‘Seinfeldia’ book takes nostalgic look about a show based on nothing
I remember how Jerry Seinfeld and his gang caught my attention in the 1990s.
Skilled writers, actors and directors crafted stories that I couldn’t wait to watch every week, wondering what nothing was going to absorb the New York City lives of Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer and make for hilarious entertainment.
Of course, we eventually learned this ground-breaking NBC comedy was, in fact, a show about “nothing,” as George and Jerry pitch in an idea for a television series based on their own lives. This, again, was another of the show’s seemingly endless blending of fiction and reality as many Seinfeld characters and storylines were based on actual people and events.
And, we loved it all: Junior Mints, the Soup Nazi, “yada yada yada,” “serenity now,” and Festivus.
That’s why I was excited to read a new book called “Seinfeldia: How a Show About Nothing Changed Everything,” written by Jennifer Keishen Armstrong. By the way, I checked the book out of my local library — yes, a plug for libraries because I realize their value to communities.
Armstrong starts her book with a look at a “Salute to Seinfeld” night that took place just a couple of years ago at the Brooklyn Cyclones, a Minor League Baseball team in Coney Island, New York. The stunt included renaming their home Vandelay Industries Park, an Elaine dance off, former-Mets player Keith Hernandez bobbleheads and a New York resident named George Costanza among those throwing out “the first pitch.”
The sold-out crowd loved it!
Seinfeld night is an example of the power of this sitcom that changed television comedy in its approach. Armstrong noted co-creator Larry David – the basis for the George character — used a motto “No hugging, no learning.”
In an interview with NBC News this summer, Armstrong explained the appeal of “Seinfeld,” which continues to be shown in reruns 20 years later.
“People feel so connected to it, it feels like an extension of their everyday frustrations except these characters are doing what you wish you could do in those situations instead of what you actually do, which is suck it up and take it,” Armstrong said.
Of course, that didn’t mean life was easy for these characters. Things usually didn’t work out. When something did, it could be glorious: George rescuing a beached whale when he pretended to be a marine biologist to impress a woman.
Armstrong gives a backstage look at the series: its development, the writers, significant episodes and the decision to end the show as well as that not-so-satisfying finale.
In fact, after the finale, I found myself avoiding “Seinfeld” in reruns as I felt I had seen it all and wasn’t sure about its lack of values in a house with young children. Remember, none of these characters grew through the years.
But nostalgia drove me to read Armstrong’s book, which made the bestseller lists and became the subject for lots of news stories. It persuaded me to watch a few reruns of “Seinfeld” and I found myself laughing all over again.
So maybe that’s the point of “Seinfeld:” just having a good laugh at life and all its foibles.
Seinfeld fans: go read the book. Then go out for coffee and talk about it with your friends, just like Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer’s many conversations. A good read, a good laugh and a good talk.
It’s nothing really but fun.