Larry David

A recent message here indicated that Larry David was an older fellow. I'd always thought he was about the same age as Jerry Seinfeld. Just how old is he? What other shows has he worked on? Has he been involved with TV before "Seinfeld"? And what has he been doing since he left "Seinfeld"? Does he have plans to be involved with another show in the future?

I also have read that one of the ex-writers of "Seinfeld" is involved with a show on WB called "Alright Already." (She was recommending it to "Seinfeld" fans .. give it a try.) Any other ex-writers for the show involved with other shows today?

I'm sorry to see "Seinfeld" go ... I teach, and it seems something from the show always makes it into a lecture or presentation. The college kids love it, and so do I ...

Oddly enough, Larry David is the inspiration for George, a fat, bald, paranoid, middle aged man. This was revealed in a great 60 minutes interview, where one of the high points was when Larry started to complain that the camera angles showed his bald spot. ___________________________ Nick Elrod [email]

I think he's in his 50s. He was an unsuccessful stand-up comic prior to Seinfeld. In an appearance on Larry King, Seinfeld said that Larry David was directing a movie which will be released in March 1998.

It seems to me that Larry David MADE Seinfeld. After he left, the episodes went downhill quickly. Anyone else agree?

Bob

No. I don't agree. Larry was half of the creative force behind the inspiration, and he wrote many great episodes, but I think that for the most part, if we never knew that David left the show, we never would have been able to 'figure it out' by the supposed loss of quality.

People see what they want to see, and the big Larry David
fans want the new episodes to suck so their point that the
show is not as good since he left would seem more valid.
Do a search on 'self fulfilling prophecy'.
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Dave wrote:

Whoa! Can you dig yourself a deeper hole?

Wow...you did it!

All right, that does it. You are officially nuts.

I will only speak for myself and say I am not a "Larry David fan", I am a "Seinfeld" fan.

I figuratively fell in love with the show when it was on after "Cheers" on Thursdays; by the time "The Stock Tip" aired, it was my favorite comedy. When "The Revenge" aired, it was my fave show on TV.

When it moved to Wednesday, I thought of it as the turning point of the week--"Get through work Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, and on Wednesday night, SEINFELD! Then the rest of the week is a breeze." 1991-93 were great years for the show. Just rattling off the titles of the episodes can emit chuckles from devotees of those times--The Boyfriend. The Nose Job. The Library. The Parking Space. The Bubble Boy. The Cafe (the double-dip episode). The Outing. the Junior Mint. The Airport. The Shoes. And, of course, the one that put the show "on the map", The Contest. This was the Golden Age of Nothing.

Do you, Ratboy, or anyone else dare favorably compare "The Junk Mail"--with George concocting the idea of propositioning his cousin--with anything from the Larry David years? For that matter, "The (gimmicky) Betrayal," with Elaine all of a sudden becoming a sloppy drunk? "The Little Kicks," with Jerry taking pride in becoming a bootleg movie cassette cameraman? Again, I ask, who stole Kramer's brain, so that he now doesn't know how to rinse properly in the shower and stares with wonder at a raisin bagel ("I never thought I'd see the day!"--The Strike)? And whose lame-brained idea was "The Merv Griffin Show"?

I don't know why David left--but the tidal wave of unlikely plots and wholesale personality changes (always resulting in the foursome becoming increasingly despicable) began after he departed. He was one half of the foundation of the show, Jerry being the other half. Try yanking half of a foundation from under a building without it quickly collapsing.

Listen to yourself! Do you really, honestly think people tune in hoping they WON'T be entertained for the sake of Larry David? I wouldn't know Larry David if he I met him on the street. I don't, as the likes of you have suggested, have any romantic feelings toward him--those feelings among Seinfeld staffers are reserved exclusively for the beauteous Ms. Louis-Dreyfus. If I laughed as hard and long at Seinfeld A.D. (After David), I probably would have trouble remembering his name--but it seems that he is a bigger celeb than ever now because his true worth wasn't realized until his absence.

Get it through your head--the decline of the show is not an illusion. If it was, there wouldn't be so many of us saying the same thing. If you don't believe us, believe Jerry. If he thought "The Dealership" was an A- episode (like you do), do you think he'd wanna quit now?

Not bloody likely!

In article , David Campbell wrote:

You hit the nail on the f---in head. This really shouldn't be a matter of debate anymore. Any time I have a conversation with someone about Seinfeld these days, it always comes down to the same thing, that the newer shows, while still amusing in their own way, can not ever compare to the older episodes, especially the fourth season.

Actually, there are two other options for why Jerry ended the show. First, it could be as Larry David said in People, that Jerry could care less about what people said about the show, and he just felt the timing was right. David said that people have been criticizing the show's supposed decline ever since the fourth season, and Jerry has just tuned them out.

The other option is the show's quality hasn't declined, but since some have publically complained that it has, Jerry has gotten sick of the complaints and is ending the show. I would say this is probably the case. I don't think the show has declined. Jerry may not either. But he may be tired of having to defend the show against a bunch of losers who couldn't create a hit sitcom if their life depended on it.

I will say that the fourth season is my favorite. My second favorite season is the eighth season. My LEAST favorite season is the sixth (which had Larry David). My second least favorite is the second season (ignoring the first season of only four episodes, which was a total bomb anyway).

People love to ramble on about how the show's quality has declined, and they use the fourth season as the benchmark. Well, David was with the show in season six, and that season sucked! Even Seinfeld cast members agree (I read in Time I think). The show has had its ups and downs. SEason 8 was great. Season 4 was better. But season 6 sucked. It's not a downward slope, OK?

Besides, a lot of people don't even know what seasons the shows belong to. I was talking to some friends this weekend. They said they didn't watch Seinfeld anymore and how it's declined. I askedthem about their favorite episodes. Besides the Contest (of course), they loved the Bizzaro Jerry, Spongeworthy, the checks (with Japanese tourists), and Kenny Rogers Roasters.

I said to them, don't you know that most of them are from the eighth season, just last year? They had no idea. Since they see it on syndication as well as on NBC, they didn't really put it together. All they knew was that this season wasn't incredible, and since everyone's been saying the show has declined...well, it must have. Bad logic! Everyone just wants to just on the complaint bandwagon.

Maria

Maria Rost Rublee wrote:

I'm afraid you are wasting your time with the whiners. They aren't whining because they are unhappy with the show, but because they are born to whine. If they weren't whining about "Seinfeld", then they would be whining about "Frasier" or any other show. I wish they would tune out the television. Oh, well....

maro

You're both entitled to your opinions, but here's the deal.

This season's eps make me laugh just as much as the shows from 5 years ago. I want to repeat that, but don't want to waste the space, so please read it again. I'll wait.

Does the little spot inside my brain that controls the way I perceive humor give a damn who wrote what?

Of course not. I watch the new episodes and I laugh. Then you come in here and tell me that I'm wrong since sooo many other people say the show has fallen off and isn't as funny.

Am I lying to you? Is that what you think? Do you think I really don't like the new shows, but don't want to admit it so I keep up the big charade when deep down inside I know that the new shows suck? Tell me this is what you think.

Let me repost some crap from earlier in this note:

What kind of logic is this?? Screw the herd mentality. One billion Chinese people believe in Buddha, but I don't.

According to our 'logic challenged' friend, this would make me a thick skull who's not willing to accept the fact that Buddha is the real god.

Screw it.  *I* decide what I think and what I believe.
And I think and believe that this season's episodes are
just as good as the stuff they filmed 5 years ago.
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Dave wrote:

There you go guys.....doesn't get any easier than this and I believe that Dave is the one that hit the nail one the head here. You can't tell someone else what is funny, you just can't do it. Funny is a matter of opinion and yours or Daves or mine aren't the only ones.....It comes down to the difference between fact and opinion. Seinfeld isn't as good as it used to be is an opinion....Seinfeld is on Thursday at 9:00 Eastern is a fact......see the difference. You can't argue with the fact but opinions are always debatable so stop trying to force yours on other people. If you didn't laugh at "The Dealership" then either 1) you are trying really hard not to cause some people in the newsgroup said it wouldn't be funny or 2) you are clinically dead...see your physician immediately.

*******************************************************
Boring is watching a baseball game when you could enjoy
the end-to-end action of a hockey game.

You just contradicated yourself, big time. First you say everyone is entitled to their own opinions, then you say #'s 1 and 2 above. ???????? And it's a FACT that after May of 1998, that Seinfeld is going off the air. Why? It's obvious...because Jerry knows that Seinfeld has slipped. Do you really think he'd call it quits if he thought Seinfeld was still great? How many healthy athletes retire for good after an MVP year? Hardly any, if ANY. 99.9% of them become aware that they're not what they used to be and they pack it in.

You're probably right...I shouldn't have made generalizations about the last episode. However you still don't seem to be getting the idea of the difference between fact and opinion. It is true that it's a fact that Seinfeld is done after this season but you try to make it seem that it is also fact that Jerry is quitting because of a lack of quality. This is obviously an opinion since I do not agree. Jerry seems like a pretty normal guy and I think that if I had accumulated the kind of money that he has I too would want to retire and get out of the daily chore of working. He has said recently that he really misses doing stand-up, that is what he loves and that is what he is going to be doing. He has already made a deal to do an HBO special this summer. I just feel that he wanted to get back into stand-up before it was too late but of course that is just my opinion.

By the way... I can think of one athelete that did just what you describe. The greatest hockey player on the planet, Mario Lemieux, is sitting home while he could still be dominating. He retired not because he was slipping but because he was merely sick of the grind. He had done everything that there was to do in hockey why keep up the daily and yearly sacrafices?????

*******************************************************
Boring is watching a baseball game when you could enjoy
the end-to-end action of a hockey game.

First of all, I said HEALTHY athlete. Mario Lemieux is FAR from healthy. He got sick of the grind only because he was constantly in pain, and he had to go to great lengths just to even play one game. Second, while Lemieux was certainly a great player, Wayne Gretzky was the one who was just voted the greatest hockey player of all time. Third, Lemieux hasn't done everything there is do in hockey...Gretzky has, but not Lemieux.

Ok, back to the subject of Seinfeld now.

Pot, to kettle, "You're black."

The show is not going off the air 'because it slipped'. Have you read any of the articles? Have you seen any of the interviews? Maybe Tribble's posts are the only news you get about this show. Jerry has stated many times, he wants the show to end while it's still on top. WHILE IT'S STLL ON TOP. And was he simply talking about ratings? Of course not. He's not that shallow. He was talking about the quality of the product. Writing, producing, directing, casting, hell even the catering for that matter. You see? No great mental leap to assume that even Jerry thinks the show is on top right now.

Yer right. Compare the new episodes to any other show right now. Still better than most shows (except for last Thursday's Friends, that was better than Seinfeld that week). The show is still better than 99.9 percent of the shows out there. Plus I don't think Jerry's ego would let him think that his show was getting bad.

Yes, i've read all the articles, and I've heard the "ON TOP" quote 100's of times. Do you think Jerry would REALLY admit that his show has slipped? Of course not. (Although he did admit it in one article in a round-about way...which I posted here a while ago) NBC would be pissed, and he he'd be foolish to say it (it would be the truth though). For obvious reasons, people rarely say anything bad about a product they're selling.

Dave wrote:

Think that's kind of ridiculous, do you? Well, let me remind you of what you SAID you think:

"People see what they want to see, and the big Larry David fans want the new episodes to suck so their point that the show is not as good since he left would seem more valid. Do a search on 'self fulfilling prophecy'."

The reality is that YOU suggested that "Larry David fans" were lying to themselves. That's what I think is nuts, not that you still find the show funny.

Hey, I know what it's like to like something everyone else says stinks or is passe'. I'm a Styx fan.

DLC

In , David Campbell writes:

Hey, that was just a theory, but a valid one nonetheless. Which you'd understand if you did the search I suggested.

Well, I'm with ya there. I played Paradise Theater until I couldn't hear the music for the scratches and pops on the album.

Yes, I said album.  For those of you too young, we used to have
these vinyl disks with grooves (well, one groove really) and you
placed the disk on a rotating horizontal wheel, and...
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Larry David only wrote 80 episodes. He wasn't even involved with some episodes.

bob riley wrote in message ...