Seinfeld thread 966966844758

[madhair60]

after watching up to date with Curb i've decided it's finally time for me to watch all of Seinfeld, having never got past a certain point. i am thinking about the fact i have years and years of peak Seinfeld to watch and am getting all giddy. even the leap from season 1 to 2 is enormous and it's only gonna get better (until it doesn't)

anyway when did you first watch Seinfeld and did you like it.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

when the dvds came out

it's good

seasons 8 and 9 didn't drop off either they were still good to the end. well. until puerto rican day.

cheers

[Fambo Number Mive]

First watched it in my late twenties and loved it. My favourite series is Series 9, I really like the wackiness. Second favourite series is the one where

Spoiler alert

they make a sitcom. Series 4?

[close]

Haven't rewatched it for years. I think knowing what Seinfeld and Richards are like in real life puts me off. I'd like to see Alexander do more comedy though.

[Pink Gregory]

seen it all through once and loved it but it feels like one of those things that only really beds in on repeat viewings, which I haven't got around to yet

[Twilkes]

Saw it when broadcast in the 90s, probably from season 4 when it was late night. Didn't realise the BBC originally broadcast seasons 2 and 3 primetime, or at least 9pm on a Wednesday and then 10pm on a Saturday. Was still in my 'discovering new comedy' teenage phase, and liked it because it was different, and it was genuinely funny, if not always laugh out loud funny. Preferred it to The Larry Sanders Show which it often paired with, but I was probably too young to get the nuances of that.

No idea of the ratings for the early evening shows, but that maybe influenced the late night slot, although fairplay to the BBC they still broadcast it right to the last series/episode.

In the mid-2000s I then paid around today's equivalent of £450 on DVDs, but it was worth it for all of the behind the scenes and featurettes, and this was before streaming so they otherwise weren't available.

I showed my friend The Contest followed by The Outing and she thought it was amazing writing, especially as those episodes were so far apart from each other, never got hooked on it though.

[Cleveland Steamer]

I watched it all (well, most of it) for the first time properly during lockdown when it was still on All4 and, well... the thing is, I just DON'T LIKE JERRY SEINFELD as a person or as a character, even if he is playing a deliberately exaggerated comedy version of himself, even if he is deliberately delivering hacky stand up routines (never could work out if his club spots are meant to be rubbish?), his terribly shit acting, even if he is taking the piss with his fuschia nylon shirt tucked into his stonewashed jeans and his massive white trainers. I DON'T LIKE HIM.

Everyone else in the show - absolutely all other characters and actors - are fucking fantastic and up there with the best of any sitcom, and basically allow the show to be bearable for me, and the writing is great, but I can't get beyond that repelling force-"feld" to truly think it's brilliant or want to watch it again.

I'm sure I'll be told (yet again) that I just don't get him, or I'm missing the point of his character, or actually he's great because he's meant to be annoying or smug, sigh, I'm sorry everyone. I truly am. I know you will all think less of me. But here we are.

[madhair60]

i think his club bits are quite funny!

[Twilkes]

I'd recommend watching Jerry Before Seinfeld on Netflix, he goes back to the small club in New York that he started at and re-runs a lot of his material from that era, and a lot of it is genuine gold, making me laugh a lot more than any of his polished theatre standup shows. Has some interesting documentary inserts too.

[Cleveland Steamer]

Yeah, I accept it's a brilliant show and more likely his type of observational comedy has become such a cliche now that it's hard to tell whether it's ironic or not. He must have had some sort of talent for comedy to get anywhere in the first place. Nothing can ever excuse Bee Movie, though.

[Twilkes]

Yeah, I accept it's a brilliant show and more likely his type of observational comedy has become such a cliche now that it's hard to tell whether it's ironic or not. He must have had some sort of talent for comedy to get anywhere in the first place. Nothing can ever excuse Bee Movie, though.

In terms of material and wording, he's the best observational comedian I've seen. Presentation might not be for everyone, and has likely dated over the years.

My problem is that after gorging on Seinfeld for years, one of the tightest-written shows of its time, Curb Your Enthusiasm just feels like an unrehearsed mess to me. :-)

[Better Midlands]

Watched the original run on BBC2 in the early 90s and the double bill with Larry Sanders - I think my mum put me on to it.

I faintly remember it really clicking with me when there was a callback in a later episode to Kramer's jacket from The Nose Job, I thought that was pretty clever IIRC.



Watched the whole thing through in order about 20 years ago on DVD.

[thelittlemango]

Also got into this through the late night BBC showings, used to set up the VHS to record it and then watch it when I woke up before going to school, I remember it leading on to Larry Sanders too for an extra bonus.

Finally went on a pilgrimage to Tom's when I was in New York last year, full of Seinfeld memorabilia. It was packed and there was no hope of getting a booth so had to sit at the counter next to an old New Yorker who leant over to me and pointed at a typo on the menu, a 'Cheery Sundae', before laughing away to himself at the concept, felt like being in the Seinfeld world for a moment.

[Armin Meiwes]

I was such a fanny when I was in my early 20s that I remember thinking it was just  another stupid broad American comedy - think it was the slap bass that did it - and I felt much more comfortable in the "sophisticated" world of Larry Sanders. Pretty much as soon as it finished tho I realised that it in fact was great.  Tho I can't even think how I would have watched it as I don't remember them rerunning it much?

[frajer]

Chalk me up as another of the late night BBC2 watchers. Seinfeld and Larry Sanders were revelatory to me as a youngster and felt so fresh and exciting and different to any of the other stuff I'd seen up to that point.

When I was little I was obsessed with watching any and all comedy screened on terrestrial telly (there wasn't a chance in hell of us affording Sky) and used to scour the Radio Times looking for that tantalising 'sitcom' in brackets after a show description.

I'm not saying this was a better time, and that unearthing such gems made for more exciting viewing, but it was, and I am saying it.

[selectivememory]

I hate his stand up segments as well. Guess that style of comedy hasn't aged well, but yeah, I had the same thing when I first watched it where I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be shit. I feel like there are points in the show where it's referenced and the other characters take the piss out of him a bit.

Do love the proper sitcom parts though, even Jerry (though yes, he is an abhorrent cunt in real life), hard to think of a sitcom that beats this one. Think I first watched it a decade ago, and was getting along fine for the first season or so, enjoying it but not being particularly impressed. But I remember there being an episode where Jerry makes an arse of himself at a dinner and offends an old aunt or something*, and finding that hysterically funny for some reason, at which point the whole show just clicked for me and I binged the lot over the course of about a month.

I think the whole show is great, but hard for me to stray from the conventional wisdom that seasons 3 through 7 are the peak years.

* actually I just looked this up, and it was this bit. Don't know why this was the moment for me, but there you go. Watching it back, it's not so much Jerry ranting, but the heartbroken old lady saying "I had a pony" that gets me. Just perfect timing and delivery.

[sevendaughters]

was on a date last night that nearly broke down over whether series 5 is as good as 4 (near perfect) as she insisted or whether it contains episodes that are actually Of Shit like The Bris

[Neomod]

First saw it when the BBC were showing both it and The Larry Sanders Show.

I still think George Costanza and Hank Kingsley are two of the greatest comedy creations ever.

[stranger]

Absolutely love it, one of my favourite shows of all time. I'm another 90s BBC2 Seinfeld/Larry Sanders double bill viewer.

The whole thing is great, even the "wackier" last 2 seasons (which have some of my favourite episodes).

I still watch the odd episode now and then but I'm due a proper rewatch of the whole thing.

[Endicott]

I caught Seinfeld on BBC2, but no more than a few times. At some point I bought it on DVD one season at a time, watched it and then bought the next season. Not sure when this was, life is a rolling mess of incoherent history these days, but lets say it was 15 years ago. Might be 20, if the DVDs were available then.

Absolute classic, peaks at S4 to 6 for me but every season is worth watching. Not sure if I've gone all the way through twice, or three times. I'm due another all the way through watch really.

I chose The Contest when I wanted to show it to someone else, it did not disappoint.

[letsgobrian]

Thanks to BBC Genome I can pinpoint when I became fan - https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/schedules/service_bbc_two_england/1993-10-13#at-21.00

Specifically the line "I hate anyone who ever had a pony when they were growing up!" resonated far too much with me.

[checkoutgirl]

seen it all through once and loved it but it feels like one of those things that only really beds in on repeat viewings, which I haven't got around to yet

Exact same. There's so much other stuff to watch it's hard to go through the 9 series again.

[Jerzy Bondov]

Imagine being Jason Alexander and getting this script and just knowing it's going to be the funniest shit in the world.

His face at the start, fucking hell, amazing

[checkoutgirl]

I just DON'T LIKE JERRY SEINFELD as a person or as a character

I agree with this completely and totally forgot about it. I have a mate who asks me if I've watched Seinfeld again pretty much every time we speak. And recently I told him that Jerry is annoying and I fundamentally don't like his character and don't want to spend any time watching him. Kramer is often too wacky but still very good and Elaine is kind of a nothing character. George on the other hand is easily one of the best characters in all of comedy. If I ever manage to watch Seinfeld again it will be for that George goodness, and maybe his parents as well. And maybe a bit of Nooman.

[gilbertharding]

Absolutely love it, one of my favourite shows of all time. I'm another 90s BBC2 Seinfeld/Larry Sanders double bill viewer.

The whole thing is great, even the "wackier" last 2 seasons (which have some of my favourite episodes).

I still watch the odd episode now and then but I'm due a proper rewatch of the whole thing.

Exactly the same here. I didn't start watching it until it was past the Sitcom story arc, whichever one that was, and only watched it if I remembered to set the video.

Got the DVDs when they came out, and loved it all, the more cartoony the better.

As someone else said, by comparison Curb (to me) seems unfinished, like a demo tape.

[checkoutgirl]

his fuschia nylon shirt tucked into his stonewashed jeans

Yes!! He tucks his top into his jeans to too high a degree. There should be a bit of the shirt hanging over the jean line. And his hair has too much volume. And he has about 50 girlfriends which seems too much. Even George gets about 25 girlfriends which is absolutely ridiculous.

[gilbertharding]

The season opener where they all have moustaches, but it's not mentioned.

Whenever George is working through a list of things ("I've never been the Bad Seed') and Jerry's responses get faster and faster, like he knows what's coming next.

The recurring characters - Peterman, Puddy, Steinbrenner... Bob Sacamano

[Armin Meiwes]

My favourite side characters were definitely George's parents but especially Estelle.

[madhair60]

Elaine is kind of a nothing character.

now that right there is some bull fuckin shit homie.

[Armin Meiwes]

Yeah wtf! Elaine could not be any more integral to the whole thing!

[Armin Meiwes]

And yeah nothing stretched the credibility of the show more than 98% of George's girlfriends, I'll allow him the daughter of the dole office woman as being viable but that's it.