When Seinfeld ended its nine-season run in 1998, co-creator and star Jerry Seinfeld had built up vast reserves of good will. The show had more or less reinvented the sitcom, stocked the syndication market with 180 mostly very funny episodes, and ended before suffering a serious drop-off in quality. But in the decade since, Seinfeld has been squandering all that good will at every opportunity: “Retiring” ancient stand-up bits in a tour called I’m Telling You For The Last Time; irritating the nation with his tireless promotion of the animated mediocrity Bee Movie; and short-circuiting the second season of 30 Rock by appearing in arguably the worst episode (“SeinfeldVision”) in the show’s history.
Now Seinfeld has returned to NBC with a new comedy series. Hallelujah, right?
Not so fast. In concert with former Oprah Winfrey producer Ellen Rakieten, Seinfeld is producing a reality show called The Marriage Ref. The premise has real-life couples airing their marital grievances before a panel of wise-cracking celebrities and a “referee” who will determine which person is right and which is wrong. The series is tentatively scheduled to appear as part of NBC’s fall schedule.