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For nine years, Seinfeld set the standard in TV comedy, earning raves from critics and fans while leaving a legacy that’s still being chased by all comers. With that said, Seinfeld wasn’t perfect, and the show suffered a huge loss when Larry David resigned as the showrunner after its seventh season, leading to its most imperfect period as Jerry Seinfeld took full creative control of the show. Here’s a look at some of the reasons for that stumble in quality…
The Show No Longer Began With Jerry’s Stand-Up Routine
This may seem like an insignificant change, but it’s fairly indicative of the direction that the show was going in. For it’s first seven seasons, Seinfeld was grounded firmly as a show about a moderately successful comedian and his silly group of friends. As we all know, it was a “show about nothing,” but it was also a show about the average, everyday adventures and annoyances that we all experience; like being stuck in a parking garage and waiting forever for a table at a restaurant. Seinfeld took those typical happenings and tweaked them just enough to turn them into memorable comedy moments that retained their relatability. Which is not an easy line to walk.
During those last two seasons, the show began to slowly venture away from that foundation, heading toward wackier territory. How did the disappearance of the stand-up bits foreshadow this? Because it was a subtle indicator that seemingly big parts of the show — like Jerry’s occupation — were no longer as crucial as they had been in the past. The show was more about Jerry and the gang’s increasingly wacky adventures.
The Show Became A Bit More Surreal
The surrealism that was on display shows the more fantastical and broad realm that the show was heading toward. Under Larry David’s direction, Seinfeld was a semi-realistic depiction of New York life. Now, the show was willing to flirt with pure fantasy. Consider “The Frogger,” in which George attempts to preserve his Frogger high score by carrying a giant arcade machine across the street. The scene is filmed to look like the Frogger video game as George tries to avoid getting splattered by passing traffic. It’s the kind of not particularly realistic moment that would have seemed out of place in the early years, but which had become surprisingly common towards the end of the show’s run.
“The Chicken Roaster,” is another example of this. Kramer slides toward insanity in the episode, thanks to the beams of light coming off the Kenny Rogers Roasters restaurant sign. Obviously, Kramer had always been a bit off-the-wall, but the writers took it to another level by doing a “switcheroo” episode that put Jerry in Kramer’s apartment and, for the most part, into his character. While it may feel in character for Kramer to give himself to a chicken chain despite its mind warping sign, does Jerry becoming Kramer feel like the kind of more grounded story that dominated in the early days of the show?
What about, “The Butter Shave?” Here, Kramer begins using butter as shaving cream and enjoys it so much that he spreads butter all over his body, not realizing that he will begin to cook after laying out in the sun. This, of course, leads to a disturbed Newman seeing Kramer as a turkey in a memorable moment and an out-of-character sight gag for the show.
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