seinfeld

Seinfeld: A Love Letter – The Golden Age, Part I

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I want to preface this by saying that to cram the best three seasons of the greatest TV show of all time into one digestible post would be a true disservice to the show.  So much could be written about these seasons (and even each episode) that I really don’t know where to truly begin or end. So, I’ve decided to break this second era (“The Golden Age”) into two segments. We’ll do a little background, reminiscing, and one full episode breakdown below, followed by a separate post in the coming days specifically focused on what is possibly one of the finest episodes in TV history.

Regarding the Seinfeld series overall, I was originally going to write three separate Seinfeld posts (one on each three-season era).  However, since we’re now on pace to have a total of at least four, I have a feeling that posts about the show will continue to surface indefinitely on NMNY. And while I know that even two posts on these middle three seasons doesn’t provide the era the justice it deserves, we must push forward and honor Jerry the Great, lest we succumb to the fate of the Today Sponge.

I have to believe that few would argue Seasons 4 through 6 of Seinfeld (airing from 1992-1995, which feels surprisingly early) weren’t the show’s Golden Age.  And yes, even a show as fantastic as Seinfeld, where every season and every episode has its highlights, has its relative downfall, where they too, jump the shark.  Now, whether that occurred with Susan’s death, when Larry left the show, or during the finale itself is a whole separate conversation for The Cartoon Years.  But we can go back to that later on.

So what makes Seasons 4-6 the Golden Age?  First off, during the first three seasons of the show, Seinfeld never once cracked the Top 30 in the Nielsen ratings.  Then, in 1992 they slipped in at 25 for Season 4, and then climbed to 3 and 1 respectively the following years. In fact, Season 4 ended up being rated the number one television season of all time by TV Guide.*

At this point, Seinfeld had started to become the talk at the water-cooler (a concept on its own which would be completely foreign to Jerry), and the show took on that “Breaking Thrones” effect, where the question changed from “Do you watch?” to utter disbelief if someone didn’t. The show was presenting absurd premises (The Bubble Boy, Junior Mint, Puffy Shirt, and Marine Biologist come to mind)  in a realistic way, with characters who had now matured – not as people, of course – but into their solidified on-screen personas. They had hit the peak; it was real, and it was spectacular.

Season 4’s specific success parallels the 7th season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, with the show-within-a-show story arc guiding many of the episodes (“Jerry” in Season 4, and “The Seinfeld Reunion” in Curb). I’m thankful my Seinfeld obsession was shared by many others by the time the Feld reunion aired, as many of us crowded around within The Nursery to watch the projector for the semi-nostalgic bliss that was that season’s finale.

*As apt as I am at creeping around Google, I really can’t seem to verify this outside of a Seinfeld-specific wiki site, but it’s all someone’s opinion anyway, so I’m OK with it.

 

"The Nursery" (61 West Kendrick), where the Seinfeld Reunion viewing party was held.

“The Nursery” (61 West Kendrick), home to the Seinfeld Reunion viewing party.

Season 4 alone brought us Kramer in LA (“The Trip”, parts one and two), “The Bubble Boy”, “The Virgin”, “The Pick”, “The Outing”, “The Implant”, “The Junior Mint”, everything centering around the “Jerry” pilot, and yes, “The Contest”.

Getting to rewatch Jeremy Piven play “George” after enjoying years of Entourage, and to enter college armed and ready with trivia that Bob Balaban (a.k.a. Russell Dalrymple) was in fact a Phi Tau (the original) at Colgate allowed the show to transcend time, seamlessly blending my youth with the years ahead.

And if I may, here’s one more fun fact about the “Jerry” pilot:

Larry Hankin, who plays Tom Pepper, who steals the raisins and plays Kramer in the fake pilot – can be seen in both Billy Madison (as Eric Gordon’s sidekick), as well as Home Alone (as Officer Balzak, dunking that donut – “Has the child been involved in violence with a drunk family member?”).

And yes, Hankin was also one of the many Seinfeld-Breaking Bad connections as well.

Now, before progressing into what I feel is the obvious (and deserving) choice for the best episode of the era, I’d like to discuss the finale of the 5th season. I can’t honestly say if I think this is one of my top five episodes of all time; but, I really can’t rank 90% of the episodes anyway, so I’m going to discuss it here.

Season 5, Episode 22 (Finale): The Opposite

What begins as the ever-familiar uneven conversation of George examining his failed adulthood, quickly morphs into an all-out reversal of actions. Knowing that “every decision [he’s] ever made…has been wrong” leads George to alter every bit of his daily routine and instinct, beginning with swapping out tuna salad for chicken. Soon after, he notices an attractive woman staring towards their table (Dedee Pfeiffer, sister of Michelle), and with only a hint of hesitation, George approaches and declares, “My name is George. I’m unemployed and I live with my parents.”

The rest of the episode follows George as he continues to find success with a newfound Peter Gibbons looseness and confidence (first the beautiful woman, followed by a job with the Yankees [albeit as the assistant to the traveling secretary]), while Elaine gets dumped, kicked out of her apartment building, and single-handedly brings Pendant Publishing (those bastards) to the ground.  As she states it, “[She’s] become George.”

I can’t help but keep thinking about Season 8’s “The Abstinence” when analyzing “The Opposite”, as we deal with a similar situation (George’s improved intellect, with Elaine’s own abstinence draining her of all intellectual capabilities).  The fact that Seinfeld is able to successfully create these alternate versions of the characters speaks to the ability of the writers and actors to create such strong, unwavering characters in the first place.  They’d gotten to a point where the characters were so well defined that they could manipulate and bend them in way to propel things to another level (and at this point, not in a cartoony, caricature of a way).  We’re four seasons in and we know enough about George’s life and mannerisms that it’s utterly absurd to see him behave this way.

It seems as if the show picked up on this too, as even beyond “The Abstinence” we get another role reversal later on in “The Bizarro Jerry”, and then a literal reversal of time in “The Betrayal”.  George’s ability to succeed with women returns during “The Little Kicks”, when he’s portrayed as the “bad seed” in Elaine’s office as a scapegoat for her dancing.  With “The Opposite” and “The Little Kicks”, it’s as if George has unknowingly discovered Neil Strauss’ world a decade early.

Of course, throughout all of this in “The Opposite”, Jerry’s life remains exactly the same – he’s Even Steven – and today, this coincides with his easy-going self. He spends his time buying cars, living in Billy Joel’s old Hamptons home during the summer, and doing charity work and stand-up (often simultaneously).  My favorite line in the first season of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee is when Ricky Gervais says to Seinfeld, “You’re like a young king, aren’t you?” poking fun at Jerry’s free-wheeling personality and ability to live his life in any way he pleases.  And he is.  With Jerry’s real life persona so closely mimicking the character “Jerry”, it can be tough to remember that Jason, Julia, and Michael don’t act like their characters in real life too.  I’ll count that as a testament to the show’s writing and each of their acting capabilities.

It’s also in “The Opposite” that we start to see Seinfeld’s “celeb pull” at work when Kramer appears on Regis and Kathie Lee to promote his coffee table book.  Sure, Season 3 featured Keith Hernandez in “The Boyfriend” two-parter, but to snag a couple of talk show hosts from a non-NBC show seems like a big step up.  As the show went on, these guest celebrities increased, both as Jerry’s girlfriends (Terri Hatcher, Courtney Cox, Janeane Garofalo, Amanda Peet, Laurie Laughlin, and the list goes on…), and as athletes and better-known faces (think Letterman, Gumbel, and Giuliani).

It still boggles my mind that Derek Jeter made a guest appearance on “The Abstinence” and will be suiting up for the Yanks tonight, especially when a comparable guest appearance was made by Paul O’Neill, who’s been retired since I was in middle school. It’s a shame the joy I’ll feel on September 28th when the Yankees miss the playoffs will be clouded by the notion that the seemingly perpetual Jeter-Seinfeld connection will also be coming to a close.

I’ll finish with a mention two of the more obscure, lesser-known Seinfeld guest appearances that get me especially giddy:

In “The Fire”, there is a scene where George is speaking to “Eric the Clown” at his girlfriend’s son’s birthday party. George is baffled and upset that Eric doesn’t know who Bozo is, and later is the first to flee the apartment when a fire breaks out, tossing women and children to the side in the process. Eric ends up putting out the fire with one of his big shoes, saving the day and leaving George to bask only in his selfish flames. Completely covered in clown makeup, a wig, suit, and recognizable only by the familiar brusque tone we’ve become familiar with over the years (“Any Glen.”), Eric is played by Jon Favreau a full two years before Swingers came out.

It took a bit longer for my second-favorite guest to become a familiar face – and even now, he’s pushing B-list. Seen in “The Burning” as a medical student guessing the ailments of Kramer and Mickey as they “act” out various diseases, Daniel Dae Kim’s enthusiasm as he correctly exclaims “Gonorrhea!” precedes his first appearance on Lost by a full 6 years. With his med school experience, it’s no wonder Sun was able to teach him the English language so quickly.

With Seinfeld, a celebrity spotting is different. It’s not just about a game of media Where’s Waldo; it’s the allure of seeing obscure names and faces surface who had such minor roles 20 years ago.

Seeing Jin as “Student #1”, Jeremy Piven playing George, and watching Jeter on TBS syndication (followed by the YES Network an hour later) is what enables the show to continue to comfort me each day. Sure, the people, the jokes, the scenes, and the obsessions of Seinfeld’s characters are already just as relevant to the nuances of today’s society as they were then, but it’s the fact that they intertwine multiple decades of pop culture in my own life that allow it to be so relevant and powerful.

Cheers to another week of re-runs and The Golden Age, Part II coming soon.

 

Seinfeld: A Love Letter

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Here are 5 things you should know about my relationship with Seinfeld:

1) There was a 3-year span from 2006 to 2009 where I watched at least one episode of Seinfeld every day.  I brought every DVD with me to Colgate in a big black binder (along with the episode guide inserts) and uploaded a rotation of episodes to my first iPhone.  We consistently had 10+ episodes on DVR, and my freshman year the Andrews 206 TV would consistently rotate between Feld, the Golf Channel, and 1 vs. 100 each day at lunch while we ate our buffalo chicken sandwiches from the Coop.  I missed an episode at some point senior year, but I’d wager I still get in 0.8 episodes daily.

2) I watched my first episode in 3rd grade while visiting Telluride, Colorado.  My parents and I were planning on going to bed, but after a brief discussion, they agreed I could stay up and watch “The Stall” with them.   It was a mistake, as I soon digressed into a troubled youth, stealing and hoarding excessive rolls of toilet paper from my elementary school restroom into my cubby.  When the teacher approached me asking for the single-ply sandpaper back, I solemnly shook my head and whispered to Ms. Bart that “I [didn’t] have a square to spare.”*

*I may or may not be an unreliable narrator at times

3) Since 2009, Evan Lorey has only referred to me as Jerry.  I am not Mark, DJ Newmark, Terry Richardson, Chase Bradley, Obama, Elvis, or Dylan to Evan.  I am Jerry.

Evan and "Jerry" visit the source.

Evan and “Jerry” visit the source.

4) Since moving to NYC, I have kept a WWJD business card in my wallet.  It’s been an interesting four years, as what Jerry does isn’t always in everyone’s best interest

5) I cried at the end of the finale, but immediately stopped when I became sickened by the song selection chosen for the sign-off.

So let’s begin…

 

Jerry – Larry – the gang – I’m sorry.  This is so long overdue.  Although you’ve been in my mind and on my screens for close to two decades now, I’ve never taken the time to express in words what you mean to me.  The time has finally come.

Although I subscribe to daily Google Alerts for you, I admit that more often than not they are given a swift swipe away.  “We’ll reconnect this evening,” I think to myself.  So it wasn’t until I was tipped off by a friend about the Top 25 episodes airing on TBS in the next couple of weeks that I decided the time is right to publicly declare my unbridled, never-curbed enthusiasm for all you’ve given me over the years.  And what better way to do this than to reflect on a few of my own favorite episodes?

Sure, I’ve always had a mental list of my favorites (and scenes, and quotes, and characters, and settings, and NYC stock footage, and VHS tapes on Jerry’s shelf, etc.), but it’s not so simple.  There is no true “best” with Feld – for Feld is an entity unto its own; it must be taken as a whole to be truly understood on an existential level.

And yet…it is also a show about nothing; it is a show of four unapologetically self-centered neurotic fools living semi-successful lives.  And to that I say what the hell –  I suppose we can play favorites to a few.

As such, for the next couple of weeks I plan to provide my own list of Top 5 Seinfeld episodes.

With one caveat, however.  You see, when someone asks me my favorite Seinfeld episode, I can never reply with just one.  This is not because I believe there are too many equally brilliant episodes, but it is because I think Seinfeld first must be viewed through three distinct lenses – one for each of its three unofficial eras.  Today I will define the first era and leave you with my favorites from the time period.  Later this week and next, I will move forward with the following two eras and discuss the best from each of those as well.

And we’re off.

Era 1 – The Early Years (Seasons 1-3):

Marked by Jerry’s poor acting and constant breaking of character from Jerry to Jerry, George’s hair and employment, Kramer’s (moreso) serial killer demeanor, Elaine’s Paul Ruddish capability of already knowing she’s going to look the same as Selena in ‘14 as she did as Benes in ’89, and weak ratings, The Early Years still have many moments of pure gold.

Some of my Early Years runner-ups include:

The Best of Era 1: “The Stake Out”

While each of the above episodes is great in their own accord, something about “The Stake Out” sticks with me.

“The Stake Out” was actually the second episode of the show which ever aired, although it was the fifth episode actually filmed/produced.  It encapsulates so much of what the show became and features a similar tone of humor as the rest of the series, but of course, a little less crisp than the flow the series eventually took on.

As a two sentence reminder, this is the episode where, after a brief encounter with a new love interest, Jerry is left with only the individual’s lawfirm (Simon-Bennett-Robbins-Oppenheim-Taft) as a clue to their identify.  He then “stakes out” the office with George to intentionally have a “chance” encounter with the woman.

We get the rare glimpse of jealousy between Jerry and Elaine, as they’re just off the break-up, and we even learn why it didn’t work out between them (“Well, we fight a lot for some reason…and there was a little problem with the physical chemistry…).  This episode also seems to analyze relationships at a much more realistic level than later on in the show.  We watch as Jerry has a very standard open discussion with his parents about his relationship difficulties, and the conversation between Jerry and Vanessa about who the potentially-significant-others were who accompanied them at the party feels like textbook early in the game banter.  In fact, I believe she ends up being the only woman appearing in consecutive episodes as Jerry’s companion.

What I love most about this episode and the stakeout plan itself is that it actually works.  Every time I watch this and hear Jerry say to his father that it “really isn’t that bad of an idea,” I can’t help but think the same.  It’s really not that different than taking a certain middle school elective due to your love interest in someone, and I see it as far less creepy than stalking someone on social media today (although that would likely be the Modern Seinfeld equivalent today).  In fact, Vanessa likely knows exactly what’s going on, but it’s OK.  The scene and show are summarized perfectly as Jerry asks if she dates immature men (“Almost exclusively.”).

I’m also not sure many casual fans realize the birth of Art Vandleay occurred so early on in the series (the quick progression of Bert Harbinson to Art Corr to Art Corvelay to George mistakenly saying Vandelay is a clip that feels like it could be from any year of the show).

And one last random note on my love for “The Stake Out”.  My favorite bit within this episode is Elaine’s description of her dream involving Jerry and his wooden teeth.  I think this beats out Jerry’s own dream description later on in “The Van Buren Boys” (“I had a dream a hamburger was eating me!”).

So thus marks the start of the Seinfeld series, and really the blog itself.  Tune in later this week for more on The Golden Age (Seasons 4-6), The Cartoon Years (Seasons 7-9), and other bits of potentially fantastic, seemingly trivial Seinfeld matters, fittingly here at NewMark New York.