I saw an ad for Seinfeld reruns the other day that referred to the series as “the greatest show of all time.”  It got me thinking about the importance of characters.  I stopped watching Seinfeld several years before it went off the air.  For me, the characters became uninteresting.  They became so caricatured that I couldn’t identify with them anymore.  No matter how abnormal that a character becomes, the audience should be able to see the world through their eyes.

Now this doesn’t necessarily hold true for all the characters, but there has to be one central character that holds onto some self-awareness.  In the beginning of the show, that was Jerry.  But eventually he became as goofy as the others.  There was nobody to view the other characters through and they stopped being endearing.

Let me give you a current example– my favorite show Big Bang Theory.  Sheldon is so out there that he is a constant comedy foil, but if we didn’t have Leonard to view Sheldon through, he would be far less enjoyable.  Leonard has his own foibles, but he has self-awareness.  He’s a nerd, but he knows he is, and he knows what makes him one.  Sometimes he doesn’t want to be one, but he knows he always will be.  We can laugh at Sheldon, but we need Leonard to appreciate them both.