I am an addicted Seinfeld nut. I love all-things Sein. Last week, they aired a Seinfeld “Reunion” to pimp the DVDs that were released.
This was like heroin for me.
I liked that they weren’t all sitting on the same couch waxing nostalgic. It provided for better analysis of the origins of the show.
A few thoughts:
Michael Richards seems a bit pompous. He seems like a “Masterpiece Theater” cliche. I’ll bet he was kind of difficult at times. He kept tossing out acting buzzwords and cliches in an attempt to look like the wise prophet. YOU PLAYED FREAKING KRAMER.
I have always thought Jason Alexander seems like a decent guy. This interview reinforced that thought. He isn’t bitter at all that his best work is behind him. He was on the Today show last week and he was asked “What would you tell the cast of Friends about life after a long running sitcom?” He said don’t give up, but realize that the work that everyone will remember you for is over. Not in a snarky way either. It seemed like he was content. Odd that the guy who played the worst person on a show of bad people seems like a super guy.
Julia Louis-Dreyfuss has always made me laugh. They were right. She was perfect for that role. Her character WAS tacked on to the show. It could have been bad. You could tell that everyone adored her. They all heaped praise on each other, but the comments about Julia seemed so genuine.
Larry David IS George. And he ISN’T putting on an act for Curb Your Enthusiasm. He is a putz and I love it. It really seems like he was the driving force behind the show. Rob Reiner said it best when he described the show as Jerry’s accessible look at life shoehorned by Larry’s neurosis.
Can you believe Fox passed on Seinfeld? I never knew that. LOL! Do you remember the CRAP Fox put on the air during that time?
Warren Littlefield and the NBC exec who used his specials budget to get 4 episodes really were the heroes of the special. It is to their credit that they saw something special in the show.
I liked the format they had. I was afraid it would be something where they all sat around a table congratulating themselves. I’m glad the main focus was the story of how the show came about.
I don’t think any of them are getting along anymore, which is why they didn’t appear together on this “reunion” show. Wasn’t there a dispuit about commentaries on the DVDs? Jason Alexander, Julia Louis-Dryfus, and Michael Richards wanted to get paid but Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David didn’t want to pay them. Or something.
It always amazes me the shoddy treatment the show got at the first. Putting the Pilot on during the summer and only ordering four episodes. It goes to show that putting a struggling show behind a hit can help make it successful. Which is why I’m still angry that ABC practically dumped all over “Freaks and Geeks” by keeping it on Saturday night. But that’s for another thread.
I saw a short bit of the Fab Four on Oprah, together on a couch. Not all that chummy. Most interaction was with Oprah than among themselves.
The Lesser Fab Three are royally ticked off at getting the short shaft money-wise all those years. They only got a fraction of what the “Friends” cast got.
In the TV Guide issue that was pimping the show (which pimped the DVD), this was addressed. Louis-Dreyfuss and Alexander said there was a “dispute”, nothing personnal, and it was resolved. That’s about it on that subject. And I think the interview was done the same day they were on Oprah.
My favorite part - Larry retelling his reactions every time the show got extended. The guy is getting more and more successful, and all he did was complain about “How the hell am I going to come up with (13, 22, etc) more of these shows?!?”
I can understand why a director or producer, or someone who profits in the success of the DVD sales would do it for free, but why wouldn’t the Lesser Three get paid for commentary?
So what was resolved? I remember hearing that part of the reason the DVDs were held up so long was that Alexander, Louis-Dreyfus and Richards wanted more money for royalties (or something like that, I think) for the DVDs, and Seinfeld and Larry David basically said no way. I guess they’re not getting anything from the syndicate sales, right?
Are they getting anything, money-wise, for sales of the DVDs?
It’s not just a matter of putting a struggling show behind a hit, because NBC had had the opportunity to do this for about twenty years with its dominant Thursday night lineup. They placed many sitcoms in the 8:30 and 9:30 slots which benefited from the strong shows at 8, 9 and 10pm. But many of them were crap.
They mentioned during the Seinfeld Stories program that the show wasn’t really sucessful even into the second year and only got a full-season order in the third year. Eventually, of course, it was a mega-hit. I remember a BusinessWeek article that said the show brought in $500 million in advertising revenues annually at the height of its popularity. And I believe they offered five million an episode (or $110 million) to Jerry Seinfeld to keep the show going just one more year. But he turned it down.
Given how quickly the networks are now to cancel shows before they mature and an audience develops, they probably missed opportunities with shows like Freaks and Geeks, Undeclared or Action.
I know every episode almost by heart. I love this show. Even when it’s dreadful. Even when you can set your watch by Kramer suggesting that they solve some problem by going to see some pal of his.
So what happened with the commentaries in the end? Are there commentaries? I wasn’t planning on getting the DVDs till they took a major price dive, largely because I thought there was no commentary.
Nothing specific was said, just that it was a dispute, and now has been resolved. Terms of contracts are often under a gag order of some type, and it won’t surprise me if we never hear the specifics of the agreement.
