They just reaired the first episode of Seinfeld, giving me an opportunity to see the characters in their "fresh" state. The state before the writers and producers realized what the audience liked about and consequently hyped about each personality in future episodes.
George is the biggest surprise. His pilot character is much more confident and interactive than his current character. He's actually giving advice to an openly insecure and more introspective Seinfeld, who, incidentally, doesn't seem as confident with the ladies as he does today. I guess that plays out reasonably well because one figures his character wasn't as successful a comedian as it is now.
It's easy to see what they had in mind for Krammer before he became such a popular member of the cast, too. They obviously meant for him to be a dirty, psychologically questionable neighbor that George doesn't even seem to like!
Of course there's the restaurant and apartment scenery...both which look nothing like today's restaurant and apartment. Jerry's apartment looks a *little* like today's layout, but his bathroom seems as though it is connected directly to the room where Jerry watches TV. But the restaurant with it's round tables mean that it must be some other hangout all together.
And speaking of the restauarant, it almost seems like they meant to include the waitress who gets involved with Jerry and George's conversation as part of the regular cast. Her comments were so focused upon.
And where the heck is Elaine? There's no Elaine in the first episode. I see by the episode list at http://seinfeld.sogaard.com/episodes/, that she will be in the second episode, so this should be interesting to see!
-- Dave