Jokes On You
In 1989, the pilot episode of a show about the mundane lives of four selfish New Yorkers aired to lukewarm and sometimes blistering reviews.
Warren Littlefield, a former NBC executive, said “In the history of pilot reports, Seinfeld has got to be one of the worst of all time. I have it next to my desk; it says ‘overall evaluation: weak.” Seinfeld would struggle with the ratings game until it’s third season when it was placed in the slot after Cheers. Ultimately, the initial reception was much ado about nothing.
After finding product-market fit, Seinfeld would take off with blistering and not so lukewarm results. Earning an average of $200 million a season in ad revenue for NBC. Seinfeld went on to make Littlefield and NBC a lot of money. The show earned $3.1 billion in syndication fees with an unprecedented five rounds of syndication. From flop to massive success. From critically unacclaimed to commercially successful.
In 1985, one of the most storied brands in the country had to reinvent itself. It’s 100 year old product was beset by a competitor who was stealing market share. In blind taste tests customers taking one or two sips clearly favored the competitors sweeter taste profile.
The storied Coca-Cola company launched New Coke on the basis of these taste tests and it’s customers roundly rejected it. What should have worked in theory was a massive failure in practice.
Two groups of inventors drew entirely different results from their experience with a beta test of their product. What accounts for the difference?
The first Seinfeld episode had significant input from the networks creative team and changed the feel that Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld envisioned. The network team operated like cooks using known formulas for creating sitcoms to add their stamp on the show. For instance, the intro music was a cheesy jazz riff common with other sitcoms. David and Seinfeld were chefs that new how to work from first principles to create comedic delight. Too many cooks in the kitchen can stifle a chef.
Coca-Cola over-relied on formulas in assessing the output from the taste test. Sure, customers without context may prefer a sweeter drink, but for everyday drinking Coke and it’s storied brand outperforms. Somehow the company had lost sight of why many customers love the brand.
Among entertainers, comedians are especially innovative. They are constantly beta testing jokes with live audiences to understand what works and what doesn’t. They understand which critics to listen to, their paying audience, and they ignore external critics that are paid by newspapers pass judgement on someone else’s craft. When a critic leaves a show and gives it a low rating, the comedian doesn’t care. Jokes on you. You can’t take the laughs back.
Notes:
[1] I borrowed the concept of the cook and the chef from Tim Urban of WaitButWhy.
