Jerry Seinfeld says he found it ‘dreary’ writing stories on Seinfeld
Jerry Seinfeld has revealed that he found writing the storylines on his hit 1990s sitcom Seinfeld “dreary”.
The comedian co-created the series, which ran from 1989 to 1998, with Larry David.
In the foreword to his new book Is This Anything?, Seinfeld discussed the challenges he faced writing the series.
“Even in the early years of Seinfeld I had difficulty focusing on the story aspects of the show,” he wrote. “I would only perk up when Larry and I got to writing the dialogue and we needed funny lines for the characters to say.”
“I got better at story structure as the years went on but still find that kind of work a bit dreary,” he added.
In its early seasons especially, Seinfeld was known as being a “show about nothing”. Certain episodes were notable for the almost complete absence of plot.
Season two’s “The Chinese Restaurant”, for example, revolves around the characters’ wait to be seated for a meal at a restaurant.
As the series went on, however, Seinfeld’s plotting became increasingly elaborate.
Seinfeld, who also starred in Seinfeld along with Jason Alexander, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Michael Richards, remained on the series up until the end of its final ninth season, while David departed the show two seasons earlier.
Read more
Rebecca Front: ‘You can make dark, sinister, weird jokes without being deeply offensive’
Gilmore Girls: The lead male characters on the show, ranked worst to least awful
Uzo Aduba: ‘I had seen so few examples of people like myself not just survive but thrive’
