The Chronicles of Seinfeld

The Chronicles of Seinfeld. (001) This is the first episode of the first season of the series Seinfeld. First they made a pilot episode, then they tweaked it, and finally it aired on NBC. "The Seinfeld Chronicle", also known as "Good News, Bad News" in reruns, or simply "Pilot", is the pilot and first episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. Credits: Written by: Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. Directed by: Art Wolff. Air Date: July 5, 1989. Guest Actress: Pamela Brull as Laura. IMDb page: www.imdb.com/title/tt0098286/ Full Script in English: http://seinfeldscripts.com/TheSeinfeldChronicles.htm Link to chapter description: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cr%C3%B3nicas_de_Seinfeld_%28Seinfeld%29

Episode Synopsis: Jerry tells George about a woman named Laura whom he met in Michigan who is coming to New York for a seminar. Jerry wonders if she has romantic intentions. The two continue talking about her after leaving the restaurant. Jerry then receives a phone call from Laura, asking if she can spend the night at his apartment. Jerry invites her, but he is still not sure whether her visit is intended to be romantic or not. Jerry and Laura arrive at the apartment. Then Laura receives a call, and when Laura hangs up the phone, she tells Jerry, "Never get engaged." Jerry then realizes that he has no chance with Laura, but he has already committed to letting her stay for the weekend at his apartment, using it as lodging.

In this episode, The Seinfeld Chronicles, Laura appears, played by Pamela Brull. Laura calls Jerry to ask if she can stay with him while she is visiting New York. Jerry is interested in Laura, but is having trouble reading her signals. When she comes to stay at his apartment, Jerry is surprised to learn that she is engaged, after her boyfriend calls her directly at Jerry's apartment. Unfortunately for Jerry, he agreed to take a 4-hour boat ride around Manhattan with her before knowing anything about her fiancé.

This was the pilot episode, and also the first of the series, which aired after revisions. As a test, it worked out, overcoming the hurdles it faced, including some unfortunate reviews from unqualified people unable to envision what would become a phenomenal series in the future. It also met with reluctance from the very people who invested in it, though they were later convinced to give it a few more chapters and see the success that loomed ahead. From what I read, further revisions were made; one of the criticisms was that it was quite chauvinistic, something that later faded, but from then on the character of Elaine was incorporated. She was not in the first episode, and as she stated later on, she never watched it, nor did she want to, as a superstition. This first episode would give rise to future scripts that would be linked in one way or another to this first one. In the DVD commentary, in the "Inside Look" section (which are the comments made by the actors years after the series ended and for the DVD release), George says one of his lines that I found interesting: "I forgive myself for everything I do on set because my little personal motto is: At that time, being me and knowing what I knew, it was the best thing to do."

The chapter begins with an argument between Jerry and George (in a restaurant, which they would later change to another one that appears throughout the series), the chat revolving around the first button of the shirt, whether it distorts it or not, whether it's superfluous. There appears the waitress, who was going to be a regular character, but ultimately wasn't, as she did not appear again in speaking roles.

·         Claire, you're a woman, aren't you? (George asks her)

·         Yes, okay. George, what gave me away? (she replies)

George's caricature is that of a neurotic; he asks for decaf coffee. The waitress comes with two pots. George points out to her that he doesn't see the orange indicator stripe. She warns him that she knows how to differentiate between Decaf and Regular. Decaf coffee actually exists; it is evident that back in the US in the early nineties it was common for them to differentiate it, which surprised me because I never heard or saw it happen here either. I didn't even see it indicated on the menu of bars and restaurants, neither before nor currently.

The chat between the two friends continues; at one point Jerry tells George that he met a girl named Laura, and she is going to visit him. All the comical situations of the chat happen, for example when George answers Jerry illustrating it with a string of synonyms when he tells him: "Okay, I didn't want to tell you this, but do you want to know why she called you? You're a substitute, a backup, a 'just in case', a plan 'B', a contingency." And at one point in the chat, Jerry mentions to her that she is studying "political science." Was it random? I think not, that simple word was well thought out. It marked the beginning of the line that later takes up the theme. What theme? The underlying theme. This appears in the monologue. In the monologue, after talking about the washing machine and clothes (this relates to the episode, in a back and forth between episode and monologue), Jerry says "On TV they show detergents that remove blood stains" and wonders "Aren't blood stains violent images? And a t-shirt with blood stains comes out. Perhaps doing laundry isn't your most serious problem. First you should remove the harpoon from your chest." Here closes the line drawn in the episode, when he mentions that the girl he met studies political science. Impressive! The message conveyed through irony. Later on, as part of Jerry's chat with Kramer, the latter makes two more contributions when he says "I can be very persuasive" and then adds "Did you know I almost became a lawyer?" So we have the line: political science – mass media – violence – most serious problem – persuasion – lawyer. A global reading allows me to picture the context: USA in the late 80s and early 90s. New York City. The peak of violence in the mid-80s. The boom occurred in what they called the "crack epidemic." It is the stage prior to the implementation of the CompStat method, the zero tolerance doctrine, and the arrival of Mayor Rudolf Giuliani, who became world-famous. Whatever solution resulted, the truth is that New York significantly decreased its crime rates. But at that time, at the time of the series episode, crime was at its peak for society. And the making of the episode's script, I think, was not indifferent at all, quite the contrary. The mention in the monologue of the advertisement for a detergent that removes blood stains, directly related to the priorities of the one who has the stain, is simply brilliant. Without failing to mention specific aspects that make up the environment, like politics and laws.

In this first chapter, the novelty is the monologue interspersed with the filmed episode, something that had never been done before, and while it might seem out of place or boring, with a little attention you discover quite the contrary and how the monologue guides the episode. In the last part of the monologue (introduced in parts), Jerry wears the same clothing he used in the episode, or vice versa.

At the beginning of the episode, when the two friends are in the bar chatting and drinking coffee, George has a clipboard with sheets—what for? He's not drawing anything. He just writes "no" and then flips the page to leave a fresh blank sheet.

The way and manner of speaking verbally of all the characters is clear, very clear; the English language is perfectly understood. Although they speak naturally, they don't have that acceleration of many, nor accents or intonations that make them incomprehensible; they do it leisurely, normally, and carefully so that they make themselves understood very well.

The last thing this chapter offers is the canine routine; those who wrote it say there was going to be interaction with Kramer's dog, a pet named Kessler. In fact, in the episode, the dog enters, plays with George, and then goes to the bathroom to drink water, which bothers Jerry (due to his facial expressions) because he is a clean freak yet tolerant of his friends who are quite the opposite. They finally concluded that the canine routine was not going to be introduced in future episodes, though dogs would appear again, but only in isolated episodes and not constantly. Thus, Kramer's dog never appears in the series again.