Jeff Naftzinger
ENC 1145
2 February 2015
Seinfeld and Me
I actually wasn’t raised watching Seinfeld. My parents never watched the show; as a matter of fact, my father hated it. It was through word of mouth that I heard of Seinfeld and one day it was on Crackle so I watched a few episodes. I wouldn’t say that I was “hooked,” but I do like the show and, nix my dad, so does the rest of America. There are two kinds of anything in this world: pioneers and settlers. Seinfeld is a pioneer. Since its premiere in 1989 Seinfeld has changed the way sitcoms are written. Gone are the days of learning life lessons in thirty minutes every week. Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld destroyed that and implemented a system in which characters are acceptingly flawed and do nothing to change. It’s a system that’s worked for over 25 years and it wouldn’t have been so successful if people didn’t relate to it or if came at a bad time.
“Show me your friends and I’ll show you who you are as a person.” I relate to Seinfeld because I had a group of friends like Jerry, George and Elaine in high school. Eddie and Calvin were the Jerry’s because they were the smartest of the group and they would always have a smart ass, condescending response to the things we said to each other. I was probably a hybrid of George and Kramer because I was a loose cannon like Kramer and there were and still are many instances where I stuck my foot in my mouth and had moments when my lips moved faster than my brain like George. Eddie’s girlfriend, Brittney was our Elaine. She brought the much needed feminine touch to the group and helped us out with our girl troubles.
Close friends have an influence on us. Often times we act like them. To take it a step further, our closest friends are manifestations of our multiple personalities. They represent who we are or who we could be. Being around Calvin and Eddie all of the time motivated me. They were hard workers and very competitive about their grades. Brittney helped me to become more sensitive of other people’s feelings. She reminded me that sometimes I have to be politically correct and or just not say the things I would say to the guys. There were moments where Jerry reacted to a situation in a Kramer, George or Elaine fashion. That’s why Jerry, George, Kramer and Elaine get along so well, they’re the same person. George is Jerry’s neurotic side, Kramer is his wild side, and Elaine is his keen and extroverted side. Heck, look at Newman. He’s familiar Jerry and his group, but he has the best relationship with Kramer. That’s because they’re the same degree of crazy.
We can relate to Seinfeld because we’ve all had moments when we compromised or moral values and considered it a victory. Sometimes rules are meant to be broken. You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs. These are philosophies that are a part of our culture and they have been exercised in Seinfeld many of times. Maybe we didn’t drug a woman to play with her toys or break into someone’s house to erase a voicemail or steal the last marble rye from an elderly woman but there have been a few times in our lives when we consciously broke the rules and regretted nothing. My moment of morality questioning victory came in the 9th grade when I cheated on an English exam and got an A on the test. In my defense the teacher, was an adversary who did everything in his power to get me a C or lower in his class. So when I cheated on that exam I did it with the biggest smile on my face. I was so happy that I told my parents who weren’t amused with what I thought was an accomplishing feat.
Seinfeld couldn’t have come at a better time. Since its debut, there’s been a dearth of sitcoms that aim to teach life lessons every week. Coming of age sitcoms are a thing of the past. Nobody learns anything anymore. The only thing they learn is that they’re terrible people and they seem to be okay with that. They accept the fact that they’re flawed. The success of Snow White showed that movies based on popular kid’s books were a profitable market. This allowed MGM to take a chance on The Wizard of Oz. Seinfeld is the Snow White of the modern American sitcom. Half of the sitcoms on air right now wouldn’t have made it past the sales pitch if we were still tuning into shows like Family Ties.
While Seinfeld did set the tone for a generation of sitcoms, it’s not the first of its kind. Ecclesiastes 1:9 “What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.” The Everything’s a Remix video also supports this notion. Nothing is created out of thin air without inspiration. Larry David has been on the record saying that Woody Allen is a big influence on him. You can see that in the show: the constant analysis of everything, the neurotic characters, the Jewish influence and New York City setting. These are all trademarks of Woody’s work. There’s definitely more that went into the maturation of Seinfeld, but as for now, that’s the only source I can trace.
If you look at Chuck Lorre comedies such as The Big Bang Theory, which is undoubtedly the biggest sitcom on air right now and Two and a Half Men, which will finally kick the bucket this year, you see unapologetic jerks that expect the world to deal with their flaws rather than work on them. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is another show that comes to mind. The main characters literally do the dumbest things to entertain themselves and by the end of the day, no matter how much trouble they get into, they never learn anything. In “Charlie Wants an Abortion” Dennis and Mac go to an abortion rally to pick up women while Charlie deals with a kid who he suspects is his own. At the end of the episode the kid isn’t Charlie’s so he’s never seen again and Mac and Dennis learn nothing about abortion.
During his interview on Inside the Actor’s Studio Chris Rock mentioned Jerry Seinfeld telling him that when a comedian gets big “they” give him The Kit. In that kit is a TV show, a book deal, and a movie deal. After Rock’s 1996 stand up special “Bring the Pain” he had his own show on HBO. Jerry Seinfeld may not have been the reason this kit was invented but his show’s success has helped comedians bring their material and personal lives to sitcoms. Before Seinfeld comedians used to have to play a role like everybody else. Take Robin Williams in Mork and Mindy for example. Or look at Redd Foxx in Sanford and Son. Both men were successful comedians during their shows’ runs but they had to play characters who they didn’t write. Now it seems that every rising pilot get his or her own pilot even if it’s not for a sitcom. The Bernie Mac Show is based on a bit Bernie Mac did on The Original Kings of Comedy Tour. Everybody Loves Raymond is based on the lives of Ray Romano and show creator Philp Rosenthal. Shows like Inside Amy Schumer, Chappelle’s Show, Tosh.0, and Louie have turned headliners into household names.
Once a body of work has been created and forms its own identity, it goes from being the copier to the copied. A lot of sitcoms today get their character inspiration from Seinfeld. The best example of a show that follows closely in Seinfeld’s footsteps is Mulaney. Mulaney imitates Seinfeld almost to a fault. John Mulaney plays a rising comedian who lives in New York City and has misadventures with his friends. From the trailer we can see that Mulaney is Jerry, Jane is Elaine, Motif is George and Andre is Kramer. We can also see a hint of romantic tension between Mulaney and Jane that was present in Seinfeld’s early episodes. The title of the show itself doesn’t fall too far from the tree it came from.
Hate it or love it, Seinfeld revolutionized television. Since its debut, sitcoms have become more about nothing. There’s no more hugging and music played at the end. Comedians can use sitcoms as an avenue to get their material more exposure. Every year, we see a dozen copycat pilots aired and we know where they got their ideas. Although, we don’t know for sure from whom or what Seinfeld stole from, Seinfeld is its own brand. Yada, yada, yada, Larry David’s a genius.
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