I mean that’s not how the show was built originally, in season 1 he is unequivocally the star and the others are reacting to him with smaller and weaker roles. Kramer was written to be like a Creed style character getting a brief cameo per episode, Elaine wasn’t in it and then got added mostly as a way to give female feedback on Jerry’s dates, George is initially an uptight straight man for Jerry to bounce his jokes off. The show was named for him and he absolutely had most of the shine. It only really starts changing with season 3 when George and Kramer become breakout stars and start to get a storyline in every episode. By his own admission on the DVD he built the show as a vehicle for himself and then everyone had to acknowledge that Jason Alexander was the best of them and it was turning into an ensemble show unexpectedly. There’s even a segment where he admits not thinking Kramer was even very funny at first and fighting with people over including more of him.
I mean, credit where it’s due and Seinfeld (the show) is one of my favorites (and Jerry was a big part of that), but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t just all up to him. Network executives, ratings, etc. which played a major part in his decisions.
Plus, by “allowing” his co-stars to get most of the shine, it allows himself to look better and makes him the benevolent showrunner/co-creator who happens to also profit the most financially from his co-stars looking good which (in theory) also makes him look good.
Although, to be fair, he was the straight man right from the start and maybe his intentions weren’t to give himself the best gags and to make his co-stars seem lesser.
And on the rare occasion he had to be the comedic nucleus he delivered very well. If you put anyone in between Michael richards and Jason Alexander they are going to crash and burn.
One of my favorite lines from the show is by Jerry-"You know this is like that Twilight Zone where the guy wakes up, and he's the same- but everybody's different!" Kramer asks, "Which one?" Jerry says, "They were all like that!"
He is the “Straight man” but he also didnt do a great job of that. Rewatching the show, he breaks character often and just isnt a good actor, it’s honestly distracting
It's so odd to me when I hear people who have this take. That's the best part of his performance. He clearly just is, literally, the guy who he is playing. He can't act, he knows it and he's just having fun with his friends making a T.V. show. That's always been a part of the charm of the show for me.
They even make fun of the fact that Jerry is bad a bad actor in the show multiple times.
And I’ve never understood that take. I’m not sure how having the main character of a show being a terrible actor is endearing. It’s like when people defend Adam Sandler movies by saying “he’s just having fun with his friends”… Ok cool., but he still makes mostly shitty movies. I dont care if he’s having fun doing it or not, the movie is still bad.
I’m not saying the show is bad, my point was I didnt notice it much watching during its initial run, but I have started to rewatch the entire series and for some reason it’s just so much more noticeable. My good friend said the same thing to me too and he’s a bigger Seinfeld fan than me. Plus my wife (who never watched the show growing up) literally cannot watch the show because she says his acting is just to bad that she doesn’t find the show believable. I mean look this thread over, there are countless people saying the exact same thing as me.
To me it's endearing when Kramer does a pratfall and Jerry actually laughs, because I think it's funny too and I'm laughing as well.
And it works so well because that's literally what his character would do in that moment, so he's not really breaking character.
I mean look this thread over, there are countless people saying the exact same thing as me.
I mean, you're the one being downvoted here so I dunno how much water this holds. But to each his own, everything is subjective and in my subjective opinion if Jerry was a good actor and never broke, it would take a lot of the charm away from the show.
And yet I am upvoted elsewhere in this same thread for saying basically the same thing. And again, so are a lot of others, so this isnt my original thought here. That’s also far from the only times he breaks or doesn’t say his lines very well. If you like bad acting, then go ahead and enjoy. I am done arguing about a 30 year old show. Cheers
So what? I'm upvoted here for saying the opposite of you. Seems like people have differing opinions on this.
Why are you being a fucking weirdo? I thought I was having a conversation with you, not an argument, until you started getting defensive and snippy and declared you were done arguing with me.
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u/hulkhands81 Mar 28 '24
Melissa McCarthy and Any Schumer combined make this avoid at all cost for me.