Posted on 06/27/2005 7:58:15 AM PDT by Kitten Festival
Seinfeld was a television marvel. Perhaps the most successful situation comedy series of all time, it ran from 1989 to 1998, and has become an omnipresent aspect of our lives as it continually runs in syndication and lives on in best-selling DVD box sets, making fortunes in the hundred millions for both of its co-creators.
But there is yet another facet of Seinfeld at which we can marvel: the cast of characters on the show weirdly foreshadowed the rise to prominence of a large component of the dominant urban liberal wing of the Democratic Party. With a nod to Brian Anderson’s South Park Conservatives and a quick glance backward at yesterday’s Matt Bai New York Times Magazine article King of the Hill Democrats, let us join the craze for television series politics, and call them Seinfeld Liberals.
Their emergence has not been beneficial for our nation.
Hollywood has long provided role models and templates for Americans – just as books and stories always have (Washington and the Cherry tree, Abe Lincoln studying by candle, the always-inventive Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Edison, the heroic obstinacy of U.S. Grant and George Patton).
In recent decades, a certain cynicism about the character of Americans seems to have taken hold, at least in the filmed and televised entertainment we see.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Then I guess you're watching a different show than I am.
SD
I watched one episode just long enough to realize that, in the real world, Kramer would be living in a box in an alley.
After that I knew the show had no connection with reality, even though some snippets I saw while channel surfing were superficially funny.
One of the best examples of poking fun at all sides was the Poppy's restuarant episode. Elaine made a big issue out of Poppy's pro-life stance, and half the patrons supported Poppy and half supported Elaine's call to boycott. When Elained gushed about her perfect new boyfriend, Jerry asks about his stance on the issue, causing her to smear her lipstick and say lamely "He must be pro-choice, because he's so cute." Of course, he turns out to be staunchly pro-life.
Also, Elaine makes a comment one time about the anti-fur thing being overdone.
Hey, that coffee table book probably got him some handsome royalties, as well as the Calvin Klein underwear ad. And don't forget the all the free coffee he can drink!
One episode that COULD have been turned into a political "statement" was the 'Donald O'Brien' episode where George and Jerry jump into a limo thinking they are getting a free ride to MSG for a basketball game. But politics was completely left out of even that episode and it was maybe my favorite Seinfeld episode.
> Barney Miller was the only sitcom I ever watched because I loved the characters. There's never been another like it.
Taxi?
Count me as another who just didn't get the humor of Seinfeld. The first one I saw, he had a blind date with a girl called Lisa Chang, and the joke was, But you're not Chinese! Other episodes I don't remember because they were pretty much about nothing.
Same here.
Well, Kramer certainly deserves some royalties from Calvin Klein since Calvin stole his cologne idea, 'The Beach'.
Kirkwood: It was hard to take the show seriously when George had girlfriends who were actually hot.
Me (pitching the show): Yes, but that's what makes it so funny.
Kirkwood (in voice of Japanese television executive): You must go now.
(Sunshine Carpet Cleaners employees enter)
I read somewhere where Kramer was a Republican. It was last year sometime.
LOL!
"Are you sure you want to open with that?"
> He wasn't talking about politics per se, but about a general attitude about life--eerily similar to that of many liberals
True. But the article (at least what of it that I read--too many Freepers trying to get on the server at once) also points out the show's use of Country Mouse vs. City Mouse theme (even if he didn't articulate it too well)...that urban liberals are totally unequipped to deal with with life in Flyover Country.
Wow!!
I have to chime in with an "amen" to that. 'Barney Miller' was my favorite sitcom ever.
Remember the one with that crazy guy who was running for city council? He asked Harris if he wanted to hear his motto and a reluctant Harris says, "Okay.... What is it?" The guy responds, "Vote for Royce, the people's candidate."
Never saw it either. I always heard it was one long inside joke.
Even Beavis and Butthead had non-left wing tendencies.
LOL, guess we aren't in on it then, but looks like we didn't miss anything.
Same here. But one of the things I liked about the show is that not once while watching it did I ever feel as though my values were being blatantly insulted. The way that I looked at it, the main characters often came off looking worse than the people they were always making fun of.
Who shot JR in the shower, with Bobby dreaming that JR shot... Um, what was the storyline again??? LOL ;-P
Yep, sure sounds like it.
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