The brilliance of 'Seinfeld'

I am a huge fan of 'Seinfeld'. In fact, it sometimes seems like the only TV show that matters. (has mattered). I love how it focuses on certain details (the meaning of 'can't see the forest for the trees, for example), and its smart but somewhat absurd cultural references (Susan's father's love letters from John Cheever, or J. Peterman, or any number of other examples I can't think of at the moment). Even the English Patient episode, while it maybe took the joke a bit too far, still made a funny point about what Manny Farber called white-elephant art.

On the other end of the pleasure spectrum, I loathe 'TMZ', the tv show, for its sheer dumbness and faux-irreverence, when it's pretty obvious that all the losers on the program are absolutely in thrall to the flibbertigibbets that are their bread and butter, and that they, a la Perez Hilton, really just want to be as close to the flame as they can get. Following assholes like Chad Michael Murray around all night sounds like my idea of hell. Actually the show would be entertaining if they ditched the contrived 'behind the scenes' staff scrums where everyone has to say "Ok, I got Michael Hasselhoff, and he's coming out of Hyde, with a gorgeous blonde on his arm, and she's like half his age, and he's seemin' like he's maybe knocked back a few, even though, like, he's supposed to have been through rehab, etc, etc, etc", as well as the lame voice-overs and stabs at humour. It's celebrity journalism for dummies, featuring hacks. For high-end gossip, Gawker or the NY Observer are far superior.