I've seen every episode of Seinfeld; I often recite the words of George's Coffee Shop conclusion to the Marine Biologist episode in my sleep. I have been on the Kramer Reality Tour. I may or may not have named an illegitimate child Bania. Jerry Seinfeld may or may not own a restraining order against me. Yet despite this rather lengthy (and slightly disturbing) introduction, I was hardly running through the streets giddy as a schoolgirl, when it was finally announced that the long-awaited DVD release date of Seinfeld was approaching.
I must admit: I have a confession to make. I was getting a little tired of them. The combination of tremendous over-exposure in syndication coupled with Curb Your Enthusiasm taking a little air out of the balloon, meant that while Seinfeld was still phenomenally hysterical, it had moved from the "knee-slappingly hilarious" to the "wow, that's clever and smart, but I'm not actually laughing that hard" end of the spectrum.
In many ways, it's only natural. I certainly don't mean to imply that Seinfeld did not represent the pinnacle of scripted network comedy, but all great comedy reflects its time and place and becomes slightly dated over time - not that there's anything wrong with that.
Yet even still, when I had the opportunity to review the release of volume 1, there was still something within me that jumped at the chance. So I pored over episode after episode and special feature after special feature, and yada, yada, yada, it's 3 in the morning, I've got popcorn in places that you wouldn't want to imagine and I'm watching production notes from the 4th episode in the history of the show.
When it gets down to it, that's the value of these DVDs. For the Seinfeld connoisseur, these eminently watchable shows that the average fan knows in-and-out take on a whole new depth when you hear the back-story of the Heart Attack episode from the mouth of Larry David or watch the never-before-seen bloopers which serve to illuminate the broadening rapport that was so deeply essential to the show's success.
If special features are what you're after, this DVD does not disappoint (unlike the distant cousin Curb Your Enthusiasm DVDs). There is a documentary describing the birth of the show. There are audio tracks from the perspectives of cast members and producers describing the back-stories for nearly every episode. There are bloopers, stand-up routines from Seinfeld (that really feature some nice vintage clothing). NBC even includes the original commercials used to promote the show that are hilariously dated. One particular gem is an additional version of the pilot. Needless to say, they didn't hold much back or for that I thank them.
The bottom line is that these DVDs do not have the same raison d'etre of most other TV-to-DVD releases. If you're one of ...
