Starting off as The Seinfeld Chronicles in 1989, Seinfeld was a summer fill-in show, airing after reruns of Cheers, but quickly became a hit series and the jewel of NBC's Thursday night's "Must See TV" promotion. The series, which was pushed as a show about nothing, quickly entered the pop culture lexicon with its specific style and catchy dialog.
Seinfeld wasn't just a hit, it changed sitcoms for the decades that have followed since the series went off the air. Almost every sitcom of the last 30 years owes something to Seinfeld, but some shows wear their influence on their sleeves.
10 Curb Your Enthusiasm Wouldn't Exist Without Seinfeld
There is no version of history where Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm exists if Seinfeld wasn't a hit. David co-created Seinfeld and played a major role in giving the show its unique choice to make the main characters somewhat unlikeable, and that concept carried over to Curb where David plays a version of himself who can't seem to stop getting into fights with people. Seinfeld was so important to the creation of Curb that Curb's entire seventh season is built around the idea of a Seinfeld reunion special.
9 It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia Is The Son Of Seinfeld
While Curb Your Enthusiasm almost feels like a spin-off of Seinfeld, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia feels like the child of the hit series. Created by Rob McElhenney who developed it with Glenn Howerton, It's Always Sunny takes the Seinfeld format of focusing the show on people who are less than likable and goes to an extreme with it.
As It's Always Sunny has continued over the years, the similarities between it and Seinfeld have lessened, but the basics are still there; there is no overarching concept to It's Always Sunny, the characters are not good people, and it constantly pushes the boundaries of what can be done in a sitcom.
8 The League Is The Grandson Of Seinfeld
Created by Jeff Schaffer - who was a writer and producer on Seinfeld as well as Curb Your Enthusiasm - and Jackie Schaffer, The League isn't as open-ended of a concept as Seinfeld, Curb, or It's Always Sunny, but the influence is clear to anyone who watches.
The League follows a group of friends who are all in the same fantasy football league as they go about their not-so-ordinary lives. It's hard to look at the character Taco and not see touches of Kramer, or not catch that Pete, the main character of The League, has the same ability as Jerry on Seinfeld to somehow always come out even.
7 The Single Guy Was A Carbon Copy
Following the success of Seinfeld came a long line of what became known as "singles in the city" sitcoms, and one of the most obvious Seinfeld copies was NBC's own The Single Guy. The series, which starred Jonathan Silverman, followed the lives of struggling writer and constantly single guy Jonathan Eliot and his friends as they tried to survive life in the big city. Sandwiched between Seinfeld and Freinds in the timeslot, The Single Guy was a ratings hit, but NBC still canceled the show after the second season.
6 Difficult People Is The Underloved Seinfeld
Created by and starring Julie Klausner, Difficult People lasted just three seasons, but fans of the show still point to its greatness to this day. The series, which followed Klausner and her best friend, played by Billy Eichner, as they live their less-than-stellar lives in New York as aspiring comedians with terrible day jobs, happily shows off its Seinfeld influences in ways that few shows do, and by being so willing to play in those waters, Difficult People takes the jokes to deeper and darker places.
5 Jerry Seinfeld Has Been Open About His Feelings Of Friends
If any sitcom of the 1990s was as big as Seinfeld, if not bigger, it was Friends. The series, about six friends who lived in shockingly large apartments and rarely spoke to anyone else, was a smash hit from this start, but even Jerry Seinfeld couldn't help but notice the similarities to his own show, saying that Friends was "our show with better-looking people" and there is some evidence to back that up.
Still, that hasn't stopped Friends from making its own long-lasting mark on the pop culture sphere, and with good reason. Friends helped solidify the newer form of sitcoms that Seinfeld gave birth to.
4 Spaced Is The British Seinfeld With Geek Elements
Created and written by Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson, and with every episode directed by Edgar Wright, Spaced doesn't show off its Seinfeld influence as much as some other shows, but it is there. Spaced, a Gen-X sitcom that was obsessed with all things geek before it was cool, picks up elements of Seinfeld that many other shows never did, including the rapid talking, the non-stop quips, and the oddities of city life. Sadly, Spaced lasted just two seasons, but its creation led to Pegg and Wright making Shaun of the Dead and birthing the Cornetto Trilogy.
3 Letterkenny Is The Canadian Seinfeld
Letterkenny takes the Seinfeld format of being a show about nothing and adds in some good old-fashioned fisticuffs from time to time. Where Seinfeld is a comedic take on fast-talking city life, Letterkenny is all about slow-moving rural living.
And just like Seinfeld, Letterkenny's distinctive dialog and style have broken into the pop culture lexicon, creating sayings that fans now use in their everyday life. It seems more than likely that as time passes, Letterkenny will become a show that inspires many of the sitcoms that follow it.
2 Broad City Was A More Honest Seinfeld
Created by Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson, who also starred in the series, Broad City was a more honest look at city living than Seinfeld was. As nasty as Seinfeld could get, it never showed New York in the less than favorable light that Broad City often would while still somehow expressing great love for the Big Apple.
And while Seinfeld never dug deep into the hardships of being out of work or out of money - as George often was - Broad City made a meal of it, showcasing the comedic struggles of 20-something poverty in ways no other show ever has.
1 You're The Worst Was Actually Pretty Good
Following the lives of Jimmy and Gretchen, You're The Worst takes Seinfeld's questionably likable main character's set-up and ups it by a thousand. Jimmy and Gretchen are, as the show's title suggests, the worst. They are self-involved, self-destructive, and constantly putting their lives and wants ahead of everyone else. The series, which starred Chris Geere and Aya Cash, who would go on to wonderfully play the even more unlikable Stormfront on The Boys, lasted five seasons, managing to constantly make fun of the basics of the romantic comedy while being one itself.