如果《宋飞正传》和《老友记》重出江湖.

　　Seinfeld，宋飞正传 ，美国著名电视剧。如同剧中人物乔治(george costanza)在《处女秀》(the pilot)一集里表示的，《宋飞正传》(seinfield)这一红遍美国长达十年之久的情景喜剧主题思想是“没有主题”，“什么也没有发生”。

　　故事的设定就是展示普通人的平凡生活，但其中趣事逸闻笑料不断。主人公杰瑞·宋飞(jerry seinfield)，是一个生活、表演在纽约的喜剧演员，他不是一个剧作家虚幻出来的人物，而确确实实由杰瑞·宋飞真人演绎;他的朋友乔治·克斯坦萨(george costanza)，是基于本剧的共同创造者拉里·大卫(larry david)的性格为人创造出来的，属伍迪·艾伦(woody allen)型的搞笑人物;杰瑞经常不请自到的邻居克瑞莫(kramer)则是以拉里·大卫的邻居为原型;杰瑞的好友兼前女友伊莲(elaine)是个聪明美丽伶牙俐齿的姑娘，也是以真人真事为据。这四个人在一起嬉笑怒骂结成妙剧，我们也就从中得会心莞尔甚至捧腹之乐。Would 'Seinfeld' And 'Friends' Be Popular Today?

　　NBC’s Thursday night lineup of “Must See TV” was once an unstoppable force. Starting in the ‘80s, shows like Family Ties, The Crosby Show, and Cheers lit the torch for a Thursday night of great TV. Then, in the ‘90s, Friends, Mad About You, and Seinfeld continued on with the tradition. Not only were those shows well reviewed, they brought in viewers. Seinfeld andFriends both enjoyed great ratings: Seinfeld was the highest rated show on TV in 1995 and ’98 while Friends was the most watched show in 2002. Thursday night on NBC was "Must See TV" and everyone was tuning in.

　　国家广播电台每周四晚上的喜剧之夜曾经是一股不可阻挡的洪流。从80年代起，诸如《家庭关系》，《克罗斯比秀》，《欢呼》这样的剧集就为周四的经典之夜播下了星星之火。之后的90年代，《老友记》，《我为卿狂》，《宋飞正传》这样的电视剧又传承了这一经典，当然不仅是因为这些剧集本身收到的好评颇多，也是他们总能吸引很多观众。《宋飞正传》跟《老友记》都收获了不俗的收视率：《宋飞正传》在95跟98年统治了周四的喜剧之夜，《老友记》则是02年的收视之王。NBC的周四之夜也曾是必看电视的夜晚，每个人都乐在其中。

　　Sadly for the network, the ratings have plummeted since Friends went off the air in 2004. Shows like The Office, 30 Rock, Community, and Parks and Recreation are critically adored, but they have failed to bring in viewers the way their former Thursday night brethren did. With the miserable ratings, some have claimed that Must See TV is on its way out. I often wonder if a show like Seinfeld or Friends were back on the air today (producing new episodes), would they get the ratings they used to? Given TV ratings as a whole, even a massive hit couldn’t save "Must See TV’s" ratings, even one like Seinfeld or Friends.

　　然而后来NBC的日子没那么好过了，从04年老友记结束后收视率就一落千丈。虽然一批剧集如《办公室》，《我为喜剧狂》，《社区》，《公园与休憩》逐渐占领的人们的视线，但他们并没能像前辈一样在周四的晚上抓住观众。基于那惨淡的收视率，有人甚至猜测周四必看电视的传统已经成了过去了。我也总是在想，假如《老友记》跟《宋飞正传》这样的经典如果今日再回NBC，他们还能取得当年的辉煌么?如果仅仅靠收视率来说，即使再辉煌再经典的剧集也无法挽救周四必看电视的传统，即使是《宋飞正传》或《老友记》也无能为力。

　　Seinfeld’s nine seasons ran from 1989 to 1998. The final season of the show saw an average of21.27 million viewers per episode. It was the number one ranked show on television, beating out ER, which had 19.99 million viewers per episode. With Veronica’s Closet and Friendscoming in ranked third and fourth, respectively, NBC had the four most watched shows on TV.

　　《宋飞正传》从89年火到到99年，一共九季，在最后一季每集平均收视人数达到了2127万之多。这一纪录在电视剧界至今无人能破;其次是《仁心仁术》，以每集1999万的单集收看人数屈居第二。《维罗妮卡的衣橱》跟《老友记》分列三四位。NBC则一己包办了这四部最受欢迎的电视剧。

　　In 2002, Friends averaged 24.50 million viewers per episode. It was the most watched show, and even without Seinfeld, NBC’s Thursday night was holding on strong. When Friends went off the air in 2004, NBC saw how much the show did for the network.

　　2002年，《老友记》的单集收视人数达到了2450万。作为最受追捧的一部剧，她独自撑起了NBC周四之喜剧夜的天空，甚至都没借助《宋飞正传》的帮助。当04年老友记正式完结之后，NBC才真正理解这部剧对电视台的贡献。

　　The ratings for today’s block of Thursday night comedy on NBC are dwarfed by shows likeSeinfeld: The Office’s best season (in terms of ratings) was viewed by an audience of only 9 million in 2009. The other shows are doing even worse. 30 Rock’s highest rated season came in 2009 when 7.5 million viewers tuned in. Community and Parks and Recreation fared even worse with their highest rated season topping out at 5 million and 6 million viewers respectively.

　　相比于《宋飞正传》来讲，现在在NBC周四喜剧之夜的各类剧集的收视率惨淡到简直不值一提。2009年是《办公室》最棒最成功的一季，从收视率来讲也就只有区区900万。《我为喜剧狂》收视率的巅峰也最终定格在09年的750万。《社区》跟《公园和休憩》表现得更加惨淡，最高收视人数分别只有500万跟600万。

　　In 1998, NBC had the four highest ranked shows on TV. The highest ranked show in today’s lineup of Must See TV is The Office’s came in at 52.

　　1998年，美国全国广播公司有四个排名最高的电视节目，在今天必看电视节目排行中排名最高的是《办公室》，排名第52.

　　How did Seinfeld and Friends do so well while the shows that followed have struggled so mightily? Part of it is that network numbers just aren’t what they used to be. A Vulture pieceputs some of the numbers into perspective: In 1995, 27.3 million viewers watched a rerun ofGrace Under Fire on a Tuesday in March. That’s nearly the same number of people who watched the Ashton Kutcher premiere of Two and a Half Men.

　　尽管《老友记》和《办公室》的续集表现的如此挣扎但为什么他们还是做得那么好?部分原因是网络数据只是表明他们曾经是什么，一个秃鹰组织把一些数据转化为一种愿景：1995年的3月的一个周二，两千七百三十万观众观看了《女拳》的重播，这个数字几乎与观看阿什顿·库彻主演的《好汉两个半》的首映人数一样。

　　Today’s shows are not attracting viewers the way that they used to. Part of it is the amount of other content around, part of it may be that we can watch everything online or with DVR. Seinfeld and Friends are two of the best sitcoms that TV has ever seen, but many would argue that The Office and 30 Rock could also be described as two of the best sitcoms ever.

　　现在的电视节目并没有那么好的收视率，部分原因是其他类型也越来越多，部分原因由于我们可以通过网络或DVR看到所有的节目，《宋飞正传》和《老友记》是电视剧类型中最好的情景喜剧，或许一些人会说《办公室》和《我为喜剧狂》也可以是电视剧中最好的喜剧。

　　The main knocks on today’s TV shows that fail to garner ratings is that they are too narrow in scope and don’t attract a big enough audience. Both Seinfeld and Friends were widely viewed. Guessing whether the hits of the '90s would be hits today is a tough game to play, but if The Big Bang Theory can attract and audience of 15.82 million, I think it's safe to say that Seinfeldand Friends would be in that same boat.

　　现在的电视剧收视率低的主要原因是 他们呢范围过于狭窄不能吸引到足够的观众。《宋飞正传》和《老友记》都是观众群体比较广泛类型的，猜吸引到90年代观众的电视剧是否同样可以吸引到今天的观众是一件不容易的事情，但是如果《生活大爆炸》可以有1582万的观众，我认为《宋飞正传》和《老友记》放在今天也会有这么多的观众。

　　NBC’s "Must See TV" has shows that are well reviewed, but not well rated. They need a new Seinfeld or Friends to fix that.

　　NBC“必看电视剧”是值得重看，但没得到很好的评估，这就需要一些新的《宋飞正传》和《老友记》来检验了。