+1
The pilot was indeed rejected at first (they lost their main supporter at NBC when he freaked after being led on and dumped by Elaine), but the network wanted to go ahead with it toward the end of Season 9. This created the backdrop for the two-parter “The Finale,” making the situation there especially frustrating.
All of the episodes are available for free on line, BTW.
Crackle has it? Is that right?
Fred Stoller has a chapter in his book Maybe We’ll Have You Back where he talks about being a staff writer for Seinfeld for a season. Most of the story lines and scripts came from various writers and then Seinfeld and David would punch them up to fit their tastes. So it would stand to reason that the jokes were written for the show since they were based on story lines from the other writers and Seinfeld probably didn’t have jokes ready to go for every story offered.
Don’t know about Crackle; I usually go to WatchTVLinks:
<link deleted>
Crackle has a handful, that rotate month to month. Hulu has the whole catalog.
Get out of this thread!
[Moderating]
terentii, I doubt that that website has legal rights to all of the shows they’re offering. Unless you can provide evidence otherwise, I’ve removed the link.
Understood.
Seinfeld is a great standup comic. Have you seen his HBO specials?
He still does a few shows a year.
One of Seinfeld’s best HBO specials is where he told his 80’s material for the last time. He forced himself to create an entirely new act for the 00’s.
Here is the legal place for Jerry’s act.
This is what I remember too; he was pretty popular and definitely successful, but wasn’t on the path to be ‘remembered forever’ like those other names. The show is what really took him from ‘successful’ to ‘household name’, and is what he’ll be remembered for down the line.
To be fair, as I remember, the real-life television show wasn’t successful from the start. I think the first season was weak.
And the fictional Jerry lived in a fairly nice apartment in, I think, midtown Manhattan.
Yeah, before the sitcom he was probably on the same level as someone like, say, Jake Johansen. Who I remember seeing on Letterman frequently but I couldn’t tell you what he’s done in the last 20 years.
I think he’s funny as shit (like the good kind of shit) and his show is one of the few reruns I can bear to watch. But his brand of observational humor and his show does seem to be a bit polarizing, from what I’ve noticed, even here in the US. But back when, what was it, the Comedy Channel, used to show stand-ups regularly, his was always one of my favorites.
Seinfeld was the best clean comic of the 1980s. One reason he doesn’t get the credit he deserves is that he was so successful he changed the business and inspired so many copycats that his act does not seem as fresh. He wasn’t edgy or political so he is underrated by some, but his whole persona, look, and cadence set the standard as to what a stand up comic was. This was parodied in The Stand-Ups sketch on SNL.
NBC was trying to get him to host a late night show but he insisted on doing his sitcom instead. There is an interesting documentary called Comedian about him trying out new material in clubs do get a new act and he is masterful. It is on youtube
Upper West Side, 81st St.
I always remember, well, half-remember, a quote that either he said to Jay Leno, or Jay Leno said to him, which was “If you work clean, you’ll be accepted into every club in America”. I always respected him (Jay for that matter too) for working clean.
I hate Seinfeld the show, but I love him as a stand-up. Consistently gets me to laugh every time.
Same here. I saw him before he was JERRY SEINFELD. Adam Sandler opened for him. They were both much funnier than you would imagine from what you’ve seen of them since.
I’m an American. I watched it during its original run and I love the show. I think it’s probably the funniest sitcom that’s ever been on TV (Curb Your Enthusiasm may be its equal, which makes sense). I’ve never seen his standup outside of the show, but what was on the show left me cold. I don’t think I laughed once at those bits.
A lot of his standup consisted of questions that, at least to me, had obvious answers; and that killed the joke.
An example would be “I was the best man at a wedding. If I was the best man, why was she marrying that other guy?”
My mind would immediately leap to the answer: because that’s not what “best man” means in this context, you idiot.
Maybe that’s just how my brain works, but that kind of humor falls flat for me.