I always saw Yes, Dear as a repository for failed sitcom actors (Boston Common, Mike O' Malley Show, Cold Feet). How I Met Your Mother gets points for just doing the extra work: flash-backs, cut-aways, doppelgangers, running gags like Slapfest or "but-um".
not even close. everybody loves raymond is some variation of the exact same story most episodes: ray makes mistakes, marie gets mad, debra hates marie, robert gets jealous, frank makes a wise crack, everything turns out okay. i like the show for what it is, but it's still the typical, linear, predictable story lines. seinfeld is so great because it's SO creative. every episode is different, there's no real story line, it's just comic genius every time. you never get the canned stories. case in point, the last episode. no one moved away, no one got married, no parting of ways, instead, they end up in jail. amazing!!
Nope, it's the weekend, combined with the off-season. A hell of a combination! What's funny to me is that my Mom, bless her heart (and around 87 years young), is a fan of Raymond, but she would laugh at the comparison to Seinfeld. She's a HUGE fan of Seinfeld! When I visit her in Houston, we almost always watch the reruns around 10 o'clock at night of Seinfeld and start grinning as soon as we figure out which episode it is, which takes all of a few seconds. It doesn't matter that we've both seen whatever episode it is that night. It really doesn't! We just laugh and laugh the entire time. Age doesn't matter. Mom gets it. My two kids are gigantic fans of Seinfeld. One's in college and one's about to start high school. Makes no difference. Somehow, the show doesn't seem to get dated. That's always a problem with TV comedies, but hasn't occurred with Seinfeld, at least with anyone I know. As great a classic as I Love Lucy is, the age of the program has affected the humor to a degree. Oh, I still laugh out loud when I see it, but then I'm old enough to have seen the episodes when they were first on the tube. Seinfeld? Ageless!
Seriously. Raymond had its moments, but it should not be mentioned in the same breath as Seinfeld. Seinfeld is the one classic sitcom that I could never get tired of watching episodes of, even if I've seen them before. You just don't get that combination of sheer wit and comedic timing in any of today's shows.
Positively one of the WORST series finales ever. I don't care that the show wasn't wrapped in a nice, neat bow at it's conclusion. It's that the finale's episode was so completely absurd and stupid. And they wasted classic characters and reduced them to bit parts. I loved Seinfeld for it's creativity and classic moments. I loved Friends because of the camaraderie. And I love Raymond because it had characters just about anyone could identify with. I would consider all three of those sitcoms the big ones of the nineties and early 2000s ...they all won plenty of awards, had a large following and lasted about the same length of time. And I bet if you took a good cross section of the American public, this debate would be a lot closer than it is now. Yes, Dear, NewsRadio, King of Queens are definitely on the list as very underrated.
I admit that the Seinfeld series finale was not up-to-par with the rest of the show, but Larry David and the rest of the crew totally saved themselves with the Seinfeld reunion series of episodes during the last season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. If you want to wash that sour taste out of your mouth, check out the last Seinfeld reunion episodes of Curb.
Not to mention the steady stream of hot chicks that Jerry seemed to land. Even George had that one that he thought was refunding after a meal.
In this discussion, it has to be Seinfeld. I have only seen a few episodes of Raymond, but it never did much for me. That said, I think I'm a unique case: I didn't watch a single episode of Seinfeld during its historic run. I am also the prime target age to have been the audience for whom the show was designed. I discovered Seinfeld by "accident." I was sick as hell one day and I landed on a rerun in the afternoon. I was sold immediately. "Timelessness" was mentioned in this thread. I think that argument works...to a degree. I Love Lucy and The Honeymooners -- and to a lesser degree, All in the Family -- are just further removed in time. Those shows are all hilarious to us "older folks." We either grew up with them in prime time or grew up with them in constant syndication. They somehow seem "less old" than they really are because we were basically weened on them. Seinfeld seems timeless. However, we're really talking less than two decades ago for the series premiere. Really, how soon is the "next" generation even going to understand humor without the cell phone being a focal point? My guess is not too long from now. My favorite sitcoms: Arrested Development Soap All in the Family Seinfeld
that last episode of curb was pretty good with the michael richards getting pissed at Leon for impersonating a doctor. but the whole series was great. larry david really came into his own. it took some getting used to b/c of the way it was shot and directed but man it is just pure genius. <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/In2XfN3hIi4&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/In2XfN3hIi4&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object> <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/rs5w02NvSyI&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/rs5w02NvSyI&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
Seinfeld was straight up funnier, wittier, more original, creative, etc. Raymond was good for what it was, a traditional family comedy with typical character interactions. Mother vs step mother, brother vs brother, etc. One thing I loved about Seinfeld was how multiple story lines would cleverly tie in together at the very end: ie Kramer uses the ocean as his driving range. George saves a beached whale ('the sea was angry my friends, like an old man sending back soup'). And what was the whale's blowhole plugged with? George pulling a golf ball out of his pocket at the end of the episode was like a 3 pointer at the buzzer for the win. Or, as Kramer put it: 'A hole in one.'
I didn't realize I could vote for other. I'm sorry. I voted for Seinfeld because of those two, Seinfeld is the best. My favorite of all would be Get A Life. This sitcom starred Chris Elliot and will be hard to ever be beat as the greatest of all time.
This is the reason why I watch SEINFELD: Spoiler "I'm out there, Jerry, and I'm loving every minute of it! " And THIS is one main many reason why I watch 'RAYMOND': Spoiler "I win again. :grin: " - Frank The ZANY characters make the show. Without them, we'd have "normal peeps" in the show. No reason to watch it. The interaction and the basic plot almost always involves either KRAMER, or FRANK saying something that adds the, shall we call it: "spice"?, to either show.
