Now I took a peek for the first time. First video that pops up is this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYgFmP03biw
So it is something like Al Bundy? A soap opera?
If someone makes an Al Bundy version, it certainly should be called "AI Bundy".
But I never saw an episode of it when it was on, or 20 years later. It was just not available.
Seinfeld was also translated but it was awfully done so people didn't watch it and it stopped running on tv.
Knight Rider was also very popular and the acting was way better than the original because of the translators.
It is quite interesting what effect dubbing of movies and tv shows can have on the perception of it.
Different generations watch different things.
This is in stark contrast to so many American sitcoms which had a lot of stories around conflict, personal growth, forgiveness, and charity. Many of those shows tried to depict idealized Christian family values intermingled with the jokes. Many episodes would feature a prominent personal life lesson in the denouement.
I believe the creators of Seinfeld (Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld) established a strict rule for the writing staff: "no hugging, no learning." This no-compromises dedication to comedy to the exclusion of all else is what set Seinfeld apart from other shows.
Or rather, it’s a Sitcom where they take mundane things in everyday life and obsess over them comedically.
Some people find it doesn’t withstand the test of time and if you never saw it in the 90/00s you might not really care for it.
Especially in the earlier seasons, what Seinfeld is about should be apparent: There's a little standup skit performed by Jerry Seinfeld, with the usual ridiculous circumstances you'd hear in a standup skit. The episode that follows shows exactly how Jerry "came up with" the idea for the standup the episode opened with.
Instead of "about nothing," Seinfeld was really about answering the question people often ask: "How did you come up with that?"
Of course, as the show developed and real-life inspirations started to be exhausted, the show adopted more and more outlandish sitcom ideas that weren't rooted in the real-life experiences of the writers. The standup openings were abandoned as well.
It's a classic comedy of manners, a style as old as the hills.
The "show about nothing" spiel with the implied "which is completely original and has never been done before" was true in it's demarcation from traditional sitcoms based around forced scenarios but always complete rubbish with the latter intention and a brilliant marketing line.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunn...
>"I don't know what the big deal with Hamlet is. It's just one famous saying after another, strung together by a moldy old plot." — Old Joke
>There are certain shows that you can safely assume most people have seen. These shows were considered fantastic when they first aired. Now, however, these shows have a Hype Backlash curse on them. Whenever we watch them, we'll cry, "That is so old" or "That is so overdone".
>The sad irony? It wasn't old or overdone when they did it, because they were the first ones to do it. But the things it created were so brilliant and popular, they became woven into the fabric of that show's genre. They ended up being taken for granted, copied and endlessly repeated. Although they often began by saying something new, they in turn became the new status quo. It's basically the inverse of a Grandfather Clause taken to a trope level: rather than being able to get away with something that is seen as overdone or out of style simply because it was the one that started it, people will unfairly disregard it because it got lost amidst its sea of imitations even though it paved the way for all those imitators. That is, a work retroactively becomes a Cliché Storm.
>There may be good reason for this. Whoever is first to do something isn't likely to be the best at it, simply because everyone that comes after is building on their predecessors' work.
>Named after Seinfeld, which many people won't watch any more because everything about it has been copied. note Most likely will result in Fan Haters and accusations of Rule Abiding Rebels. This can also occur in countries that get the shows years after they originally come out.
>When someone attempts to make "Seinfeld" funny again in this time and age, see Reconstruction.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Reconstruction
Not to be confused with the act of thinking an old in-joke referencing a sub-culture was originally from that show (yada, yada, yada), which is called the "Seinfeld Effect" or the modern internet-meme related "Family Guy Effect".
As I reflect, I can see that with a lot of shows I thought were amazing. Humour evolves in such a fascinating way that a killer joke, even if it’s not context specific to an era, can stop being funny.
I showed my wife a bunch of flash videos from my teenage years. She just stared and I slowly came to realize: they’re just not funny anymore. I remember thinking they were such a novel concept and the humour was trying something very new. But I guess what was new and exciting then is so socially normal now that it doesn’t trigger the funny response.
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27458494
Jokes and their Relation to the Cognitive Unconscious. Marvin Minsky. AI memo No. 603. November, 1980.
https://web.media.mit.edu/~minsky/papers/jokes.cognitive.txt
>JOKES and the Logic of the Cognitive Unconscious
>Marvin Minsky, MIT
>Abstract: Freud's theory of jokes explains how they overcome the mental "censors" that make it hard for us to think "forbidden" thoughts. But his theory did not work so well for humorous nonsense as for other comical subjects. In this essay I argue that the different forms of humor can be seen as much more similar, once we recognize the importance of knowledge about knowledge and, particularly, aspects of thinking concerned with recognizing and suppressing bugs -- ineffective or destructive thought processes. When seen in this light, much humor that at first seems pointless, or mysterious, becomes more understandable.
>Introduction
>A gentleman entered a pastry-cook's shop and ordered a cake; but he soon brought it back and asked for a glass of liqueur instead. He drank it and began to leave without having paid. The proprietor detained him. "You've not paid for the liqueur." "But I gave you the cake in exchange for it." "You didn't pay for that either." "But I hadn't eaten it". --- from Freud (1905).
[...]
>In the 1912 edition Freud, still perplexed about the purpose of nonsense, recounts a joke of this form: {11}
>"A man at the dinner table dipped his hands in the mayonnaise and then ran them through his hair. When his neighbor looked astonished, the man apologized: "I'm so sorry. I thought it was spinach."
[...]
It was 'show about nothing', as they described it, about mundane minutiae. It starred three characters, including Jerry Seinfeld, who cared about nothing but themselves. Another description I read was that it was innovative in starring unsympathetic characters.
The only good thing about sitcoms is that there are only like 5 good ones, so you won’t waste too much time watching them.
Watching say Simpsons season 1 now just hits very different than when it first aired.
That's such a silly thing to say I'll assume it's intentionally provocative and not intended to be truthful rather than representing genuine ignorance.
But for anybody young enough/daft enough to take it seriously, check out
Fawlty Towers
Young Ones
Blackadder
Yes Minister
Dad's Army
Etc
Etc
That's just a quick UK list off the top of my head, I'll leave others to correct the parent comment with US (Bilko?, Cheers?, etc) and other national (Let The Blood Run Free?) suggestions...
Maybe it's the typical US = The World issue :)