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141-533: Charles Stuart Kaufman ( / ˈ k ɔː f m ə n / ; born November 19, 1958) is an American screenwriter, film director, and novelist. He wrote the films Being John Malkovich (1999), Adaptation (2002), and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). He both wrote and directed the films Synecdoche, New York (2008), Anomalisa (2015), and I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020). In 2020, Kaufman released his first novel, Antkind . One of

282-485: A Frogger machine across the street, mimicking the action of the game itself. The last season included a story arc in which Elaine has an on/off relationship with Puddy . Despite the enormous popularity and willingness of the cast to return for a tenth season, Seinfeld decided to end the show after Season 9, believing he would thereby be able to ensure the show would maintain its quality and go out on top. NBC offered Seinfeld $ 110 million—a record $ 5 million an episode for

423-415: A Bob Hope television special , and the next four episodes were filmed. These episodes were highly rated as they followed summer re-runs of Cheers on Thursdays at 9:30 p.m., and the series was finally picked up. At one point, NBC considered airing these episodes on Saturdays at 10:30 p.m. but gave the slot to a short-lived sitcom called FM instead. The series was renamed simply Seinfeld as

564-594: A Harold Pinter play, Betrayal . Some stories were inspired by headlines and rumors, as explained in the DVD features "Notes About Nothing", "Inside Look" and "Audio Commentary." In " The Maestro ," Kramer's lawsuit is roughly similar to the McDonald's coffee case . " The Outing " is based primarily on rumors that Larry Charles heard about Jerry Seinfeld's sexuality. The series was often described as "a show about nothing." However, in 2014, Seinfeld stated: "The pitch for

705-606: A Nielsen rating of 10.9/19. The ratings did not exhibit the regional skew Tartikoff predicted, much to the encouragement of the show's supporters. Ludwin canceled one of the Bob Hope specials budgeted for that season so the entertainment division had the money to order four more episodes of The Seinfeld Chronicles , which formed the rest of the show's first season (the series was by then retitled to Seinfeld ) —a move without which Chicago Tribune columnist Phil Rosenthal later said there "would be no Seinfeld" . Although this

846-566: A "pirate" shirt on The Today Show , " The Non-Fat Yogurt " featuring Rudy Giuliani , the Republican then-mayor-elect of New York, and " The Opposite " in which George, doing the opposite of what his instincts tell him he should do, lands a job with the New York Yankees and Elaine leaves "Pendant Publishing" because of a comedy of errors that led to its demise. Another story arc has George returning to live with his parents. Amid

987-414: A 22-episode tenth season—but he declined. A major controversy caused in the ninth season was the accidental burning of a Puerto Rican flag by Kramer in " The Puerto Rican Day ." This scene caused a furor among Puerto Ricans, and as a result, NBC showed this episode only once. Seinfeld defused the protestors by not letting this episode continue in syndication, as revealed in "Inside Look" on DVD. However,

1128-403: A 75-minute episode (cut to 60 minutes in syndication , in two parts) written by co-creator and ex-executive producer Larry David, which aired on May 14, 1998. Before the finale, a 45-minute retrospective clip show, " The Chronicle ," was aired. The retrospective was expanded to an hour after the original airing and aired again on NBC as an hour-long episode, and has since aired in syndication. It

1269-495: A Life before its cancellation in 1992. At first, Kaufman found the experience of working on a writing staff nerve-wracking and did not speak in the writer's room for the first few weeks. After his work was well received by other members of the staff, Kaufman overcame his timidity and became more amenable to showing others his work. After Get a Life' s cancellation, Kaufman tried to get work on series such as Seinfeld , The Larry Sanders Show , The Simpsons and Mr. Show , but

1410-518: A TV sitcom series named Jerry . The show within a show , Jerry was much like Seinfeld in that it was "about nothing," and Seinfeld played himself. The fictional Jerry was launched in the Season 4 finale, but unlike Seinfeld , it wasn't picked up as a series. Jerry is one of many examples of metafiction in the show. There are no fewer than 22 fictional movies featured, like Rochelle, Rochelle . Because of these several elements, Seinfeld became

1551-467: A brief cameo , as a miffed star in the documentary on Malkovich's career, who seems to be on the verge of saying something before the shot ends. Sean Penn appears as himself, a fan of Malkovich's puppeteer work. Film director David Fincher makes an uncredited appearance as Christopher Bing in the American Arts & Culture pseudo-documentary on John Malkovich. Winona Ryder , Andy Dick , and

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1692-456: A crossover to CBS show Murphy Brown , marking the first such cooperation between rival networks. " The Busboy " introduces George, Kramer and Elaine as having their own storylines for the first time. Although Castle Rock Entertainment's Glenn Padnick thought Seinfeld was too generous, showcasing his co-stars' comedic talent became a trademark throughout the series. Larry Charles wrote an episode for Season 2, " The Bet ," in which Elaine buys

1833-451: A date with Malkovich while he is inhabited by Lotte, who becomes smitten with Maxine. She reciprocates, but only when Lotte is inside Malkovich; Maxine manipulates him into having sex with her while Lotte is in his mind. Craig, forsaken by both women, locks Lotte in a cage and forces her to set up another tryst with Maxine. He inhabits Malkovich instead and discovers that his puppeteering skills allow him some control over Malkovich. Meanwhile,

1974-476: A file clerk for the eccentric Dr. Lester in the Mertin-Flemmer building, on a floor between the 7th and 8th, where the ceiling is very low. He develops an attraction to co-worker Maxine Lund, who does not return his affections. While filing, Craig accidentally discovers a small hidden door. He crawls through it into a tunnel and finds himself inside the mind of actor John Malkovich . After 15 minutes, Craig

2115-464: A former colleague of Kaufman's from The Dana Carvey Show , became interested in adapting Kaufman's Anomalisa play script into a stop motion animated film. With Kaufman's permission, Stamatopoulos turned to the crowdfunding website Kickstarter to fund the film. The Kickstarter page was set up in August 2012 and by the time funding had ended $ 406,237 was pledged. The rest of the $ 8 million budget

2256-566: A full-season order. Ann Jillian lasted only a single season of 13 episodes and was off the air by the end of 1990. When NBC announced its 1989–90 (primetime) schedule in May 1989, The Seinfeld Chronicles was not included, but the show's supporters did not give up. The pilot first aired on July 5, 1989, and finished second in its time slot against the CBS police drama Jake and the Fatman , receiving

2397-585: A further 33% the following week despite further expansion to 624 screens. It finished its theatrical run after 26 weeks with a total gross of $ 22,863,596. PolyGram Filmed Entertainment was originally supposed to release this film outside the United States. However, as a result of Seagram acquiring PolyGram's assets, its film division was folded into a new entity named Universal Pictures International , with all projects in different stages of development now transferred to that company. The film opened in

2538-406: A guest character (e.g. Oh Henry! bars) or simply a conversational aside (e.g., Chuckles , Clark Bar , Twinkies ). A large number of non-candy products were also featured throughout the series. The show's creators claim that they weren't engaging in a product placement strategy for commercial gain. One motivation for the use of real-world products, entirely unrelated to commercial considerations,

2679-495: A gun from Kramer's friend. This episode was not filmed because the content was deemed unacceptable, and it was replaced by the episode " The Phone Message ". " The Stranded ," which aired during Season 3, was initially intended for Season 2. At the beginning of this episode, Jerry clears up the continuity error over George's real estate job. Season 4 marked the sitcom's entry into the Nielsen ratings Top 30. It contains several of

2820-426: A humorous focus on the atypical names of these characters, which often contain alliteration. In keeping with Seinfeld's reputation as a clean comedian, though the show frequently contains dialogue around sexual themes, the show notably avoids using almost all explicit sexual terminology. Notably, in the popular episode " The Contest ," whose plot line concerns a contest amongst the main characters to see which one can go

2961-684: A joke did not elicit the desired reaction, they rewrote it and performed it again. In at least one case, "The Marine Biologist," this led to David writing an entirely new scene requiring Alexander to memorize a monologue in only a matter of minutes. Laugh tracks were used only for matching shots, not for artificially adding laughter. Various locations used for establishing shots included Tom's Restaurant at 112th Street and Broadway (Monk's Cafe), Midtown West's Roosevelt Hospital (recurring exterior emergency room scene and indoor scenes in 'The Junior Mint' and 'The Bris'), Cornell Medical Centre at 525 East 68th Street, 22-39 37th Street, Queens (The Costanza's house),

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3102-402: A limited series for HBO , to no avail. He also did uncredited rewrites on films such as Kung Fu Panda 2 and Ad Astra . In April 2012, Kaufman was hired to adapt Patrick Ness 's Chaos Walking book series, of which he wrote the first draft before leaving the project. After multiple rewrites by other writers, the film was released in 2021 with Kaufman uncredited. Dino Stamatopoulos ,

3243-542: A mail carrier who lives in the same building and is Jerry's nemesis. In addition to recurring characters, Seinfeld features numerous celebrities who appear as themselves or as girlfriends, boyfriends, bosses, and other acquaintances. A number of actresses made guest appearances as Seinfeld's love interests in single episodes: Compared to other family and group sitcoms of the era, Seinfeld stood out. The principal characters are not related by family or work-associated connections but remain distinctly close friends throughout

3384-471: A minute for advertising—a mark previously attained only by the Super Bowl . Elizabeth Magnotta and Alexandra Strohl analyze the success of Seinfeld with recourse to the incongruity theory of humor: "The Incongruity Theory claims that humor is created out of a violation of an expectation. For humor to result from this unexpected result, the event must have an appropriate emotional climate, comprised of

3525-687: A nervous breakdown in " The Money ", followed by Elaine writing Peterman's biography in " The Van Buren Boys ", which leads to Kramer's parody of Kenny Kramer's Reality Tour seen in " The Muffin Tops ". The final season included episodes like " The Merv Griffin Show " in which Kramer converts his apartment into a talk-show studio and plays the character of talk-show host, " The Betrayal " that presents in reverse chronological order what happened to Sue Ellen's wedding in India, and " The Frogger " in which George pushes

3666-751: A nuclear reactor works but is clueless about life". Along with Hawkes, the pilot co-starred Michael Cera , Sally Hawkins , Catherine Keener and Tom Noonan . FX decided to not pick up the pilot. While struggling to get his directorial work made, Kaufman continued to work as a writer for hire, writing numerous unproduced screenplays. These included a satire set on a planet inhabited by everyone who ever lived, to be directed by Spike Jonze; an adaptation of George Saunders 's book CivilWarLand in Bad Decline , to be directed by Ben Stiller ; and an adaptation of Arthur Herzog 's novel IQ 83 , starring Steve Carell. He later attempted to develop his IQ 83 screenplay into

3807-422: A per-screen average of $ 10,857. In its third week, the film's release widened to 467 locations and grossed $ 2.4 million, averaging a lower $ 5,041 per screen with a cumulative gross of $ 6.1 million. It moved into a wide release the next week, expanding to 591 screens, and grossed $ 1.9 million with a 20% drop in ticket sales. Its fifth week brought in $ 2.2 million with a 17% increase in ticket sales, which dropped

3948-526: A person has and trying to make something funny out of it. Doesn't everybody do terrible things and have terrible thoughts? Just by trying to be as funny, you're going to deal with a lot of things that are real, so the show's really about something. The whole thing about the show being about nothing is ridiculous." Much of the show's humor is based upon repeated use of irony, incongruity, and (oftentimes unfortunate) coincidences. Additionally, guest characters are frequently introduced with little to no context, with

4089-547: A personal assistant to her eccentric boss Justin Pitt and George's parents' temporary separation. This was the first season in which Seinfeld reached No. 1 in the Nielsen Ratings. The use of Jerry's stand-up act declined, and the end stand-up segment no longer appeared because the storylines for all four characters grew denser. In Season 7, a story arc involved George getting engaged to his ex-girlfriend, Susan Ross, after

4230-479: A phrase that sounded like the tune Easy to Beat . Jerry Seinfeld and executive producer Larry David both liked Wolff's additions, and three episodes were produced with this new style of music. However, they had neglected to inform NBC and Castle Rock executives of the change, and when the season premiere aired, the executives were surprised and unimpressed and requested that they return to the original style. The subsequent two episodes were redone, leaving this episode as

4371-420: A precautionary measure due to the failure of the short-lived 1990 ABC series with a similarly sounding title, The Marshall Chronicles . After airing the remaining four episodes of its first season the summer of 1990, NBC ordered 13 more episodes. David believed that he and Seinfeld had no more stories to tell and advised Seinfeld to turn down the order, but Seinfeld agreed to the additional episodes. Season 2

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4512-431: A secondary concern." Trying to make a return to television when the funding for Frank or Francis fell through, Kaufman sold a series to HBO in the May 2012 with Catherine Keener attached to star, but the series did not get past the scripting stage. Kaufman also directed and wrote a pilot for FX titled How and Why in 2014. The plot was described as being about a "man (played by John Hawkes ) who can explain how and why

4653-522: A tenth season. The offer NBC made to Seinfeld was over three times higher per episode than anyone on TV had ever been offered before. Seinfeld told the network that he was not married nor had children, and wished to focus on his personal life. As reported in July 2007, he was the second-highest earner in the TV industry, earning at the time $ 60 million a year. The episode became the first to command over $ 1 million

4794-445: A theatrical trailer, TV spots, cast and crew biographies, the director's photo album and featurettes on floor 7½ and puppeteering. A special edition DVD, released later the same year, included the aforementioned features, an interview with Jonze and two behind-the-scenes featurettes. It was released on HD DVD in 2008. The Criterion Collection released a special edition of the film on Blu-ray and DVD in 2012. On Rotten Tomatoes ,

4935-544: A three-month long stop-motion animation film that perished in a fire. Believing the film to be his last chance at achieving the respect and admiration of his peers, B. embarks on an absurdist journey that explores comedy , film theory , philosophy , and social commentary across Antkind 's 706 pages. In January 2018, it was announced that Kaufman was working on writing and directing an adaptation of Iain Reid 's 2016 novel I'm Thinking of Ending Things . In December 2018, it

5076-532: A touching lack of faith in one's fellow human beings." This leads to very few happy endings, except at somebody else's expense. More often in every episode, situations resolve with characters getting a justly deserved comeuppance . The show premiered as The Seinfeld Chronicles on July 5, 1989. After it aired, a pickup by NBC seemed unlikely, and the show was offered to Fox , which declined to pick it up. Rick Ludwin , head of late night and special events for NBC, however, diverted money from his budget by canceling

5217-514: A variety of different television writing jobs. The only offer he got was a Comedy Central series titled Access America , hosted by actor Fred Willard , which coincidentally was being filmed in Minneapolis. Kaufman was prepared to accept the job and move back to Minneapolis until he was offered a job by David Mirkin , writing for the second season of his and Chris Elliott 's sitcom Get a Life , starring Elliott. He wrote two episodes of Get

5358-483: A writer is to deliver a script and then disappear. That's not for me. I want to be involved from beginning to end. And these directors [Gondry and Jonze] know that, and respect it." Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind , released in 2004, was Kaufman's second pairing with director Michel Gondry . Kaufman won his first Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay and third BAFTA for the film together with Gondry and French artist Pierre Bismuth . The trio also received

5499-416: Is based on Dan O'Keefe's dad, who made up his own holiday: Festivus . Other stories take a variety of turns. " The Chinese Restaurant " consists of George, Jerry, and Elaine waiting for a table throughout the entire episode. " The Boyfriend ", revolving around Keith Hernandez , extends through two episodes. " The Betrayal " is famous for using reverse chronology and was inspired by a similar plot device in

5640-435: Is credited as writer of the film along with Kaufman. The idea came to Kaufman while attempting to adapt Susan Orlean 's book The Orchid Thief into film. Struggling with writer's block , Kaufman turned the script into an exaggerated account of his struggles with adapting the screenplay. Kaufman wrote the screenplay for Confessions of a Dangerous Mind , a biopic based on the "unauthorized autobiography" of Chuck Barris ,

5781-469: Is ejected, landing on the side of the New Jersey Turnpike . He tells Maxine about the door, and she realizes they can sell the experience for profit. Lotte enters the portal, and based on her experience being John Malkovich, she becomes fascinated with the idea of becoming a man. She and Craig visit Dr. Lester's home, where Lotte finds a room filled with Malkovich memorabilia. Maxine arranges

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5922-452: Is freed by her pet chimpanzee and warns Maxine that Craig is inhabiting Malkovich, but Maxine is attracted to Craig's ability to control him. Lotte confronts Dr. Lester, who reveals that he is, in fact, Captain Mertin, who, having discovered the portal to a "vessel body" in the late 1800s, erected the Mertin-Flemmer building to conceal it. He has obtained immortality by moving from one body to

6063-418: Is its theme music. Composed by Jonathan Wolff , it consists of distinct solo sampled electric bass riffs that open the show and connect the scenes, often accompanied by beatboxing . The bass music eventually replaced the original piano/synth music by Jep Epstein when it was played again after the first broadcast of the pilot episode . The show lacked a traditional title track and the riffs were played over

6204-531: Is referred to as Seinlanguage , which is also the title of Jerry Seinfeld's best-selling book on humor. These terms include " man hands ", " shrinkage ", " regift ", and " double dip ". A recurring feature of Seinfeld was its inclusion of specific products, especially candy , as plot points. These might be a central feature of a plot (e.g., Junior Mints , Twix , Chuckles , Jujyfruits , bite-size Three Musketeers , Snickers , Chunky , Oh Henry! , Drake's Coffee Cake and PEZ ), or an association of candy with

6345-502: Is the comedy value of funny-sounding phrases and words. "I knew I wanted Kramer to think of watching the operation like going to see a movie," explained Seinfeld writer/producer Andy Robin in an interview published in The Hollywood Reporter . "At first, I thought maybe a piece of popcorn falls into the patient. I ran that by my brother, and he said, 'No, Junior Mints are just funnier.'" Many advertisers capitalized on

6486-512: Is torn between exact opposites of her friends and Jerry dates a woman who has the now-famous "man hands". Some notable episodes from Season 8 include " The Little Kicks " showing Elaine's horrible dancing, and " The Chicken Roaster " which portrays the Kenny Rogers Roasters chicken restaurant which opened during that time. A story arc in this season involves Peterman going to Burma in " The Foundation " until he recovered from

6627-690: The Coen brothers . He has also mentioned Tom Noonan 's What Happened Was... as a favorite of his. As of 2020, Kaufman lives in Manhattan , having lived in Pasadena, California , since 1998. He is married to Denise Monaghan, with whom he has a daughter, Anna. Executive producer only Being John Malkovich Craig Schwartz is an unemployed puppeteer in New York City, in a forlorn marriage with his pet-obsessed wife, Lotte. He finds work as

6768-587: The Soup Nazi and Jackie Chiles , who was based on Johnnie Cochran . Episodes have separate plot strands, but the characters' stories often intertwine at the end. The narratives reveal the creators' "consistent efforts to maintain the intimacy" among the small cast of characters. The show maintains a strong sense of continuity , as characters and plots from past episodes are often referenced or expanded on. Occasionally, story arcs span multiple episodes or entire seasons, such as Season 4 , which revolves around

6909-646: The University of Southern California campus and the Observation Bar on board the RMS Queen Mary . The puppets were created by Kamela Portuges-Robbins and Images in Motion. Phillip Huber animated the puppets. About Huber's puppetry, Jonze has said he was a full-time puppeteer and controlled his puppets with impressive means, such as using strings and no rods to control them, as well as swinging

7050-471: The Venice Film Festival and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature , but like Synecdoche , it did poorly at the box office. Kaufman's debut novel , Antkind , was released in July 2020. Kaufman said in 2016 that the novel was being written so as to be unfilmable, and is itself about "an impossible movie ". In Antkind, film critic B. Rosenberg attempts to recall

7191-523: The Writers Guild of America voted it the second best-written TV series of all time (second to The Sopranos ). E! named it the "Number 1 reason [why] the '90s ruled". Quotes from numerous episodes have become catchphrases in popular culture. Seinfeld began as a 23-minute pilot titled " The Seinfeld Chronicles ". Created by Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David , developed by NBC executive Rick Ludwin, and produced by Castle Rock Entertainment , it

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7332-639: The X-Men . Kaufman and Proch tried to get their screenplays produced, sending them to many people in the film industry. The only response the two ever received was a supportive letter from Alan Arkin about their screenplay Purely Coincidental . In hope of finding a talent agent , he wrote a portfolio of spec scripts based on television series such as Married... with Children , Newhart , It's Garry Shandling's Show and The Simpsons . While pursuing his writing career, he began working odd jobs in customer service to support himself and his wife, Denise. During

7473-522: The pilot pitch to NBC by Jerry and George. Another example is Jerry's girlfriend Vanessa, who appears in " The Stake Out " and with whom he ends the relationship when things do not work out in " The Stock Tip ". Larry David , the head writer and executive producer for the first seven seasons, was praised for keeping a close eye on minor details and ensuring the main characters' lives remained consistent and believable. Curb Your Enthusiasm , David's later comedy series, also had an overarching plot for all but

7614-510: The postmodern film Synecdoche, New York , starring an ensemble cast led by Philip Seymour Hoffman . It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008. The idea for the film came when Kaufman and Spike Jonze were approached to direct a horror film . Rather than make a conventional horror film, the two agreed to have the film deal with things they found frightening, such as mortality and life's brevity. Kaufman decided to direct

7755-515: The Americas, New York. The live stand-up comedy performed by Seinfeld at the beginning of most episodes was truly filmed at The Improv, a comedy club at 358 West 44th Street, Manhattan; though it closed in 1993, another comedy club operates at the site today. The Yankee Stadium exterior seen in the show has now been demolished. Most office building establishing shots are real businesses and locations. Various real street locations can be gleaned from

7896-718: The New Ear debuted in April 2005 at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn, New York . Due to scheduling conflicts, later productions of Theater of the New Ear did not feature the Coens' play, replacing it with Anomalisa , which Kaufman wrote under the pseudonym "'Francis Fregoli". Anomalisa centers on a man ( David Thewlis ) who perceives everyone in the world to be the same person ( Tom Noonan ) until he meets an exception ( Jennifer Jason Leigh ). Kaufman made his directorial film debut with

8037-554: The New Ear , a double bill "sound play", Kaufman wrote and directed the audio play Hope Leaves the Theater , while the other play in the production, Sawbones , was written and directed by the Coen Brothers . Hope Leaves the Theater follows a middle-aged woman, dissatisfied with her life and relationships, watching a play-within-the-play, and featured performances by Hope Davis , Peter Dinklage and Meryl Streep . Theater of

8178-454: The TV series Gilligan's Island . Kaufman first came to mainstream notice as the writer of Being John Malkovich , directed by Spike Jonze , earning an Academy Award nomination for his effort and winning a BAFTA . He wrote the script on spec in 1994, sending it to many companies and studios, all of which turned it down. The script eventually reached Francis Ford Coppola , who passed it on to his then-son-in-law Jonze, who agreed to direct

8319-604: The Taconic State Parkway exit to the Hopewell Junction, Dutchess County, New York (driving scene in 'The Bubble Boy'), and the Amagansett farmers market, Long Island ('The Hamptons'). The exterior shot used for Jerry's New York apartment building was actually located at 757 S New Hampshire Avenue, Los Angeles. The real-life exterior of Pendant Publishing, Elaine's workplace, is located at 1325 Ave of

8460-996: The Theater , and Antkind . Gender identity is also a recurrent theme in his work. Apes also recur in Kaufman's early work: in Being John Malkovich , Lotte has a pet chimp named Elijah; in Human Nature , Puff was raised as an ape; in Confessions of a Dangerous Mind , Penny dreams about an ape; and in Adaptation , the original deus ex machina was a swamp ape. Some writers and directors Kaufman has named as favorites of his, or as influences, are Franz Kafka , Samuel Beckett , Eugene Ionesco , Stanisław Lem , Flannery O'Connor , Shirley Jackson , Philip K. Dick , Patricia Highsmith , Stephen Dixon , David Lynch , Lars von Trier , Roy Andersson , Woody Allen , and

8601-625: The United Kingdom in March 2000, earning £296,282 in its debut week and closing after fifteen weeks with a total gross of £1,098,927. In France, the film opened in December 1999 with a gross of US$ 546,000 from 94 venues and went on to further success due to positive reviews and word of mouth . It grossed $ 205,100 from 109 screens on its opening weekend in Italy and ticket sales dropped by 37%

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8742-564: The actors walking in New York were also filmed at CBS Studio Center, on their New York Street backlot . Street scenes and park scenes were filmed in the CBS Studio Centre's New York Street and Central Park backlots, respectively. A source of problems for the cast was the small sets, especially that of Jerry's apartment; Alexander noted, "If you knew you were doing a series for nine years, you would never build that set." Adding to

8883-410: The audience is never made to feel sorry for any of the characters. Even Susan's death in " The Invitations " elicits no genuine emotions from anybody in the show. Seinfeld does not shy away from making light of tough topics, from death to illness to disability. The show frequently engages in fourth-wall-breaking humor and self-satire. One such example is the story arc , where the characters promote

9024-430: The beginning and end of each episode, even functioning as transitions during the show. A few episodes set a benchmark for later seasons. " The Deal " establishes Jerry and Elaine's relationship by setting rules about having sex while remaining friends. " The Parking Garage " was the first episode shot with no audience for the episode and, after " The Chinese Restaurant ", to not show Jerry's apartment. " The Keys " contains

9165-514: The car windows during driving scenes. By the final season, each episode of the series cost $ 3 million to $ 3.5 million. More than 120 episodes make reference to the Superman franchise . Teri Hatcher, who played Lois Lane on Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman , plays Jerry's girlfriend Sidra. Paula Marshall , who played Christina Riley on the Superboy TV series , portrays

9306-505: The cast, and was released on Netflix in September 2020 to positive reviews. In 2023, Kaufman directed his first short film, Jackals & Fireflies . Based on a poem by Eva H.D., who also portrays the lead character, the film was shot entirely on a Samsung Galaxy S22 smartphone by cinematographer Chayse Irvin. Kaufman has written a script about dreams for Ryan Gosling 's production company that Gosling may star in and an adaptation of

9447-452: The chest the way Abbott would hit Costello." The series includes numerous references to the team. George Costanza's middle name is "Louis", after Costello. " The Old Man " episode features a cantankerous character named "Sid Fields" as a tribute to the landlord on the team's TV show. Kramer's friend is named Mickey Abbott. A copywriter for the J. Peterman catalog is named Eddie Sherman, after the team's longtime agent. In Episode 30, Kramer hears

9588-407: The creator of such popular game shows as The Dating Game and host of The Gong Show . The film focuses on Barris's claim to have been a CIA hit man . It was George Clooney 's directorial debut. Kaufman criticized Clooney for making drastic alterations to the script without consulting him (instead, Clooney consulted Barris). Kaufman said in an interview with William Arnold: "The usual thing for

9729-575: The earlier seasons. Most noticeably, David left the writing crew (but returned to write " The Finale " in 1998), resulting in Seinfeld taking over David's duties as showrunner , and, under the direction of a new writing staff, Seinfeld became a faster-paced show. The show no longer contained extracts of Jerry performing stand-up comedy—Jerry had no time or energy for this with his new responsibilities—and storylines occasionally delved into fantasy and broad humor. For example, in " The Bizarro Jerry ", Elaine

9870-441: The episode would be added to the syndicated rerun package several years later uncut. After nine years on the air, NBC and Seinfeld announced on December 25, 1997, that the series would end production the following spring in 1998. The announcement made the front page of the major New York newspapers, including The New York Times . Seinfeld was featured on the cover of Time magazine's first issue of 1998. The series ended with

10011-457: The episode's events. As a rising comedian in the late 1980s, Jerry Seinfeld was presented with an opportunity to create a show with NBC. He asked Larry David, a fellow comedian and friend, to help create a premise for a sitcom. The series was produced by West-Shapiro Productions and Castle Rock Entertainment and distributed by Columbia Pictures Television . It was largely written by David and Seinfeld and scriptwriters. A favorite among critics,

10152-685: The episode. For instance, in "The Betrayal," part of which takes place in India, the theme is heard played on a sitar . The soundtrack was given a digital release on July 2, 2021. All music is composed by Jonathan Wolff. Many characters have made multiple appearances, notably Jerry's parents, Morty and Helen Seinfeld, who reside in Florida; George's parents, the overbearing Frank and Estelle Costanza; George's on-again, off-again fiancée Susan Ross; Jerry's Uncle Leo ; Elaine's variety of bosses, Mr. Lippman, Mr. Pitt and J. Peterman; Elaine's on-again, off-again boyfriend David Puddy; and Kramer's friend, Newman ,

10293-437: The famous Abbott and Costello line, "His father was a mudder. His mother was a mudder." Many terms were coined, popularized, or re-popularized in the series' run and have become part of popular culture, including " Yada, yada, yada ", " No soup for you! ", " Master of my domain ", and " Not that there's anything wrong with that ." The lexicon of Seinfeldian code words and recurring phrases that evolved around particular episodes

10434-517: The film a full four stars, writing: "What an endlessly inventive movie this is! Charlie Kaufman, the writer of Being John Malkovich , supplies a dazzling stream of inventions, twists, and wicked paradoxes. And the director, Spike Jonze, doesn't pounce on each one like fresh prey, but unveils it slyly, as if there's more where that came from... The movie has ideas enough for half a dozen films, but Jonze and his cast handle them so surely that we never feel hard-pressed; we're enchanted by one development after

10575-573: The film after Jonze left the project to direct Where the Wild Things Are instead. The film premiered at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival where it split critics, with some calling it the best film of the year and others finding it pretentious. In the years since its release, it has appeared on multiple lists ranking the best films of the 21st century. The film's poor box office resulted in Kaufman finding it difficult to gain funding for scripts to which he has attached himself as director. Kaufman

10716-431: The film holds an approval rating of 94% based on 136 reviews, with an average rating of 8.2/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Smart, funny, and highly original, Being John Malkovich supports its wild premise with skillful direction and a stellar ensemble cast." On Metacritic , the film has a weighted average score of 90 out of 100 based on 36 critics reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Roger Ebert awarded

10857-401: The film in partnership with production company Single Cell Pictures. Single Cell producers Michael Stipe and Sandy Stern pitched the film to numerous studios, including New Line Cinema , who dropped the project after chairman Robert Shaye asked, "Why the fuck can't it be Being Tom Cruise ?" Jonze recalled that Malkovich asked the same question, and that Malkovich had felt that "Either

10998-403: The film. All tracks are written by Carter Burwell , except where noted Being John Malkovich was given limited release in the United States theatres on October 22, 1999, and opened across 25 screens. On its opening weekend, the film grossed US$ 637,731 across 25 screens with a per-screen average of $ 25,495. It expanded to another 150 screens the following week, bringing in $ 1.9 million with

11139-451: The film. After the success of Being John Malkovich , another of Kaufman's screenplays was produced: Human Nature , which was directed by Michel Gondry and produced by Kaufman and Jonze. Kaufman and Jonze reunited yet again as the screenwriter and director of Adaptation , which earned him another Academy Award nomination and his second BAFTA. Adaptation featured a fictionalized version of Kaufman and his fictional brother, Donald, who

11280-561: The finale received mixed reviews from critics and fans of the show. The finale poked fun at the many rumors that were circulating, seeming to move into multiple supposed plots before settling on its actual storyline—a lengthy trial where the gang is prosecuted for violating a " Duty to Rescue " law and sentenced to prison terms. According to Forbes magazine, Seinfeld's earnings from the show in 1998 came to US$ 267 million, including syndication earnings. He refused NBC's offer of $ 5 million per episode, or over $ 100 million total, to continue into

11421-458: The first TV series since Monty Python's Flying Circus to be widely described as postmodern . Seinfeld is an avid Abbott and Costello fan and has cited The Abbott and Costello Show as an influence on Seinfeld : "Everybody on the show knows I'm a fan. We're always joking about how we do stuff from their show. George and I will often get into a riff that has the rhythm from the old Abbott and Costello shows. And sometimes, I'll hit George in

11562-439: The first moments of dialogue or action. They vary throughout each episode and are played in an improvised funk style, matching the timing of Seinfeld's stand-up comedy delivery or transitions in the editing. An additional musical theme with an ensemble, led by a synthesized mid-range brass instrument, ends each episode. In " The Note ," the first episode of Season 3, the bumper music featured a scatting female jazz singer who sang

11703-484: The first season. A major difference between Seinfeld and the sitcoms that preceded it is that the principal characters never learn from their mistakes. In effect, they are indifferent and even callous toward the outside world and sometimes one another. A mantra of the show's producers was "No hugging, no learning." Entertainment Weekly ' s TV critic Ken Tucker has described them as "a group dynamic rooted in jealousy, rage, insecurity, despair, hopelessness, and

11844-454: The following week with a cumulative gross of $ 480,000 from 82 screens. Its German release brought in a total of $ 243,071. Being John Malkovich had a total foreign gross of $ 9,523,455, combined with its domestic gross to give an international total of over $ 32 million. Being John Malkovich was initially released in 2000 on VHS , both as a regular edition and a limited edition collector's set, and on DVD , with special features including

11985-482: The hall, Cosmo Kramer ( Michael Richards ). Seinfeld is set mostly in and around the titular character's apartment in Manhattan 's Upper West Side in New York City . It has been described as "a show about nothing", often focusing on the minutiae of daily life . Interspersed in all episodes of the first seven seasons are moments of stand-up comedy from the fictional Jerry Seinfeld, frequently related to

12126-703: The journalist Sharon, who Jerry says reminds him of Lois Lane. Sherman Howard , who played Lex Luthor on Superboy , portrays Roy. Superman logos and figurines frequently appear in Jerry's apartment. Seinfeld and Superman later appear in an American Express commercial. The show was written by David and Seinfeld, along with writers who included Larry Charles , Peter Mehlman , Gregg Kavet , Carol Leifer , David Mandel , Jeff Schaffer , Steve Koren , Jennifer Crittenden , Tom Gammill , Max Pross , Dan O'Keefe , Charlie Rubin , Marjorie Gross , Alec Berg , Elaine Pope , and Spike Feresten . Many Seinfeld episodes are based on

12267-636: The late 1980s, Kaufman lived and worked in Minneapolis , working at the Star Tribune circulation department for four and a half years, as well as the Minneapolis Institute of Art . In 1991, one of Kaufman's spec scripts finally got attention, and he gained a talent agent. The agent suggested Kaufman move from Minneapolis to Los Angeles in search of more job prospects. He moved to Los Angeles alone for two months, interviewing for

12408-437: The longest without masturbating, the word 'masturbation' is never mentioned. Seinfeld broke several conventions of mainstream television. David is credited with refusing to follow a predictable sitcom formula that would have a romantic relationship develop between Jerry and Elaine. The show offers no growth or reconciliation to its characters and eschews sentimentality. An episode is typically driven by humor interspersed with

12549-496: The members of Hanson can be seen in the audience of a Malkovich puppet show. Kaufman's idea of Being John Malkovich originated simply as "a story about a man who falls in love with someone who is not his wife." Gradually he added further elements to the story which he found entertaining, such as floor 7 + 1 ⁄ 2 of the Mertin Flemmer building; among his first ideas, Malkovich was "nowhere to be seen". He wrote

12690-594: The memo for several years, but after they became aware of it, they hung it in a bathroom on the set. Seinfeld comments, "We thought, if someone goes in to use this bathroom, this is something they should see. It fits that moment." Around the time the show's pilot was filmed, Castle Rock Entertainment, which produced the show, had also produced another pilot for NBC that featured Ann Jillian in her almost-similarly eponymous TV series. When The Seinfeld Chronicles tested poorly with audiences, Castle Rock focused on Jillian's series, which tested better with audiences and received

12831-419: The middle of Seinfeld episodes was cut. Much publicity followed the controversial episode " The Contest ," an Emmy Award -winning episode written by David, whose subject matter was considered inappropriate for prime-time network TV. To circumvent this taboo, the word " masturbation " was never used in the script, instead substituted for by a variety of oblique references. Midway through that season, Seinfeld

12972-414: The most celebrated screenwriters of his era, Kaufman has received an Academy Award , three BAFTA Awards , two Independent Spirit Awards , and a Writers Guild of America Award . Film critic Roger Ebert called Synecdoche, New York "the best movie of the decade" in 2009. Three of Kaufman's scripts appear in the Writers Guild of America 's list of the 101 greatest movie screenplays ever written. Kaufman

13113-420: The most popular episodes, such as " The Bubble Boy " in which George and the bubble boy argue over Trivial Pursuit , and " The Junior Mint " in which Jerry and Kramer accidentally fumble a mint in the operating room. This was the first season to use a story arc of Jerry and George creating their own sitcom, Jerry . Also, at this time, the use of Jerry's stand-up act slowly declined, and the stand-up segment in

13254-562: The movie's a bomb and it's got not only my name above the title but my name in the title, so I'm fucked that way; or it does well and I'm just forever associated with this character." Jonze explained in the same interview that he had not realized how brave Malkovich's performance was. With a budget of $ 10 million, principal photography of Being John Malkovich began on July 20, 1998, and continued through August. Filming took place primarily in Los Angeles ; specific locations included

13395-507: The next eight months, he makes Malkovich into a world-class puppeteer and marries Maxine. Later, Maxine discovers that she is pregnant. On Malkovich's 44th birthday, Lester and Lotte kidnap Maxine. They call to demand that Craig leave Malkovich, threatening to kill Maxine, but he hangs up. In desperation, Lotte decides to shoot Maxine, who escapes into the portal. Lotte pursues her through Malkovich's subconscious before they are both ejected. Maxine confesses that she kept her unborn child because it

13536-407: The next". He concluded: "Every once in a long, long while a movie comes along that is unlike any other. A movie that creates a new world for us and uses it to produce wonderful things. Forrest Gump was a movie like that, and so in different ways were M*A*S*H , This Is Spinal Tap , After Hours , Babe and There's Something About Mary . What do such films have in common? Nothing. That's

13677-472: The next, which becomes "ripe" on the host's 44th birthday, allowing him to take possession. If he were to enter the portal past midnight on that day, he would instead be trapped in the next newborn vessel, helpless inside the new host's mind. This time, Lester has invited a group of friends to join him in occupying Malkovich once he turns 44, and Lotte warns them that Craig has taken control. Craig discovers he can occupy Malkovich indefinitely. Inhabiting him over

13818-466: The novel The Memory Police that Reed Morano is slated to direct. Kaufman's works explore such universal themes as identity crisis , mortality , and the meaning of life through a metaphysical or parapsychological framework. While his work resists labels, it is sometimes described as surrealist . He uses metafiction as a literary device, and sometimes includes fictionalized "facts" about his life in his work, notably Adaptation. , Hope Leaves

13959-454: The only one with additional music elements. In the commentary of "The Note," Louis-Dreyfus facetiously suggests it was removed because the perceived lyric related closely to the low ratings at the time. In the final three seasons, the bits were tweaked slightly with more frantic rhythms; a bass guitar was added in addition to the sampled bass from earlier seasons. Throughout the show, the main theme could be restyled in different ways depending on

14100-491: The pilot Jerry proved unsuccessful. In it, George spends most of the season regretting and trying to get out of the engagement. Along with the regular half-hour episodes, two notable one-hour episodes were " The Cadillac ," in which George plans to date award-winning actress Marisa Tomei , and " The Bottle Deposit ," with Elaine and Sue Ellen Mischke participating in a bidding war to buy JFK's golf clubs in an auction. Seinfeld's final two seasons were considered distinct from

14241-512: The pilot's performance among the respondents as "weak", which Warren Littlefield , then second-in-command in NBC's entertainment division, called "a dagger to the heart". Comments included, "You can't get too excited about two guys going to the laundromat", "Jerry's loser friend George isn't a forceful character", "Jerry needs a stronger supporting cast", and "Why are they interrupting the stand-up for these stupid stories?" Seinfeld and David did not see

14382-544: The point. Each one stakes out a completely new place and colonizes it with limitless imagination. Either Being John Malkovich gets nominated for best picture, or the members of the Academy need portals into their brains." He later named it the best film of 1999. Peter Rainer, writing for New York , commented that "dazzlingly singular movies aren't often this much fun" and Owen Gleiberman , writing for Entertainment Weekly , called it "the most excitingly original movie of

14523-621: The popularity of Seinfeld . American Express created a webisode where Jerry Seinfeld and an animated Superman (voiced by Patrick Warburton , who played the role of Puddy) starred in its commercial. The makers of the Today Sponge created the "Spongeworthy" game on their website, inspired by " The Sponge ." An advertisement featured Jason Alexander in a Chrysler commercial. In this, Alexander acts much like his character George, and his relationship with Lee Iacocca plays on George's relationship with Steinbrenner. Similarly, Michael Richards

14664-403: The portal, which now leads to the mind of Maxine's daughter Emily. Craig, who entered the portal too late, is permanently trapped inside Emily, forced to watch Lotte and Maxine live happily together. Spike Jonze makes a cameo appearance as Derek Mantini's assistant; Mantini is billed in the story as the greatest puppeteer in the history of the world and arouses Craig's envy. Brad Pitt also has

14805-524: The prestigious PEN American Center 2005 prize for screenplay for the film. David Edelstein described the film in Slate as " The Awful Truth turned inside-out by Philip K. Dick , with nods to Samuel Beckett , Chris Marker , John Guare —the greatest dramatists of our modern fractured consciousness. But the weave is pure Kaufman." After agreeing to participate in Carter Burwell 's Theater of

14946-410: The problem was that the scripts contained only minimal physical direction, leaving the actors needing help to come up with actions to perform while speaking. Eventually, they got into a routine of directing each other on how to make their movements look natural. Alexander said this helped them build chemistry with each other. Filming usually went long, as the cast and Larry David were perfectionists. If

15087-462: The puppets on high wires. Diaz's make-up artist Gucci Westman described styling Diaz in the role as "a challenge, to make her look homely." The script included minimal physical descriptions of characters, and thus when Diaz took up the role she did not know that "people weren't going to recognize me." Cusack read the film's script after he had asked his agent to present him with the "craziest, most unproduceable script you can find." Impressed with

15228-407: The ratings of the 9:00 p.m. Cheers reruns that spring. The show won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 1993, beating out its family-oriented, time-slot competitor Home Improvement , which was only in its second season on rival network ABC. Season 5 was an even bigger ratings hit, consisting of popular episodes, such as " The Puffy Shirt " in which Jerry feels embarrassed wearing

15369-430: The real Malkovich, disturbed by his loss of control, confides in his friend Charlie Sheen and becomes suspicious of Maxine. Malkovich follows her to the office, where she and Craig are charging customers to use the portal. When Malkovich enters it himself, he finds himself in a world where everyone looks like him and says only "Malkovich." After he is ejected, he demands that Craig close the portal, but Craig refuses. Lotte

15510-429: The script on spec in 1994 and though it was widely read by production company and film studio executives, all turned it down. Hoping to find a producer, Kaufman sent the script to Francis Ford Coppola , who passed it on to his daughter's then boyfriend Spike Jonze . Jonze first read the script in 1996 and had agreed to direct the film by 1997. Jonze took the script to Propaganda Films , which agreed to produce

15651-412: The script, he asked his agent to follow its progress and book him an audition, which won him the role. Keener cited Being John Malkovich as an instance of her taking up a role based on the director's previous work. She had heard about Jonze's experience with music videos and took up the part of Maxine although she initially disliked the character and did not feel that she was right for the part. She

15792-726: The series led the Nielsen ratings in Seasons 6 and 9 and finished among the top two (along with ER of the same network) every year from 1994 to 1998. Only two other shows— I Love Lucy and The Andy Griffith Show —finished their runs at the top of the ratings. Seinfeld is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential shows of all time. It has been ranked among television's best shows in publications such as Entertainment Weekly , Rolling Stone , and TV Guide . Its most renowned episodes include " The Chinese Restaurant ", " The Soup Nazi ", " The Parking Garage ", " The Marine Biologist ", and " The Contest ". In 2013,

15933-458: The series would end. The episode's producers gave false information to the media, spreading a rumor about Newman ending up in the hospital and Jerry and Elaine sitting in a chapel, presumably to marry. The final episode enjoyed a historic audience, estimated at 76.3 million viewers (58% of all viewers that night) making it the fourth-most watched regular series finale in U.S. TV history, behind M*A*S*H , Cheers , and The Fugitive . However,

16074-514: The series. Many characters were based primarily on Seinfeld's and David's real-life acquaintances. Two prominent recurring characters were fictional depictions of actual well-known people: Jacopo Peterman of the J. Peterman catalog (based on John Peterman ) and George Steinbrenner , owner of the New York Yankees . Many characters were introduced as new writers got involved with Seinfeld . Other characters based on real people include

16215-522: The show would work. A Jewish man from New York himself, Tartikoff characterized it as "Too New York, too Jewish" (a sentiment which would also lead to the Cosmo character's later surname change from the more Jewish-sounding Kessler to Kramer). Test audiences were even harsher. NBC's practice at the time was to recruit 400 households by phone to ask them to evaluate pilots it aired on an unused channel on its cable system. An NBC research department memo summarized

16356-408: The show, the real pitch, when Larry and I went to NBC in 1988, was [that] we want to show how a comedian gets his material. The show "about nothing" was just a joke in an episode many years later, and Larry and I to this day are surprised that it caught on as a way that people describe the show because, to us, it's the opposite of that." David similarly commented: "I like taking the worst qualities that

16497-521: The show. One DVD reviewer, Britt Gillette, wrote that "this initial episode exhibits the flashes of brilliance that made Seinfeld a cultural phenomenon." Other than the pilot, the series was filmed at CBS Studio Center in Studio City, Los Angeles . The first three seasons were filmed on Soundstage 19; it then moved to the larger Stage 9 for the remainder of its production. Despite numerous establishing shots taken in New York City, all scenes of

16638-434: The show. The series remained well regarded and produced some of its most famous episodes, such as " The Beard ", in which Jerry is put through a lie detector test to make him admit that he watched Melrose Place ; " The Switch ", in which Kramer's mom, Babs, reveals that his first name is Cosmo; and " The Understudy ", in which Elaine meets J. Peterman for the first time. Story arcs used in this season were Elaine working as

16779-489: The sound of his name in repetition. Kaufman explained that "When we were thinking of alternatives, we found that a lot of them weren't fun to say." Jonze's then-father-in-law Francis Ford Coppola was able to contact Malkovich, and Jonze flew with producer Sandy Stern to Malkovich's home in France. Stern said that Malkovich was "half intrigued and half horrified" when he first read the script, but he eventually agreed to star in

16920-554: The story arc, Kramer creates and promotes his coffee table book . The show was again nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series, but lost to the Cheers spin-off Frasier , then in its first season. Seinfeld was nominated for the same award every year for its entire run but, after its win at the 45th Primetime Emmy Awards in 1994, always lost to Frasier , which went on to win a record 39 Emmy Awards in its 11-season run. In Season 6, Andy Ackerman replaced Tom Cherones as director of

17061-431: The studio was unsure about its chances for success after the financial failure of Synecdoche, New York . Although the future of the project is not certain, Kaufman says "It could still happen. It would have to be reinvented, though. We had a whole cast and we were headed into pre-production. So, I'd have to get people back and who knows if they would be interested anymore. But at this point, we don't have any money, so that's

17202-510: The superficial conflicts of characters with peculiar dispositions. Many episodes revolve around the characters' involvement in the lives of others, with typically disastrous results. On the set, the notion that the characters should not develop or improve throughout the series was expressed as the "no hugging, no learning" rule. The characters are "thirty-something singles with vague identities, no roots, and conscious indifference to morals." Also unlike most sitcoms, there are no moments of pathos ;

17343-406: The writers' real-life experiences, with the experiences reinterpreted for the characters' storylines. For example, George's storyline in " The Revenge " is based on Larry David's experience at Saturday Night Live . " The Contest " is also based on David's experiences. " The Smelly Car " storyline is based on Peter Mehlman's lawyer friend, who could not get a bad smell out of his car. " The Strike "

17484-576: The year." Seinfeld Seinfeld ( / ˈ s aɪ n f ɛ l d / SYNE -feld ) is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, with a total of nine seasons consisting of 180 episodes . Its ensemble cast stars Seinfeld as a fictionalized version of himself and focuses on his personal life with three of his friends: best friend George Costanza ( Jason Alexander ), former girlfriend Elaine Benes ( Julia Louis-Dreyfus ), and neighbor from across

17625-407: Was a mix of Seinfeld's stand-up comedy routines and idiosyncratic, conversational scenes focusing on mundane aspects of everyday life like laundry, the buttoning of the top button on one's shirt, and the effort by men to interpret the intent of women spending the night in Seinfeld's apartment. The pilot was filmed at Stage 8 of Desilu Cahuenga studios, the same studio where The Dick Van Dyke Show

17766-423: Was a very low order number for a new series—and the smallest sitcom order in TV history —Castle Rock failed to find any other buyers when it shopped the show to other networks, and accepted the order. Seinfeld did not return to the airwaves until May 30, 1990, and it was another three years before it became a Top 5-rated show. Preston Beckman, in charge of NBC's research department at the time, reminisced, "The show

17907-442: Was announced that Brie Larson and Jesse Plemons were signed to co-star as the leads; the film was described as "the story of a woman's trip to a family farm that leads to an unexpected detour leaving her stranded, [and] a twisted mix of palpable tension, psychological frailty and sheer terror ensues." The project began filming in March 2019, with Jessie Buckley having replaced Larson, and Toni Collette and David Thewlis joining

18048-812: Was born in New York City to a Jewish family on November 19, 1958, the son of Helen and Myron Kaufman. He grew up in Massapequa, New York , before moving to West Hartford, Connecticut . In high school, Kaufman was in the drama club, performing in numerous productions before landing the lead role in a production of Play It Again, Sam during his senior year. After high school graduation, Kaufman attended Boston University before transferring to New York University , where he studied film. While attending NYU, Kaufman met Paul Proch, with whom he wrote many unproduced scripts and plays. Between 1983 and 1984, Kaufman and Proch wrote comedic articles and spoofs for National Lampoon . His work included parodies of Kurt Vonnegut and

18189-497: Was bumped off its scheduled premiere of January 16, 1991, due to the outbreak of the Persian Gulf War . It settled into a regular time slot on Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m. and eventually flipped with veteran series Night Court to 9 p.m. TV critics championed Seinfeld in its early seasons, even as it was slow to cultivate a substantial audience. For the first three seasons, Jerry's stand-up comedy act would bookend at

18330-572: Was conceived while Lotte was in Malkovich's mind, meaning that it is Lotte's child, too, and the women cement their love for each other. Craig, believing Maxine is still in danger, leaves Malkovich's mind, allowing Lester and his friends to enter. Discovering that Maxine has discarded him for Lotte, Craig swears to reenter the portal to take back Malkovich's mind. Seven years later, an older Malkovich, now inhabited by multiple people, tells Sheen about Lester and his friends' plan to extend their lives via

18471-461: Was different. Nobody had seen anything like it. It wasn't unusual for poor-testing shows to get on the air, but it was very rare that they became hits." When the program was first repeated on July 5, 1990, it received a rating of 13.9/26. These ratings were high enough to secure a second season. NBC research showed that the show was popular with young male adults, a demographic sought after by advertisers. This gave NBC an incentive to keep broadcasting

18612-512: Was filmed (seen by the crew as a good omen), and was recorded at Ren-Mar Studios in Hollywood . The pilot was first screened to a group of two dozen NBC executives in Burbank, California , in early 1989. It did not yield the explosion of laughter garnered by the pilots for the decade's previous NBC successes like The Cosby Show and The Golden Girls . Brandon Tartikoff was not convinced

18753-563: Was funded by the film's production company, Starburns Industries. Kaufman co-directed the film with Duke Johnson , who had previous experience in stop motion filmmaking, and the original cast of the play production returned to reprise their roles. It had its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival on September 4, 2015, receiving universal acclaim from critics. The film went on to win the Grand Jury Prize at

18894-456: Was hired to pitch and write scripts for film projects that were never produced. These unproduced projects included a script for an adaptation of Philip K. Dick 's novel A Scanner Darkly , a pitch for a star vehicle for Don Rickles and Rodney Dangerfield in which they would play a washed-up, murderous comedy duo (an idea Kaufman used in Antkind ), and a pitch for a R-rated version of

19035-445: Was moved from its original 9:00 p.m. time slot on Wednesdays to 9:30 p.m. on Thursdays, following Cheers again, which gave the show even more popularity. Ratings also sparked the move, as Tim Allen 's sitcom Home Improvement on ABC had aired at the same time, and Home Improvement kept beating Seinfeld in the ratings. NBC moved the series after Ted Danson announced the end of Cheers and Seinfeld quickly surpassed

19176-652: Was not hired by any of them. He continued to work on other comedic series: Fox's sketch comedy show The Edge , The Trouble with Larry and Ned and Stacey , the last of which he also produced. The most notable series he worked on in this period was The Dana Carvey Show , which featured writers and performers such as Louis C.K. , Robert Smigel , Greg Daniels , Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell . On all these series, Kaufman struggled to keep his material from being adulterated or not produced at all, because of his unconventional writing and his quiet nature. Kaufman also wrote some pilot scripts of his own, but none of them

19317-403: Was produced. These included two pilots for Disney , Depressed Roomies and Rambling Pants (the former a surrealist take on the "buddy sitcom" and the latter focused on the adventures of a time-travelling poet named Pants) and a pilot for HBO , In Limbo , a naturalistic look at a romantic relationship devoid of the usual tropes of romantic films . Before Being John Malkovich was released, he

19458-474: Was slated to write and direct a film with the working title Frank or Francis . Few details have been confirmed about the plot, except that it is a musical comedy about internet anger culture and was set to star Jack Black , Nicolas Cage, Steve Carell, Kevin Kline , Catherine Keener, Paul Reubens , Jacki Weaver and Elizabeth Banks . In July 2012, Black said that funding for the project had fallen through, as

19599-404: Was subsequently nominated for an Oscar. Kaufman said that there was never another actor in Malkovich's place in the script: "The screenplay was always "Being John Malkovich", even before I had any expectation that John Malkovich would even read the script." He chose Malkovich because he believed there to be "an enigmatic quality about him that works", though Malkovich was partly chosen because of

19740-453: Was the first episode since the finale of season 7, " The Invitations ", to feature opening and closing stand-up comedy acts by Seinfeld. The finale was filmed before an audience of NBC executives and friends of the show. The press and public were shut out of the taping to keep its plot secret; those who attended the shoot of the final episode were required to sign written "vows of silence". The secrecy only seemed to increase speculation about how

19881-497: Was the focus of a series of advertisements for Vodafone , which ran in Australia , where he dressed and acted precisely like Kramer, including the trademark bumbling pratfalls. In addition, the show occasionally incorporated fictional products like a Scotch brand called "Hennigan's" (a blend of " Hennessy " and " Brannigans ") and a canned meat product called "Beef-a-reeno" (a parody of " Beef-a-roni "). A signature of Seinfeld

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