TV & Beyond on 2025-05-11 21:00:00

which made /Film’s ranking of the best sitcoms of all time, only grew in popularity once audiences realized this wasn’t going to be like any other show on television. Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), George (Jason Alexander), and Kramer (Michael Richards) were characters who would often inconvenience the world around them and rarely take responsibility for their actions.

Almost like with any other friend group, viewers were invited into their circle to get a close-up encounter of how everyone acts around people they know very well. Every character in the core four were technically friends, but that would never stop them from interjecting in one another’s lives for their own personal gain. No lessons were learned in “Seinfeld,” at least none that they took to heart. George would always find himself trapped in a web of lies just so he could secure a date or get a job. Does he take his many rejections as a sign that he should be honest and better himself? Of course not! And that’s the whole point.

“Seinfeld” was (and still is) considered a groundbreaking comedy achievement because you could almost never see where its punchlines were going to end up. One episode sees George lie about being a Marine Biologist and in the process gives one of the show’s funniest monologues in which he recounts how he saved a beached whale by removing a golf ball from the blowhole. Despite all of the outlandish escapades these characters would get themselves into, the genesis of the show actually came from a fairly grounded place.

Two comedians riffing at a local deli turned into Seinfeld

Kramer and Jerry sitting in Tom's Restaurant in Seinfeld

NBC

In a 2013 interview on The Howard Stern Show, Jerry talked about how his future with NBC was set in motion after finally being recognized for his comedic talents by the top brass. He was a bit annoyed that it took nearly a decade of doing stand-up bits on “The Tonight Show,” but he took a meeting with them anyway. When asked if there’s he had any ideas in mind for a television series, Jerry’s answer was simple and straight to the point. “Not really,” he says. A week later, however, he has a conversation with David about the whole thing, which leads them to a place where the idea for “Seinfeld” hits them like a bolt of lightning:

“We start talking and then we go across the street to a Korean deli. We’re making fun of everything in the deli. He goes ‘this is what the show should be: two comedians just making fun of stuff as they walk around during the day.’ And that was it.”

In the words of Claude Rains’ Mr. Dryden in “Lawrence of Arabia,” big things have small beginnings. Sometimes, a burst of inspiration leads to a comedic mainstay we’re still talking about decades later. From there, David and Jerry would center their “Seinfeld” pitch around the idea of how a comedian gets their material. You’re off to the races with a concept like that, as it pretty much allows so much flexibility in terms of what the show could be about. It didn’t have to stick to any regimen of pre-determined television norms and could expand the breadth of its comedic scope. The pair were keen observers of comics, and a lot of the weirdos they wrote into the show originated from everyday encounters taking an offbeat turn.

That fateful day is practically immortalized in almost every episode of “Seinfeld” whenever the show’s ensemble spends time in Tom’s Restaurant and cracking jokes at one another’s expense. There’s something to those mundane conversations we all have at casual eateries that’s ripe for comedy, and the pairing sure took advantage of it. The next time you go to a diner or a deli, take a gander at all of the stuff on the walls. Who knows where it might lead you next?

Every episode of “Seinfeld” is currently streaming on Netflix.

TV & Beyond on 2025-05-11 21:00:00

Two comedians riffing at a local deli turned into Seinfeld

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