The Marriage Ref

Yes, Tom Papa's affectations can be a little much sometimes. Yes, they should turn down the microphone when everyone is laughing. Yes, they should lose the dorky bit where Natalie Morales from NBC News sits in front of a computer and looks up information online. But the rest? Married people, angry at each other? Celebrities, making fun of each other? Chicken cutlets? I'm in.

The resulting half-hour offered a breezy, inexpensive approach to comedy that brought to mind the panel shows of yesteryear.

So, it's inoffensive stuff. You won't learn much, but you'll get a few laughs, and while we tend to expect a bit more depth out of Seinfeld, there's far worse out there.

Even The Marriage Ref audience is guffawing in a way that sounds fake. Some think Seinfeld can do no wrong, but what he's created here is anachronistic, flat and even mean-spirited.

The Jerry Seinfeld-produced reality show may just slide backward into the ditch and push NBC farther down into the hole....It was an underwhelming, contrived product that didn’t bode well for the hourlong version of the series.

Painful, pointless, obnoxious... I would almost rather have The Jay Leno Show back.

This show doesn't deserve a spot in daytime syndication, let alone a key position in prime time. I am serious, there were better game shows on in the 1950s when budgets were miniscule, technology was primitive and few producers yet knew how to use the medium of television.