Finale just screened here in NZ and...

When I read the script for "The Finale" on paper it looked like any other Seinfeld episode. Seeing the finished product was a different story.

One thing that was noticeable was the lack of studio audience atmosphere, it actually felt like a movie at times and was reminiscent of the episodes where George and Jerry try and rescue Kramer from LA.

I found it astonishing that the biggest laugh from the studio audience was Elaine going "beep beep beep", apparently to the tune of NBC.

I think it must have been hard for the cast with such an unresponsive audience and it showed in Jerry's face a couple of times when some good jokes fell real flat.

My only problem was that the court case was a real wasted oportunity. Constanza had a couple of outbursts and too me with four characters such as those on this program a lot more "contempt of court" could have been written into the script. I mean even with George's first outburst the studio audience only murmered and to me it was hilarious given that they were in a court room.

Still I guess you could disect every episode of Seinfeld if you really wanted to, but the unresponsive studio audience really got to me. I think part of it had to do with the screening of the clip show prior to the finale. In the early days of Seinfeld the studio audiences were riotous but never reached the likes of "Married with children". Seinfeld has the best characters of any program but "The Finale" had the worst studio audience I have ever experienced.

You must realize that this was not a "typical" studio audience. Since this was the Finale, the only way they could insure there would be no leaks was to stock the audience with friends and family of the cast and crew, and a huge smattering of NBC executives. Many of those in the audience get their paychecks from NBC, probably why Elaine's NBC beep went over so well. But they couldn't have been expected to react the way a "normal" Seinfeld studio audience would have.

Part of the problem is that the episode ran very long when it was taped. If Larry David got to include everything and everyone he wanted to, it would have been a 2-hour episode. They had to cut corners somewhere. Maybe they figured we've seen enough George outbursts over the past 9 years.

I want to! I want to!!

Again, they had no choice. Everyone who attended was made to sign documents stating they would not discuss the details of the final episode with anyone. If they had used a regular audience, there would have been no way to prevent information from leaking.

Just quoting part of this discussion: Darren:

Ratboy:

documents stating they would not discuss the details of the final episode with anyone. If they had used a regular audience, there would have been no way to prevent information from leaking>

Even given the reasons why they chose to do it this way (to keep the ending secret), it's still an interesting question as to how this aspect(dead audience) may have influenced how the show came off on TV. Anyone else have a take on this? Do you think the impression of how lousy it was (that many of us had) was influenced in some way, perhaps unconsciously, by the jokes getting no audience response. Darren said he noticed a reaction to this on Jerry's face. Interesting. . Cynth