I tuned in for the first time at the end of "The Pilot" in 1998, just a few weeks before the series ends on NBC. I was depressed then, and Seinfeld's humor came just at the right time. It completly changed my way of looking at the world. I never heard of Jerry Seinfeld before that. In fact I barely watched TV at the time and now I don't even have the cable. I live alone and I watch my Seinfeld tapes while I'm eating. That's it for TV.
Anyway, my English was really bad and I couldn't understand a word they were saying. All I saw was three guys and a girl in an apartment watching a TV show about three guys and a girl in an apartment. "What the hell is that?", I said to myself. That was all it took. I was hooked.
I got myself a TV with caption text, an English dictionnary, and I started watching the show on a Montreal TV station. One episode a day. That's how I learned English.
A few months later, I started taping the episodes and they were not shown in chronological order. Worst, in my TV guide it was just written: Seinfeld. No stories, no titles. I didn't even know that there were titles. And of course I didn't have access to the Internet. I taped about 130 episodes like this over a period of three years. Every time I had to remember if I already had it on tape and to decide if I was keeping it or taping the next episode over it. It was confusing cause I already saw a lot of episodes before I started to record them. That's why I started writing down my own titles and descritptions of each episode and indexing them, so I wouldn't erase one by mistake. I remember the first time I read the Episode Guide, comparing my titles and the real ones. Here's some:
The Bris > Pigman The Keys, The Trip (1)(2) > The Keys (I wasn't aware of the different seasons) The Pitch, The Ticket > An idea about nothing The Contest > My mother caught me The Cartoon > Jerry's the devil The Pothole > Tootbrush in the toilet The Nap > Swimming in East River is good for the back The Voice > An Intern from NYU The Junk Mail > I'm the wiz and nobody beats me! The Finale > Good samaritan law The Strike > Happy Festivus! The Apology > Good Naked Bad Naked The Stakeout > Sagman, Bennet, Robbins, Oppenheim and Taff The Ex-Girlfriend > Just do it like a band-aid The Baby Shower > Jerry the cable boy The Shoes > The Pasta Primavera The Heart Attack > Tor Ackman The Pen > STELLA! The Fire > The Pinky toe The Alternat Side > These Pretzels are makin me thirsty The Postponement > You missed out on the make-up sex? The Letter > "We want the Kramer!" The Engagement > She eats her peas one at a time The Caddy > George is dead The Switch > COSMO The Stand-in > He took it out The Outing > Not that there's anything wrong with that The Hamptons > I was in the pool! The Race > I choose not to run The Barber > The Pensky File The Bookstore > SWARM! SWARM! The Soul Mate > PAM! The Susie > Believe it or not, George isn't at home The Dinner Party > It's Gortex The Wigmaster > I'm not a pimp!
Last year, I found out that on the Internet, I could know two weeks in advance what episode they would air. Thank God! I didn't have anymore to watch TV every day and to find out I already saw the episode (most of the time from season 8 or 9). That's how I taped the last 50. For The Puerto Rican Day, I downloaded a MPEG of it on Hotline. Now that it's back on TV, I will soon complete my VHS collection (I asked my parents to tape it last week and of course they misset the timer!).
Christian