I have taken it upon myself to watch Seinfeld, one of my absolute favourite television shows, once more from the very beginning and in the process of doing so, write up reviews which might be a harder task than imaginable given how consistently brilliant this show would become somewhere down the road. Watching and attempting any form of criticism of the very early episodes of Seinfeld can be an equally difficult task given the fact that a lot of the criticism is helmed by the fact that the early stages of Seinfeld do not reflect the brilliance and wit and joy of the show and not criticism inherent to the early episodes in and of themselves.The fact that the early episodes do not reflect a feeling of Seinfeld quite so much is what prevents me from enjoying them more and while the criticism may be somewhat unwarranted given how much experimentation went into settling on a design for the show, it cannot be avoided here in my case.
All of this is not to say that the early episodes have no place among the catalog of Seinfeld, but rather that it doesn't paint Seinfeld's potential as a show. It all begins here with this rather clunky pilot that does not hit much of the strides of Seinfeld, the show as it would go onto become. There's no Elaine, first and foremost, which is one of the more frequent observations regarding this episode and it certainly hurts not having that feminine anti-feminine presence as Elaine would bring tot he show. There's no Kramer in this episode, not because his name is substituted for Kessler (real life Kenny Kramer, ex-neighbour of Larry David's, was the basis of Kramer and he did not lend rights for his name to be used for a character based on him) but rather because Kramer is a little too aloof and described as a shut-in with little to no experience of social contact (evident to some extent in his brief interactions with George) and even George, arguably the episode's strongest point, is not the oddly endearing, dead on confidence, pathetic loser that he is renowned for.
Even more so than inconsistencies regarding characterization is the fact that this episode will most likely not reap too many rewards for those watching it for the first time today. There are few laughs throughout this twenty-two minutes, the stand-up sequence while it has a charm to it is not necessarily entertaining and overlong (first time viewers do not need to fear for the show severely cuts down on the stand-up by the time the show hits its stride) and even the characters obsessing over the minutia of their daily lives (Jerry pinpointing the one out-of-place button on George's shirt), while amusing, lacks the confidence and zip that would over time come to both the writers and actors.
Nevertheless, despite the fact that the episode may operate low on praise, is a watchable half hour of television. It works better as a retrospective exercise, watching this first episode, and it is amusing how many notes this episode misses that have come to define Seinfeld the show. The fact that the pilot is clunky should not in any way be an indicator of the show to come given both the lesser state of television then and the time taken for creators Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld to find the show its own identity. All of this is but a part of the grand tale of Seinfeld's rise to pop culture phenomenon as one of the all time great television shows.
All of this is not to say that the early episodes have no place among the catalog of Seinfeld, but rather that it doesn't paint Seinfeld's potential as a show. It all begins here with this rather clunky pilot that does not hit much of the strides of Seinfeld, the show as it would go onto become. There's no Elaine, first and foremost, which is one of the more frequent observations regarding this episode and it certainly hurts not having that feminine anti-feminine presence as Elaine would bring tot he show. There's no Kramer in this episode, not because his name is substituted for Kessler (real life Kenny Kramer, ex-neighbour of Larry David's, was the basis of Kramer and he did not lend rights for his name to be used for a character based on him) but rather because Kramer is a little too aloof and described as a shut-in with little to no experience of social contact (evident to some extent in his brief interactions with George) and even George, arguably the episode's strongest point, is not the oddly endearing, dead on confidence, pathetic loser that he is renowned for.
Even more so than inconsistencies regarding characterization is the fact that this episode will most likely not reap too many rewards for those watching it for the first time today. There are few laughs throughout this twenty-two minutes, the stand-up sequence while it has a charm to it is not necessarily entertaining and overlong (first time viewers do not need to fear for the show severely cuts down on the stand-up by the time the show hits its stride) and even the characters obsessing over the minutia of their daily lives (Jerry pinpointing the one out-of-place button on George's shirt), while amusing, lacks the confidence and zip that would over time come to both the writers and actors.
Nevertheless, despite the fact that the episode may operate low on praise, is a watchable half hour of television. It works better as a retrospective exercise, watching this first episode, and it is amusing how many notes this episode misses that have come to define Seinfeld the show. The fact that the pilot is clunky should not in any way be an indicator of the show to come given both the lesser state of television then and the time taken for creators Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld to find the show its own identity. All of this is but a part of the grand tale of Seinfeld's rise to pop culture phenomenon as one of the all time great television shows.