I used to live in NYC, and my 1-bdrm. apartment in the early 1990s cost me $2500/mo. But it was in Chelsea, not the UWS, and had a dining area. And today it would be over $4,000.
FWIW the real Jerry and Larry David were able to afford their apartments in that neighborhood because of a government program that subsidized artists and helped with rent.
Would it have been $2500 back in the late 80s and early 90s also?
My impression of Jerry and his economic situation is this.
He did stand up comedy tours and probably made $1-2k after each show. Assuming each show had a couple hundred tickets sold, that is realistic. Probably did about 50+ shows a year. So he was right on the brink of 6 figures. That would’ve let him afford his apartment and his cars.
I think the Cadillac episode was one where he got some major gig for 20-30k and decided to splurge.
If you had to compare him and his economic situation to a real life comic, I’d guess Gary Gulman is a good comparisons as far as his economic success. Nowhere near the kind of headliners who can pull in 5 or 6 figures a night. But the kinds of guy who can make a grand or two a night per show, and who do dozens a year.
Jerry also got residual checks from at least one gig, a commercial in Japan.
He got hundreds of them, but they were worth very little, individually.
I was assuming a show every week or two, but the reason the show is called Seinfeld, is… he’s good. Even TV character Jerry is doing fun standup; making clever observations and cracking up the 90s big hair audience.
So I’d bet, if he wanted to hustle, he could do a couple of shows during the week, and at least one, maybe two on the weekends. Anyone know what a modern comedian can make doing 100+ shows a year? Aha! Here’s a Times article that even breaks it down by types of shows/specials/podcasts/etc. The comedians they feature range from $30k to $200,000, and they even name a $350k guy I’ve never heard of.
Unlike the Friends in their apartment, I buy the fact that Jerry’s successful enough for a good apartment. That isn’t really emphasized in the show, because it’s anathema to the Classic Jewish Schlemiel school of comedy. It works better if we’re always feeling a little sorry for Jerry… stuck with neurotic friends, overbearing parents, and… Newman.
How much you make depends on how many people go to your shows and how much the tickets are, which varies wildly.
I think someone like Jim Gaffigan or Jeff Dunham can make 6 figures a night playing an amphitheater.
A higher end comedian playing a multi thousand seat theater probably makes 5 figures a night.
But a lot of comedians I’ve seen played small clubs, which had seating of 50-200. I assume they get a set amount of each ticket, which if it is $10 a ticket (as a guess) is $500-2000 a show. And some of these were reasonably known comics, people who had done multiple albums and had multiple specials and been on TV (as well as had a netflix special or two). Plus they shared the stage with 2 or 3 other warm up comics before the headliner. It was my understanding for these kinds of clubs, a lot of the money the house makes comes from the food and drink items, and the ticket sales mostly go to the comedians.
I’m assuming Seinfeld was a road comic. He could pull down 3 or low 4 figures for a show when 150 people showed up and each paid $20. But he wasn’t selling out thousand seat theaters at $50 a ticket.
Also those Seinfeld royalty checks were only worth $0.12 each.
… which means they were worth very little, individually.
He should’ve bought a stamp to endorse his checks.
But he didn’t wanna be a pirate!
The time Kramer moves to LA and gets arrested as a serial killer, Jerry is paid to go to LA for a TV appearance, and even given a second ticket for George.
In the Bubble Boy episode, there’s a scene where a waitress in a small town diner recognizes him and asks for his autograph.
I think the network execs wooing Jerry to do a sitcom shows how well known he is.
As part of a Season 4 story arc, he and George are given nearly a free hand to write and then shoot a pilot by NBC.
In S09E01 “The Butter Shave” Jerry is being scouted again by NBC to be in some sort of “talent showcase”. (He deliberately tanks it to try and hurt Bania, which backfires.)
And of course in “The Finale”, NBC wants to pick up his sitcom again. To entice him, they give him use of a company jet, yadda, yadda yadda.
While it might seem that the networks in that era were handing out sitcoms to everyone who ever stood in front of a brick wall, it wasn’t that bad. So Jerry was clearly at a level well above the typical touring comic.
In addition to appearing on The Tonight Show, Jerry also appeared on Letterman. He mentions at least once, S04E14 “The Movie”, trying out new material for a future appearance. The closest to a specific occurrence I think is in S08E09 “The Abstinence” where Letterman calls to tell him that he’s being bumped since Jerry bombed at the middle school assembly. They seem to be on a first name basis.
What else: In S05E14 “The Marine Biologist” Elaine reads out loud a blurb about Jerry from his alumni magazine: “Jerry Seinfeld has appeared on “David Letterman” and the “Tonight Show” and he did a pilot for NBC called “Jerry”…that was not picked up.”
Oh, here’s a good one: S04E16 “The Outing”. He is to be interviewed by an NYU reporter (no biggie), but she “outs” him and George as gay. So the story is picked up by the AP (a much bigger deal) and eventually distributed enough so his parents see it.
No second tier comic would get that kind of press treatment. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
- Elaine certainly seemed to get awfully “wet” for him after finding out how much he makes in a fairly late episode (long after they were broken up).
About the size his apartment, keep in mind that it is television and they need to be able to film things. They essentially unfold the space like a book spread open. If you were there “in real life”, the walls would be much closer in.
But not wealthy enough to just buy another g** d*** Astronaut pen.
I think it went up and down, as it does in life sometimes. I’m given to understand though, that anyone who lives alone in NYC and has a separate bedroom is doing pretty well.
Also remember all of them being so fascinated with Elaine’s wealthy boss? These guys were clearly not hanging with the “swells.” I think they were sort of the spectrum of American middle class, with Kramer and Newman near the bottom, the George’s family, then Jerry’s, and Elaine being the Upper Middle Class scion.
It has always rung false though, that Kramer was able to keep his apartment. I guess maybe Buchman had under rent control and didn’t care much. Now THEY had a nice place and no obvious money troubles.
My wife bought a very nice apartment much like Seinfeld’s in the Upper East Side on East 93rd street for $118k in 1994, the neighborhood was a Seinfieldian type, her mortgage was $1100 after putting down $60k. The ritzy part of the Upper East at the time was in the East 70s; when she sold in 2013 the “cache” had reached up to the 90s addresses and she sold for a very nice profit indeed!
Apartments in Manhattan are a crazy game; some are rent-controlled and sub-leased (sometime shadily). Some have been in families for generations and are paid for and passed to the next generation as gifts or sold below market. In my wife’s case her bro is a corporate realtor and had a private seller who needed moolah to get out of NYC quickly and wife had the 60k to grease the deal.
So I think Seinfeld’s pad was affordable for him in the 1990s and maybe came through a family channel.
Here’s two examples of Jerry’s fame. Oddly both involving Kathy Griffin as Sally Weaver.
In S07E17 “The Doll” he is booked to appear on The Charles Grodin Show. (Another guest is one of the Three Tenors, you know, the other one.) That show ran for 3 years on CNBC and has a pathetic IMDb page. So not such a big thing as his other TV appearances. Sally ruins the appearance by not bringing an ugly doll.
In S09E13 “The Cartoon” Sally returns as a rising comic and Jerry’s foil. She gets signed to do a cable special. Jerry mentions that he has never done a cable special. So TV Jerry is less successful than real Jerry.
I think Kramer had some kind of independent income, based maybe on compensation for an accident that left him partially impared. Maybe he was involved in government experiments with psychotropic drugs in the '60s, and they were paying him off to ensure his silence.*
*In one episode, he admitted to having been in the military at some point in the past, but said it didn’t last long.
Per George, Kramer’s life is “Do nothing, fall ass-backwards into money, mooch food off your neighbors, and have sex without dating.”
Not a bad way to live, actually. Wish to hell I could do it! :mad: