The death of the multi-camera sitcom

Until then, a sitcom usually functioned like a filmed play, with multiple cameras in fixed positions capturing the action of a sitcom taping, usually in front of a live audience.

But as time passed by, Seinfeld inserted even more single-camera sequences into the action and it broke up its stories into smaller and smaller pieces, presaging the joke-a-second pace that most single-camera sitcoms run at today.