Seinfeld, 30 Years Later, Part 3: Society Now!, and What Consumer, I'm The Consumer?!

The conclusion of this series marks the 30th anniversary of the end of Seinfeld’s first season, which aired on June 21, 1990. For the third part, I examine the many ways our societal norms have changed, from longer life expectancy to how we interact with each other to consumer habits.

This three part series is organized by topic:

Part One: The Un-Branding, Dunkers & Dictators, and The Mom & Pop Stores

Part Two: Hot Wizards With Many Functions, and Sweet Rides

Part Three: Society Now!, and What Consumer, I’m The Consumer?!

Society Now!

The year is 1990: you fall into a coma. You wake up three decades later, only to find that smoking has been banned in buildings and public spaces, no one’s running away to join the circus, and you’ll never need to walk out your door to rent a movie again.

Bank Tellers
Online and mobile banking options for customers are causing the bank industry to contract drastically. So much, that the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts a loss of nearly 60,000 jobs over the next decade.

Soviet Cable Guys
This episode aired in the spring of 1991, merely months before the USSR collapsed. Since the Soviet Union no longer exists, that term is no longer used. Seinfeld was for the most part contemporary, and USSR’s dissolution was addressed later when Elaine dated a Communist.

Public Smoking
Up until public awareness of the dangers of second hand smoke became prevalent, you could pretty much find a cigarette receptacle in every building lobby and an ashtray on every restaurant table. Today - and especially depending on state laws - smokers have been flicked into the ashbin of society.

Social Services
The days of reporting to a case worker in person at the unemployment office are long gone, as most government services are handled electronically or over the phone. Rules are different by state, but as an example - mine only requires “reporting in person at least once if directed”.

Personal Ads
Back in the day, personal ads in the paper were displayed in small print and severely limited by character count. Today, with the availability of online (often, free) advertisements, dating apps and wide use of multimedia, the options for meeting a woman of your dreams with a pinkish hue are countless.

Handwritten Letters
As with everything in the digital age, handwritten letters are, quite literally, becoming a lost art. Who’s going take the time to steal from Neil Simon and stick it in the mail when you have YouTube?

Murphy Brown
The show where Kramer had a brief cameo as her secretary coincidentally ended its run concurrently Seinfeld, in May 1998. And by further coincidence, who was the last secretary Murphy fired on the show? Bette Midler, fresh off her broadway hit Rochelle, Rochelle! Also of note was an attempted revival in 2018, lasting only one season.

LA Law & Cheers
Cheers ended its run in the spring of ’93, and LA Law wrapped up its series a year later. The plus side is, Corbin Bernsen and George Wendt don’t get hassled nearly as much by opinionated little bald guys, these days.

Cuban Cigars
These have been illegal in the US for so long that their rarity and exclusivity has been adapted into the cultural lexicon (often as a punchline) for generations, thanks to a trade embargo against Cuba in 1962. Today you can bring them into the country (albeit not for commercial sale), and you won’t even have to give up your jacket.

Daytime Soap Operas
This dying genre went from fifteen series in its heyday to only four surviving, and struggling for viewership. Its nomenclature literally implicates homemakers as the target audience; between more women than ever in the workforce and countless options for media consumption, soap operas are now a niche. Kramer can still tune in to The Bold and the Beautiful, though.

Life Expectancy
In Seinfeld’s standup routine for The Old Man episode, which aired in 1993, he mentions that life expectancy is 72. In a mere quarter century that statistic has risen by five years. Improvements in health information/awareness, medical technology, sanitation and nutrition options have drastically improved the quality of life for human civilization.

Barber Poles
Barber poles date back to the Middle Ages, when they were used as signage to advertise bloodletting. In the modern era they signify barber shops, but their use - and barber shops, themselves - have seen a decline in recent decades. Today, only one manufacturer of barber poles exists in America.

Paperwork Desk Job
Today, 3 out of 4 jobs require computer proficiency. Physical paper has largely become a byproduct of the digital workspace, and desk jockeys who idle away the hours shuffling paperwork have gone the way of flexible accordion-style folders.

Cigar Store Indians
A relic of American trade that originates in the 17th century, traditional use for cigar store indians actually began to decline well over a century ago. Today they are increasingly rare antiques, and are considered offensive by some American indians.

Organized Religion
Religion has played a central role in much of society’s life for millennia, and with a sharp decline in attendance over the past couple of decades it’s millennials who are absent. And it may be partly due to a lack of hats that convey the solemn religious look you want in a faith.

Miss America Pageant
Along with live TV broadcast in general, viewership of the pageant has taken a waist cincher the the tens of millions who tuned in, in its heyday. And, after nearly a century as a cornerstone feature, swimsuits are no longer part of the competition as of 2018. Now, more than ever, poise counts!

Video Supply & Demand
Video stores have largely been supplanted by streaming services, so George could easily rent Breakfast At Tiffany’s at any time instead of imposing on a guy named Joe and his Audrey Hepburn-enthusiast daughter.

Circus Elephants
A defining feature of circuses over two centuries, elephants were finally retired in 2016 from performance partially due to declining ticket sales and animal activism. The good news is, Communists no longer blame them for all the ills of society.

Macy's Thanksgiving Parade Woody Woodpecker
The balloon that encapsulates Mr. Pitt’s childhood wish fulfillment was deemed a troublemaker due to its age and excessive size, so it was retired in 1998. Footage of the balloon collapsing during the 1993 parade was shown briefly, during its episode.

Melrose Place
This soap opera ran nearly concurrently with Seinfeld, from 1992 to 1999 and was brought back as a rebooted series, which only lasted one season. No man would ever want to admit they watch it, because it's too stupid to confess to.

American Gladiators
The competition reality show aired for several years in the 90's, and was revived for two seasons a decade later. Seth Rogen tried to bring it back for its 30th anniversary, but that doesn't appear to have gained traction... they should have signed Little Jerry Seinfeld. Big mistake!

Plot points ruined by cell phones

As mentioned in Part 2, cell phones and the internet’s ubiquity have been so transformative that many Seinfeld plot lines no longer make sense. The difference in how we communicate from three decades ago is significant enough to deserve its own section.

Finding Someone
Many of Seinfeld’s plots involved missed connections while trying to meet someone in public. Today Jerry could have called the Bubble Boy’s dad for directions, he would have been able to find the NYU reporter at the coffee shop, and the entire plot of The Movie & The Parking Garage episodes would not happen.

Communications Mobility
With a phone in your pocket, no one is sneaking into your apartment to delete messages off your answering machine, and there is no waiting in line at pay phones.

Information Ubiquity
Caller ID would have prevented many of Jerry’s dating snafus, the argument over Joe DiMaggio could probably be resolved with a photo, and Uma Thurman’s number wouldn’t have been lost on a misplaced dry cleaning ticket.

REFERENCES

What Consumer, I’m The Consumer?!

With the digitization of media, we have more convenience and choice of content than ever. A few decades ago it you’d drop off a roll of film at the one hour photo store on your way to the mall to shop for the world’s cheapest air conditioner. Today, you take a photo, post it to your Instagram account, then comparison shop A/C units on Amazon. Done.

Giant Floor Speakers
This is more of an observation of the absurdity of giant floor speakers in a tiny New York apartment; especially when the occupant is a mild mannered guy in his mid-30’s. Before Seinfeld’s speakers devolved into amorphous, blue-sided boxes in later seasons, he rocked a pair of JVC Zero 6’s.

Newspapers, Magazines
Periodicals are still having trouble adapting to the digital landscape, and newspapers in particular have been decimated by easy online access to news content, as evidenced by dwindling ad revenue and employment. Cracked Magazine ceased production in 2007, and Penthouse is nearing extinction.

TV Commercials
TV commercials are far less a water cooler topic than ever. So today, if you ruin a relationship over “Pants! Pants! Pants! Pants!”, it’ll be due to an ad you both saw online.

Shopping Malls
Shopping malls killed Main Street in the 80’s, and today are getting their due by Amazon. There are 1100 malls in the US today (almost 50 within driving distance of Manhattan), and a quarter of those are projected to shut their doors within the next five years.

Publishers
While traditional publishers have managed to stay profitable in the digital era, the industry is increasingly consolidating. Now that authors have more options than ever for getting their work to market, the days of making a living being solely dependent on getting signed by a publisher are over.

Writing Checks
With the rise of electronic payments and digital wallets, writing a physical check (particularly to pay bills) is becoming as antiquated of a concept as crank start motors. For me, the turning point was the 50¢ postage stamp.

Popcorn Popper
Popcorn poppers have at best been a niche consumer appliance since the 80’s, after microwave popcorn came to market. Which, conversely, makes a home intrusion in the middle of the night to borrow a microwave even more rare.

Video Stores
In their heyday, you could just about find a video store in every neighborhood across the country. Barely 10% of the industry’s peak survive today… with it goes the shared experience of browsing movies, and a welcome end to rewind fees.

Milk Cartons
Milk sold in paper cartons was not at all uncommon through the 80’s, and has long since been superseded by plastic jugs. Just look through the dairy aisle at your local grocery… paper has mostly been relegated to organic and specialty products.

TV Guide
Far from its peak circulation, “the world’s most thrown reading material” is no longer a staple on coffee tables across America. You can count obsessive collectors among the remaining subscribers, though.

Newsstands
Newsstands used to be a prominent fixture on the New York scene, but today you’ll have to hunt to find one of the only 200-300 remaining (less than one-fifth in operation from half a century ago).

Greeting Cards
Today, you’re far less likely to get a paper greeting card for doing someone a favor than you were a few decades ago. The “little Hallmark hooker” is still around, but has turned to e-cards for its tricks.

3D Posters
In the 90’s, you couldn’t walk through a mall without running into a vendor at every corner selling 3D posters. The fad has long since passed, although they’re still readily available anywhere from YouTube to Amazon.

Moviefone
“….Why don’t you just tell me the name of the movie you selected?!” Moviefone may have ceased operation as a phone service in 2014, but as with everything in the digital age, there’s an app for that.

Twenty Dollar Bill
The 90’s series $20 bill that George Costanza spent an entire episode obsessing over won’t be found in your wallet today, as the Federal Reserve says they only last about eight years in circulation.

Cable Subscriptions
Cable TV services are bleeding subscribers at an accelerated rate as content creators and consumers are cutting out the middle man in favor of greater selection and pricing. You’ll still have to wait for the cable guy to show up “between 2 and 6” for broadband internet service, though.

Currency
The past decade has seen a significant increase in electronic transactions with vendors and businesses, including cryptocurrency and digital wallets. While cash is still king for small transactions, payment in pennies is another story.

One Hour Photo
With a digital camera in everyone’s pocket, one hour photo stores are doomed to extinction. There were around 3000 throughout the country during Seinfeld’s run, and now less than 200 exist.

Arcade Games
Sure, you may find an antiquated arcade game collecting dust in the corner of a sad little pizzeria. But the arcade joints you used to hang out at for hours on end, pumping quarters in machines? They’re now in your pocket or home console.

REFERENCES

That’s a wrap!

The past few decades have been monumental for human civilization, with ways we do business and how we consume having been completely transformed by the Digital Age. While entire industries have been forced to either evolve or become extinct, we have more conveniences, more ways to communicate, more options for making transactions, an order of magnitude of choices for entertainment and nearly limitless information available at our fingertips.

So it strikes me as fortuitous that Seinfeld made its mark right on the cusp of a gigantic societal transition. Considering the way the show was written and performed, I seriously doubt that it could be made today… regardless, there will certainly never be another like it. The “situations” part of this sitcom may be a snapshot of the time it lived in, but its brand of humor is really one for the books.

References

Society Now!
Bank tellers are a dying profession
Technology is eliminating bank teller jobs
Workplace smoking laws
New York Anti-Smoking Law
Seinfeld “The Baby Shower” episode air date
Soviet Union collapse milestones
Cell phone subscriptions by year
Mobile phone ownership over time
Missouri unemployment eligibility requirements
Decline of newspaper ad revenue
Decline of handwritten letters
Decline of cursive handwriting
Murphy Brown broadcast history
Cheers broadcast history
LA Law broadcast history
Updated legality of Cuban cigars
The death of soap operas
Young And The Restless leads dying genre
Life expectancy data over 150 years
Life expectancy interactive timeline
History of barber poles
Legacy of barber poles
Decline of barber pole sales
Decline of the traditional barber shop
Barber shops have been declining for four decades
How computers have changed the labor market
Computer skills are a must in the modern workforce
Professional workforce by the numbers
History of the cigar store indian
Some consider cigar store indians offensive
Church membership sharply declined in two decades
Millennials are leaving religion
Miss America viewership decline
Miss America ends swimsuit competition
DVD sales drop over 86% in 13 years
The circus says goodbye to elephants
Ringling Bros bids farewell
Retired Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade balloons
Woody Woodpecker balloon no longer meets size restrictions
Woody Woodpecker balloon collapse footage
Melrose Place broadcast history
Melrose Place reboot broadcast history
American Gladiators broadcast history
American Gladiators reboot broadcast history
American Gladiators shopped around for 2nd reboot

What Consumer, I’m The Consumer?!
How technology is changing the publishing industry
Book publishing industry trends
What big publishing consolidation means for authors
Circulation and revenue falls for newspaper industry
Employment trends in newspaper and periodicals publishing
RIP Cracked Magazine
Penthouse Magazine is still in print
How New Yorkers are fighting to save newsstands
Greeting cards lose sales in the digital age
Greeting card chain Papyrus closes all stores
JVC Zero 6 floor speakers
Mobile ad revenue passes traditional broadcast in 2018
TV ads decline, digital growth soars
The death of malls is about more than shopping
The spectacular decline of checks
The rise of mobile payments is an unstoppable trend
Microwaves pushed popcorn poppers out of the market
Microwave oven market approaching $13 billion
The trend away from paper to plastic milk containers
TV Guide stays profitable by cutting circulation
History of the TV Guide empire
Example of stereograms
Stereogram posters
Moviefone hangs it up for good
$20 bill, 1990-1998 issue design and security features
$20 bill design, 2003 – present
Cable TV sinks as streaming services soar
Cable TV loses 3.2 million subscribers in 2018
Federal Reserve Payments study on noncash payments
Statistics on the rise of cryptocurrency
Cash payments are losing dominance
There are less than 200 one hour photo stores in the US
Streaming killed video store chains
The life and death of the American arcade
The last arcades of New York City

Seinfeld, 30 Years Later, Part 3: Society Now!, and What Consumer, I’m The Consumer?!

Society Now!

Plot points ruined by cell phones

What Consumer, I’m The Consumer?!

That’s a wrap!

References

Chris Mattingly

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