In fact, in the first episode, neither Seinfeld nor Larry David thought about what kind of comedy they wanted. The script has been changed many times (so it looks a bit messy in the broadcast and publication), and many of the funny sections that were originally planned have been cut out in the final version (for example, the dog of Kramer was originally intended to introduce a passage about Song Fei The dog’s talk show, but later Seinfeld’s joke was cut off, but the dog’s footage was retained.) In fact, the name was not thought up when it was broadcast (now the name of Seinfeld’s chronicle is later Internal name). So naturally, when the episode was piloted at 21:30 on Wednesday, July 5, 1989, the ratings were very poor, and more than 80% of the audience did not watch the show, and the competitors in the same period were just one of the CBS stations. An old crime drama and a new ABC comedy genius doctor (Neil Patrick Harris, David.E.Kelley). To make matters worse, since then, the NBC station's in-depth research report on the audience watched was the most pessimistic in a few years. The audience did not like the episode: "I don't understand the character setting", "I think Seinfeld’s talk show clip is okay, but Why do you always use boring restaurant conversations to intervene". The critics (those who noticed that it was broadcast) also responded poorly to the episode. Therefore, NBC station decided not to order the show. The producer wanted to sell it to FOX, which did not have a fixed program every night. However, FOX was unwilling to accept the ratings report and sample episodes. "It is very likely that, like many other unlucky new dramas, it is still dead. Julia Luis-Dreyfus said that before she signed, she didn't even know that the first episode of the show had already aired.
At this time, another person who was very important to the show appeared, Rick Ludwin, the executive director of NBC's late night show and album comedy show at the time. Maybe I like Seinfeld’s talk show, maybe I like the original script of the first episode he saw. He advocated continuing to invest in the show, but NBC had no budget, so he tried to reduce the order for the Bob Hope comedy special season from the show time he was responsible for, and cut off the last episode of the season (a 2-hour show) , Used the saved money to place the "smallest drama order in history" for "Song Fei Biography" at the time (additional purchase of 4 and a half hour single episodes, a total of 5 episodes, and the general small order has 6 episodes). But because the budget was transferred from other episodes, the money was not available until the end of the traditional autumn broadcast season. So the first four episodes were broadcasted as a summer drama after 10 months from the first episode.
But more importantly, Rick Ludwin persuaded Warren Littlefield, the president of NBC at the time, not to distribute the remaining episodes of the first season of Sein Fei Chuan until 10:30 p.m. (this was the original plan and was distributed to another new drama in the past. It was quickly cancelled due to low ratings). On the contrary, he pointed out that at the time one of NBC’s comedy pillars, "Cheers Bar Cheers" was also disastrous when it aired in the first season (the second-to-last ratings of all TV shows) , The script program is the last one), but it was already the winner of the Emmy comedy and the third most rated program in the United States. In the end, NBC decided to put these single episodes of "Sein Fei Biography" on its most important Thursday "Must See TV" schedule (Must See TV), and put it in the best time of the night, the best comedy of Emmy of the year "Cheers" Aired between "Bar Cheers" and Le Méridien's best drama "LAlaw", Cheers' effective lead suddenly increased the ratings of the last four episodes of the first season by nearly 40%, although it was far from the so-called good standard. , But the critics have begun to notice the existence of Seinfeld and shout for it. When the NBC management struggled to renew the second season, it was Rick Ludwin who pointed out that although the overall ratings of Seinfeld were average, the ratings among male audiences between 18 and 34 were not bad. In the end, NBC made a compromise decision. Give a short order for the second season of 13 episodes, but move the broadcast time back to 21:30 on Wednesday as a mid-season episode.
Another contribution of Rick Ludwin to the show is: advocating to add a more important resident female role to the show as soon as possible (the crew originally planned to upgrade the waitress in the first episode to a regular role, but later the actor mentioned one that was offended Larry David’s suggestion was fired. Originally, Larry David thought that the play did not need a resident female character). At that time, the crew funds were so tight that there was only enough to hold a casting meeting, so Rick Ludwin arranged the following candidates for that casting meeting, in addition to Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who finally got the role, and Megan Mullally (Will & Grace) and Rosie O'Donnell (the view). And Rick Ludwin himself also supervised the last 4 episodes on-site.
However, Seinfeld did not gain enough audiences. Season 2 returns to after 21:30 on Wednesday (at the same time the opponent is still the CBS crime drama, and another short-lived family comedy on ABC). The ratings of the 4 episodes that began to air are so poor, even better than the first episode. The ratings were even lower. As a result, NBC had to immediately remove "Seuffy" from the broadcast list. This stoppage lasts for 2 months. After the typical ratings "false prosperity" are confirmed as usual, many episodes are generally cut off. During these two months, we don’t know what kind of persuasion work Rick Ludwin has done to other senior NBC executives, or whether the voice of the critics has affected. In short, NBC made an unusual decision: withdraw. A comedy that occupied the fourth episode of the last four episodes of the first season of Seinfeld at that time (although the show performed nearly 20% better in that time period than in the first season of Seinfeld). Continue to support "Sein Fei Biography" back to the best broadcast time in Taiwan.
When Seinfeld returned to the time period after Thursday’s "Cheers Bar Cheers" (at the time the ratings were No. 1), its effect was more than the improvement brought by the last time period adjustment in the first quarter (more than 50%), and it was finally equal to the previous time period. It’s a comedy, but when NBC switched the season 2 finale back to the Wednesday time slot, it set the lowest ratings record for Seinfeld. Obviously, Cheers has accumulated a large audience for Seinfeld. More importantly, the second season received more reviews from critics. Song Fei's biography also began to be nominated by Emmy in this season. Song Fei was able to host the Emmy and also contributed a lot to the series, which made NBC determined to order Season 3.
Therefore, when Season 3 Seinfeld returned to its original Wednesday time slot (the opponent was the CBS crime drama and ABC’s genius doctor), although the ratings were much lower than after Cheers, it never exceeded any of the key ratings at the same time. Duan opponents, but male viewers in the 18-34 range continue to grow significantly, so at least enough to get renewal. Season 3 also has more funny story lines. Season 3 was generally praised by more critics, and it was also nominated for Best Comedy by Emmy.
However, "Sein Fei Biography" did not get rid of the problem of ratings. When ABC released its popular family comedy Home Improvement in the same period in Season 4 (the third in the ratings of the year), in the words of the NBC president himself, "(Sein Fei Chuan) was slaughtered", almost all key ratings have dropped sharply (at the same time Duan’s other competitors are Fox’s old version of Melrose Place and CBS’s other crime drama). As a last resort, NBC used the old method to save the field and moved "Sein Fei Biography" back to Cheers to be broadcast. This time slot conversion effect was greater than the previous two times. Sein Fei Biography almost surpassed the lead in some single episodes. And the fourth season is also generally considered to be the season in which "Sein Fei Biography" has completely formed its own style. Some people think that this is the best season, and relatively has the most cross-single episode storylines. Of course, after winning the best comedy of Emmy and Golden Globe in the last season, Seinfeld completely got rid of the problem of ratings and was fixed by NBC on their Thursday must-see comedy time.
In summary, you can roughly see that "Sein Fei Biography" and "Friends" are at least in the first four seasons of the big difference: in fact "Sein Fei Biography" was initially successful after the critics (or at the appeal of the critics) Only to survive and gradually gain the recognition of the audience. "Friends" is first recognized by the audience, and then slowly recognized by the critics. Although "Friends" was never able to exceed the ratings of "Sein Fei Biography" when it was broadcast.
Therefore, my advice for you to watch is as follows: If you think the first few episodes are not to your appetite, don't listen to the nonsense, "You must understand the American cultural background to find it interesting", or think that "American laughter is incomprehensible". In fact, it took a long time for American audiences to gradually accept Seinfeld’s ratings in the first three seasons. Simply put, for the version you have downloaded or bought on CD. If you have to watch from the beginning, please skip the first episode and start watching from the second episode, and be patient. In fact, I suggest you skip directly to the second season to start. The best way to watch is: if you are a male, start directly from the third season; if you are a female, you can consider starting directly from the fourth season. After seeing that you like the show all the time or if someone is not sure about it, come back and make up the first 3 seasons. You can make up episode 1 before you watch season 9. In addition, if you don’t watch many American comedies, Seinfeld is not the best introductory comedy. You can watch "Friends" first, or even "Cheers" later.
The reason for the above problem is very simple. Seinfeld is a drama quite different from other American comedies. The attractiveness of the first three seasons is mainly that it is different from other comedies and has quite a lot of experimental single episodes. On the other hand, this also answers why there has never been a series as influential as "Sein Fei Biography" so far. According to the ratings performance of the first three seasons of "Sein Fei Biography", it should have been cancelled 4 to 5 times today, and even today NBC is still willing to support a very peculiar but promising new series like the last century. They There is no such powerful leading drama and hit time slot to achieve this for a long time.
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