Jerry Before Seinfeld, Sitcom Makes Stars

The transformation of televisions to electronic televisions has changed from a niche invention to a living room mainstay and various sitcoms post 50s have made television audiences beyond loyal. It was surely a golden age for sitcoms and it had the effect of being a great ‘fantasy’ of good guys always there to ‘distract’ us from the cold brutalities of the Cold War.

Growing up my whole life included watching sitcoms like I Love Lucy, Saved by the Bell,

Family Matters, 

Full House

The Brady Brunch, 

 Doogie Howser M.D.

The Cosby Show, The Wonder Years, Frasier, Friends, The Fresh Prince of Bel-air and Seinfeld

New York is like a magnet for many of these shows and plenty more of the 2000s such as "How I Met Your Mother", The Twilight Zone, Wonder Years, Late Night with David Letterman, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men and more.

However, what interests me most is the 90s sitcom Seinfeld which has perhaps aired the first time almost 20 years ago. Considered to be one of the greatest and most influential sitcoms ever made this show has been ranked to be the best television show of all time in different publications such as Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly and TV Guide.

Revolving around the lives of Jerry Seinfeld who is a minor celeb and a voice of reason and (stand up comedian), Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) who is Jerry’s ex girl-friend on the show and later friend, Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards) – Kramer is Jerry's "wacky neighbour and George Costanza (Jason Alexander)  who is Jerry's best friend and has been since high school.

 A show which largely has been written by Jerry and David, produced by Castle Rock Entertainment it was distributed by Sony Pictures Television since 2002.

Some of the scriptwriters include Elaine Pope, Larry Charles, Max Prosss, Gregg Kavet, Charlie Rubin, Steve Koren, Jeff Schaffer, Carol Leifer, Peter Mehlman, Dan O’Keefe, Marjorie Gross, Tom Gammil and Spike Feresten.   

Some of the the catchphrases in many of its episodes include "No soup for you!", "These pretzels are making me thirsty", low talker, "Not that there's anything wrong with that!", Festivus  sponge-worthy, double-dipping, re-gifter, The Soup Nazi, Yada Yada Yada, Worlds are colliding, Low Talker, etc. There are plenty of iconic places in the show such as YMCA where Jerry first met the New York Mets Keith Hernandez, among so many others. 

Whats really interesting about this show is that many of the characters are based on REAL life aquaintances of Seinfeld and David – two very prominent and recurring characters who are in fact very well known people - Jacopo Peterman of the J. Peterman catalog (based on John Peterman) and George Steinbrenner, owner of the New York Yankees.

The final episode was in 1998 and enjoyed a historic audience. It was the fourth most watched regular series finale in the US TV history following M.A.S.H., Cheers and the Fugitive. Seinfeld's refusal to NBC’s offer of $5 million per episode JUST to continue the show into a tenth season was astounding. However he wanted to focus on his personal life and when a break is needed, a  break is what is needed!