WHINE-FELD

I liked Seinfeld as much as the next person (up until that last episode, that is--that was just plain weak). But then last Thursday, the NBC viewer was “treated” to a 20-minute “Special Seinfeld Event” that turned out to be a commercial for American Express featuring the eponymous comedian and his hero/god/road buddy Superman.

The reason I’m just kvetching about this now is that it’s been re-airing in shorter segments and annoying the crap out of me as it does. As the comedian might have said in his late TV show, “What is the deal??”

Is a commercial “an event”? I’m enough of a television-lover to consider certain TV show episodes a “television event,” but not a commercial. Especially not a dumb commercial. That’s just an annoying waste of my time. That time represents valuable moments I could have spent flipping between WE, Oxygen and Spike TV. I could have eavesdropped on an entire date between two dysfunctional singles on Blind Date. I could have read one-fifth of an article in the New Yorker. I could have perused the newest entries on some of my favorite blogs and maybe begun to formulate a clever comment. I could have boogied to that song that makes the old man on the Six Flags bus freak out groovaliciously (“Hey now, hey now, hear what I say now, happiness is just around the corner…”)

Jerry, don’t waste my time. I know where you live. Literally.

WHINE-FELD

I liked Seinfeld as much as the next person (up until that last episode, that is--that was just plain weak). But then last Thursday, the NBC viewer was “treated” to a 20-minute “Special Seinfeld Event” that turned out to be a commercial for American Express featuring the eponymous comedian and his hero/god/road buddy Superman.

The reason I’m just kvetching about this now is that it’s been re-airing in shorter segments and annoying the crap out of me as it does. As the comedian might have said in his late TV show, “What is the deal??”

Is a commercial “an event”? I’m enough of a television-lover to consider certain TV show episodes a “television event,” but not a commercial. Especially not a dumb commercial. That’s just an annoying waste of my time. That time represents valuable moments I could have spent flipping between WE, Oxygen and Spike TV. I could have eavesdropped on an entire date between two dysfunctional singles on Blind Date. I could have read one-fifth of an article in the New Yorker. I could have perused the newest entries on some of my favorite blogs and maybe begun to formulate a clever comment. I could have boogied to that song that makes the old man on the Six Flags bus freak out groovaliciously (“Hey now, hey now, hear what I say now, happiness is just around the corner…”)

Jerry, don’t waste my time. I know where you live. Literally.