"I was in the pool!"

Seinfeld was one of the big surprises of the 1990's. Not only did it come from the states, (Very few genius comedies do) but at first glance it looks like a standard U.S. sitcom of whose format has hardly changed in 50 years. And lets face it, the best they can do is raise a smile.

It is difficult to say what makes Seinfeld leap into the same league as Fawlty Towers or The Simpsons, (They could never be compared, but they are in the same league.) It's not the brilliantly defined characters that each and every episode contains, because many lesser sitcoms have had that. It's certainly not because of Jerry Sienfeld's comic genius. (As good as he is.) I suppose it's because the stories are so ridiculous, the characters are so fickle and there reactions to every day situations are so stupid, it's like they took my life and put it right up there on the small screen.

The upshot of which is you are guaranteed to be killing yourself laughing by the end of each and every episode. I guess this is why it makes it so hard to define the genius of the show because I have little idea of how other people view it.

One of the interesting points to raise about the show is that, if anything Jerry is the comedic straight man who is surrounded by an escalating scale of comedy characters. (This must be a first for any comedy) These including George and his family, Elaine, Newman and the superb Michael Richards as Kramer.

I must raise my hat to the cast and crew of the show for producing a live action show that is as good as, if not better then anything us British have produced in the 90's.