Seinfeld broke several conventions of mainstream television. Often described as being ‘a show about nothing’, it became the first television series since Monty Python’s Flying Circus to be widely described as postmodern.
Several elements of Seinfeld fit in with a postmodern interpretation. The show is typically driven by humour interspersed with superficial conflict and characters with peculiar dispositions. On the set, the notion that the characters should not develop or improve throughout the series was expressed as the no hugging, no learning rule. Unlike most sitcoms, there are no moments of pathos; the audience is never made to feel sorry for any of the characters. Even Susan’s death elicits no genuine emotions from anyone in the show.
Kramer: Well, you know the important thing is that you learned something.
Jerry: No, I didn’t.
The characters are thirty-something singles with vague identities, virtually no roots, and conscious indifference to morals. Usual conventions, such as isolating the characters from the actors who play them and separating the characters’ world from that of the actors, were broken. One such example is the story arc in which the characters promote a television sitcom series named Jerry. The show within a show, Jerry, was much like Seinfeld in that it was ‘about nothing’ and Seinfeld played himself.
A major difference between Seinfeld and sitcoms which preceded it is that the principal characters never learn from their mistakes. In effect, they remain indifferent and even callous towards the outside world and sometimes toward each other. This refers back to the show’s mantra no hugging, no learning. Predictably, this leads to very few happy endings for the main characters – except when they come at someone else’s expense. More often in every episode, situations resolve with characters getting a justly deserved comeuppance.
George: Haven’t we had this conversation before?
Jerry: You think?
George: I think we have.
Jerry: Yeah, maybe we have.
Knowledge Guild 
When Seinfeld was a first-run series, I rarely watched it. I have a background in drama, and feel I need to give every new show a chance, but the few times I did look in on it, all I saw was four narcissistic 30-somethings, trying to grab for themselves all that they could. Further realizing that this had become the most-watched show in America, actually scared me – was our society changing, to the extent that more people within the coveted 18-49 demographic identified with these dysfunctional four more so than any other series on American TV? Were we becoming a nation of Seinfelds? To me, that was a frightening prospect.
As it turned out, and the show went into re-runs, it was shown on one of my channels five nights per week, and I decided to watch the entire series, as I could literally do it five times faster than had I watched it originally. I viewed it analytically,and realized that throughout the entire series, I had actually laughed out loud once, and smiled three times – otherwise, I really didn’t see anything that I considered very funny. It really WAS a show about nothing, and I can’t help wondering, as Jerry Seinfeld was taking his money to the bank in wheelbarrows, if he wasn’t secretly pointing outward, from inside the TV screen, at us, and saying, “THIS is what you’ve become –”
(Kuba, if you received my information you requested, please let me know.)
Interesting take.
And yes I received your information – much appreciated!
Cartoonist Walt Kelley once had his cartoon character, “Pogo ‘Possum” say what Seinfeld may have been trying to say in his own way: “I have seen the enemy, and it is us.”
Reblogged this on Rosewood.