I've been lurking, waiting to see other's reactions to the season opener of 8/12/92. I was disappointed with this episode, in much the same way I was with last season's finale.
The problem: too much plot.
I don't watch Seinfeld for plot, but for characters and dialogue. And in this episode, those suffered from an overabundance of storyline. Wacky, certainly. But detrimental to the strengths of the show.
Let's get them back to NYC, in the coffeeshop, as soon as possible.
In article Message-ID: [email] (Tom Smith) writes:
Me too. May be I was expecting too much. I agree with you that the show probably feels better when they are in NYC.
Sharma
I generally agree. To me, it feels like they may be starting to fall into the trap that most sitcoms fall into once they become very popular: they start to over-exaggerate the very aspects of the show that made it popular in the first place. Which is too bad. This show will quickly lose its appeal with me if it continues, just as Cheers has lost its appeal.
Earlier in the season, Kramer's wackiness was doled out in just the right amount to make it funny, and yet still conceivable. The last episode seemed so overcome with wackiness as to be totally unreal. The result being that many of the scenes just didn't seem as funny as usual, because I couldn't relate to them.
Brad
In article [email] (Tom Smith) writes:
C'mon: every show has a couple of episodes "on vacation" (e.g. brady bunch in grand canyon, jeffersons in hawaii). let our guys travel too.
and as for your "too much plot/not enough dialog" gripe: i thought the TUCK sequence and the THREE STOOGES monologue were a hoot. i just didn't like the showing of dead people; that's all.
ys
Remember, that was only a "fictional corpse".
I never noticed it before last night's episode, but has there always been a laugh track for scenes not filmed in front of the studio audience?? (Personally, I hate 'em.)
I loved the scene when George and Jerry are in the "black and white", acting like two little kids.
FYI - the guy the cops cuffed in the 519 (who turned out to be the "Smog Strangler") is Ron Howard's brother. (Oooh, I gotta get a life!)
I think the show is much funnier situated in NY. I was glad to see them back in the apartment at the end of the show. I had trouble staying focused on the LA scenes - pretty boring if you ask me, so it's no wonder many people are disappointed. The show seems to work best when all the characters (including Elaine) interact together throughout an episode.
Not to digress too much, but...
Yea, Clint Howard I think is his name. I feel sorry for that guy, if you remember he was the little kid/star on "Gentle Ben" many years ago. I have to keep reminding myself of that whenever he pops up on some show.
Talk about type-cast, that guy gets only "ugly" roles on TV. When they want to cast some ugly, villianous character, that's who they pick - and he's pretty ugly looking - on "Gentle Ben" he was cute. He also appears (I think it's him) on some music video for the Ramones ('I Want to Be Sedated', maybe?). They evidentally wanted to show a bunch of crude/dirty/rough punkish looking kids and there he is (dancing yet!). Can somebody confirm that, since there are no credits in the video?
Clint Howard... That's the ticket! He is definitely NOT a handsome guy. He also played a fish cleaner whom Michael Keaton (Batman) had to work alongside, in a short film made for a David Letterman Filmfest. He plays unsavoury types...
Jerry was in the "Living" section of the News & Observer (Raleigh) today, talking about he was "benignly ignored" as a child, how he bombed the first time he did a routine, and how he's "made it", with a home in the Hollywood Hills, an apartment overlooking Central Park, and three Porsches. Not bad for a guy from Massapequa, Long Island.
In article [email] writes:
This guy has been in a *lot* of stuff but my favorite was the first episode (I think it was the first) of Star Trek (not "The Cage/Menagerie"). He is this dwarf guy who possesses a vastly superior intellect (no!) but since his appearance is less than intimidating he broadcasts the pale, sunken-cheeked, skull-like face that is featured in the closing credits of every episode.
It's "The Corbomite Maneuver"
jam
The name of the episode was "The Corbamite Maneuver," but was that really him? I thought they had a midget (vertically challenged person) playing that role. It seems like if that was Howard, he would have had to have been a kid to have pulled that off.
Of course he was a kid...it was 1966 fercryinoutloud.
Note that the adult-sounding voice of Balok was (very obviously) dubbed in...
He was a kid, sheesh that was 25 years ago! Sheesh! :)
jam
I've never seen the video, but I think that it must be Clint. You see, the Ramones did the music for the film "Rock and Roll High School," in which Clint Howard played a major role. You're right about the ugly role type casting. I've seen him in a number of B movies. He always plays either a "nerd" or a "slime ball."
Just like animals, most everything's cuter when it's younger, except, of course Mason Reese ("step into the Wayback Machine, Mr. Peabody), who is as homely now as when he was doing those Underwood Deviled Ham adverts.
With that little piece of trivia, I know I *really* need to get a life!
***************************************************************
* * *
* Anita M. Magenheim * "If you have built castles in *
* Digital Equipment Corp. * the air, your work need not be *
* Research Triangle Park * lost; that is where they should *
* North Carolina * be. Now put the foundations *
* * under them." *
* * Henry David Thoreau *
* * *
***************************************************************I believe he's Ron Howard's brother. He gets a bit roll in most Ron Howard films. He played the nasty factory overseer in FAR AND AWAY.
Chris H.
Not to digress even more, but this guy was also in a few other lesser know movies. He was in "The Wraith" with Charlie Sheen - back before Sheen was anybody and in "Cotton Candy" a movie about some HS band.
In article [email] writes:
His first role was a repeating character with a running joke on the Andy Griffith show -- Benji. Every few episodes he would be walking down the street eating a messy p&j sandwich and would offer it to people. (Talk about needing to get a life!)
I also remember him as some brainy child-like alien in one episode of the original Star Trek series.
^^^ ^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ He's also Balok from Star Trek! I almost fell out of my chair when i saw who that was!! :)
jam
Wasn't he the young kid in Gentle Ben (for those of you over 30 years old).
********************************* Mark Collins Logic Modeling Corporation. 19500 N.W. Gibbs Dr. Beaverton, OR 97075 --------------------------------- E-mail: [address] E-mail: [email] *********************************
The laugh track drove me crazy. If they use it any more I won't be able to watch it. I don't understand why laugh track are so awful, or why anybody uses them. I'm not able to watch any other sitcoms because of their laugh tracks - they make my head hurt.
I recognized the "Smog Strangler" as the kid from the show "Gentle Ben"....boy was that a long time ago...
Mark.
I, too, was quite disappointed with the season opener, but not with your diagnosis. Normally the dialogue is superb. Normally the characters are very interesting. Normally the plot is so good you hardly notice it and it just sets up the dialogue and character development perfectly. Like when one entire episode took place in the lobby and one small room of a chinese retaurant. At very strategic intervals George would talk or miss talking to his girlfriend, or Elain would explain again how hungry she was. Especially like when they got lost in the mall's parking garage and eventually half of the characters got arrested for public urination.
The problem with the opener was not too much plot. Here's what I think was wrong: 1. Elaine is sorely missed (when is she coming back?). She is cuter than a bug (and not much bigger) and offers a refreshing female contrast and comes closest to being the show's straight-woman (in the comedic, not sexual, sense). 2. The guest-character-with-a-small-role (the old lady in Kramer's building) was very annoying and not in a funny way. 3. The directing was not as good as usual (hands changing position when the camera angle changes, other poor editing). 4. The canned laughter was very intrusive. I remember people laughing last year but I don't remember it sounding so phony or so loud. Maybe I was just laughing too hard to notice it.