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By
WAYNE KLEIN
Get Out! "Seinfeld" on DVD?
He's already the master of his domain; why would
they need to release it on DVD? Because the fans
demanded it and justice can only be served if one
of the most popular and best sitcoms can be
viewed, uncut and with more than you ever wanted
to know about this ground breaking show. This
terrific boxed set features the first, second and
third season plus replicas of stuff associated
with the series.
When "The Seinfeld Chronicles" (the original
title) first aired as a limited series no one
suspected it would be the next big thing. Seinfeld
and his collaborator/co-creator/co-producer and
frequent co-writer Larry David pushed TV comedy to
its boundaries and then demolished them. They'd
then establish new boundaries and demolish those.
That's groundbreaking, important television. It's
also what made "Seinfeld" unique. Sure, "Who's The
Boss?" could be funny (particularly after a couple
of drinks) but it had to be about something where
someone learned something in every episode.
Seinfeld's and David's mantra "learn nothing and
be about nothing" proved that TV touching on the
absurdity of real life could be funnier than TV
where the characters learned valuable lessons and
became better people. In truth, that rarely
happens in the real world and the fact that
Seinfeld made fun of and played with that
convention made it important. It helped that it
was damn funny as well.
While "Seinfeld" doesn't look perfect (not that
there's anything wrong with that) the show looks
better than ever with a marvelous high definition
transfer from Columbia. The good news is that even
though the show was videotaped, the quality of the
picture and sound for most of those analog
episodes continues to look great. The blacks are
solid for a videotaped program and the colors are
as real and vibrant as when they appeared over a
decade ago. If time has shrunken the impact of
"Seinfeld" (not unlike the time George was caught
with his swim trunks off after spending too much
time in a jacuzzi), it's because it spent too long
in syndication. In reality, many shows have
imitated "Seinfeld" (most notably "Friends")
without the creative touch that distinguished this
show.
For a show about nothing, this boxed set spends
plenty of time and space talking about the
something special that made this an outstanding
show. The hour-long documentary has interesting,
revealing tidbits including a shocker from Julia
Louis- Dreyfus -- she never saw the original pilot
episode. In fact, she didn't see it until she
prepped for the commentary tracks and interview
for this boxed set. Larry David's acerbic, dry and
fatalistic sense of humor (which informs his
terrific show "Curb Your Enthusiasm" on HBO) along
with the witty, informed but ultimately wacky
observations of the rest of the cast and crew,
make this a marvelous documentary. Unlike the
featurettes or documentaries on many TV shows (any
of the "Sex and the City" ones, for example), to
invert a famous quip by a famous writer, "there's
there, there." Substance for a show about nothing
is an ironic twist but in reality "Seinfeld" was
about something. It was about the absurd little
moments that populate our lives, but a little more
twisted.
"Kramer vs. Kramer" allows the real life
inspiration for Cosmo Kramer to comment on his
fictional counterpart. Kenny Kramer comes across
as wacky and weird as Cosmo but a little scarier
in that he occupies real space. We also get
outtakes, bloopers (watch Jerry and the cast screw
everything up and make the screw ups almost as
funny as the scripts) and deleted scenes from
episodes that ran a little bit too long.
"Master of His Domain" features the stand-up
material that introduced much of the first and
second season (before it was ultimately seen as
unnecessary) that was shot but never featured in
the show. You can well imagine which episodes they
were intended for, and guess pretty accurately
without seeing any info on the subject.
"Sponsored by Vandelay Industries" features the
funny promo ads and trailers that NBC ran to
promote the show. "Inside Looks" provides a
glimpse behind-the-scenes as to what was really
happening when various episodes were shot. There
is also some discussion about improving on the
set, what inspired the various episodes, and the
chemistry that the ensemble cast had together. We
also have the chance to see trivia about the
various episodes but, more importantly, two
slightly different versions of the pilot episode
that play a bit different as well. It's like
entering the Bizarro Universe from Superman at
times.
The boxed set of the first three seasons is the
way to go. There's really not a bad episode among
them and "Seinfeld," like "Star Trek: The Original
Series," literally hit the ground running. Yes,
the series developed but it's frightening how good
and sure these first three seasons are. That's
rare in TV. There's also a copy of Larry David's
script for one of the episodes included here with
comments, playing cards and, more importantly,
replicas of the salt and pepper shakers from
"Monk's." It's the closest experience to actually
being on the show.
Sharp, witty and frequently funny observations pop
up in the 15 commentary tracks for the episodes
from the first three seasons. While all of them
are good, those featuring David, Seinfeld and the
rest of the cast work best. Why? Because we are
familiar with all of them and it's like inviting
friends into your living room to comment on their
own home movies and embarrassing photos. We also
get text commentary on every single episode.
In closing all I have to say is, Yada-yada-yada,
yabba-dabba-doo, get out and buy it! |
