Tonight's 10 April Episode

What a heaping pile! It was nothing special.

Your thoughts?

On Fri, 11 Apr 1997 [email] wrote:

What a heaping pile! It was nothing special.

Your thoughts?

I thought it was one of the funnier ones I have seen recently. I laughed pretty hard.

Stephanie M Sicola wrote:

I didn't laugh once, but it was better than anything else on t.v.

BAD EPISODE.

	And don't get me wrong. I'm not one of those bitter people who writes
and says the show sucks or it's going downhill or anything. I like the show
a lot. But as Elaine once said about a certain Oscar winning movie, "How 'bout,
it sucked?"
	It was bad. The Kramer-river thing wasn't milked as well as it could
have been. The whole "guy who can't make a decision for himself and relies
on Jerry until Jerry goes crazy" thing HAS ALREADY BEEN DONE. Remember Jerry's
annoying agent from the Diplomats Club? The whole desk thing was surreal, and
not very funny, and seemed to be created only to huild up to punchline, "O.K!
Everybody under the desk!"
	I just didn't laugh at all. Why can't they do more concept episodes?
Like the Chinese Restaurant and The Parking Garage?
	-Matt

It wasn't bad. It's on par with the rest of this season's episodes. It doesn't necessarily stand out, aside from all the new locations. Anyone else notice that George put the People mag in the hidden cabinet in his desk, but it was back in the in/out basket when Steinbrenner heard the ticking clock. I must say I liked the obtrusive new kitchen and that whole little scene.

[email] wrote:

Ease up- it wasn't that bad. "Special" Seinfelds are rare anyway. I thought the Steinbrenner stuff was pretty good-I'd missed him anyway. Kramer's still out of character- acting silly and goofy instead of menacingly strange- but the kitchen schtick was hilarious! Seinfeld still excels at the back-and-forth conversation of the world's absurdity. When it hits, it hits. No, it doesn't hit all cylinders. But it's far above the madding crowd. Remember that.

"Fire in the hole!"

[email] (DShort001) wrote:

Ok, you're right, it is far above the crowd, but I did't laugh and I won't add this to my list of top ten episodes.

still

When

Yes, it was definetly Steinbrenner that made the show good tonight. I don't recall them ever using Steinbrenner as much as they did tonight. The part about Elaine and the mattres was pretty stupid though, and also not very funny. I liked when they made the reference to Kramer's cologne idea, he said "Its like sleeping on the beach"

Dustin

I agree

On Fri, 11 Apr 1997 01:46:17 GMT, [email] wrote:

Come on, you can't tell me that you did not enjoy Kramer's description of the flabby armed spanking machine!

I did think that this episode was a bit bit bizarre but they just kind of make you think, now did I really understand that last gag/joke or did I only think that I understood it and there is deeper, underlying meaning that will eventually get posted in this NG somewhere. Hmmm....points to ponder. And that was a hell of a run-on sentence.

Like so many sitcoms that are long in the tooth, "Seinfeld" has descended into silliness. The "Seinfeld" style of comedy is at its best when it just slightly exaggerates real-life absurdities and characters.

The portrayal of Steinbrenner was cartoonish. Here's a person who appears to be (in the press, at least) temperamental and imperious. The writers should simply build on that. Instead, the Steinbrenner character is taking on some of the attributes of the Peterman character. I like the Peterman character, but I like only one of him.

That whole carpenter/redecorating gag exemplifies the most recent fault of the show: it's devoting too much effort to its sets, but not enough to good writing. They could have gotten more mileage out of the idea (IMHO) with a sparser set by doing something like the following:

The carpenter asks Seinfeld what type of wood to use on the cabinets, and suggests a long list; Seinfeld, annoyed, tells him to use his best judgement. The carpenter uses an exotic, expensive wood with an unusual grain pattern, and hands Seinfeld an astronomical bill. (No kitchen island, etc.) Elaine sees it and tells Seinfeld that the wood comes from an endangered tropical rain forest --- Very uncool. Kramer comes in smoking a cigar; Elaine asks him to put it out, and Kramer puts it out against the cabinet, burning the wood. Seinfeld calls in the carpenter for a repair; the carpenter says that he can't get that wood anymore because the rain forest was cut down, and that the only way he can make the wood match is if he tears down the cabinets and starts over (for an additional charge, of course).

See? Three scenes, a running gag, and almost no props. Perhaps the writers should watch old Murphy Brown episodes revolving around her house painter, or the movie "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dreamhouse" (the flagstone gag or the kitchen paint selection gag). Or, they could watch classics such as "Your Show of Shows" to see how good writing and good performances make good visual comedy, even with minimal sets.

---Alvin H. Nichter

For some reason tonight's really didn't do it at all for me. I'd put it down on the list near The Wig Master, which I disliked a lot. I even found myself calling this episode stupid which is a shame. I was dissappointed because TV Guide said not to miss it... a classic. There I was taping it and I was so turned off I stopped recording in th middle of the episode. Bummer.

Alvin Nichter wrote: (snip, snip)

Actually, I thought they did a good job of using the whole redone kitchen, although it's questionable how that guy got all the electrical rewiring for the refrigerator and stove done so quickly. You're right about overusing the visuals for laughs. For instance, George's keychain from a few episodes ago or that stupid bomb-defusal unit in this one, which was by far the low point of this episode.

I agree totally. It has become silly.

In article , Alvin Nichter wrote:

Shouldn't tonight's episode be 14 April not 10 April?

[email] wrote:

I thought it was a little better than some this season.

I loved the quote where Kramer bursts into Jerry's apt. and sees the new kitchen and says something kinda under his breath like "Oh man, I must be on the wrong floor again."

And..."Fire in the Hole!"

How could you not love Conrad??? "If that's what you want." The kitchen cabinets and George sleeping under the desk, was great. The conversation in the diner about Damien had the classic Seinfeld charm.

LCW

[email] wrote:

I didn't laugh as much as some of the classic episodes, but I thought the show was pretty good. What I liked the most was that this episode didn't get as far fetched as some of the others this year. I have felt most episodes this year were getting to "far fetched" and this episode seemed more realistic than others this year. My 2 cents worth.

Swimming in the East River is not far fetched? Remodeling an entire kitchen within a day is not far fetched? Granted, in recent episodes they've gone even farther, but this episode was far from realistic.

Swimming in the East River is not far fetched? Remodeling an entire kitchen within a day is not far fetched? Granted, in recent episodes they've gone even farther, but this episode was far from realistic.

This was the episode IMHO where they crossed the line between "a little unrealistic" and "too darn crazy for Seinfeld". Let's hope they retreat back across the line quickly...

Regards,

Lee

[email] wrote:

I liked the Steinbrenner segments and swimming in the East River. But, what I would like to know is what happened to Elaine and the hijacked plane to Cuba, which was on about two weeks ago?

Janice Holloschutz

What I would like to know is if Elaine didn't like the smell of the matress because of Kramer's swimming in the East River, why did she end up swimming there at the end of the show? Was the East River smell worse when it was combined with the mattress, therefore causing Elaine to still swim in the river? I doubt she did it just because it was good for her back?

P.S. It didn't look like there was a whole lot of effort make to conceal Julia Louis-Dreyfus' pregnancy. Sure, she wore a large coat in the episode but most of the time her stomach was still visible.

I also was surprised that nothing

I thought the same thing about that, too. I thought that maybe Elaine's boyfriend would have pushed Kramer into the water. Someone looking through those sightseeing telescopes would have seen his body and thought it was thrown in the river by the mob, like the man and the kid earlier in the episode. It would have also tied into Jerry and George's manslaughter conversation at the beginning of the show.

Because the matress fell on Elaine causing an injury to her back, and as Kramer discovered the sewer was great back therapy.

"I'm feeling very sick and ill today, but I'm still fond of you!" - MORRISSEY "Most people keep their brains between their legs, don't you find?" - MORRISSEY

By the way, was there a visual reference to Superman in this episode?

Quoth [email]: :

Mediocre. And it really suffered in comparison to tonight's (4/11) sydicated episode with "THE ASSMAN", one of the classics in my opinion.

"A million to one shot, doc. A million to one." "He stopped short? THAT'S MY MOVE!"

To reply by email, delete the *NO_SPAM* from my email address.

I dunno, Steinbrenner (sp?) always makes laugh. Besides, what else is on?

Gerhard

It looks to me like we won't know if this year was good or not until it gets into syndication...it's funny how all the old shows were great, then when the new ones mix in on syndication, they are great as well - and the present year's shows get most of the criticism. The Hermit