Acquired
01:54:46 · David Rosenthal
[01:54:46] S1: Yep. Yep. So broadcast standards lets it through, and then sales calls up. And they're like, are you out of your mind? You know, we have to we have to tell the advertisers what their spots are gonna run against. And Warren says, alright. Well, let's let them keep going. We'll get a rough cut of the edit before we have to put it on air. So the rough cut comes in. They give it to sales. Sales shares it with the advertisers. They come back and they say, hey. We've got a bunch of advertisers that are gonna pull out. They're not okay with this. We're gonna have to cut the rates for this episode to backfill to get enough people in last minute, enough new sponsors to fill the episode. Warren says, okay. How about this? There are these cable networks out there, MTVs out there. They've got this same kind of audience. They're killing it with a bunch of alcohol companies as sponsors and, you know, Nike sponsoring them. What if you guys go to all the advertisers on MTV and say, hey, we've got an opportunity to get you into Seinfeld this week? Which they do, and they fill the episode. And that's how sales allows it to go through. For all the advertisers that didn't pull out the regular sponsors that stuck with the episode, they end up having leather bound copies of the script printed, autographed by the cast, sent out as a thank you for sticking with us. And then the episode airs. There's no protest. It's great. It becomes the first catchphrase moment for the show. Master of my domain. Are you master of your domain? Yep. It completely changed the rules for Seinfeld.
01:56:33 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[01:56:33] S0: And it cemented Seinfeld as a water cooler conversation show. Yes. This was something you were gonna share with your friends. [01:56:39] S1: You sure as hell were gonna talk about this the next day. [01:56:42] S0: Yeah. [01:56:43] S1: So many years later in 2009, TV Guide did a ranking of the greatest television episodes of all time. This episode was ranked number one. [01:56:57] S0: Yeah. Of course. So had they moved to Thursdays yet at this point? [01:57:00] S1: No. No. No. They're struggling. They're getting the pants beaten off of them by home improvement here on Wednesday nights. This is, like, the crucible moment for the show. So right after this is when NBC makes the decision. They say, alright. This is magic. We were right about this show that it's just special. We're gonna have to bet on this. We're gonna make this our future. We're gonna move it to Thursday right now. We're gonna air it after Cheers. And then when Cheers goes off the air after this season, Seinfeld is taking our top slot. [01:57:37] S0: If it performs. This is Yep. The Which, of course, Larry David, he's furious about this. [01:57:43] S1: Yes. Yes. [01:57:45] S0: His quote is, if they didn't watch us on Wednesdays, I don't want them watching us on Thursdays. We've earned this weird niche audience that is our people. And you're just about to, like, blast us out to the mass public. Yeah. Just gonna go right from Cheers into Seinfeld. They're gonna get hit by a mental bus.
01:57:45 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[01:57:45] S0: His quote is, if they didn't watch us on Wednesdays, I don't want them watching us on Thursdays. We've earned this weird niche audience that is our people. And you're just about to, like, blast us out to the mass public. Yeah. Just gonna go right from Cheers into Seinfeld. They're gonna get hit by a mental bus. [01:58:03] S1: Yes. Famously, that was Larry's reaction. And equally famously, this is why they were such a great partnership. Jerry's response to NBC about the move to Thursday night was, thank you very much. We will take the new time slot. [01:58:19] S0: Yeah. Good business decision. [01:58:21] S1: Yes. Yes. [01:58:22] S0: It is interesting thinking about Larry's reaction here. So part of it is, like, just this purist because he's a purist in so many ways. And he's got the element of George Costanza. He's not as pathetic as George is. No. I think that's a fair... George, they've amped up the pathetic dial to eleven. But he does have the sort of duality in him that George has, which is thinking he's the greatest thing to ever walk planet Earth. And George is not, but Larry kind of is, but coupled with extreme self consciousness, self loathing, and self doubt. Yes. And so to tell Larry David, like, we're gonna promote you to this giant spot, it's like, no. No. If people truly loved us, they would have sought us out and found us. I don't need these people who aren't gonna do work to watch my excellent perfect television show. [01:59:12] S1: Right.
01:59:12 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[01:59:12] S1: Right. [01:59:13] S0: And I think it is true... You know, we think about this for acquired a lot. I think there's a business strategy angle to growing slowly through word-of-mouth. It makes you more durable when you grow slowly through word-of-mouth and have a core of extreme fandom versus quick mass exposure. It's like like the quicker you go up, the quicker you go down. Whereas I think Seinfeld taking four seasons across five years to break through is part of the durability. There was, like, a real core to explode out from. [01:59:50] S1: Absolutely. That is all true. And once you make the contest, you can't go back. [01:59:57] S0: Right. It's [01:59:58] S1: true. You gotta go to Thursday night. Yep. You gotta be in the big leagues. Yep. It is a landmark moment.
01:59:58 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[01:59:58] S1: true. You gotta go to Thursday night. Yep. You gotta be in the big leagues. Yep. It is a landmark moment. [02:00:03] S0: Okay. So I never understood why Thursday nights were such a great business before or why this was such a big deal for TV. People would always talk about the Thursday night lineup, and I grew up watching friends. When I watched Seinfeld, it was more in reruns because I was born literally the month that the pilot came out. So to me, the whole arc was basically before I was of Seinfeld watching age. I've now seen every episode, but mostly in reruns. So for me, Friends was the anchor NBC show on Thursday night, and I kinda knew Thursday was the biggest night. But why? Right? Why is it different than Tuesday? I get why it's different than Friday. Friday's a weekend. Saturday and Sunday are kind of about sports or going out or living your life, but, like, why are we discriminating between days of the week? It was your last chance to reach audience before the weekend. Yep. So if you're launching a movie that's gonna come out on Friday, you need to be advertising. If you're launching a product where you wanna drive people to stores over the weekend, if you're trying to hit consumer messaging before some set of weekend activities, Thursday night was your last shot at it, and it was the most important for recency bias to land a message. [02:01:10] S1: If you're NBC itself and you wanna advertise that week's NFL matchup, yes, it is the most important night. And the Thursday night lineup on NBC was more profitable than all of the other nights combined.
02:01:10 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[02:01:10] S1: If you're NBC itself and you wanna advertise that week's NFL matchup, yes, it is the most important night. And the Thursday night lineup on NBC was more profitable than all of the other nights combined. [02:01:30] S0: What? Yes. It's that outsized? [02:01:33] S1: Yes. It was that outsized. Now part of that too was just because NBC was such a powerhouse on Thursday night. That's where their marquee shows lived. But... Wow. Because you have [02:01:44] S0: the the same amount of ad inventory you are selling each weekday [02:01:48] S1: Yep. [02:01:49] S0: Night. And Thursday's rates were high enough that it dwarfed the sales for all those other nights. Wow. Yes. Combined. [02:02:00] S1: Yes. So Seinfeld moving into this hallowed time slot is huge. Huge. And, boy, does it work. So the first week that Seinfeld moves to Thursdays in February 1993. NBC, by the way, had had the Super Bowl in January 1993. They used promos during the Super Bowl to announce the Seinfeld move to Thursday night. So they went big. [02:02:32] S0: And had they coined it must see TV yet? [02:02:35] S1: No. So they rolled out that must see TV slogan for Seinfeld as the anchor moving into Thursday nights. [02:02:42] S0: And it was what? Seinfeld, Cheers had ended. So I guess Frasier was... The spin off was just starting. I think Wings [02:02:49] S1: Right. Mad About You. There's a whole sub drama of Wings was the golden child from the comedy department at NBC. So the the actual sitcom department, were they always trying to push wings over Seinfeld.