It recently occurred to me that the TV series Seinfeld has been off the air for more years than it aired. It officially aired from 1989 to 1998, or for 9 seasons. It's now been OFF the air for 12 years.
There was a time when anyone in the country could say, "Remember that time that Kramer..." or "no soup for you!" or whatever the line was, and everyone in the room knew exactly what you meant? You could say that someone danced like Elaine, and everyone knew that was not a compliment. Or, if you live within my circle of the fundraising community, you could talk about supporting The Human Group, and everyone knew that was George Costanza's charity that he made up so he could collect donations at work and keep the money for himself.
Those days are gone. Think about it: this year's high school graduates were age 6 when Seinfeld went off the air. And unless their parents thought that Seinfeld was a great thing to expose their kindergarteners and 1st graders to, they probably never saw it in primetime.
What's the new show that everyone knows about, that everyone knows the characters to or the lines from? The only one I can think of which came up after Seinfeld is American Idol, but that one isn't really a story line, or characters that are consistent from year to year. I do know some people who can tell you about Lakisha from season 6, or can recount all of Sanjaya's hairstyles. Not the same as a comedy series which unites people around storylines, though.
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