Blog About Nothing

October 18th, 2017 by

jerry

Seinfeld ended nearly two decades ago, after a stuttered start, it went on to become one of the most talked about, as well as most watched shows, and end up syndication gold. Now it might as well go on the television channels that play shows my parents remember fondly.

You know you are getting old when people whom are half your age look at you oddly for quoting a show they have never seen. Some might know a few quotes, even the show those quotes originated from, but those young people have not seen the show.

To try and describe Seinfeld, and the insanity of the show that was essentially episodes mined from the lives of the writers, is like trying to describe melting ice to eskimos. Today’s generation of TV viewers have grown up in a wasteland of brain dead whininess on television, with unfunny jokes, it is sad.

Granted the 1990s was not the bygone era of television. It was not the golden age where people had to have talent, and were drawn from the pools of vaudeville or broadway. Seinfeld was in an era where television was firmly established, and many actors aspired to act in television shows. Situation comedies went from the old family types that were sweet to now abrasive types, like Rosanne. Seinfeld was pure comedy. The situations were sometimes ones everyone watching might have experienced, except the characters in the situation were so over the top, and the reactions exaggerated, it was funny.

Seinfeld took these nothing type occurrences and generated them into observational comedy. That comedy was then translated into his show. The bizarre, exaggerated natures of the characters often made the sometimes mundane, and what could logically be resolved into hilarious comedy.

Not too many people experienced a viewing from an operating theater, and accidentally dropped a junior mint into the person on the table, but there were other events. How many times have people gone into a restaurant and waited forever, only to see someone who walks in at the moment get a table immediately? Meeting a girlfriend’s or former girlfriend’s father?

cast

Kramer with his exaggerated physical reactions, and almost uncaring application of outlandish solutions. In order to get a coat back that he believed had magic properties, he ropes Elaine into playing the daughter of a man in jail, and he is her boyfriend. In order to get a statue back for George from a thief, Kramer poses as a detective.

Elaine was the attractive, but malicious female of the group. The femme fatale who would seduce men, then destroy them. She also seemed to have a fond distain for Jerry, George, and Kramer.

George was the hot head who overreacted to what he perceived as the slightest slight. He was the opinionated jerk who would not change, even when there was evidence to the contrary.

Jerry was the detached observer, whom did not want to take action on anything for fear of contaminating the event. If he was not the detached observer, he was the catalyst for something greater, sometimes saying things that would spur his companions into doing stupidity for a laugh.

The four went through nine seasons of nothing. The first foreshortened season was an experiment. It seemed like the creators were trying to find the voice, and fine tune the dynamics. The second season seemed to stutter and eventually move forward. By season three the show was now fine tuned, and the real fun began.

bizarro

The creators were self aware enough to parody their own show. Creating the television show about nothing that Jerry would create with George. The Bizarro Jerry episode where Elaine would become friends with a man she breaks up with who was the exact opposite of Jerry, and his two friends were exact opposites of George and Kramer. Kevin, Feldman and Gene meet their counterparts, Elaine is torn. Knowing that Jerry and company are not good people, she opts to hang with Kevin and company. Except, Elaine being Elaine falls into the habits that Jerry just accepted. This upsets Kevin and his friends, who excommunicate her from the group.

The day of the final Seinfeld episode, Frank Sinatra died. The ambulance drivers stated they had a very easy time getting Frank to the hospital, the streets were vacant, because everyone was inside watching the final Seinfeld episode.

Thanks for stopping by.