In the 1990s, Seinfeld was to television what The Beatles were to music in the 1960s. The hilarious sitcom dominated the ratings, which is why many were shocked when the series ended after its ninth season. The series was still the number one comedy in America, but Jerry Seinfeld decided it was time to say goodbye, and he said The Beatles influenced his decision.
Jerry Seinfeld said The Beatles ended while they were still great
The Beatles were the most popular musical act of the 1960s and are still the most successful musical act of all time. However, The Beatles ended things in the 1970s, despite still being at the top of the music food chain. While their final album, Let It Be, wasn’t their best project, it’s still an excellent showcase of their talents.
Seinfeld was the most popular sitcom of the 1990s, and many were shocked when it was announced that season nine would be its last. It was a huge hit for NBC and continued to pull in excellent ratings for its tenure. In an interview with Oprah Winfrey for O magazine, Seinfeld wondered if they stopped at the right time. He said what influenced his decision was that The Beatles stopped without ever going downhill, meaning people loved the band the whole time they were together.
“We just ended the show,” Seinfeld explained. “I did the show for the people watching it, and I didn’t want them to say, ‘That show was great in the beginning, but…’ The Beatles created something that never trailed off. What a gift that was to their fans. If you’re into the Beatles, you loved them from beginning to end.”
Jerry Seinfeld regretted the way ‘Seinfeld’ ended
Like The Beatles, fans weren’t satisfied with how Seinfeld ended. Over 76 million people viewed the series finale, and the reviews were mixed at best. It ended with the four main cast members in jail after a series of characters they encountered throughout the show testified against them.
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During an interview at The New Yorker Festival in 2017, shared by TODAY, Seinfeld addressed the controversial finale. The comedian said his one regret was that they went too big. He admitted that comedy is often funnier when it’s “small and cheap and quick.”
“I sometimes think we really shouldn’t have even done it,” he said. “There was a lot of pressure on us at that time to do one big last show, but big is always bad in comedy.”
After so much success with Seinfeld, many wondered what the comedian’s next project would be. Outside of a few movies like Bee Movie and his show, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, Seinfeld has mainly been sticking to his roots with standup comedy. In an interview with Popeater, Seinfeld said he hasn’t done another sitcom because he doesn’t think he can top his legendary series.
“We killed ourselves to make those shows as good as they were,” Seinfeld recalled. “We weren’t just hanging around. People always say, ‘Why don’t you do another sitcom?’ I think, ‘If I could do another sitcom that good, yeah, sure, I’d do it.’ You can’t. I can’t.”
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