JOLLY DAYS

Seinfeld Xtras, Part 1

We've been renting seasons 4 through 6 of Seinfeld, the best seasons, just to see the extras. The commentaries, inside looks, are enough. That's because Seinfeld isn't a show, it is an oasis.

Here are some random reactions, and some simple facts about the show I didn't know (I'll refer to the actors by their character's names):

• Newman, when he couldn't find acting jobs, worked as a private eye. He said that investigatory businesses like to hire actors because “they have no scruples”. Newman as a private eye. It really isn't that much of a reach — his character was used in all sorts of original, surprising ways; they never reduced him to being solely the patsy for fat jokes.

• Jerry Seinfeld was more involved in the writing of the show than I had realized. I thought it was Larry David who did it all. You could paraphrase Arlene Croce about Astaire and Rogers and say Seinfeld gave the show class and Larry David gave the show sex. They would go behind closed doors and polish the material into its final form. One of the writers said they were really hired to provide ideas and a script that would be a jumping off place for the final write by the duo.

• I think one reason Larry David's cable show is funny, but not as funny as Seinfeld, is the way David creates the show. David said that he realized in writing Seinfeld that structuring it was most of the work — the dialog wrote itself if the structure was funny. But I think he is wrong. On David's show he gives the actors the structure of the scene and their intent, but lets them improvise their lines. Comedy is like poetry, so dependent is it on the rhythms of speech. The aid given to timing of well-written lines can't be equalled by an actor's improvisations.

• When we finally hit a commentary that included both Seinfeld and Larry David I thought this would be just great. It turned out it was more like having two dissociated guys sitting behind you in a movie theater, commenting inaudibly but loudly enough to distract, and then cackling, spending most of their time trying to figure out the plot. Go figure — they wrote it and didn't remember the plot. “Now why did he have a cold?” Jerry said about a character who would not shake the hands of someone, causing all sorts of ensuing mayhem. The DVD commentaries were taped sometime after the shows aired — but they don't remember the plot? Jerry and Larry didn't give this commentary their best effort.

• The chemistry on the show was an obvious strong point — the functioning ensemble — it made everyone look good. They genuinely liked one another. George said that when Elaine was brought on-board he was competitive with her, feeling he was second banana. Pretty soon they were all friends and giving each other lines to help each other out.