I was never a big fan of Seinfeld.
I tried it out early in its run, before it got moved to Thursdays. I also watched about ten episodes after it became popular. It was okay, I thought. Clearly, the comedy was very well-crafted, and it was definitely a quality show, but for some reason, it didn't make me laugh. All these years later, I think I know why - they were doing a radio show.

It has become pretty well-known by now that Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David modeled their show after the old Abbott and Costello Show. That was a television show, not a radio show, but the sensibility came from radio and vaudeville. Those types of shows were more like a series of sketches. Examples of this style on radio were The Jack Benny Program, Fibber McGee and Molly, and early Burns and Allen. The sitcom format we're familiar with hadn't become popular yet, and those shows would feature characters coming and going with very little pretense. Sometimes there would be a loose plot running through the show, but generally we weren't meant to take the characters seriously in dramatic terms. Characters could insult other characters, or be downright nasty, and the audience took it all in stride, as long as it was funny.

Seinfeld was much closer to that dynamic than it was to the sitcoms that surrounded it on the TV schedule. I think I didn't appreciate it because I wasn't ready for it. Back then, I found the characters shallow, and the plots weak. Of course, that's a good description of The Abbott and Costello Show, and of those old radio shows. In the years since, thanks largely to the internet, I've heard many of those old radio shows, and I think I could watch Seinfeld in the correct frame of mind now. I'm going to try that, and see if I do a better job of appreciating the show.