The SEINFELD Curse (IV): A Look at LISTEN UP

https://jacksonupperco.com/2017/06/07/the-seinfeld-curse-iv-a-look-at-listen-up/

So what of the artist formerly known as George Costanza’s second attempted TV comeback? Well, if Watching Ellie paved the way for the official elimination of the “Seinfeld Curse” in our collective conscious by reinforcing how talented these individuals were (i.e. “Louis-Dreyfus deserves more success; let’s not be resistant to the idea that she can find it”), then Listen Up proved that it was a false prophecy all along. For while the dreadful The Michael Richards Show (2000, NBC) had the unenviable task of going first, it also stank to high heaven — tainting each flawed, but progressively less disastrous series to come. Yet, by the time of the 2004-2005 season, one of those watershed years in the evolution of television programming (NBC’s comedy changed as Friends and Frasier were no more, and The Office debuted; ABC rediscovered the dramedy with Desperate Housewives; CBS bid farewell to Everybody Loves Raymond), it finally seemed like everyone was now rooting against the notion of the fake curse. This false external excuse used to take blame off mediocre/faulty series for their own failings was no longer applicable — Listen Up‘s success or failure was going to have nothing to do with Seinfeld. Indeed, as it turned out, for the first time in this Wildcard series, its quality was concerned with nothing but simple mediocrity: pure, unalloyed averageness — irrespective of its lead’s Seinfeldian past. In fact, if anything, the harsh external treatment given to the prior three “cursed” shows actually benefited this series, for now the audience was actively crusading for success.