'Seinfeld' Airs Final Show
By DAVID BAUDER AP Television Writer
NEW YORK (AP) -- Yada, yada, yada -- see ya in prison.
Millions of Americans watched ``Seinfeld'' sign off Thursday, bidding farewell to four essentially unlovable television characters who were the masters of minutiae and their own domains.
In the end, Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer wound up behind bars for ``criminal indifference'' when they witnessed a carjacking and cracked jokes, failing to help the victim.
Their self-reverential final episode's trial brought back a pantheon of ``Seinfeld'' characters to testify against them: the Soup Nazi, Bubble Boy, Keith Hernandez and the old woman Jerry mugged for a loaf of marble rye bread.
``It's kind of like
looking through a photo
album or watching an
old film movie,'' said
Todd Cherchef, a
36-year-old executive
who watched the show
at a coffee bar called
Drip in Manhattan. The show was being
beamed on the side of a
seven-story building in
St. Louis, on a 35-foot-high screen
in New York's Times Square and at
countless viewing parties across
the country.Actress Susan Sarandon attended a party at Tom's, the Manhattan diner that provides a setting in the series, with her daughter, 13-year-old Eva Amurri.
``My daughter really wanted to see the show,'' she said. ``I'm trying to score points with her.''
Junior Mints, Snickers bars, marble rye bread and muffin tops were on the menu at a farewell bash at an Ohio State University branch campus in the northwest Ohio city of Lima -- all foods that have figured in odd plot twists during the show's nine years on the air.
Kenny Kramer, the New York City businessman who served as the model for Cosmo Kramer, attended a party at a Manhattan comedy club. He said the final episode was great for his business, a guided tour of ``Seinfeld''-related sites.
``I'm milking it for all it's worth,'' he said.
In Cannes, France, hundreds of young Americans in town for the annual film festival packed into a pavilion by the beach to watch the last episode, which was being broadcast on cable simultaneously with the U.S. show -- at 3 a.m.
The most exclusive
party was at a private
home in southern
California, where Jerry
Seinfeld, Julia
Louis-Dreyfus, Jason
Alexander and Michael
Richards were gathering
to say goodbye to Jerry,
Elaine, George and
Kramer.Before settling in to watch, Seinfeld taped an appearance on the ``Tonight Show.'' He joked, ``Oh, what the hell. I'll do one more season,'' before making clear it was over.
``I am amazed by what has been going on the past week. Can you imagine what it's been like for me? I'm sick of myself,'' Seinfeld said with a grin. ``It's really only now that I'm realizing how many people the show touched and that they liked it.'' he said.
Seinfeld pulled the plug on his comedy about four neurotic New Yorkers at the height of its popularity, turning his back on NBC's offer to pay him $5 million an episode for another year. ``Seinfeld'' and the medical drama ``ER'' are running neck-and-neck to become the year's top-rated show.
NBC tried hard to keep the plot of the final show under wraps -- and it was a big surprise to Karen Smith, a social service worker who watched at a Boston party.
``That was the one ending that I could not have guessed,'' she said. ``I really thought it was hilarious the way it brought in the stream of characters who had been on all the shows.''
``I was expecting more,'' said John Pratt, a computer programmer who watched the show with his wife at their home in Atkinson, N.H. ``But, then again, it was a show about nothing and it really didn't have much to say.''
Steve Smith, a 27-year-old student who watched at Smittys Bar and Grill in Little Rock, Ark., said he liked the show. ``But life will go on,'' he said. ``No one killed themselves after `M-A-S-H' ended.''
NBC estimated
Thursday's audience for
``Seinfeld'' would be
just under the 80
million viewers who bid
farewell to ``Cheers'' in
1993. The final episode
of ``M-A-S-H'' in 1983,
when 105 million people
watched, is No. 1 in the
all-time ratings.``Seinfeld'' can claim a more lucrative record: the average $1.7 million paid for 30 seconds of advertising time on Thursday's show beat the prices for January's Super Bowl. No commercial time has ever been that expensive.
Not everyone will miss it.
``Seinfeld'' has never been that popular among older viewers or blacks, and Hispanic groups held a protest in New York City Thursday about last week's episode, where a Puerto Rican flag was accidentally burned by Kramer.
And with characters venal as well as goofy -- George Costanza never mourned the fiancee who died from licking envelopes for his wedding invitation -- even fans won't be drawn to tears. Half the people who watch ``Seinfeld'' said they wouldn't miss it much when it's gone, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center.
But it will never truly leave. ``Seinfeld'' will continue in perpetual reruns. It has been sold in syndication through at least 2006, earning $1.5 billion for its makers, said Dick Kurlander of Petry Television.
In Torrington, Conn., 53-year-old Michael Marciano watched ``Seinfeld'' for the first time on its final show.
``I'm new to the `Seinfeld' family,'' he said. ``But everyone's laughing so much, I think it will do well in the reruns.''
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