Tristan Jardee

Media Literacy

Media Analysis: Framework of Seinfeld

One of the most popular sitcoms in television history is Seinfeld. Jerry Seinfeld along with his friends George, Elaine, and Kramer all live in Manhattan, New York. They are all Caucasian middle class people in their mid-to-late thirties. Common themes to the series involve work, sex, and relationships. But interwoven into these themes are many more subjects that are discussed on a smaller but equally intimate scale. The everyday lives of these four characters are fraught with humor arising from endless mishaps and the idiosyncratic analysis of life’s little perks. Though many antics may incite in an episode of Seinfeld the main premise are the problems dealing with adult life and the wanting to regress back to adolescence.

Generally each episode of this sitcom revolves around the same people in the places involved in many similar situations but each with many tangents and variables. The introduction of the show is rather uncommon for this genre. It’s only an establishing shot of the first scene of the episode and some riffs from a bass guitar and an emblem with the title Seinfeld. It’s very simple and straightforward. I think this reflects some of the ideas behind the show. The peculiar situations faced in everyday life. Life doesn’t have a theme song so why should a show about life need one.

The structure of each episode is similar and is somewhat set up along these lines. The beginning of each episode starts with conversation usually between Jerry and one of his friends, most of the time George. This first scene is usually in one of a few places, most commonly in Jerry’s apartment or at a local coffee shop. This opening dialogue between our friends sets up the premise for the episode. They are usually telling a story about a girlfriend or things at work, and then these ideas are incorporated into the episode. Later more ideas will be introduced for each character, usually so each of the four is involved in some smaller subplot. Sometimes one of the stories is prominent while the others are secondary. Through the middle stage of each episode each story progresses and runs parallel to the others. Finally at the end, all the stories converge in some way. Then the final scene is one to give us closure on the episode, if not closure of the main storyline then perhaps just a joke involving one of the secondary stories to end on a high note.

In one specific episode we have all four people with their own subplot. Jerry has a new maid who ends up being his girlfriend. George wants to get a nickname and tries to make one for himself. Kramer has a girlfriend who has moved away and he is having trouble with this long distance relationship. And Elaine is having a lot of trouble because she is mistaken for having a fax machine and she needs to get a new telephone number.

Each of these situations involves the problematic and confusing aspects of adult life for many people. Breaking them down individually, Jerry is a comedian living in New York City in an apartment. He spends much of his time in a coffee shop with his friends and casually dating. Jerry’s lifestyle choice along with the other characters shows how they refuse to fully mature as healthy adults. Jerry’s career choice is a prime example. Although he is quite successful and self-sufficient, Jerry’s friends and family still don’t see his career as a “real job.” In this episode Jerry has hired a maid service to clean his apartment. A girl is sent over to his apartment and she ends up sleeping with Jerry. She cleans his apartment and Jerry pays her for it. She keeps coming over but stops cleaning, but Jerry keeps paying her anyway. He realizes this and feels like he’s paying for the sex and not the cleaning. Later on she finds out Jerry is thinking this and breaks up with him. This situation can be construed as Jerry’s overall difficulty in romantic relationships. In just about every episode Jerry is involved with a new woman. This shows how lackadaisical he is when it comes to love. He goes through women like cheap garbage bags, and when women break up with him he gives no effort to stay together. He’s almost famous for his shoulder shrugging routine. In this same way he shrugs off failed relationships without a second thought.

George in this episode is facing an identity crisis. George is a small, rotund man who is balding. He of all four of the main characters is having the most trouble adapting to adult life even though he’s well into his thirties. George is a self-proclaimed failure at almost everything in his life; employment, sex, friendship. He even ends up living with his parents for some time during the series.

He wants a nickname because he doesn’t like his own. He says, “Look at me! I’m not a George!” He suggests that his nickname should be “T-Bone.” He’s perhaps trying to make up for some lacking in his appearance and personality. By assuming a name like “T-Bone” he might appear more interesting and intimidating. When he tries to subtly suggest his new nickname to his co-workers, his plan backfires and the name is taken over by someone else. But in his trying to get a nickname George’s boss assigns him as “Cocoa the Monkey.” This is a huge blow to his ego and George eventually comes up with a plan to get rid of his new nickname. But this again backfires and he ends up with an even more degrading name, “Gammy.” This constant effort of George’s for everyone’s approval and his endless failure at it comprises much of his life.

Our other two characters Kramer and Elaine are having trouble as well. Kramer who is an idle, unemployed, peculiar man has to sustain a “long distance relationship” with his girlfriend. She has moved to downtown New York City while Kramer is still living in lower Manhattan. Though his story isn’t a prominent one in this episode, he is often involved in these rather common situations that are blown way out of proportion by his eccentric personality.

Elaine also has a problem to deal with. Her phone has been ringing constantly because it is confused with another number. So she has to get a new telephone number and eventually ends up with the number of a woman who has just died. She was the grandmother of a kid who keeps calling to talk to his “Gammy.” Elaine is annoyed with the child’s persistent calls to his “Gammy” and Elaine doesn’t know how to deal with the situation. So she pretends to die over the phone. This shows her competence and ability to handle children, and how she’s not ready to do so. She’s in her thirties and single and completely unsure what she wants in life. She has just as much trouble with work and people as her counterparts do.

By the end of the episode at least two of the sub-stories come together in some humorous way. Jerry breaks up with his girlfriend and in the process is mistaken soliciting sex. George fails at his attempts to win over his friends and co-workers and ends up the nickname “Gammy”. Kramer breaks up with his girlfriend because he gets lost in downtown New York City and is so confused that he thinks he has stumbled into the nexus of the universe. And Elaine is rescued by some firemen who break down her door because the grandson thought his “Gammy” was dying, so he called 911 for her.

The episode has ended and everything has come to at least a temporary solution. Most of the events are within the realm of logic. Nothing completely absurd happens. Given the premise of this show, if it was too absurd this concept of “real life’ wouldn’t work as well.

Now that everything has stabilized for at least one more week, we see that our four characters may have changed in some way. Have they developed as humans, growing closer to the stage of maturation we call adulthood? Or will they ultimately relapse back into pre-pubescence. These people’s lives are nothing special. The things they experience are normal but are flared with a bit of humor by focusing on little subtle ideas. This helps us connect to these people and their problems, which reflect our own problems. But at the same time we accept and are delighted by these problems they have because they are shrouded in humor. People in reality start to do the same, find the humor in life to deal with it more easily.