Colegiul Naional Vasile Alecsandri Galai

Student: Elena Hrjoab Coordinating teacher: Silviana Giurc

Class 2012

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Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 3 2.0 The creator of the SeinLanguage ........................................................................................................... 4 3.0 SeinLanguage .......................................................................................................................................... 5 4.0 Seinfeld - a show about nothing ........................................................................................................ 6 4.1 Overview................................................................................................................................................. 6 4.2 Storyline.................................................................................................................................................. 7 4.3 Main characters ...................................................................................................................................... 8 4.4 Recurring characters ............................................................................................................................ 10 4.5 Characteristics ...................................................................................................................................... 10 4.5.1 Philosophy: absurdism and nihilism .............................................................................................. 10 4.5.2 Theme............................................................................................................................................. 11 4.6 Catchphrases ........................................................................................................................................ 11 4.7 Awards and nominations ..................................................................................................................... 12 4.8 After Seinfeld....................................................................................................................................... 12 5.0 Conclusions .......................................................................................................................................... 13 6.0 Photos ................................................................................................................................................... 14 7.0 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................................ 16

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1.0 Introduction
The purpose of this project is to represent all of my years spent watching television series because during the high school years I massively grew a passion for movies and television shows. And of all the wide range of serials that I view, I found in Seinfeld something different apart from the others. This sitcom always was able to reverse my mood when I was down or felt like nothing to do. I have been a Seinfeld fan right from the very beginning and watched all episodes . To me, what makes this show great is, first of all, the story line is always derived from a real life situation. You always feel like, " I have been there before", and that makes you feel more interested as if you are living in the show. Secondly, the cast is perfect. I cant imagine anyone else replace any of the characters! Not even some of the side characters such as Newman and other guest stars! Another point, which is not apparent to non-English speaking people about the show is maybe that the dialogs are voiced very slowly, clearly and penned carefully that you grasp the jokes easily even if English is not your mother language. The show is famous for being about nothing, but in reality it's about everything. Seinfeld takes any meaningless, ordinary situation, a day at the office, a workout at the gym, a meal at a restaurant, and adds a wacky spin on it that turns it into an ingenious and remarkable piece of storytelling. Even more shocking, is the fact that they take a group of pathetic, repellent characters and make them both immensely likable and engaging. In the world of Seinfeld two characters could sit around and have a conversation that would somehow leave you in tears of laughter. I have grown tired of routine, monotonous sitcoms that throw out stupid jokes and wisecracks to force the issue of laughter. Seinfeld is not one of these shows, it is a different breed, a show that knows it's funny because it throws its characters into situations that are inherently funny. It doesn't have to resort to contrived scenarios, or intentionally dumb characters, or offensively stupid gags. The characters of this show are yet another reason for its eternal greatness , we have Jerry the most normal one of the gang , and George the "lord of the idiots" , and Kramer the physical comedy side of the show , and last but of course not least the feminine side Elaine . Seinfeld is a must for sitcom fans, a silly and raucous riot of embarrassment and humiliation, comeuppance and karma, luck and chance, mistake and redemption, consequences and repercussions, but most importantly believable and genuine laughter. You're with these characters every step of the way as they live out their lives, confront or elude their fears, stumble over their own stupidity, and get bombarded with criticism and judgment for their odd, seemingly inappropriate behavior. Who's master of the sitcom domain? Arguably it would have to be Seinfeld.
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2.0 The creator of the SeinLanguage

A recent survey stated that the average person's greatest fear is having to give a speech in public. Somehow this ranked even higher than death which was third on the list. So, you're telling me that at a funeral, most people would rather be the guy in the coffin than have to stand up and give an eulogy.(J.Seinfeld)

Jerome Allen "Jerry" Seinfeld (Nickname: Little Jerry) is an American stand-up comedian ,actor, writer and television and film producer, best known for playing the semi-fictional version of himself in the sitcom Seinfeld (19891998). Seinfeld was born in the borough of Brooklyn in New York City. In September 1959, his mother enrolled him at Birch Lane Elementary School, Massapequa High School. At the age of 16, he spent a short period of time volunteering in Kibbutz Sa'ar in Israel. He went to SUNY Oswego, and after his sophomore year he transferred to Queens College, City University of New York, graduating with a degree in communications and theater. Seinfeld developed an interest in stand-up comedy after brief stints in college productions. In 1976 after graduation from Queens College, he tried out at an open-mic night at New York City's Catch a Rising Star, which led to an appearance in a Rodney Dangerfield HBO special. In 1979 he had a small recurring role on the Benson sitcom as "Frankie", a mail delivery boy who had comedy routines that no one wanted to hear, but he was abruptly fired from the show due to creative differences. Seinfeld has said that he was not actually told he had been fired until he turned up for the read-through session for an episode, and found that there was no script for him. After he was abruptly fired from the show, he swore never to do another sitcom unless he had greater control. In May 1981 Seinfeld made a highly successful appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, impressing Carson and the audience and leading to regular appearances on that show and others, including Late Night with David Letterman. The trend of building a situation comedy around a stand-up entertainer was in the embryonic stage when Seinfeld and partner Larry David convinced former NBC president Brandon Tartikoff to film the pilot for a show about "nothing.(a show that was going to be named after his name)." The rest became television legend, with Seinfeld changing the genre forever. Progression of "The Seinfeld Chronicles" into the long-running "Seinfeld" (1990) series phenomenon was ended by its co-creator and co-executive producer, Larry David. He moved back to New York City into a new multimillion-dollar, multilevel apartment on Central Park West just down the street from his original, small bachelor studio on West 81st.
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SeinLanguage Jerry Seinfeld became one of the wealthiest television stars ever when the show became eligible for syndication. He has also scored as an author with his book SeinLanguage and on cable with his HBO specials. His stand-up comedy act is more popular than ever, selling out from city to city. On the home front, his personal life has never been more stable, with wife Jessica and daughter Sascha by his side.

3.0 SeinLanguage
Seinfeld began his career as a writer in 1993 with his book entitled SeinLanguage,chronicling his sitcom Seinfeld into a bestselling paperback. His book soon became a worldwide success, was critically acclaimed and scored a spot on the New York Times Best Seller list. In the first two pages of the book, Jerry talks about his childhood ,about his lifetime wish to become a comedian just like Bill Cosby ,his favorite comedian, whose albums he surely had. In the rest of the pages, his wide range of topics oscillated from Raisinettes to relationships, from childhood to cop shows, and from parents to power suits. Many of his mundane jokes were introduced in his stand-up show and sitcom Seinfeld. For me, this book could be easily subtitled The world according to Jerry. This book continued to provide guaranteed chuckles in neat packages whenever and wherever.

Book Quotes:

Of course we all try and save time. Cutting corners, little short cuts. But no matter how much time you save, at the end of your life, theres no extra time saved up. Youll be going, What do you mean theres no time? I had a microwave oven, Velcro sneakers, a clip-on tie. Where is that time? But there isnt any. So I was on this plane where it was this flight attendants first day on the job, but they didnt have a uniform for her yet. And that really makes a big difference. I mean, now its just some regular person coming over to you going, Would you mind bringing your seatback all the way up? I turned around, Who the hell are you? And then she goes, Well, Im the flight attendant. Oh yeah? Then Im the pilot. Why dont you sit down, Im about to bring her in.

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4.0 Seinfeld - a show about nothing

Seinfeld is an American TV sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, later starring a fictionalized version of him. When Seinfeld aired in 1989 it was panned as sophomoric talk radio and a mildly amusing show. Even comedian Roseanne Barr, whose sitcom, Roseanne (1988-1997), ran with Seinfeld on ABC, found the show about the four Manhattanites rather pretentious: They think theyre doing Samuel Beckett instead of a sitcom, she asserted. However, by the end of Seinfelds run (1998), the show was praised as an authentic American comedy of manners as well as the defining sitcom of our age. And as the author ,Jerry Seinfeld,proclaims, the show that introduced the world to the soup Nazi, close talkers, and being master of ones domain may be the greatest television sitcom.

4.1 Overview
Seinfeld stood out from the many family and group sitcoms of its time. None of the principal Seinfeld characters were related by family or work connections but remained distinctively close friends throughout the seasons. Unlike many other sitcoms, Seinfeld focused less on a plotdriven story than on minutiae, such as waiting in line at the movies, going out for dinner, buying a suit and dealing with the petty injustices of life. The main characters and the recurring characters were primarily based on Seinfelds and Davids real-life acquaintances . Two of the most prominent recurring characters were based on wellknown people: Jacopo Peterman of the J. Peterman catalog (based on John Peterman), and George Steinbrenner, the owner of the New York Yankees. Many other characters were introduced as more writers got involved with Seinfeld. Other characters based on real-life individuals include the Soup Nazi and Jackie Chiles based on Johnnie Cochran. With nearly every Seinfeld episode, the main characters' unique storyline is different from the conventions of a normal sitcom. A story thread is presented at the beginning of each episode, which involves the characters in separate and seemingly unrelated situations. Rapid scene-shifts between storylines bring the stories together toward the end of the episode. Despite the separate plot strands, the narratives reveal the creators' "consistent efforts to maintain the intimacy" amongst the small cast of characters.
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SeinLanguage The show keeps a strong sense of continuity (characters and plots from past episodes are frequently referenced or expanded upon). Occasionally, the story lengthens in multiple episodes and even entire seasons. For example, Jerry's girlfriend appears in "The Stake Out" and he ends the relationship when things do not work out in "The Stock Tip". Other examples are Kramer getting his jacket back and Elaine heading the "Peterman catalog". Larry David, the show's head writer and executive producer for the first seven seasons, was praised for keeping a close eye on minor details and making sure the main characters' lives remained consistent and believable. The most important difference between Seinfeld and other sitcoms prior to this is that the principal characters never learn their moral lessons throughout the seasons. In effect, they are indifferent to the outside world and can be callous towards their guest characters and relatives, indeed sometimes towards each other; a mantra of the show's producers was: "No hugging, no learning." This leads to very few happy endings, except when they come at someone else's expense. More often in every episode, situations resolve with characters getting a justly deserved tragedy.

4.2 Storyline
Jerry Seinfeld stars in this television comedy series as himself, a comedian. The premise of this sitcom is Jerry and his friends going through everyday life, discussing various quirky situations that we can all relate to (especially if we live in New York). The eccentric personalities of the offbeat characters who make up Jerry's social circle contribute to the fun. Many Seinfeld episodes are based on its writers' real-life experiences. For example, "The Revenge" is based on Larry David's experience at Saturday Night Live. "The Contest" and "The Phone Message" are also based on David's experiences. "The Smelly Car" is based on Peter Mehlman's lawyer friend, who could not get a bad smell out of his car. "The Strike" is based on Dan O'Keefe's dad, who made up his own holidayFestivus. Other stories take on a variety of different turns. "The Chinese Restaurant" consists of the main characters (excluding Kramer) simply waiting for a table throughout the entire episode. "The Boyfriend", revolving around Keith Hernandez, extends through two episodes. "The Betrayal" is famous for using reverse chronology, and was inspired by a similar plot device in a Harold Pinter play. Some stories were inspired by headlines and rumors, which are explained in the DVD features "Notes About Nothing", "Inside Look", and "Audio Commentary." In "The Maestro", Kramer's lawsuit is roughly similar to the McDonald's coffee case. "The Outing" is based mainly on rumors that Larry Charles heard about Jerry Seinfeld's sexuality

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4.3 Main characters

Jerry Seinfeld (Jerry Seinfeld) I was the best man at the wedding. If I'm the best man, why is she marrying him?

Jerry is a "minor celebrity" stand-up comedian who is often portrayed as "the voice of reason" amidst all the insanity generated by the people in his world. His character is a slight germophobe and a neat freak, as well as an avid Superman and breakfast cereal fan. Jerry's apartment is the center of a world visited by his eccentric friends George, Elaine, and Kramer.[12] Plot lines often involve Jerry's romantic relationships. He typically finds small, silly reasons to stop dating women; some of the reasons for the breakups include his dislike for a woman because she eats her peas one at a time, a woman having over-sized "man hands" and a woman having an annoying laugh. Jerry's character is the only "normal" one of the bunch, he's the focal point of everything and he doesn't mind mixing fantasy with reality...parodying his real-life appearances on the tonight show and starting each episode with a brief clip of him doing stand-up and so on. It's a joy to watch Seinfeld act as you can sometimes just tell he's dying to burst out laughing at some of the lines, a genuinely nice fella and one of the funniest people on the planet.

George Costanza (Jason Alexander) "Pity's very underrated. I like pity. It's good"

George is Jerry's best friend. He is cheap, dishonest, still tied to his parents just like Jerry, petty and often envious of others' achievements. He is often portrayed as a loser who is insecure about his capabilities. But George isn't a loser in the traditional sense of the word, he's just somebody who has had bad luck all of his life, made the wrong decisions, and has come to accept all of this as a part of who he is. He's afraid of women, unsure of his sexuality, riddled with anxiety, and often appears to be begging for help to escape his futile existence. There's no loser in the gang because in a sense they're all losers. He frequently complains and lies about his profession, relationships, and almost everything else, which usually creates trouble for him later. He often uses an alias ("Art Vandelay") when lying or concocting a cover story. Despite these shortcomings, George manages to date numerous women and eventually achieves a successful career as Assistant to the Traveling Secretary for the New York Yankees. During the run of the
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SeinLanguage show, he and Jerry work with NBC to produce a pilot episode of a TV show called Jerry. During this time, he meets Susan Ross who works for NBC. George has an on-and-off relationship with her until she dies at the end of Season 7. He often pretends to be an architect and once pretended to be a marine biologist to impress a woman.

Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) The female body is a work of art. The male body is utilitarian. It's for gettin' around. It's like a Jeep.

Elaine is Jerry's ex-girlfriend. She is attractive, intelligent and assertive. Elaine is smart , but also woefully neurotic. She has no real goals in life, can't figure out what she wants in a man, and at times resembles a lost little child. She's probably one of the more decent members of the group, but needs to mature. She sometimes has a tendency to be very honest with people, which often gets her into trouble. She usually gets caught up in her boyfriends' habits, her eccentric employers' unusual demands, and the unkindness of total strangers. She tends to pick the worst men to date and loses her cool easily. That is because she is so self-centered and unable to give much in a relationship. She works at Pendant Publishing with Mr. Lippman and later she works with the Peterman catalogue. One of Elaine's trademark moves is her forceful shove while screaming "Get out" when she receives good or shocking news. Another is her memorable "Little Kicks" dance moves. She also has a hatred for The English Patient, which ends up costing her job at Peterman's.

Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards) Giddy up!

Kramer is Jerry's "wacky neighbor". The only friend who can tolerate him for long is Newman, that nobody likes besides Kramer. His trademarks include his humorous upright pompadour hairstyle, vintage clothing, usually the same, and energetic sliding bursts through Jerry's apartment door. An anomaly, an eccentric, goofy klutz who somehow manages to be a suave womanizer despite his constant pitfalls and lack of employment. Kramer is the most honest member of the group, never afraid to speak his mind and tell it like it is. He's a smart man, with a lot of ideas and wisdom, but somehow his continual mishaps always stop him from making the most of them At times, he appears naive, dense and almost childlike yet he randomly shows astonishing insight into human behavior; likewise, he makes friends with people very easily with
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SeinLanguage his charm and easygoing manner and has almost effortless success with women. He is often the only main character acting with any sort of apparent conscience and is typically the only one to lobby for maintaining social decorum in order to appease acquaintances. Although he never holds a steady job, he often invents wacky schemes which usually work at first but then eventually fail. Among these are coffee table books about coffee tables (for which he appeared on Live with Regis and Kathie Lee) and a brassiere for men called the Bro (or Manssiere suggested by Frank Costanza).

4.4 Recurring characters

There are many recurring characters that made several appearances, either as a friend or a relative like Newman and Uncle Leo. In addition to its regularly recurring characters, Seinfeld featured numerous celebrities who appeared as themselves or as girlfriends, boyfriends, bosses and other acquaintances. Many of those who made guest appearances became household names later in their careers, or were comedians and actors already well known for previous work.

4.5 Characteristics
4.5.1 Philosophy: absurdism and nihilism
Absurdism. The view presented in Seinfeld is arguably consistent with the philosophy of absurdism, the idea that life is meaningless: characters may attempt to create meaningfulness, but it always fails and reveals itself to be meaninglessness (George's impromptu proposal to marry Susan which transforms into his pleasure in her odd death, etc.). For these reasons, things like hope, ambition, intimacy, compassion, and love are overtly mocked or detested, except in rare cases where pursuit of them leads to abysmal comical failure. Nihilism. Seinfeld also exhibits elements of nihilistic philosophy: things don't have value and there are no values, relationships are futile, stagnation, ideological inversion and/or amorality.

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4.5.2 Theme
Seinfeld broke several conventions of mainstream television. The show, often described as being about "nothing", became the first television series since Monty Python's Flying Circus to be widely described as postmodern. Several elements of Seinfeld fit in with a postmodern interpretation. The show is typically driven by humor interspersed with superficial conflict and characters with strange dispositions. Many episodes revolved around the characters becoming involved in the lives of others to typically disastrous results. On the set, the notion that the characters should not develop or improve throughout the series was expressed as the "no hugging, no learning" rule. Unlike most sitcoms, there are no moments of pathos; the audience is never made to feel sorry for any of the characters. Even Susan's death in the series elicits no genuine emotions from anyone in the show. The characters were "thirty-something singles with no roots, vague identities, and conscious indifference to morals." Usual conventions, such as isolating the characters from the actors playing them and separating the characters' world from that of the actors and audience, were broken. One such example is the story arc in which the characters promote a television sitcom series named Jerry. The show within the show, Jerry, was much like Seinfeld in that it was "about nothing" and Seinfeld played himself. The fictional Jerry was launched in the Season 4 finale, but unlike the real Seinfeld, it was not picked up as a series.

4.6 Catchphrases
Many terms coined, popularized, or repopularized during the series' run have become part of popular culture. Notable catchphrases include "Yada, yada, yada", "No soup for you", "These pretzels are making me thirsty" and "Not that there's anything wrong with that". Other popular terms that also made the transition into slang were created by, directed at or about secondary characters, including: "Festivus", "spongeworthy" and "re-gifter". As a body, the lexicon of Seinfeldian code words and recurring phrases that evolved around particular episodes is referred to as Seinlanguage, the title of Jerry Seinfeld's best-selling book on humor.

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4.7 Awards and nominations

Seinfeld has received awards and nominations in various categories throughout the mid-1990s. TV Guide has named it the greatest show of all time. It was awarded the Emmy for "Outstanding Comedy Series" in 1993, Golden Globe Award for "Best TV-Series (Comedy)" in 1994 and Screen Actors Guild Award for "Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series" in 1995, 1997 and 1998. Apart from these, the show was also nominated for an Emmy award from 1992 to 1998 for "Outstanding Comedy series", Golden Globe award from 1994 to 1998 for "Best TV-Series (Comedy)", and Screen Actors Guild Award for "Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series" from 1995 to 1998.

4.8 After Seinfeld

Curb Your Enthusiasm 2009 reunion

Early in March 2009, it was announced that the Seinfeld cast would reunite for the seventh season of Curb Your Enthusiasm. The entire cast first appeared in the third episode of the season, all playing themselves. The season-long story is that Larry David tries to initiate a Seinfeld reunion show as a ploy to get his ex-wife, Cheryl, back. Along with the four main characters, some of Seinfeld's supporting actors such as Wayne Knight, Estelle Harris and Steve Hytner also appeared in the ninth episode at a table read for the reunion show. Though much of the dialogue in Curb Your Enthusiasm is improvised, the plot was scripted, and the Seinfeld special that aired within the show was scripted and directed by Seinfeld regular Andy Ackerman, making this the first time since Seinfeld went off the air that the central cast appeared together in a scripted show.

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5.0 Conclusions
As a show about nothing, "Seinfeld" managed to achieve more than the majority of shows about something, and then did a lot more as well. One of the most innovative and original spins on the sitcom formula, Jerry Seinfeld & co. obsessed themselves with the ordinary, mundane details of everyday life and found a comic edge that so many people could easily relate to. Finding humor in such routine events as parking a car or waiting in line for the cinema might seem like a task that most television shows would avoid. After all, each and every one of us experiences things like that everyday - don't we? Exactly. In its deceptively simple approach, "Seinfeld" managed to open up a world of hilarity that has to rank as one of American television's finest hours - not that there's anything wrong with that!

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6.0 Photos

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Elaine Benes dancing from The Little Kicks

Jerry Seinfeld the man who had the pleasure to advertise a professional fashion designer

George Costanza being himself

Cosmo Kramer disagreeing

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7.0 Bibliography
http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320414457l/231869.jpg http://www.kellimarshall.net/seinfeld/wpcontent/uploads/2010/07/6a00d83451f25369e200e54f56b76b8833-800wi.jpg http://images.fanpop.com/images/image_uploads/Seinfeld-seinfeld412513_593_541.jpg http://guyism.com/wp-content/uploads/Elaine-Benes.jpg http://www.seinfeld-fan.net/pictures/george/george_costanza015.jpg http://images.mylot.com/userImages/images/postphotos/1481996.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seinfeld#Seasons_1.E2.80.933 http://www.kellimarshall.net/seinfeld/ Parts of the book SeinLanguage

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