You couldn't do Seinfeld today.. Because it's already 2:30 and you said you were going to run to the grocery store to get some more butter and milk. Also you need to get your dad some back medicine and he lives on the other side of town and traffic usually backs up at that time of day so by the time you get home it would be dinner time. There just isn't enough time to do 180 episodes of a hit bedtime sitcom.

Ha ha. That was fun.

In fact, Seinfeld couldn't be made in 2024 because, like all shows, it was a product of its time. "Seinfeld" debuted in 1989, when Americans were growing tired of sane and predictable sitcom tropes that had been repeated for decades. Some of the most popular sitcoms of the late '80s served as works of deconstruction, taking the bland wholesomeness of classic American television and turning it on its ear. "Married... With Children" had a suburban family together, but the show's main joke was that they were all hapless, tiny a-holes who hated each other. The Simpsons saw the suburban American family as low-class, stupid and odd-looking (what with their yellow flesh).

"Seinfeld" was invented as an antidote to the sentimental blandness of traditional TV shows. Show creators Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld describe their series as "about nothing," instructing its characters not to learn lessons or share hugs. Instead, the characters were meant to be shallow and petty, eternally trapped in their angry neurosis and pathetic self-interest. In terms of its laughs, "Seinfeld" had long legs. In terms of its attitudes, Seinfeld will forever be a relic of the '90s.

In a recent interview for The New York Times MagazineSeinfeld star Julia Louis-Dreyfus was asked about the show's potential timelessness, and she also felt its magic could never be recaptured. From her perspective, however, the calcification of "Seinfeld" wasn't so much a problem as the modern TV market was unwilling to risk. Nobody, she believes, will give "Seinfeld" a chance in 2024.

Louis-Dreyfus, like the rest of us, has lived through the bitter streaming wars and admits that TV is in a strange place. A studio will go overboard spending some series with a valuable IP attached, release it to little fanfare, and then pull it from the service after just a few months (see: "Willow"). It was also revealed during the 2023 Writers' Strike that—generally speaking—companies care more about market value than ratings. There was no longer a chance for a series to start small, gather an audience over time and stay on the air for years, becoming a cultural institution.

Louis-Dreyfus remembers the loose, let's-just-laugh attitude of the early seasons of "Seinfeld," and feels that environment no longer exists. Every channel is prone to risk, and none of them seem willing to spend a penny on something that won't be successful right away. When asked if a "Seinfeld" thing could start in 2024, Louis-Dreyfus said:

"Probably not." I mean, what the hell is going on on network television anymore? When "Seinfeld" was made, it really wasn't like anything that was around at the time. It was just a bunch of losers hanging out. One main reason it wouldn't be done now is because it's hard to recognize something different, especially nowadays, everyone is afraid.

Louis-Dreyfus sure knows about hit TV shows. He won an Emmy for "Seinfeld" in 1996, an Emmy for "The New Adventures of Old Christine" in 2006 and nine Emmys for his long run on "Veep," which he helped executive produce. She will soon appear in the Marvel movie Thunder*. It looks to the future, unconcerned about the structures of the past.