[The Jewish Cunthead]

After a spirited Sweet 16 matchup with Chappelle's Show, AD goes on to face this Joo's favorite: Seinfeld... what say ya'll?


(3)Arrested Development


vs.

(6) Seinfeld


Voting ends Friday 11/16

[Jack Quinn]

GO AD!!!!

[The Jewish Cunthead]

If you seriously want a job, I suggest being nicer to teh Joos. We run everything, you know.

[salmonjunkie]

I liked Seinfeld very much. But not as much as I loved AD

[National Champion Chris Cole]

Seinfeld was good but Arrested Development was great.

[Krydor]

I went with Seinfeld, due to to AD's spotty scheduling. In other words, I watched Seinfeld more.

[National Champion Chris Cole]

Fox totally fucked with Arrested.

[gooker]

SEINFELD!

[The Jewish Cunthead]

Bring Goon back here! If he can remember his password, I mean.

[gooker]

I've been trying, Solly. I think he's basically happy having OO as his one source for all his posting needs, no matter how much I tell him that I've been having a blast here. It's not like he's lacking on time. Well, maybe he is because he just got Mario Galaxy, which will probably be taking up all his time. Solly - you, Pun, or anyone else who wants can try blowing him up with U2U's on OO and see if you can drag his ass back here. If not, he's just a jerk.

[DevSop]

Wait, you're seriously voting for Seinfeld because Fox is a horribly run network that never knows how to schedule a show or even if they have a good show to begin with. Voting for Seinfeld because it's better-fine. Voting for Seinfeld because you hated AD-fine, if dumb. Voting for Seinfeld because Fox is moronic and never put AD in one place and has now had 3 seasons of PRISON BREAK-why, do I bother caring about these showdowns.

[National Champion Chris Cole]

Sop, I can't say I blame him though. I continually voted against HBO shows because I don't get HBO and didn't see the show. It's the same principle. If he only watched some episodes of AD because he missed episodes due to weird scheduling but saw all Seinfeld episodes I'm sure he got into Seinfeld more.

And I say this as somebody who did follow the odd scheduling and buy all 3 seasons and voted for AD. I can honestly see how FOX screwed AD for some people.

[Lucky]

Yeah, Krydor did say "I watched Seinfeld more." He just clearly said that the reason he watched Seinfeld more was FOX's stupidity.

[National Champion Chris Cole]

Vote for Arrested Development

[DevSop]

If he just watched Seinfeld more and that's why, not a big deal. But the way it was worded came across that hes only voting for Seinfeld because Fox fucked with the schedule and therefore he never got a consistent AD viewing.

[Courtney]

I've never watched AD, but I really don't like Seinfeld. Oh...what to do?

[The Jewish Cunthead]

Vote for Seinfeld since I was nice enough to vote for Weeds

[Krydor]

I never did get a consistent viewing of AD, folks. How can I judge a show that lasted for a couple of seasons, and those seasons were pre-empted by something stupid at every turn? I don't chase TV shows across the dial, and I don't buy DVD box sets.

[Lucky]

I don't either but I own all 3 seasons on DVD. They actually run pretty damn cheap as Amazon has all 3 for $55. Half hour episodes of the show can be amusing but watching them all flow from one another is THE way it works. Its a truly serial comedy, which is odd. Sports Night is the only one I can think of that has that same feel and AD isn't nearly as self absorbed and above itself as that show felt.

Really, I pretty much refuse to buy shows on DVD. They almost all seem overpriced and few make me feel like I need to sit down and watch the show run. But since 50+ episodes of AD cost me the price of 3 movies on DVD that's just about the only TV on DVD purchase I ever thought was truly worth it.

[Krydor]

Great, now I'll have to buy them. I love the serial format.

[The Jewish Cunthead]

Well if Seinfeld has to lose, it might as well be to AD. Damn.

[Tommy]

fsolomon75 said:

Well if Seinfeld has to lose, it might as well be to AD. Damn.

It's a travesty.
Without Seinfeld, AD doesn't exist.

[Electric Sodomy]

tommyd420 said:

It's a travesty.
Without Seinfeld, AD doesn't exist.

That's baseless and silly.

Edit: which is to say, I can see where you're probably coming from, but I don't think you can substantiate it. And even those things that I pretty much expect you to say in support of it (if you're going where I think you're going) are factors that can be outweighed or contradicted by others.

Seinfeld broke a ton of ground, but it's a weird sort of symptom of Seinfeld-fandom that a lot of people who are really high on the show insist that every other good comedy on TV crawled out from underneath Seinfeld's umbrella. It's influential and definitely significant, but it isn't the end-all determinant that a lot of people try to make it out to be.

[Lucky]

I gotta say, I'm not sure why it was significant. I suppose it might have been the prototype for the Friends type stuff that followed, but AD wasn't one of those and there were certainly plenty of successful ensemble comedies prior to Seinfeld. Its not that the characters were basically rotten people because we had already seen Married with Children, All in the Family, and to a lesser degree Roseanne. I just don't get why its influential. And I'm not saying its not, I just have NEVER heard anyone describe it as such and I can't see how it is.

But I also really struggle to see how it is the forefather of AD. Sure, they have the unsympathetic characters in common. But AD veers off quite a bit. They offer a truly sympathetic protagonist as the star. There's an absurdism that doesn't exist in Seinfeld at all. Seinfeld was very much the prototypical 30 minutes at a time sort of sitcom while AD is a show that relies heavily on running gags and regular viewing. I just really doesn't see how we get "Seinfeld beget Arrested Development."

I suppose there was a similar self referential nature to the shows but AD had it much more than Seinfeld and I think plenty of shows that came before or at the same time had it as well. And an adult nature, but again. Didn't seem unique at all.

I thought Seinfeld was a good show. And even though its not my thing I can't even say "Arrested Development is better" and think I'm not being biased and silly. But some sort of historically notable pioneer?