Ouch (Dowd on Seinfeld)

Yada Yada Yuppies

Maureen Dowd NY Times 5/14/97

There was a moment, a decade ago, when yuppies felt a soup�on of shame.

As they ate their Tofutti on Columbus Avenue, or walked their Apricas and akitas in Central Park, or ordered a feisty little Beaujolais, they had the queasy sensation that they were becoming revolting. "Some have made the tragic discovery that a Brie can actually get too ripe," Michael Kinsley wrote in GQ in 1985.

Their unparalleled acquisitiveness was nurtured by Madison Avenue. "The question isn't whether Grape-Nuts are good enough for you," said one ad. "It's whether you are good enough for Grape-Nuts."

Demographic experts predicted the fall of the West Side Weimar Republic. But they were wrong.

Yuppies, it turned out, just needed a little time to get used to being the magnifying mirror for American culture, to seeing every indulgence -- from exfoliants to organic baby wipes to anything high-fiber and low-fat -- get marketed into an overblown, tiresome trend.

"I think for a little while, they were genuinely embarrassed by some leftover 60's feelings that their lives were too full of bourgeois comforts," says Mr. Kinsley, the editor of Slate magazine. "But now they only have ersatz embarrassment. They don't feel decadent for their consumer-oriented society. They just feel decadent for being so trendy."

The TV show that gave cultural expression to this exquisitely minute concern with our own psyches was "Seinfeld." Anthropological attention was paid to relationship anxiety, frozen yogurt, muffins, tony mail-order catalogues, antique armoires, breast implants, bodily functions, closetalkers, onanism, yada yada yada.

So naturally, we must examine the larger meaning -- or perhaps the smaller meaning -- of the breathtaking $600,000-a-week salaries that the show's three subsidiary stars got (after demanding $1 million a week) to come back for two more seasons -- an occasion that inspired NBC to play the Hallelujah chorus from Handel's "Messiah" at a press conference in New York. Jerry Seinfeld, spokesman for American Express, already makes a million an episode.

"It's kind of like baseball," said one top TV producer in Hollywood who fears stars are going to want to triple their salaries now. "One bad owner drives up the market, and it's bad for the business."

The "Seinfeld" characters grow more surreally self-centered -- George was relieved when his fianc�e died from licking the envelopes on the cheap wedding invitations he insisted on, and Elaine paid more attention to Jujyfruits than an injured boyfriend -- and the actors grow more surreally greedy. "The million-dollar number is not frivolous," Jason Alexander, who plays George, insisted last week.

It is fitting that George, Elaine and Kramer cashed in at a time when the Thursday show is not as funny as the reruns. " 'Seinfeld' is the worst, last gasp of Reaganite, grasping, materialistic, narcissistic, banal self-absorption," says Leon Wieseltier, the literary editor of The New Republic.

A friend of mine rants: "Why don't the characters just move to penthouses on Fifth Avenue? How can they be playing smart Jewish people hanging out in a diner eating all the eggs they want for $3.99 when they are the most highly paid TV actors of the late 20th century? Why don't they just tie Jerry Seinfeld's compensation to how the Knicks do next year?"

With "Seinfeld" and life increasingly feeding off each other -- the real Kramer is running in the Democratic mayoral primary in New York; the J. Peterman catalogue is promoting itself based on its "Seinfeld" role -- the show is our Dorian Gray portrait, a reflection of the what's-in-it-for-me times that allowed Dick Morris and Bill Clinton to triumph with a campaign of "bite- sized" issues that emphasized personality over party.

"Seinfeld" has progressed the way yuppies have, growing ever more self-referential and self-regarding. Yuppies still order designer pizzas; they just do it with air quotes to denote ironic self-awareness.

"Seinfeld" will eventually go off the air, but yuppies seem doomed to eternal superficiality. "We're certainly going to broaden," Mr. Kinsley joked. "But deepen? No. Why on earth should we?"

Copyright 1997 The New York Times Company

In article ,

Words, words, words...

This is one of the most pompous piece of writing I've ever read. This writer basically wrote a lot to say very little.

May I remind the author of this article that this is A TV SHOW, A SITCOM, not a sociological study of late XXth century America. The fact that these characters are so superficial and selfish is one of the reasons why the show is so funny. Perfect people aren't that funny. I mean, can you ever imagine a sitcom about Mother Teresa?

Please, lighten up, undo that top button, relax, have a few drinks... you'll see it's fun.

Michel Montreal

Oh My God!!! Did that scare anyone else? For Petes sake, its a TV show, not the fall of the Roman Empire! I for one don't see how a Show can say sooo much?? Hmm I thought TV was for entertainment? Oh Well I just had to vent.....Some people REALLY need counseling! :)

Really, Mr. Nichter, maybe you should stick to writing about the people YOU know! As a resident of DC, I can tell you right now that nobody uses (or has heard of) the word govies. Possibly you could have made your point (to insult Ms. Dowd) without insulting all the rest of us? K-Mart indeed.

Karyn

I did not intend to generalize about ALL residents of D.C., and I apologize if you understood it that way. I was referring to the crowd about Ms. Dowd writes. Also, I made up the term "govie's" (hence the quotes) as a parody of the term yuppies, the latter having appeared in Ms. Dowd's article.

Contrary to your statement, I was indeed writing about people I know. I have made numerous business trips to D.C.; my impression of the politicos and some other government functionaries is that many of them feel self-important, and they seem to be short on class and culture. This impression doesn't apply to the entire population. BTW, my time spent in D.C. has not been restricted to NW Washington.

Regarding shopping at K-Mart, that was an exaggeration. The people I've seen (at work and at leisure) looked like they shop at Sears. :-)

---Alvin H. Nichter

Pangolin wrote: <snip> New York is the center of television executives (vs. creative talent). <snip>

Are you saying that there isn't much creative television talent in New York? If so, on what planet do you live? Large portions of each network's broadcast day originate from New York, in large part because they can draw on a huge talent pool. High-quality prime-time shows such as "Law and Order" are filmed in New York. The old "Cosby" show (the one in which Bill Cosby played a physician) was, for years, taped in an NBC studio in Brooklyn.

To say that this is a conflict of executives versus talent probably is true, but it shouldn't be portrayed in geographic terms. In television, as in other creative fields, New York is much more than just the home office. After all, let's not forget where Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David lived and worked before they "went Hollywood".

---Alvin H. Nichter