{"id":3167,"date":"2018-08-23T01:30:27","date_gmt":"2018-08-23T01:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/?p=3167"},"modified":"2025-01-03T17:21:13","modified_gmt":"2025-01-03T22:21:13","slug":"review-seinfeldia-how-a-show-about-nothing-changed-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/review-seinfeldia-how-a-show-about-nothing-changed-everything\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Seinfeldia – How a Show About Nothing Changed Everything"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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In her latest book, Seinfeldia<\/i>, Jennifer Keishen Armstrong explores the world of the hit sitcom and its pervasiveness in our current culture. \u00a0By including profiles of the actors, writers, directors, network executives and everyone else who had anything to do with the show, Armstrong illustrates how the show transformed creators and audiences alike.\u00a0 Despite, its lack of minority characters, its championing of the anti-hero and its focus on the mundane aspects of lack, Seinfeld\u00a0<\/em>has inspired shows like\u00a0Atlanta <\/em>and Insecure.\u00a0 Rapper, Wale’s\u00a0The Mixtape About Nothing<\/em>, is an ode to sitcom and even includes audio clips from the show as interludes.\u00a0\u00a0With her fun facts about the effects the sitcom had on reality to her hard facts about the money it generated, Armstrong provides a comprehensive, fascinating, and easy-to-read narrative of \u201cthe show about nothing\u201d and its far reaching influence. Here are some of the most interesting points found in Armstrong\u2019s book.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1. (Cosmo) Kramer was based on Larry David\u2019s real life neighbor, Kenny Kramer. \u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

At the show\u2019s height, the real Kramer made quite a robust living conducting his own Seinfeld inspired tours of New York City and through speaking engagements at corporate events and universities across the country. \u00a0His endeavors were so lucrative that he managed to work during the summer and fall and then vacation in Mexico in the winter. Other characters based on real life people include Elaine\u2019s boss, J. Peterman, and The Soup Nazi.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2. Seinfeld<\/em> is synonymous with money. \u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

\u201cIn 1997, Seinfeld <\/i>became the first television show to bring in more than $1 million per minute of advertising, something previously accomplished only by the Super Bowl\u201d (141). \u00a0Even after airing its finale twenty <\/i>years ago, Seinfeld continues to be a cash cow as its making fans of new generations.\u00a0\u00a0Hulu<\/i> beat other streaming services for the syndication rights, paying a whopping $160 million (5). \u00a0And the star himself, Jerry Seinfeld, is one of the highest paid actors based off the reruns alone. <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n

 <\/p>\n

3. Neither Larry David nor Seinfeld<\/em> dreamed of the heights the sitcom would reach. \u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

They spent the beginning years of the show wondering if NBC would continue to pick it up for the next season, and if so, in what capacity and would they be able to produce.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

4. Seinfeld<\/em> and Roseanne <\/i>had beef! \u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

According to Armstrong, it started when Julia Louis-Dreyfus parked in Tom Arnold\u2019s spot. \u00a0It included some derogatory words and even a polaroid of someone\u2019s buttocks on a car windshield (150).<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

5. The show changed the aesthetic dimension of sitcoms. \u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

W<\/strong>ith editing that included fast cuts, and the decision to shoot both inside and outside the studio it pushed the boundaries of televisual storytelling.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

6. It had a unique writing room. \u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

In most cases writers meet and sit around a table pitching ideas. \u00a0Ideas are chosen, a narrative arc selected, and then writers are tasked with penning specific scenes. \u00a0This is not the case for the Seinfeld. \u00a0<\/i>Individual writers would pitch their ideas to directly to either David or Seinfeld and then being tasked with writing the entire script. \u00a0Once they completed the draft, David would do the line edits and then it was ready to shoot. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0   In her latest book, Seinfeldia, Jennifer Keishen Armstrong explores the world of the hit sitcom and its pervasiveness in our current culture. \u00a0By including profiles of the actors, writers, directors, network executives and everyone else who had anything to do with the show, Armstrong illustrates how the show transformed creators and audiences alike.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,174,180,173],"tags":[330,301,331,245,332,333,312],"class_list":["post-3167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reviews","category-books-books","category-comedy","category-film-tv","tag-90s-tv","tag-book-review","tag-book-reviews","tag-new-york","tag-seinfeld","tag-sitcom","tag-television"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3167\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.watchjaro.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}