"Seinfeld" (1990) TV series 1990-1998

Creators:

Larry David
Jerry Seinfeld

Seasons:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9

Release Date:

31 May 1990 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

The continuing misadventures of neurotic New York stand-up comedian Jerry Seinfeld and his equally neurotic New York friends.

Plot Keywords:

Eccentric | Neurotic | Stand Up Comedian | Friendship | Sitcom

Awards:

Won 3 Golden Globes. Another 58 wins & 121 nominations

US TV Schedule:

Mon. Nov. 16	6:00 PM	TBS	The Label Maker	#6.12
Mon. Nov. 16	11:30 PM	Fox	The Boyfriend	#3.17

Cast

Jerry Seinfeld	...	Jerry Seinfeld / ... (174 episodes, 1990-1998)
Julia Louis-Dreyfus	...	Elaine Benes / ... (173 episodes, 1990-1998)
Michael Richards	...	Kramer / ... (173 episodes, 1990-1998)
Jason Alexander	...	George Costanza / ... (173 episodes, 1990-1998)
Ruth Cohen	...	Ruthie Cohen (101 episodes, 1992-1998)

Also Known As:

Good News, Bad News (USA) (working title)
Stand-Up (USA) (working title)
The Jerry Seinfeld Show (USA) (working title)
The Seinfeld Chronicles (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

23 min (180 episodes)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

UK:12 (some episodes) | Australia:G (some episodes) | Australia:M (some episodes) | Australia:PG | UK:PG | UK:U (some episodes) | USA:TV-14 (some epiosodes) | UK:15 (one episode) | Finland:K-18 (2005) (DVD) (self applied) | Finland:K-3 (2004) | Netherlands:6 | Argentina:Atp | Denmark:A | Singapore:PG | USA:TV-PG

Filming Locations:

757 New Hampshire, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Castle Rock Entertainment

Trivia:

Steve Vinovich, Larry Hankin, and Tony Shalhoub were considered for the role of Kramer. Larry Hankin later played Kramer in the show within the show in the episode The Pilot.

Goofs:

Miscellaneous: Newman's apartment is shown as 5F in one episode, and 5E for the rest.

Quotes:

George Costanza: [about a nice, new apartment that Jerry's thinking of getting] Listen, if you are feeling uncomfortable about this at all... *at all*... Do not feel like you have to take it.
Jerry: Why?
George Costanza: If you're having second thoughts, if you didn't want it, don't worry about it... because, uh, you know... I-I-I could take it, you know.
Jerry: You could take it? You want it?
George Costanza: No, I don't want it. I want it if you don't want it.
Jerry: So you... *do* want it?
George Costanza: No, I want it if you don't want it.
Jerry: You just said you wanted it!
George Costanza: No. I'm saying, if a situation arose in which you didn't want it, I might take it.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Nanny: Mommy and Mai (#5.7)" (1997)

Seinfeld, a cultural landmark?

I caught a few episodes of Seinfeld over it's final two seasons run on public channel, and made it a point to catch a lot more of Jerry and friends during it's reruns. I found it very amusing on first viewings, but as time wore on, I began to like it more and more, and to eagerly borrow taped episodes from friends, and to hunt for re-runs on syndicated channels.

Of the two comedy TV series in the history of television, I would choose both Seinfeld and Monty Python as the cultural landmarks of the medium. In Seinfeld, there is not a trace of sentimentality and glib moralizing that plagues the American sitcom genre. Characters do not hug each other on Christmas, fall in love, wax on and on about family and friends, there is no faux-cathartic season ender so favoured by the writers of, say, "Friends".

Instead, we have the narcissistic Jerry, constantly mining the minutiae of everyday detail for every bit of situational comedy; we have the hyper-aggressive Elaine, whose strings of breakups with boyfriends are as impressive as her petty neuroses leading up to the breakups themselves; the ultimate schlub-loser George, who lies to every single woman he dates, sells faulty equipment to the handicapped and muscles off women and children when fleeing an apartment fire; and the impossibly inventive physical comedy of the entrepreneur cum schmooze Kramer.

Over and over again, week in and week out, the quartet discuss trivialities with unbridled zeal, as the non-descript narrative pings from one mundane setting to another. Seldom has such wit been generated by such gargantually pointless human endeavours. That is where the brilliance of Seinfeld lies, in the ability to go to the most bizarre ends to fulfill the potential of a less than hopeful comedic premise; and the endless, pointlessly smug and nihilistic banter that almost invariably escalates into some of TV's classic lines, such as when George shouts triumphantly after winning an argument that "there is no bigger loser than me!".

Surely, we won't find something like this again, for many more years to come.