The Seinfeld Chronicles
There's something unsettling about watching a pilot episode
for a show that we're so familiar with. When we've watched the same characters
in hundreds of 22 minute installments over and over and over we tend to think
of having a sort of crude intimate relationship with them and pilots can rip
that familiarity away from us.
As it often happens in American television, especially comedies, things... change. Between filming a pilot and a series being greenlit a lot can happen. An actor can be replaced. Sets can be changed. Characters can be added or removed. Watching a pilot is like wandering into the Mirror Universe or the Other Side or the Twilight Zone or Bizzaro World. Everything seems familiar but nothing seems right. And when you watch a show with that mindset, the differences begin to stick out and the aspects still familiar fade away.
And it's that mindset with which I watched the pilot of Seinfeld; a strange voyage to a Universe where Jerry and George eat at a diner called Pete's, Michael Richards behaves more like his UHF character than Kramer (and he has a dog-further proof we're in an alternate timeline), George has a steady job (Real Estate), Jerry's apartment is Bike and Superman free, Kramer hasn't been out of the building in 10 years, and Elaine is... dead, or something-I don't know, she's not here and that's what matters. Even the name of the show in the pilot "The Seinfeld Chronicles" has the ring of a 50s Anthology series.
So while the basic themes and structures are essentially in place- Jerry and George act more or less like themselves, the stand-up is present and the observational material is there, I found it almost impossible to focus on any of the story with all those Bizarro World style differences. Once Elaine shows up I'm sure things will feel better.
As it often happens in American television, especially comedies, things... change. Between filming a pilot and a series being greenlit a lot can happen. An actor can be replaced. Sets can be changed. Characters can be added or removed. Watching a pilot is like wandering into the Mirror Universe or the Other Side or the Twilight Zone or Bizzaro World. Everything seems familiar but nothing seems right. And when you watch a show with that mindset, the differences begin to stick out and the aspects still familiar fade away.
And it's that mindset with which I watched the pilot of Seinfeld; a strange voyage to a Universe where Jerry and George eat at a diner called Pete's, Michael Richards behaves more like his UHF character than Kramer (and he has a dog-further proof we're in an alternate timeline), George has a steady job (Real Estate), Jerry's apartment is Bike and Superman free, Kramer hasn't been out of the building in 10 years, and Elaine is... dead, or something-I don't know, she's not here and that's what matters. Even the name of the show in the pilot "The Seinfeld Chronicles" has the ring of a 50s Anthology series.
So while the basic themes and structures are essentially in place- Jerry and George act more or less like themselves, the stand-up is present and the observational material is there, I found it almost impossible to focus on any of the story with all those Bizarro World style differences. Once Elaine shows up I'm sure things will feel better.
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