On this Thanksgiving Day, we pause and give thanks.
Thanks to NBC.
Thanks, especially, to NBC executive Rick Ludwin, who many of you won’t know until tonight.
But most importantly, thanks to Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld.
Thanks for nine seasons of unprecedented television that’s never seen a match and likely never will.
And thanks for finally doling out the goods by offering the first three seasons of “Seinfeld” on DVD. The delights come in two volumes at $49.99 each, or in a gift set that includes extra goodies for $119.99. They went on sale Tuesday.
And to cap it all off, tonight we’re reminded of how close we came to never knowing Jerry, George, Kramer and Elaine in a one-hour special, “The Seinfeld Story,” at 10 p.m. on KING-TV.
True to form, it starts with the star of the show on stage mocking the notion of the television “special” – moments after the big TV-voice guy declares, “The following is an NBC special presentation.”
“Oh, they’re so special, it’s special, so special,” Seinfeld says. “There’s multiple logos and burst of color.”
From there, the laughs don’t stop as actors Jason Alexander, Michael Richards and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and co-creators Seinfeld and David, remember the show’s roots and particular episodes and concepts that may have puzzled network executives but had audiences rolling.
“Seinfeld” was, in fact, supposed to be a one-time 90-minute special that would fill in for “Saturday Night Live” on an off week. That was winnowed down to a half-hour and the show was eventually signed for a dubious four-episode commitment, thanks only to Ludwin’s insistence that the show was going to work.
The four-episode run was a moderate success … yada, yada, yada … it became the biggest show in TV history.
Tonight’s one-hour event gives us a chance to relive some of our favorite memories and simply ends too quickly.
It’s worth tuning in just to see Seinfeld’s first appearance doing a stand-up routine on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson on May 6, 1981.
But there are plenty of other nuggets.
Try not to knock your television over with the sigh you’ll release after finding out that Patricia Heaton of “Everybody Loves Raymond” was passed over for the part of Elaine. Other candidates were Megan Mullally of “Will &Grace” and Rosie O’Donnell.
And that came only after the network convinced Seinfeld and David that they needed a woman in the cast.
The discussion about episodes like “The Chinese Restaurant” – about which NBC’s Warren Littlefield admitted, “I didn’t get it” – and “The Parking Garage” offer up even more laughs than they did the first time around.
The marketing magic works, as tonight’s show will make you want to buy yourself and everyone you know the DVD package – which includes 12 hours of commentary, bloopers and other footage on each volume.
It will also make you all the more antsy to watch the show in syndication, which is available as many as four times a night at 6 and 6:30 p.m. on TBS and at 10:30 and 11 p.m. on UPN.
And, for all of this, we give thanks.
Columnist Victor Balta: 425-339-3455 or vbalta@ heraldnet.com.
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