Seinfeldchanged history when it came to situational TV comedy by stripping back the medium to its bare elements and taking a self-conscious look at the essence of sitcom humor. The show’s premise was scant, as it self-referentially mocked in its fourth season. Yet it grounded itself in farcical real-life experiences more than any other comedy show had before it. The comic craftsmanship of Larry David, Jerry Seinfeld, and their extraordinarily gifted writing team, with the inimitable acting talents ofSeinfeld’s castthrown into the mix, resulted in a sitcom beyond comparison.
However, givenSeinfeld’s almost unprecedented ratings success, various TV network heads, producers, comedians, and writers actively tried to draw comparisons between their own work and the sitcom. In the mid-1990s,TV executives gambled on an array of shows touted as the nextSeinfeld. The problem was, the formula that made one of thebest sitcoms of all timecouldn’t just be copied and pasted elsewhere. Thankfully, most of the wannabeSeinfeldsthat lasted several seasons moved past the comparison by growing in different directions. But that didn’t stop others from coming along a decade later and trying the same trick.
Celebrated stand-up comic Ellen DeGeneres had tried out sitcom television before, butEllenwas different. This time,DeGeneres had a show that leaned into her observational style of comedy, while having her play a fictional version of her real-life comic persona. What’s more, as its original title,These Friends of Mine, changed becauseFriendscame along with a similar title, implies, the show gave her a set of wacky and not entirely likable friends to star alongside.
The scripted comedy seriesEllenis different from both Ellen DeGeneres' subsequent sitcom,The Ellen Show, and her later talk show,The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which is also commonly known asEllen.
If this description sounds suspiciously like a carbon copy ofSeinfeld, that’s because it was.Ellenwas ABC’s answer to Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David’s sitcomon NBC, and the two shows went head-to-head in the ratings for four years, withSeinfeldcoming out on top.
It might seem a little unfair to labelFriendswith the “wannabeSeinfeld” tag. After all, it’s a great sitcom in its own right, which developed its own distinctive style right from the get-go. But there’s no denying thatFriendswas originally pitched as a rival toSeinfeld, with more likable characters. Its basic premise about a group of friends hanging out in New York, drinking coffee, is virtually identical.
Of course, there are major differences in tone and sense of humor between the two shows. Nevertheless,Friendswas guilty of borrowing more than a few storylines fromSeinfelddown the years.
Hot on the heels ofEllen,The Drew Carey Showwas another sitcomabout a standup comedian starring as himself alongside three friends. Believe it or not, these three friends were a smart but cynical loser, an overly energetic manchild, and a female friend who later became Drew’s girlfriend.
Carey gets some credit for moving his characters out of New York’s sitcom bubble, at least.
Drew Carey was obviously a big fan ofSeinfeld’s main characters. He just wanted to put them in a more down-to-earth setting, working mundane jobs in his home city of Cleveland, Ohio.The show’s humor certainly isn’t on a par withSeinfeldat its best, but Carey gets some credit for moving his characters out of New York’s sitcom bubble, at least.
Created bySNLalumnusBrad Hall, who also happens to be the husband of Elaine Benes actor Julia Louis-Dreyfus,The Single Guyis essentially the story of a struggling writer in New York and his friends.At least Jonathan Eliot is struggling to make it bigand pay the bills, unlike Jerry Seinfeld in his eponymous sitcom.
Still,The Single Guyhad virtually nothing original to show for itself, and was openly attacked by critics for ripping offSeinfeld. Its characterSam Sloan, Jonathan’s best friend, is ultimately indistinguishable from the character traits of George Costanza. A David Schwimmer cameo as hisFriendscharacter Ross Geller only served to highlightThe Single Guy’s imitation of its contemporaries further. It lasted just two seasons before being axed.
If it was easy to see throughThe Single Guy’s straightforward replication ofSeinfeld’s premise and plot, thenCaroline in the Citytook things up a notch in the imitation stakes. The show was quite simply a mirror image ofSeinfeldwith the gender roles reversed.
As well asFrasier,Caroline in the Cityfeatured crossover episodes withFriendsandThe Single Guy, too.
The titular Caroline, played byBack to the Futurestar Lea Thompson, was a cartoonist rather than a standup comedian, but otherwise, she had everything Jerry Seinfeld had. There’s the ex-boyfriend, the failing, indebted, and misanthropic friend, the zany neighbor, andeven an equivalent character forSeinfeld’s Newman. The show shared a universe withFrasier, too, with the more-famous sitcom allowing several of its characters and actors to cameo inCaroline in the City.
Curb Your Enthusiasmis a little different from the other sitcoms on this list in that the two shows share a creator. IfSeinfeldwas Larry David’s show about nothing starring Jerry Seinfeld, thenCurbwas his show about nothing starring himself. The two sitcoms even collided whenCurb Your Enthusiasm’s ending included several parallels toSeinfeld’s finalestoryline in 2024. Still, that doesn’t make them identical.
Curbis very different fromSeinfeldin formal and situational terms, with its single-camera setup and focus on celebrity life making it a very different watch. At the same time, the two sitcoms share the same comedic thread, andDavid’s guiding hand in both is unmistakable. Perhaps he wasn’t trying to makeCurb Your Enthusiasmthe newSeinfeld, but it was certainlyhisnewSeinfeld.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphiais the 21st century’s best answer toSeinfeld, a sitcom juggernaut about a group of friends getting up to hijinks in their local neighborhood via a casual hangout spot.The show’s writers have always acknowledged their debt toSeinfeldin terms of comic style, storylines, and even specific jokes.
It’s hard to begrudgeSunnyitsSeinfeldlifts, though, given how upfront Rob McElhenney and Glenn Howerton have been about it, and how well the sitcom has taken its inspirations and run with them to somewhere completely different. Then there’s the shot-for-shot, word-for-word remake of a scene from legendarySeinfeldepisode “The Contest”, whichIt’s Always Sunny in Philadelphianails to perfection. This show isn’t exactly trying to be the newSeinfeld. It’s just repaying what’s owed.
In 2007, Sarah Silverman was one of the biggest names in standup comedy. She decided it was time to launch her own sitcom, based on a fictionalized version of herself, who wasn’t a comedian and was a nightmare to be around.
The Sarah Silverman Programisn’t quiteSeinfeldfor the late noughties, as its narrative style and humor are very different from Jerry Seinfeld’s sitcom. Yet, despiteSilverman’s own negative experience guest-starring inSeinfeld, the show borrowed the essential idea of the insufferable fake persona.
Jeff Schaffer worked onSeinfeldright up to its finale, before moving on toCurb Your Enthusiasm. He then transitioned seamlessly toThe League, an anarchic sitcom about a group of fantasy football league players who gather regularly and get one another into all sorts of trouble.
The Leaguewent somewhat under the radar at the time of its release, but it is well worth checking out if you’re a bigSeinfeldfan.
The show bears the unmistakable hallmark ofSeinfeld’s humor, which makes perfect sense when you consider that its co-creator was one of the great sitcom’s main writers. It went somewhat under the radar at the time of its release, but it is well worth checking out if you’re a bigSeinfeldfan.
Workaholicsis basicallyabout three male friends who haven’t really grown upsince they met in college. There are certain similarities to be drawn between the dynamics of Blake, Adam, and Anders in the show and Jerry, George, and Kramer inSeinfeld. Just likeSeinfeld, none of them are particularly likable.
In addition,Workaholicsmakes overt references to the cues it took fromSeinfeld, including instances where episodes have the same name as theirSeinfeldequivalent. Since the sitcom’s run started 13 years afterSeinfeldended, the style and staging of the show’s comedy is quite different from its forerunner. Traces ofSeinfeldare still visible inWorkaholics, though, nonetheless.
Seinfeld
Cast
Seinfeld is a television sitcom that follows stand-up comedian Jerry Seinfeld and his three eccentric friends, George, Elaine, and Kramer, as they navigate everyday life in New York City during the 1990s. Premiering in 1989, the series humorously explores the mundane and often trivial aspects of social interactions.
