Seinfeld ended 15 years ago today, apparently. In addition to sitting here and ruminating about how old we are now (or at least how old I'm feeling), it's worth considering just how much—and how little—the television landscape has changed in the last 15 years.
There's something pleasingly symmetrical about the fact that Seinfeld ended in May 1998 and The Sopranos debuted in January 1999. The finale of the last great network sitcom—and, make no mistake, it was the last great network sitcom*—coming just a few months before the flagship prestige drama debuted on pay cable. The end of one era, the beginning of another. You get the idea.
It's pleasing, but it's not really true. Or, at least, it's not entirely true. It's not the whole truth. Because the sad, whole truth is that the prestige dramas have no viewers and most of what's left on the networks is heavily watched crap.
At the height of its popularity, The Sopranos averaged fewer than 11 million viewers over a whole season. That would've been good for the 15th highest-rated show during the 1997-1998 season, when Seinfeld left the air. Mad Men's season premiere this year drew a paltry 3.4 million people. Breaking Bad averages fewer than 3 million viewers an episode. The Walking Dead actually does surprisingly good numbers, pulling in 12.4 million viewers for the latest season finale, but critics are unimpressed (and for good reason, as the show is bizarrely, frustratingly uneven).
The sad fact of the matter is that the networks are not only alive and kicking, they've dumbed down their fare to capture market share headed to smarter climes. Reality shows like American Idol proliferate. Sitcoms like Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men thrive. Survivor, X-Factor, et cetera. The networks have a smaller market share than they used to but they're still reaching tons and tons of people.
And it's not as if everything's golden on cable. Sure, we've got Walter White and Raylan Givens.** But we've also got Honey Boo Boo and Teen Mom Porn Stars and 300 channels of dreck drowning out FX and AMC and HBO. As I've said a number of times, we live in a golden age of great TV. But we also live in a golden age of awful TV, shows that somehow continue to discover an ever-lower common denominator. It's hard to imagine a show like Seinfeld making it today on the networks—or finding an appropriately large audience on the cable channels.
*There are other network sitcoms that have reached similar creative highs (I'm looking your way, Arrested Development), but there are none that have combined creative energy with massive audiences (or even audiences needed to sustain the shows, sadly).
**FACT: Nine out of 10 Americans would have no idea what those names mean. Keep that in time the next time we're discussing the zeitgeist. And I say this as a huge fan of both Breaking Bad and Justified.