"Seinfeld" is a show ostensibly about nothing, but a look back over its nine-season run reveals that the '90s American sitcom was everything. Most of all, among the show's creators, Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the series was a strange and new blend of fiction and reality. Comedian Seinfeld plays himself on the show, but not really. True New York locales serve as backdrops for unreal characters in absurd situations. Jerry and friend George (Jason Alexander) even pitch a "show about nothing" to fictional NBC executives.
Where the typical process for comedy shows involves enhancing audience laughter in post-production, the minds behind "Seinfeld" muse that they never needed such augmentation.
Though the show ended in 1998, its grip on pop culture has remained strong. Cantankerous masses still celebrate the consumer-resistant holiday of Festivus ("for the rest of us") on December 23, and one of the most popular "Seinfeld" phrases to catch...
Where the typical process for comedy shows involves enhancing audience laughter in post-production, the minds behind "Seinfeld" muse that they never needed such augmentation.
Though the show ended in 1998, its grip on pop culture has remained strong. Cantankerous masses still celebrate the consumer-resistant holiday of Festivus ("for the rest of us") on December 23, and one of the most popular "Seinfeld" phrases to catch...
- 10/10/2022
- by Anya Stanley
- Slash Film
Initially, Seinfeld met with a lukewarm response, a baffled network, low ratings and a volatile creator. So how did it become such a hit?
“Pilot performance: Weak”. That was the research report verdict on the 1989 pilot of new NBC sitcom Stand Up, written by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. The episode had excited “lukewarm reactions among adults and teens and very low reactions among kids”. The audience found it annoying that the main character, a fictionalised version of comedian Jerry Seinfeld, “needed things to be explained to him”. The lead was too wimpy, the show was “too New York” (and therefore too Jewish) and worst of all, nothing happened in it. “You can’t get too excited about going to the Laundromat”, as one respondent put it. The report’s conclusion was stark: “no viewer was eager to watch the show again.”
Fast forward nine years and the Seinfeld finale...
“Pilot performance: Weak”. That was the research report verdict on the 1989 pilot of new NBC sitcom Stand Up, written by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. The episode had excited “lukewarm reactions among adults and teens and very low reactions among kids”. The audience found it annoying that the main character, a fictionalised version of comedian Jerry Seinfeld, “needed things to be explained to him”. The lead was too wimpy, the show was “too New York” (and therefore too Jewish) and worst of all, nothing happened in it. “You can’t get too excited about going to the Laundromat”, as one respondent put it. The report’s conclusion was stark: “no viewer was eager to watch the show again.”
Fast forward nine years and the Seinfeld finale...
- 11/7/2014
- by louisamellor
- Den of Geek
Seinfeld certainly had its provocative moments (see: “sponge-worthy”). So it’s hard to imagine that there was any subject too controversial for the hit comedy. But one topic did manage to cross the line: guns.
The cast and crew refused to shoot what would have been the show’s ninth episode, “The Bet.” The second season episode, written by Borat director Larry Charles, followed the friends making a bet whether or not Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Elaine Benes would purchase a gun for protection. The narrative was inspired by a firearm purchase made by Seinfeld writer Elaine Pope.
Charles told Screen Crush...
The cast and crew refused to shoot what would have been the show’s ninth episode, “The Bet.” The second season episode, written by Borat director Larry Charles, followed the friends making a bet whether or not Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Elaine Benes would purchase a gun for protection. The narrative was inspired by a firearm purchase made by Seinfeld writer Elaine Pope.
Charles told Screen Crush...
- 7/12/2014
- by C. Molly Smith
- EW.com - PopWatch
Sunday (Nov. 18) is the 20th anniversary of the "Seinfeld" episode "The Contest." It's now considered one of the very best episodes of the series -- if not of any sitcom ever. Zap2it -- heck, the web as we know it -- didn't exist then. But if it had, this is how we would have recapped "The Contest" in our first ever Retro Rave. The items in parentheses are little factoids about the episode.
That's it. "Seinfeld" is king of the comedy county, lord of the laugh manor. Truly, the show is master of its domain.
The show has been on an unbelievable run this fall, and it came to a head, so to speak, this week with "The Contest," which has to be about the funniest and certainly the most innuendo-laden take on masturbation in TV history. Where to start?
("The Contest" Fact No. 1: Larry David won an...
That's it. "Seinfeld" is king of the comedy county, lord of the laugh manor. Truly, the show is master of its domain.
The show has been on an unbelievable run this fall, and it came to a head, so to speak, this week with "The Contest," which has to be about the funniest and certainly the most innuendo-laden take on masturbation in TV history. Where to start?
("The Contest" Fact No. 1: Larry David won an...
- 11/18/2012
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Zap2It - From Inside the Box
Reaper Episode 3 "The Sweet Science" Written by: Chris Dingess Directed by: Tom Cherones Original Airdate: 17 March 2008 In This Episode… Ben tells Nina he wants to introduce her to his friends. However, he doesn't want to tell them just yet that she was the demon who tried to kill Sam. She doesn't like the lying (she was just "rebelling" and "acting out" when she tried to kill him) but goes along with it. Sam's soul is Red, a boxer who threw a fight in the 1950s. Sam is certainly no match for him. His first attempt at collecting sees Sam beaten soundly. Second attempt, Sock jumps in to help, and Sam runs...
- 3/18/2009
- FEARnet
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