Seinfeld Is Unfunny/Live-Action TV: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

** One of the show's biggest indicators of this effect is the episode "The Chinese Restaurant". Now, it looks like a rather standard, funnier-than-average sitcom episode. In fact, in 1990, the idea of three characters standing around in a restaurant, complaining and bantering as they waited for a table in real time for 23 minutes, was considered almost completely unworkable by the network executives. They actually thought that there were pages missing from the script they were given. They fought the episode tooth and nail all the way to air date, fearing that it would be a disaster. Anyone who watches an episode from season 3 onwards of ''Seinfeld'', then an episode from season 2, then "The Chinese Restaurant", would be unlikely to catch the brilliance of that episode, but they will undoubtedly notice a massive shift in quality and humor between the two seasons.

** Ironically for the trope...both the real and character Jerry Seinfelds have proudly boasted at having ''never'' watched an episode of ''[[I Love Lucy]]'', basically claiming that [[Seinfeld Is Unfunny|I Love Lucy Is Unfunny]].

* When Norman Lear made the pilot for ''[[All in The Family]]'', he decided to use videotape instead of film to give the viewing audience the sense of being in the studio. Then every sitcom used videotape for the next 20 years and it became associated with hackneyed, lowbrow productions. ''All in the Family'' is neither hackneyed nor lowbrow, but the production value tells a different story.

* ''[[Babylon 5]]'' has slowly seemed less and less innovative as the traits it pioneered or popularized spread among sci-fi shows:

** It was the first major sci-fi show, not counting anime, to have major long-term story arcs planned in advance. ''Babylon 5'' was written from a full outline for all five seasons, nearly unheard of at the time.

** It was the first sci-fi series (and one of the first, if not the first, series of any genre) to be filmed in widescreen.

** It pioneered the use of CGI effects, especially for anything involving spaceships. To put it in perspective: the producers of ''Deep Space Nine'' scoffed at B5's CGI and proudly announced that they would continue to use models; when ''Voyager'' launched, it not only used CGI, but used the same production house as B5 to make it.

** [[The Reveal]] that shallow, popular Cordelia was [[Obfuscating Stupidity|actually an ace student]] was a surprise joke at the time. Now it is a cliché to have the seemingly [[Book Dumb]] ditzy, shallow girl in the cast be much brighter than she seems.

* ''[[CSI]]''. With the ongoing slew of crime procedural TV shows, it's difficult to realize that when it came out, a plot involving crime forensics and laboratory work was considered as fresh and clever.

** Then you realize that ''[[Quincy]]'' was doing that long before ''CSI'' came out, predating both that and ''[[Bones]]'' by decades, just without all the gratuitous gore tossed in.

* ''[[Doctor Who]]''. Some of the older stories were thought-provoking, mesmerizing, and quite frightening to their audience. But now, they might be looked at as having poor pacing and production values.

** And anyone who thinks ''Doctor Who'' is a very lame sci-fi cliché and dumbing down of the genre should be asked to remember that it premiered in 1963.

* ''[[Friends]]'' is beginning to fall into this. While it is still regarded as funny, and a benchmark that other comedy sitcoms try to reach, the impact it had is largely forgotten after the slew of other shows that followed.

** At the time, it was unique for a show to have a cast of young people who could be romantically paired up in many different ways. Pretty much every heterosexual combination between the main cast was explored during the series (except for Ross and Monica, of course). This type of series premise has since become the norm.

** Things like the coffee house, now a cliché, were actually considered 'too hip' by the executives, and they had to be talked into accepting it.

** Much the same could be said for that other acclaimed '90s police drama, ''[[NYPD Blue]]''. Not to mention the show that really inspired all of these, ''[[Hill Street Blues]]'', which was revolutionary in 1981 but can seem downright quaint to the modern viewer.

* ''[[The Honeymooners]]'' was groundbreaking when it was created. But it has produced so many imitations, including ones aimed at demographics far younger than what the original was aimed at, that most new viewers of the show are likely to be familiar with the ideas behind it before they ever see it. This naturally dilutes the humor.

* ''[[Kamen Rider]]''. There's a similar argument for this franchise as well, or maybe a subversion. The Showa era formula (cyborg destroys the terrorist organization that rebuilt him) has been done to death and is now avoided the Heisei era shows, to the point that either part of the phrase "Masked Rider" sometimes doesn't apply to a specific series. Which makes the Showa Riders revival manga ''[[Kamen Rider Spirits]]'' so appealing: it takes the phrase "Kicking it old school" and ''runs with it''.

* When ''[[Law and Order]]'' first appeared in 1990, it was unthinkable to have a show so willing to discuss controversial topics such as abortion, racism, corruption and child abuse. Since then, shows like ''[[The Wire]]'' have gone further with the "Crime Drama as a social platform" concept than anyone could have imagined.

** In fact, ''[[The Monkees]]'' had influenced a lot more in this genre than most people realize. In the late 1970s, Monkee Michael Nesmith took this concept and created some of the first music videos, leading to the very ''first'' music video program ''PopClips'', which aired in 1979–81 on a then (very) young [[Nickelodeon]]. Apparently, Nesmith’s ideas were so brilliant, that the [[Executive Meddling|powers that be]] stole and warped his series to create [[MTV|a "certain network" which was launched in 1981]].

* ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' was, in its day, a genuinely innovative, intelligent and surreal sketch comedy show which pioneered several comedy techniques, including subverting the form by running credits at the "wrong" point in the show and putting spoof entries in TV listings magazines. Those that it didn't create, it certainly popularized, to the extent that plenty of others lacking the panache and originality of the original ensemble have shamelessly aped their work. It says much that a highlight and selling point of a 20th anniversary compilation was that it ''didn't'' contain the (in)famous Parrot Sketch, which many people can quote by memory, even if they would at this stage rather forget it. Also, much of the verbal humor doesn't translate cross culturally.

** This trope is explained as well as anywhere by Terry Jones:

* ''[[The Muppet Show]]''. When it first started, defining the area of the action with the camera's frame of view instead of the physical set was innovative for a television show. During the late 1970s and early 1980s the show was both aimed at adults and children, while nowadays it has become exclusively a children's show.

* ''[[Oz]]''. Aside from being HBO's first one-hour drama, it was shocking in 1997 to have a show which was so blatant about depicting drug use, male rape, extreme violence and deeply reprehensible protagonists. Since then both ''[[The Sopranos]]'' and ''[[The Wire]]'' have outshined it in acclaim thus dooming the brilliantly acted, well written series to being known for its more superficial elements and retroactive recognition of famous cast members.

* ''[[Saturday Night Live]]''. In its early days, it was considered revolutionary, groundbreaking, and taboo due to its willingness to just say and/or do anything crazy, stupid, and/or controversial and hope the censors don't crack down on them. Through modern eyes, now, not so much, thanks to ''SNL'''s many dueling shows that try to capture its humor (i.e., ''[[Fridays]]'', ''[[In Living Color]]'', ''[[Mad TV]]'', ''[[Mr. Show]]'', etc), the show's near-constant change of cast and crew members, and the fact that the show puts itself on a cycle of [[Golden Age]], [[Seasonal Rot]], [[Dork Age]], and comeback in order to stay alive. While some modern seasons have their moments of being that outrageous show it was in the 1970s, a lot of fans (particularly the ones who loved the original cast from the 1970s) will argue that "[[They Changed It, Now It Sucks|It's just not the same]]."

* ''[[SCTV]]''. Speaking of network TV sketch shows that suffer from Seinfeld Is Unfunny syndrome, when it premiered in Canada (and later, the United States), the sketch comedy show was a critical and commercial hit. By mixing [[Deconstructive Parody|deconstructive parodies]] of popular and lesser-known works with [[Canada, Eh?|absurdly specific Canadian-centric humor]], the show won over a lot of fans (it also helped that ''SNL'' had plunged into [[Seasonal Rot]] in the 1980s, so shows like ''[[SCTV]]'' and ''Fridays'' became favorite substitutes for ''SNL''). The show was lauded for having a stellar cast (who would all go on to successful movie and television careers, making it a who's-who of comedy talent, much like ''SNL''), and being a trailblazer for new concepts in sketch comedy (i.e. running gags that spanned the entire episode, long camera shots in sketches, and more absurdist humor than what one would find on ''SNL'' or even ''Monty Python''). Today, many viewers would look at the series and think it's either too quaint or boring (because the nature of the sketches and jokes--which reference late 1970s and early 1980s subculture--fly right over their heads), even though the series essentially created the foundation of modern Canadian comedy shows.

* ''[[The Sopranos]]''. In 1999 when it came out it was rather unusual for a television show to feature a morally questionable protagonist, especially a criminal. It was so unusual that David Chase had to fight HBO about whether or not Tony could commit a murder in the fifth episode of the series because HBO was scared of putting off fans. Over the years series with anti-heroes and villain protagonists have become dime a dozen with popular series like ''[[The Shield]]'', ''[[Dexter]]'', and ''[[Deadwood]]'' all featuring protagonists that commit criminal acts including murder on a nearly weekly basis.

** In fact, society has changed so much that some of the most radical and innovative things it did are now almost entirely overlooked. A black woman, as a military officer? Said black woman, kissing a white man, at a time when that kind of thing would get you arrested (or worse) in large parts of the United States? The show's portrayal of race was so far ahead of its time that when Nichelle Nichols considered leaving the show to return to musical theater, Martin Luther King Jr. himself insisted to her that she needed to stay, telling her that the show's depiction of ethnic relations was not only unprecedented, but exactly the kind future he dreamed of, and that ''Star Trek'' was the only show he and Coretta let their children stay up to watch.

** It also avoided (see ''Babylon 5'' above) "Cute Kids And Robots", at least among the regular cast, which was one reason science fiction fans at the time considered it a better, more serious show than [[Lost in Space|much of the science fiction]] on television.

** Hell, even ''[[The Next Generation]]'' hasn't really aged that well. At its time, it was noted for taking everything about the old series and modernizing it (as well as adding some twists of its own). Nowadays, with spinoffs doing the same thing and other shows going further where it could never go, the only thing it has going for it is [[Patrick Stewart]].

* The ''[[Super Sentai]]'' franchise (and to a lesser extent, [[Toku|tokusatsu]] shows in general) suffers from this, but not because of imitators but rather, '''itself''': it has ''[[Long Runner|lasted for so long]]'' that it takes genuine effort to create an original premise and sustain it. This is likely why so many of the newer series eschew tech-driven stories in favor of fantasy, along with the advent of CG over [[People in Rubber Suits]].

** Even amongst Johnny-come-lately ''Survivor'' fans, it can be difficult to get into the earlier seasons. If you watch ''Borneo'' and ''The Australian Outback'' (the first and second seasons, respectively) you'll notice the game was ''majorly'' different back then than it is now... The Tribal switch was actually seen as the ''big twist'' of ''Africa'' (season 3). Nowadays it's in almost ''every season'' of Survivor, partly because it made things a bit less one-sided at the merge. (The game was dominated by the remnants of one team at the merge in ''Borneo'' and ''The Australian Outback''. When the power shifts, it becomes more interesting to watch.) When one takes into account that there was nothing like hidden immunity idols or Exile Island... the first two seasons were actually kinda bland, weren't they?

*** ''Borneo'' and ''The Australian Outback'' were [[Fair for Its Day|fair for their day]], since at the time, the main draw of the show was the premise itself (being stranded on a deserted island, being stranded in the wild, etc). Since the emphasis wasn't on shocking twists and "blindsides", they can still hold up to the modern viewer who simply likes the adventure and/or voyeur aspects.

* ''[[The Twilight Zone]]''. The original was shocking. The best episodes still are, but once the show was known long enough for everyone to expect a [[Karmic Twist Ending]] [[Once an Episode]], the writing had to be that much better for the episodes to still work than they needed to be first time around. And the ante keeps getting upped, because viewers get savvier with the conventions and because other works go ever farther...

* The ''[[Ultra Series|Ultra]]'' series suffers particularly bad from this. To some it looks goofy and stereotypical, but it established so many reoccurring elements in Japanese Cinema (from [[Humongous Mecha]] to [[Kamehame Hadoken]]), that its impact can be difficult to appreciate.

** ''Millionaire'' also popularized dragging out [[The Reveal]] to increase suspense, and especially using a [[Commercial Break Cliffhanger]] to do so. The masses of imitators doing the same has turned this technique into a cliche and a [[Discredited Trope]].

* ''[[Will and Grace]]'' is often considered offensive for its portrayal of gay men as shallow and superficial. It was the [[Fair for Its Day|first American TV show to]] ''[[Fair for Its Day|have]]'' [[Fair for Its Day|gay leads]]. Without it, more serious gay live media (''[[The L Word]]'', ''[[Brokeback Mountain]]'', etc.) would never have gotten off the ground.

* ''[[The Young Ones]]'' was considered anarchic and subversive in the early 1980s. In comparison with their successor ''[[Bottom]]'' many of the violent scenes (Vyvyan destroying something or hitting Rick over the head) can seem rather tame today.

** It goes back further than that. ''[[Moonlighting]]'' was the first to have partners hooking up, but other shows like ''[[Sapphire and Steel]]'' had similar [[Will They or Won't They?]] tension.

* ''[[Rich Man Poor Man|Rich Man, Poor Man]]'' was the first miniseries, an exploration of long-form storytelling that's become completely standard today. As well, one of its biggest selling points was its frank depiction of sexuality, with the [[Moral Guardians]] up in arms over characters talking about "nailing" each other and a white woman considering an affair with a black man. Nowadays, of course, all that seems remarkably tame.

*** More recent years saw programs boast, "Now in [[High Definition]]" for ''exactly'' the same reason. Though "high", being a relative term, will surely age even worse than "in color" as future technology ''surpasses'' it.