guess there must be.
and there's also the fact that the world is bigger than the U.S.A., and not all of us noticed "Seinfeld"...
BTW, I've now seen a few of the endless re-runs, and I think it's amusing. Almost like a Brit sit-com (where "nothing happens" - i.e. the characters remain in the same relationship at the end of each episode as they had at the beginning).
This was apparently new in terms of U.S. comedy - but in the UK, that's the definition of a sit-com. If anything happens, it becomes a soap opera.
The difference can be most clearly seen in "Friends" or "Frasier". The tension of central characters falling in love with other characters is sit-com gold as long as the subject of that love is unaware.
After that point, the comedy dies.