Jerry. George. Elaine. Kramer.
The four character names are etched into the echelon of television history. For nine seasons and 173 episodes, the people of Seinfeld winked, close-talked, and "hellllooo"-ed their way into the lives of millions on a weekly basis.
Twenty years ago, they said good-bye with a much hyped series finale.
I was a year removed from high school, a late teen who was on the search for what I wanted to do with my life (and still might be). Seinfeld had dominated much of my television watching the previous few years and even more so at that point in my life, when I had a lot more free time on my hand than I ever had before.
NBC, with the likes of Seinfeld, Friends, and ER, ruling the television-watching landscape. For the first time in years, though, NBC was preparing to send one of its juggernauts off the air.
Hype around the finale was monumental. It was often unheard of -- and still is to this day -- for a show to go off the air, outside of cancellation, when its creative juices are at their mightiest. Yes, Seinfeld had lost some of its luster by season nine. But many of the lulls actually occurred in the season prior. Ratings were still strong and as the season counted down towards finality, the hype machine for the finale only gained steam. (Much like an oft-maligned Star Wars movie that released a year later, hype can certainly lead to letdowns.)
Specials on the run of the series, multiple magazine retrospectives, and the usual talk show appearances led up to the finale that aired on May 14, 1998.
Where and how would this circular journey end?
A show about nothing
Seinfeld, of course, followed the four main characters and allowed viewers to peek into their lives on a weekly basis: Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), George (Jason Alexander), Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Kramer (Michael Richards).
We did not witness the character arcs, emotional journeys and growth we were normally used to seeing in a television show, sitcom or otherwise. Instead, we were treated to four friends with neurotic tendencies who tended to live in their own little world without giving real thought to consequences their actions carried.
It was hilarious. And, to paraphrase a certain saying uttered by multiple characters, the show was spectacular.
Each episode was almost treated like a 22-minute sketch, giving (usually) very little thought to characters/relationships brought up in previous episodes.
Despite this, there was also a large amount of continuity or arcs that played out over seasons. George and his relationship with Susan (Heidi Swedberg), Elaine's interaction with various bosses over the years and Jerry's love affair with Superman.
In fact, the character of Susan appeared in more episodes than George's parents (Jerry Stiller and Elaine Lewis).
Created by Larry David and Seinfeld, we witnessed all sorts of things over the course of the series that, with the uttering of one word or term, might take you back to Seinfeld. The contest. The puffy shirt. Man hands. Newman. Keith Hernandez. Festivus. (The list could literally go on for ages.)
photo credit: flickr.com
In many shows, even sitcoms, we witness the trajectory of the main characters and we can place guesses as to where the ending is leading. Keep in mind, we were in the early ages of popular use of the internet so spoilers were not as prevalent as one would guess.
The main questions: 1) What was going to happen and 2) Would the ratings beat out M*A*S*H for the most-watched finale of all time.
The Finale
Even watching the episode aptly titled The Finale all these years later, I'm pleased with the outcome. To me, it kept with the tone of the show while fulfilling actions true to each character.
For years, the show had been labeled "a show about nothing". The finale might have gone against natural thinking, but isn't that exactly what it had been doing the entire time? Would you have been pleased -- after all of the buildup -- if the final episode turned out to be a "regular ol' episode"? (Though within the last year Seinfeld has indicated he wished they went the smaller route.)
We watched as these four main characters bounced around in life. They weren't the luckiest of people, no but they didn't exactly help themselves. They were horrible in relationships, not very nice to others, and had their bad share of unfortunate luck.
And yet...
...the finale served as justice. No, not to the four leads. They were finally met with repercussions for years of only caring about themselves.
Justice was for the entirety of the lives of characters they'd come across in the previous nine seasons. A parade of their wrong doings shows up via familiar faces from their past. Guest stars pack the court room and of course, the group is represented by Jackie Chiles (Phil Morris).
Thinking back to when I watched it back then, I held out hope that the four would be found innocent of their wrongdoing. (In case you forgot: the four were put on trial for failing to help an overweight man who was being mugged. They had broken a Good Samaritan law.) When they didn't get set free and were reprimanded for their actions, I was not disappointed. Though at that time I remember wanting to see just one more episode to see them getting out of jail after a year.
The best for me was the final scene (before the post-credit tag), in which the four friends sat down in the jail cell to have the same conversation that George and Jerry had back in season one.
Twenty years have passed and the final episode of Seinfeld is still debated. The two-part finale ended up with 76.7 million views, making it the third-most watched finale of all-time behind the aforementioned M*A*S*H (105.9 million) and Cheers (84.4 million).
While it's no "Sorry. We're Closed." from Cheers, the ending of Seinfeld fit perfectly for what the show was: Crass. Funny. Relatable. And even at times, endearing. As it turns out, Seinfeld very well may have been a show about everything.
photo credit for Seinfeld logo: Wikimedia Commons
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