(no subject)
The first season of Seinfeld is pretty short at only six episodes. While there are brief glimpses of what it would become, Seinfeld and Larry David have their work cut out for them.
Interesting to note is how much the show starts off trying to be about Jerry writing jokes. Many of the scenes, like Jerry and George at laundromat in the pilot or at the bank trying to turn in a jar of change in "Male Unbonding", seem to only be there so it can tie into Jerry's stand-up. "Aha," we would exclaim "So that's how it's done!" To illustrate, in the pilot, Kramer Kessler randomly has a dog come over, pounce on George, and drink from Jerry's toilet. Why is he there? Well, the behind the scenes videos tell us that the only reason the dog was there in the first place was to lead into a stand-up bit about dogs. It didn't work, so they cut it. Later in the series, they'll mostly drop or better integrate the "where jokes come from" conceit and emphasize more being about "nothing."
Continuity-wise, in "The Stakeout" we get two beginnings: Jerry and Elaine's friendship after the breakup and, more importantly, the creation of George's go-to alter-ego, Art Vandelay. In the episode, Jerry meets a woman at a party, but now-only-a-friend Elaine is with him, so he doesn't get her name or number just the law firm where she works. Since Jerry is unsure about discussing other women with Elaine, he, at the suggestion of his father, played for this episode only by Phil Bruns (recast because he was "too soft"), stakes out the building where she works, and we have a title. George comes-with and, when coming up with an alibi, improvises that they're there for a lunch date with their classy importer-exporter friend, Art Vandelay. As an aside George also suggests that he is an architect of railroads ("Don't engineers design railroads?" "They can..."). One day George's fantasies will unite, but not today. (Heck, we barely have George yet.) By the end of the episode Elaine finds out, which forces them to confront the issue, and it veers dangerously close to classic sitcom learning and hugging. The show hopefully won't make that mistake again.
Edit: We also get a mention from Elaine about her annoying waitress-actress (she does dinner theater) room mate in "The Robbery," someone we'll actually get to see in season 2! For now, we only have to know that Elaine really wants out of her apartment. If anyone's reading, don't worry. after this I think I'll avoid episode summaries and just post if I notice anything interesting. And who knows, maybe I'll surprise you and not write about Seinfeld.
Interesting to note is how much the show starts off trying to be about Jerry writing jokes. Many of the scenes, like Jerry and George at laundromat in the pilot or at the bank trying to turn in a jar of change in "Male Unbonding", seem to only be there so it can tie into Jerry's stand-up. "Aha," we would exclaim "So that's how it's done!" To illustrate, in the pilot, Kramer Kessler randomly has a dog come over, pounce on George, and drink from Jerry's toilet. Why is he there? Well, the behind the scenes videos tell us that the only reason the dog was there in the first place was to lead into a stand-up bit about dogs. It didn't work, so they cut it. Later in the series, they'll mostly drop or better integrate the "where jokes come from" conceit and emphasize more being about "nothing."
Continuity-wise, in "The Stakeout" we get two beginnings: Jerry and Elaine's friendship after the breakup and, more importantly, the creation of George's go-to alter-ego, Art Vandelay. In the episode, Jerry meets a woman at a party, but now-only-a-friend Elaine is with him, so he doesn't get her name or number just the law firm where she works. Since Jerry is unsure about discussing other women with Elaine, he, at the suggestion of his father, played for this episode only by Phil Bruns (recast because he was "too soft"), stakes out the building where she works, and we have a title. George comes-with and, when coming up with an alibi, improvises that they're there for a lunch date with their classy importer-exporter friend, Art Vandelay. As an aside George also suggests that he is an architect of railroads ("Don't engineers design railroads?" "They can..."). One day George's fantasies will unite, but not today. (Heck, we barely have George yet.) By the end of the episode Elaine finds out, which forces them to confront the issue, and it veers dangerously close to classic sitcom learning and hugging. The show hopefully won't make that mistake again.
Edit: We also get a mention from Elaine about her annoying waitress-actress (she does dinner theater) room mate in "The Robbery," someone we'll actually get to see in season 2! For now, we only have to know that Elaine really wants out of her apartment. If anyone's reading, don't worry. after this I think I'll avoid episode summaries and just post if I notice anything interesting. And who knows, maybe I'll surprise you and not write about Seinfeld.