Seinfeld: Classic or Dud

It reminds me of the M*A*S*H finale, which was overlong at 2 1/2 hours. I've always suspected that was an executive decision so they could get a full week of reruns in syndication.

Since the episode originally aired in a highly unorthodox 75-minute time slot, when packaged for syndication it was edited down to two episodes with 30-minute time slots. This version cut several scenes from the original episode and rearranged some parts

I love the “b-plot only” packages on the YouTube channel

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8oItZ4wQkQ

they should make the 9/11 script

the “I love… United Airlines” joke might be the single stupidest line in the entire series.

I love that… line

Quite sure he's not the first person to draw this parallel, but I liked how Jake Tapper, talking about a short press scrum of Trump's outside the courtroom today, asked their legal expert to explain his latest "airing of the grievances."

slowly rewatching this show, I know it's been said a zillion times but all the meta stuff in Season 4 is even wilder than I remembered. kinda ballsy too. I mean obviously their standing with NBC must've been pretty good at that point but I wonder if they had any objection to how hacky they made their entire lineup look. of course it wouldn't work as well if they weren't incredibly self-deprecating as well. in retrospect Jerry telling Kramer he can't play Kramer because "he can't act" is one of the funniest bits.

last night we watched the opera episode with Crazy Joe Davola - it was genuinely unnerving, I'd forgotten how strange it was to put a character like that in a sitcom. the scene where Elaine walks into his apartment actually got my heart racing. wild that the actor who plays him isn't really in anything else, he was so good in that role.

only thing that bothers me is how effortlessly Jerry seems to pick up women, particularly the ones that don't actually laugh at his jokes

That run with Crazy Joe Davola is the best. Sic Semper Tyrannis!

Re: Jerry's dates, it's been openly discussed in at least a few articles on the show, but there was indeed a conscious decision to have Jerry constantly be with very attractive women. Granted, you see this with nearly every TV show so it's not like it was an unusual decision, but Seinfeld definitely wanted to be a "ladies' man" on his show. If anything, it's more ridiculous with George - the character is designed to be unlikeable (Jerry: "It's getting difficult for me to tell people that I even know you!") and not that attractive (see Elaine trying to sell George on a blind date) but he's constantly dating different women and most of them look like they were cast out of a modeling agency.

"I'm Victoria, hi."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y_6fZGSOQI

Re: Jerry, it's actually pretty sensible that a confident benign sociopath, without much in the way of human emotions, would have no trouble getting lots of dates (with zero lasting relationships).

ok continuing with S4 and there are some bits that have not held up well, for example George getting caught staring at a 15 year old's cleavage and Jerry hooking up with the NYU student who thought him and George were a gay couple

Don't forget Jerry was oogling her first and wanted George to join in. Elaine calls him out on this IIRC, making the specific point that she's only 15. Elaine was pretty awesome in those early seasons - on the DVD commentary, Dreyfus even points out that early on, Elaine was actually very principled and very outspoken about her beliefs, and for whatever reason all that went away by the show's end.

the reason was the ppl she was hanging out with so much imo

I guess that explains the Republican Party's continual descent.

Re: Jerry, it's actually pretty sensible that a confident benign sociopath, without much in the way of human emotions, would have no trouble getting lots of dates (with zero lasting relationships).

this is probably true but the reason it comes off so weird to me in the show is that Jerry is such a bad actor, in fact he almost certainly has to be the worst adult lead actor in sitcom history. it still works because he's funny, obviously most of what he does in the show is just a version of his standup act, but occassionally he has to actually express a real emotion and he's so bad at it you almost can't tell what the show's going for sometimes. like even when really bad things happen to him like his car getting stolen or his NBC deal getting cancelled all he can ever express is mild annoyance. Jason Alexander on the other hand might actually be the best sitcom actor ever, I think he's basically perfect in every single scene he's in.

Re: Jerry's dates, it's been openly discussed in at least a few articles on the show, but there was indeed a conscious decision to have Jerry constantly be with very attractive women. Granted, you see this with nearly every TV show so it's not like it was an unusual decision, but Seinfeld definitely wanted to be a "ladies' man" on his show

imo one saving grace here is that a massive share of jerry's girlfriends on seinfeld were also super talented and went on to have hugely successful careers. the list is insanely stacked. mariska hargitay, catherine keener, lauren graham, daphne from fraser, courtney cox, terri hatcher and marcia cross from desperate housewives, megan mullaly and debra messing, jeniffer coolidge (as the masseuse who won't give jerry a massage), sarah silverman, kristin davis