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Seinfeld on All4

Started by Bad Ambassador, February 11, 2020, 10:27:42 AM

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Bad Ambassador

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/seinfeld/episode-guide

Just saw this mentioned in the RT. Seasons 1-3 online now, with another added every Friday.

Fambo Number Mive

Thank you - will check this out.

Blue Jam

It just got taken off Amazon Prime Video, which I assumed was because Netflix have bought the rights. Cheers, now I won't have to wait until 2021 to watch them on Netflix!

famethrowa

Sounds like a good show, what's it about?

Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth

I watched a few episodes over the weekend. Looking through the list, I realised how few I'd seen from the first three series. The one with the library detective was the first one I recognised from the description.

This was also the first time it felt a bit old. I've been binging It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia recently, which doesn't help.

imitationleather


Cuellar

Great, I really love Seinfield.

magval

On Prime, it's in HD but cropped/zoomed so that it's fullscreen.

4OD has bad form with this sort of thing, too. The Father Ted Christmas special is stretched to be widescreen, but then with black bars overlaid at the sides to make it 4:3 again. Looks awful.

What has 4OD done to Seinfeld (which would look its very best in 4:3 HD, but they might never give this to us).?

mr. logic

Quote from: Bad Ambassador on February 11, 2020, 10:27:42 AM
https://www.channel4.com/programmes/seinfeld/episode-guide

Just saw this mentioned in the RT. Seasons 1-3 online now, with another added every Friday.

Another season or episode?

Bad Ambassador


gilbertharding

Shouldn't everyone have these on DVD anyway? The extras are gold, Jerry - GOLD!

shiftwork2

Quote from: gilbertharding on February 11, 2020, 05:27:18 PM
Shouldn't everyone have these on DVD anyway? The extras are gold, Jerry - GOLD!

Yes, we've all got our Seimfeld box sets.

olliebean

Quote from: magval on February 11, 2020, 01:25:17 PM
On Prime, it's in HD but cropped/zoomed so that it's fullscreen.

4OD has bad form with this sort of thing, too. The Father Ted Christmas special is stretched to be widescreen, but then with black bars overlaid at the sides to make it 4:3 again. Looks awful.

What has 4OD done to Seinfeld (which would look its very best in 4:3 HD, but they might never give this to us).?

It's 16:9. Compared to the 4:3 on the DVDs, it's cropped top and bottom but also very slightly expanded left and right, which I think is the same as they did with the Blu-Rays (I don't have those so can't compare). Anyway, it loses a lot more at the top and bottom than it gains at the sides.

Nowhere Man

It seems mental that almost as much time has passed between now and the Seinfeld reunion on Curb then between that and the last episode.

buttgammon

Quote from: Nowhere Man on February 12, 2020, 11:31:03 AM
It seems mental that almost as much time has passed between now and the Seinfeld reunion on Curb then between that and the last episode.

That's terrifying! Maybe they can do a reunion reunion?

How long ago was Michael Richards' racist rant? At least 15 years surely?

Lisa Jesusandmarychain

^ just over 13 years ago. Kramer's 70 years old now!

buttgammon

Quote from: Lisa Jesusandmarychain on February 12, 2020, 12:22:50 PM
^ just over 13 years ago. Kramer's 70 years old now!

Yeesh! He always looked that bit older than the others but that's never going to be anything other than unsettling.

Icehaven

There was a thread about classic comedy you've never seen a while ago and several posters in that were telling me I really should watch Seinfeld, but I can't find the thread now so I'll mention it here instead; I finally got round to it a few weeks ago, I've just finished series 3, and I'm just starting to see what all the fuss is about*. Dunno if I'm going to binge all the way through 9 series but when I put something else on generally after a few minutes I think "Nah, think I'll watch a few more Seinfelds instead", so it's reeled me in. I'm not finding it half as dated as I expected to, considering it's 30 years old, although it doesn't generally seem the kind of humour/writing that dates too badly (I don't include the stand up bits in that though, they seem quite lame now. Did they at the time too?) although there's inevitably a few jokes and bits that probably wouldn't turn up in a comedy in the last decade or so. Even just considering how it looks only certain things like payphones, some haircuts, jumpers tucked into belts etc. really stick out, and to me it doesn't look half as different to now as, say the 60s did to the 90s, but maybe that's just because I'm old enough to remember the 90s so it doesn't seem like another era the same way times you're too young to remember do.
The studio audience are just starting to whoop a bit when Kramer walks in so I can see where that's going, although tbh I think his enforced quirkiness is one of the most dated/of it's time things about the writing, so I don't find him half as funny as I probably would if I'd watched it when it was first on. I'm hoping he isn't dialled up to 11 as the audience reaction gets louder and louder?
Also on the negative side, that f*****g theme tune. But generally yes so far I'm glad I finally managed to see it, even if it's bizarre seeing the rapey lawyer from Pretty Woman getting attractive women throwing themselves at him.








*That was another thing, knowing it's considered by loads of people to be the best sitcom of all time does make watching it with a clear eye difficult. The global equivalent of your mate putting you off something by trying too hard to make you like it.

El Unicornio, mang

I've been going through all the episodes in their 16:9 format (up to season 7 now, which I think might be my favourite, first time they had an actual story arc), they're "available" if you know where to look. It's nice to see them in HD but they were intended/composed with 4:3 in mind and it shows now and again. There's one scene where Susan is in close-up but due to them having to fit the widescreen they have to zoom in even more, cutting off half her head. And some awkward pan and scans here and there.

Up until 2004, there was no way to see the show unless it was broadcast on TV, and for some reason it was hidden away in a graveyard slot in the UK. No VHS, no DVDs (no money back..). I recall around 2001 buying the Seinfeld script book as it was the only way to experience the episodes aside from the few I had taped off late night BBC2.

I'm really noticing this time around how ridiculously good-looking all the women who date Jerry and George are. I know this is par for the course in American sitcoms regardless of how unattractive the male characters are, but it's ludicrious, even moreso when they dump them because they don't like how they hold a fork or something. And Elaine gets stuck with all these douchey slobs.

Quote from: icehaven on September 16, 2020, 01:33:36 PM

The studio audience are just starting to whoop a bit when Kramer walks in so I can see where that's going, although tbh I think his enforced quirkiness is one of the most dated/of it's time things about the writing, so I don't find him half as funny as I probably would if I'd watched it when it was first on. I'm hoping he isn't dialled up to 11 as the audience reaction gets louder and louder?


That was irritating but thankfully they got rid of it for the following seasons. He gets the most visceral laughs out of me, although George I think is the best written.

famethrowa

Quote from: icehaven on September 16, 2020, 01:33:36 PM
the rapey lawyer from Pretty Woman

She's a whore, man! A GOD DAMN WHORE!!

Icehaven

And he turned up in an episode of Young Sheldon a few days ago as a camp drama teacher. He doesn't look that much older than he did in Seinfeld really (which is the eventual advantage of looking much older when you're young I s'pose).

Puce Moment

Yeah, we've been casually watching Seinfeld on Amazon over the last few weeks and I'm finding the cropping really annoying. It's especially bad when they go to that angle in Jerry's apartment by the kitchen because so much detail is cut off.

Jerry drank some Hannigans and most of his hand and mouth were cut-off also. I don't understand the problem with 4:3.

sevendaughters

Been watching on All4 with the missus, who'd never seen it before. Really stellar run in the first 4.5 series, no episode beyond the initial tentative flushes less than a 7/10, with some of the best comedy writing on US TV ever. Mid-S5 it all seems to grind to a terrible halt with The Bris (the mohel character one of the worst) and keeps up a run of woeful episodes for a while. Then it seems to generally pick up by S7 and all the way to the end when it becomes meta-Seinfeld. Weird.

El Unicornio, mang

Worst of all, we don't get to see Jerry's fabulous giant 90s white trainers.

Unfortunately a lot of the general public don't like "black bars" on their screens and will (like one of my friends does) use the auto stretch on their TV to fill the screen even though it horribly distorts the image.

I'll go back to the 4:3 versions after these (hopefully HD versions of them will be released eventually), was curious to see them all in this format though.

Quick example of the difference for those who haven't seen them


Wet Blanket

I watched The Handicap Spot on All4 the other day and was surprised to find it still had John Randolph as George's dad, rather than the re-filmed scene with Jerry Stiller

Rich Uncle Skeleton


mippy

Maybe this will herald a revival of normcore.

I think the clothing is the most dated thing for me (the episode about the double-breasted suit!) - otherwise I feel allowances can be made for it being ripped off by lesser shows making it seem less fresh now. I do really appreciate Elaine being shown as a woman who enjoys having sex and eventually finds a relationship confining due to Puddy being so very dull.

J Petersen is the best character, though.

Puce Moment

I find the whole concept of Rochelle Rochelle intensely amusing. It often pops into my head when I see or hear about shitty Euro films with teen girls coming-of-age mainly by shagging a sad older man. It's really well observed and the repetition is great. There were only a handful of running gags in Seinfeld but I love them all.

Is anyone else finding Seinfeld's constant smiling even more pronounced in cropped HD?

Rizla

If you haven't already, you need to read the spec script an onion/snl writer did for a Seinfeld 9/11 episode. Very good indeed.

https://randomnerds.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Seinfeld-The-Twin-Towers-Billy-Domineau.pdf

buttgammon

Quote from: Puce Moment on September 16, 2020, 07:07:25 PM
I find the whole concept of Rochelle Rochelle intensely amusing. It often pops into my head when I see or hear about shitty Euro films with teen girls coming-of-age mainly by shagging a sad older man. It's really well observed and the repetition is great. There were only a handful of running gags in Seinfeld but I love them all.

Is anyone else finding Seinfeld's constant smiling even more pronounced in cropped HD?

Rochelle Rochelle is one of my favourite bits in the programme, as you say, it's just so well observed. I'm also a fan of the less prominent (but equally funny) Sack Lunch.