Highlights
- Seinfeld was a groundbreaking sitcom that broke from conventional writing styles and introduced an A-story and B-story structure.
- Jerry Seinfeld, the co-writer and protagonist of the show, has never watched a single episode of Seinfeld since leaving the show.
- Jerry Seinfeld has several favorite episodes of Seinfeld, including “The Pothole” and “The Marine Biologist,” and considers them his best work on the series.
Many years after its end, the sitcom Seinfeld remains a darling with its popularity and influence still massive across the globe. The show was groundbreaking, having given fans something different from what they were used to— an A-story and a B-story sitcom structure. Well, this is just one in a handful of other conventional writing styles the sitcom broke from.
It is undeniably accurate that Seinfeld is one of the best-written sitcoms ever, having been co-written by the great comedians and writers Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David. It does not take a genius to realize that the semi-fictionalized character, Seinfeld, is based on, named after, and played by Jerry Seinfeld himself, so the show may have some sentimental value to him. Having run for 180 episodes, Jerry Seinfeld had a few favorites, but here is what he had to say about his best episode.
Jerry Seinfeld Won’t Watch Seinfeld, But He’s A “Big Fan”
Is it crazy when stars don’t watch their shows? Well, it is not a new occurrence as several Hollywood stars often avoid revisiting their roles in movies—they just prefer to leave their roles in the past.
Johnny Depp and Reese Witherspoon don’t do it, so it shouldn’t be surprising that the writer and the protagonist of Seinfeld hasn’t watched a single episode of Seinfeld since he left the show.
While on Access Hollywood Live, when quizzed on his reason for not watching the show, Jerry said that once you have an intimate experience with something and get through it, you just can’t. He even compared watching the show to opening his own highschool year book and going, “ look at me, there I am again.”
However, the actor cum comedian, on a Reddit AMA session, Jerry went on record to admit that he is a big fan of Seinfeld and has a few favorite episodes.
Jerry’s Favorite Episode Is One That He Thinks Is His Best
Fans are always intrigued to learn new things about the characters of their favorite shows, like their best moments on the show, their opinions on other shows, and their favorite episodes.
With over 100 episodes, they are obvious hits that most fans would consider their favorite episodes. However, fans were surprised by Jerry’s top picks. Actually, the comedian has several favorite episodes, including The Pothole, The Marine Biologist, The Yadda Yadda, The Soup Nazi, and The Contest.
But what about these episodes made them the writer’s favorite?
In a simple answer, Jerry Seinfeld said, “I liked the ones that I was in. I felt I brought a certain something to it.”
The stand-up comedian drew attention to the sixteenth episode of Season 8, The Pothole, which features some hilarious scenes. Some notable scenes include one in which Seinfeld finds himself in his girlfriend’s bathroom and accidentally drops her toothbrush in the toilet. A sequence of almost similar scenes follows, like Kramer adopting a highway and George dropping his keys in a pothole.
Jerry said, “It was really fun to shoot, and it was fun to set Newman on fire.”
“And he screamed, ‘Oh, the humanity,’ like from the Hindenburg disaster. It’s one of my favorites,” Jerry summed up about The Potholes.
Another one of Jerry’s favorites is The Rye which explores Elaine’s relationship with her saxophonist boyfriend. In the same episode, George takes his parents to meet his fiancee Susan’s parents, and on the way, his father picks up a marble rye to give it as a present. Things spiral out of control when the bread isn’t served at dinner, and George’s father takes it back with him.
In the AMA session, however, Jerry confirmed that the best idea he ever came up with on the show was part of The Marine Biologist episode. He said that when they were doing the story, they lacked a connection between George pretending to be a marine biologist and Kramer hitting golf balls, and later in the week, he figured out how to link the two stories.
“So, I think that’s probably the best joke I ever thought of on the series. But, I love when people say ‘regift,’ ‘giddyup,’ or ‘yadda yadda.’ The real and spectacular…I was a very big fan of the show,” he added.
Fans Had A Different Favorite Episode
It should come as no surprise that The Contest is considered the best episode by most Seinfeld fans. The writer and protagonist of the show was inspired by a time he and his friend thought they would have a bet on who would withhold a particular habit the longest.
Unlike other episodes, Jerry did not run this idea with the executives before writing it. Although he knew there was a chance of it being rejected, Larry was planning on exiting the show if they said no. Luckily, the executives did not protest it; it became the Show’s pinnacle.
While the sitcom was a hit, it had a few misses, with The Male Unbonding being the worst. The Male Unbonding episode had the worst rating on IMDb and featured Kevin Dunn. Kevin had initially auditioned for George, which makes fans wonder how the show would have turned out if he got the role.
Source: NewsFinale
