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Netflix may be spending hundreds of millions creating new original content to draw in more subscribers, but its flashiest most hyped-up show for 2021 -per the company’s own admission- is none other than Seinfeld, once the legendary sitcom starts streaming in October.
Funnily enough, Netflix had actually acquired the streaming rights to Seinfeld two years ago, reportedly paying more than $500 million to secure all 180 episodes for five years after Seinfeld left Hulu, Amazon Prime Video UK, and the other services that had the show for all these years. The news will see Seinfeld move in with Jerry Seinfeld's comedy specials for the streamer, which will bookend the series at least until Jerry’s Pop-Tart movie premieres.
Considering Seinfeld's massive cultural impact, Netflix delivered its official trailer in tune with the series’ signature humor, being quite proud of the chance it’ll be taking on the young comedic talents of Seinfeld and Larry David starting October 1. “This is the first time we’ve taken a risk of this nature, going all-in on nine seasons at the jump”, read Netflix’s very real press release, a sentiment that was echoed by Jerry, who complimented the company by admitting “It takes a lot of guts to trust two schmucks who literally had zero experience in television when we made this thing.” Truly as meta as it gets for Seinfeld.
Unlike in previous instances, Netflix’s Seinfeld contract encompasses worldwide streaming rights, so as it happened with Neon Genesis Evangelion, the best episodes of Seinfeld will be available to each of its 209 million subscribers from day one. After both Friends and The Office left Netflix, Seinfeld will take up Netflix’s “vintage” spot, which is of crucial importance since these two were consistently among its most-watched content.
The press release does capture Seinfeld's story of unlikely success, which went from barely being picked up by NBC in 1989 to garnering a cult-like following that made it the most successful TV series the world had seen before Friends. Although isn’t hasn’t aged perfectly, Seinfeld holds up fairly well by retaining all the charm of being “a show about nothing” that produced jokes that are still the stuff of memes up to this day, in large part due to Seinfeld's unique cast of characters.
Seinfeld's arrival on Netflix could spell a streaming revival for the show, since aside from Julia Louis-Dreyfus being new to MCU and all of her recent work, most have continued working in smaller roles, with Jerry Seinfeld mostly focused on stand-up comedy, writing, and producing works like Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.
Seinfeld's full nine seasons will be exclusively available on Netflix starting October 1, 2021.
Source: @netflix|Twitter