Seinfeld Vision - Reception

Reception

"SeinfeldVision" brought in an average of 7.33 million American viewers, making 30 Rock the sixtieth most watched series of the week. This episode was the second highest-rated episode of the series, after "Pilot", which garnered 8.13 million viewers. This episode achieved a 3.4/9 in the key 18–49 demographic, a series high in that category. The 3.4 refers to 3.4% of all 18- to 49-year-olds in the U.S. and the 9 refers to 9% of all 18- to 49-year-olds watching television at the time of the broadcast, in the U.S.

Jeff Labrecque of Entertainment Weekly wrote that "SeinfeldVision was a clever and ironic way to incorporate Seinfeld." Matt Webb Mitovich of TV Guide said that " was a solid start to the new, fought-for season" and that it did have "some great, great moments." Despite this praise, Webb Mitovich criticised Kenneth and Tracy's "office wife" storyline saying that "we've seen this shtick before on countless other sitcoms, so it was a bit empty and filled with 'easy' jokes." Criticism was also received regarding the "striped outfit... it didn't work. No," referring to a joke involving Jenna trying to distract the TGS writers from her newly gained weight. Lisa Schmeiser of Television Without Pity graded this episode as a "B+." Rick Porter of Zap2it thought that this episode "started off second season on a pretty strong note." Porter said that this episode wasn't the best episode of 30 Rock but it was still "one of the sharpest and wittiest comedies on television." Bob Sassone of AOL's TV Squad wrote that "SeinfeldVision" "was a really funny beginning to the second season." Sassone also notes that the appearance of Seinfeld did not feel like stunt casting. He also said that the joke about Jerry being able to buy NBC for $4 million was "one of the many reasons this show." Rob Owen of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote that this episode "proves the low-rated show's best comedy Emmy win was no undeserved fluke." Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger described this episode as "really funny" and thought that "everyone is played in a style that's believable within ." Linda Stasi of The New York Post said that "the on-going story of the regulars that had me laughing so hard I almost fell out of bed." Jake Brooks of The New York Observer thought that this episode was "a rather poor 22 minutes of television (well, only portion of it, the rest was pretty great)." Robert Canning of IGN said that "30 Rock delivers a fantastic episode to open the season. Let's hope they can also deliver an audience to keep this great show on the air." Canning also awarded this episode a rating of 9.4 out of 10. Brian Lowry of Variety said that it "neatly highlights this series' strengths and weaknesses, elevated by moments of inspiration and Alec Baldwin's brilliance and leavened by considerably-less-flattering silliness." Alessandra Stanley of The New York Times thought that "SeinfeldVision" "is mostly a reminder that even the most talented actors and writers sometimes slip under pressure." Seinfeld was criticized as using his appearance in this episode as a plug for his upcoming feature film Bee Movie. Seinfeld, NBC and General Electric stated that this was done as metahumor.