Yada Yada Yada. Review on Seinfeld

Seinfeld was my first exposure to sitcoms starting in the early nineties and I have been a fan since then. I have watched all the hundred plus episodes multiple times and continue to watch the reruns.

Bored, Moody, Depressed, Elated, Sad, Lonely – watch an episode of Seinfeld and it is a guaranteed recipe for feeling good and is a wonderful experience.

The show started airing in the 90’s and has had nine successful seasons. It has been voted as one of the fifty greatest TV shows of all times. That is a major achievement.

What is it about ?

Basically the show is about nothing. It is the day to day life of four ordinary people in ordinary settings and living ordinary lives. Each show is based on an episode. The episodes are not related and hence one can watch any episode at random. Each episode has an interesting plot, witty dialogues and characteristic characters who pull it off together. Two common props in all the episodes are Jerry’s one bedroom apartment and the corner restaurant which is the de-facto meeting place for the four friends.

The Main Characters

# 1. Jerry Seinfeld as Jerry Seinfeld. He is a stand up comedian and always seems to end up with the wrong girl friend. He and Elaine did briefly date and then gave it up and decided to continue as friends. He is one of the producers of the show. Trivia: He has a huge collection of cars (about 60 plus) and his garage is a big hangar. He rides all his cars, at least once a year.

# 2. Julia Louis Dreyfuss as Elaine Benes. She is the only female member of the gang and is charming personified. She has her own sob stories about romances gone bad and works in a catalog publishing company.

# 3. Michael Richards as Cosmo Kramer. He goes by the name of Kramer. He is the nextdoor neighbor of Jerry and every episode has him making a grand entry by jerking his entire body and suddenly making an appearance by pushing doors. Nobody knows what he does for a living but he has a scheming mind and is always up to some mischief. He is the eternal borrower of stuff from Jerry.

# 4. Jason Alexander as George Costanza. George is the loser. Always keeps on bitching and moaning about everything in life. He is not successful with girls but does manage to get engaged and has second thoughts about marriage. Luckily for him his fiancée dies by licking poisoned stamps and George is the prime suspect. He works in the frontend office of the Yankees sports organization. His dream was to have been an architect.

Supporting Characters include:

# Jerry’s Father and Mother who live in a retirement community in Boca, Florida.

# Susan as the fiancée of George.

# Frank and Estelle as the eccentric parents of George. George blames his parents for all his shortcomings.

# Newman is a postal employee who hates to work, He has the crush on Elaine, is a good friend of Kramer and Jerry hates him.

# J.Peterman is the eccentric boss of Elaine for the catalog company and is always talking about his trips to Burma

# Jackie Chiels who is the lawyer on the lines of Johnnie Cochran.

And a whole host of Jerry’s girl friends….

One of the executive producer of the show is Larry David who is currently having his own show called as “Curb Your Enthusiasm”. Jerry also helps in the script and it shows.

The Best Episodes

If I were to pick the top three – I would choose:

The Soup Nazi where a soup vendor terrorizes the neighborhood and refuses to serve Elaine because of her attitude. Elaine manages to steal his recipes and finally gets served some soup.

The Marine Biologist where George in order to impress one of his numerous girl friends, pretends to be a marine biologist and ends up having to rescue a whale who has a golf ball stuck in its nostrils because of Kramer.

The Finale – Part 1 and 2 which cleverly ties up all the various episodes and is truly a treat to watch and experience.

If you have not yet seen Seinfeld, try to watch it. You can start with any episode and soon you will be craving for more. You will not have wasted your time.