Seinfeld created The Seinfeld Chronicles with Larry David in 1989 for NBC. The show was later renamed Seinfeld and, by its fourth season, became the most popular and successful sitcom on American television. The show left the air in 1998. The show also starred Saturday Night Live veteran Julia Louis-Dreyfus, as well as experienced actors Michael Richards and Jason Alexander. On the show, Seinfeld played a caricature of himself. He has said that his show was inspired by the 1950s sitcom The Abbott and Costello Show. About his influences, Seinfeld said, “He really formed my entire comedic sensibility—I learned how to do comedy from Jean Shepherd.” In 1998, Seinfeld went on tour and recorded a comedy special entitled I’m Telling You for the Last Time. An album of the same name was also released that year and it featured samples of his stand-up performance. After his sitcom went off the air, Seinfeld returned to stand-up comedy. The process of developing and performing new material at clubs around the world was chronicled in a 2002 documentary, Comedian, directed by Christian Charles. His stand-up routine is highly acclaimed and Jerry was ranked #12 in Comedy Central’s list of the 100 Greatest Stand-ups of All Time. Jerry Seinfeld has written a few books, mostly archives of past routines. Seinfeld also appeared in two commercial ‘webisodes’ promoting American Express Credit Cards, entitled “The Adventures of Seinfeld and Superman,” in which he appeared together with an animated rendering of Superman (who was referenced in numerous episodes of Seinfeld as Jerry’s hero), voiced by Patrick Warburton (who had portrayed David Puddy on Seinfeld). The webisodes were aired in 2004 and directed by Barry Levinson. Seinfeld is, in fact, a true Superman fan in real life. Apple Computer in the late 1990s came up with an advertising slogan called “Think different” and produced a 60-second commercial to promote the slogan which showed people who were able to “think differently”, like Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and many others. This commercial was later cut short to 30 seconds and ended up paying tribute to Jerry Seinfeld. This commercial aired only once, during the series finale of Seinfeld. Seinfeld had a special appearance on the May 13, 2006 Saturday Night Live episode as Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s assassin. Louis-Dreyfus was the host of that episode and in her opening monologue she mentioned the “Seinfeld Curse”. While talking about how ridiculous the “curse” was, a stage light suddenly fell next to her. The camera moved to a catwalk above the stage that Jerry Seinfeld was standing on, holding a large pair of bolt cutters. He angrily muttered something about the curse (apparently angry that Louis-Dreyfus is not cursed). Louis-Dreyfus then continued to say that she is indeed not cursed. Seinfeld’s look here was different from that on his sitcom; he sported short hair and a pair of glasses. He also co-wrote, co-produced and starred in the DreamWorks animated feature film Bee Movie, released in November, 2007. |
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