The video explores the rise of Jerry Seinfeld from a moderately successful stand-up comic to a television phenomenon with "Seinfeld," the top-rated comedy series. It highlights how his show, which earned substantial financial success, became a cultural mainstay and exceeded initial expectations, with Jerry Seinfeld's unique involvement as a creator and actor contributing to its success.

The show is recognized for its distinctive structure and character dynamics, with supporting actors often outshining Seinfeld’s character. Behind the scenes, Jerry maintains a close relationship with the show's team, including co-creators and writers, ensuring the program’s signature humor. The content dives into how "Seinfeld" navigates controversial topics with humor and wit, pushing narrative boundaries while maintaining viewer engagement.

Main takeaways from the video:

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Key Vocabularies and Common Phrases:

1. offbeat [ˌɔfˈbiːt] - (adjective) - Unconventional or unusual. - Synonyms: (unorthodox, quirky, strange)

When NBC began talking to Jerry Seinfeld about doing an offbeat television series he was a moderately successful stand up comic and no one's expectations were very high.

2. hopeless neurotics [ˈhoʊpləs nʊˈrɑːtɪks] - (noun phrase) - Individuals with persistent emotional distress or anxiety disorders that are hard to manage. - Synonyms: (anxious individuals, compulsive behavior, unstable personalities)

In the show, he plays a self effacing straight man in the midst of hopeless neurotics.

3. eager [ˈiːɡər] - (adjective) - Strongly wanting to do or have something. - Synonyms: (keen, enthusiastic, willing)

No segment of the audience was eager to watch the show again.

4. necessity [nəˈsɛsɪti] - (noun) - The fact of being required or indispensable. - Synonyms: (requirement, essential, need)

He lives here in LA most of the year. Out of necessity, not choice.

5. egotistical [ˌiːɡoʊˈtɪstɪkəl] - (adjective) - Excessively conceited or absorbed in oneself. - Synonyms: (self-centered, narcissistic, selfish)

They're shallow. They're shallow. Self indulgent, greedy, greedy, mean, mean, treacherous.

6. masturbation [ˌmæs.tərˈbeɪ.ʃən] - (noun) - The sexual stimulation of one's own genitals for sexual arousal or other sexual pleasure. - Synonyms: (self-gratification, self-pleasuring)

You've done episodes on masturbation and oral sex and you've been able to disguise all of it.

7. neurotic [n(y)o͝orädik] - (adjective) - Relating to, involving, or inclined to neuroticism or a neurosis. - Synonyms: (anxious, obsessive, unstable)

The neurotic model for the George Costanza character.

8. self-effacing [ˌsɛlf ɪˈfeɪsɪŋ] - (adjective) - Not claiming attention for oneself; retiring and modest. - Synonyms: (modest, unassuming, humble)

In the show, he plays a self effacing straight man in the midst of hopeless neurotics.

9. comedian [kəˈmiːdiən] - (noun) - A person who entertains by making others laugh. - Synonyms: (comic, humorist, joker)

I always wanted to be a comedian.

10. shallow [ˈʃalō] - (adjective) - Lacking depth of intellect or knowledge; superficial. - Synonyms: (superficial, hollow, trivial)

There's nothing likable about these characters. No, they're shallow. They're shallow. Self indulgent, greedy, greedy, mean, mean, treacherous.

Seinfeld - 60 Minutes Archive

When NBC began talking to Jerry Seinfeld about doing an offbeat television series he was a moderately successful stand-up comic and no one's expectations were very high. Today, eight years and 151 episodes later his show is the top rated and most imitated comedy on television. A 32nd commercial on the show sells for more than a half a million dollars. Just a few weeks ago, Jerry Seinfeld and his three co-stars told NBC they'd love to do a 9th season if the price was right. According to Variety, a million dollars apiece per episode. And with its entire Thursday night schedule hanging in the balance everyone expects NBC to reach for its checkbook.

Only a handful of people have been as involved in a show or have gotten as rich from a show as Jerry Seinfeld has from this one. Nothing escapes his attention. He's either writing a scene, watching a scene or acting in a scene. You get a check as a writer, you get a check as an actor, you get a check as a creator, you get a check as an executive producer, and you get checks every time one of these episodes is shown anywhere in the world.

In the show, he plays a self-effacing straight man in the midst of hopeless neurotics. And in real life, he is a non-actor surrounded by one of the most talented casts ever to grace a sitcom. Jason Alexander, Julia Louis Dreyfus, and Michael Richards are all good enough to have their own series. And now, thanks in part to Jerry Seinfeld, they're about to be paid like they do. They will tell you in no uncertain terms that Jerry Seinfeld's character is the least interesting on the show.

The real Jerry Seinfeld is very much like the television character. At least before he got the sitcom. Even his mother calls him mister perfection. He grew up in Massapequa, Long island. His father ran a sign company. And on the day he graduated from Queens College he took the subway to his first stand-up gig. It is still his first love, although he performs now only on rare occasions. Last July, we went with him to Atlanta. Millions had come to see the Olympics. But the hottest ticket in town carried you through the metal detectors at the Fox Theater to watch Jerry Seinfeld perform his best event yet.

Backstage before the show, he seemed very much the wallflower at his own party. What would you be doing if we weren't here? Just waiting. One of the things you must master, waiting as a comedian, you must be able to just wait comfortably. They say the show's gonna be delayed a half hour. You just go, fine. The plane's gonna be delayed 2 hours, fine. Career's gonna be delayed five years. Fine. You gotta be able to wait. Are you nervous now? Very, very nervous. Cause you're here and you're throwing me off. Would you normally. Are you nervous before you go out there?

He's a very smart guy because he's a very smart guy because he's probably, and he keeps his privacy and it's separate. It's mature, and I think that's why he's a stable person. So my guess is you're not going to get to see the really private part of him. What we saw of Seinfeld's private life is the part that's already very public. His long-time relationship with Shoshana Landstein, a UCLA student half his age. A nice relationship going on. We're happy. We have a good time. I think maybe it's because I'm so immature and she's so mature that we meet in the middle.

Are you gonna get married? Yes. To Shoshana? I hope. I don't know. Have you asked her? No.

He is not just a comedian right now, he is the comedian. Aside from waiting tables at a brew burger in New York and selling cheap jewelry and umbrellas outside Bloomingdale's this is the only job he's ever had. Making observations about life's little mysteries like seedless watermelons. They've been working on this for 20 years. Scientists devoting their lives. Other scientists working on AIDS, cancer, heart disease. These guys are going, no, I feel melon is my area. Yes, I know that thousands of people are dying needlessly. But this, that's got to stop. How you doing, Jerry? At 42, he is at the top of the world. And no one seems more surprised.

I never thought I'd see it. You know, when you. I'd been doing comedy 15 years, 16 years. I wasn't going anywhere. You know, this is it. I got 45 minutes of observations about plains and cough syrup and that's it. I get away with that. I make a living. And I thought, even if I ever did manage to get on tv. I'm not the kind of guy people get excited about, you know, I just do a nice. I'm like a good carpenter, you know, I do nice detail work. You know, to me, Robin Williams, that's a star, you know, I just didn't think of myself as that kind of guy. And I'm not that kind of guy.

NBC didn't think he was that kind of guy either. They initially signed him because they were afraid some other network might hire him as a late-night competitor for the Tonight show. They let him try a sitcom just to keep him busy. And preview audiences hated it. The research report hangs on the wall of his home in Los Angeles. This is the audience test on the pilot back in 1989. Pilot performance week. No segment of the audience was eager to watch the show again. Here's another great line. Viewers felt that Jerry needed a better backup ensemble. Can you imagine a better backup ensemble in the world than those three people?

In the end, NBC stuck its neck out and ordered four episodes which is the smallest number of episodes ever ordered by a network. Four. I mean, six is a slap in the face. Four is like, don't quit your day job. Yeah.

He lives here in LA most of the year. Out of necessity, not choice, he gave us a tour of his two-bedroom home on one of his rare days off pining all the while for his native New York. So you don't consider this home at all? No. No. It's a giant hotel room. I'm on the road. I've been on the road here for 16 years, Robert. The house itself gives away nothing. He calls it a waste of money. Furnished by a decorator. It speaks to the owner's lack of interest or lack of time. The couches look like they've never been dented.

It's more antiseptic than homey. Do you clean this yourself or do you have a crew from the hospital come in every day in school? I clean it. I spend half the day cleaning it. Really? Yeah. And the other half doing the show.

You can make microchips in here. Hey, it's Jerry. Hey. Hey, Jerry. Hey, how you doing?

Seinfeld seems most at home here in his backlot office working with his show's writers an elite mix of young television veterans who have worked at places like Letterman, Conan O'Brien and Saturday Night Live. Do you feel pressure to put out a good product? I mean, this is probably the best written show on television. Probably. Probably. They look as if they could be characters on their own show.

Seinfeld says his writers are the next generation of tv executives and many have already left to develop or run shows of their own. It's just bad things happening to selfish people. It's the easiest way to describe it. You know, they always preach this thing of likability on tv. You've got to be likable. There's nothing likable about these characters. No, they're shallow. They're shallow. Self-indulgent, greedy, mean, treacherous. They will plot and plan against each other, close friends, for some short-term gain. They're despicable. Why do people like them? They're funny.

The show's mean streak comes in large part from this man, its co-creator, Larry David. The neurotic model for the George Costanza character. He began to whine about his bald spot and our camera angle even before the interview began. The high overhead thing, I don't like it.

Until this last season, he was Jerry Seinfeld's partner and collaborator. Then, burned out and anxious to try something new he quit, leaving Seinfeld on his own. Larry David has his own theory on why the audience loves some of the unprincipled characters he helped create. It's the actors because they're great actors and they can pull it off. This material in the hands of other actors, the show would be a disaster.

That material has included hilarious half hours on unspeakable subjects that have worked because they've never been mentioned by name. What's the matter? My mother caught me. Caught you doing what? You know, I was alone. You've done episodes on masturbation and oral sex and you've been able to disguise all of it. Is family entertainment. What a scam. How do you do it?

How do we do it? We're very good with language. I think it's funny to be delicate with something that is explosive. The challenge of handling kind of like driving the nitro truck of material down a dirt road became the game for us.

Do you guys live together? I knew you looked familiar. Take the Audi. An episode on homosexuality. Because Jerry is thin, single and neat a reporter assumes that he and George are more than just good friends.

Now everyone's gonna think we're gay. Not that there's anything wrong with that. And I said, that's the line that's gonna enable us to do this show. Not that there's anything wrong with it. If we say that every time, it'll be. We'll be able to say something about political correctness and cover ourselves on the other side, too.

So some of it is like figuring out the right way to take on some of these. Yeah, that's fun. That's part of the game. It's like playing by the rules. That's what makes a game fun, is the rules. Without the rules, it's not fun.

One of the rules that Seinfeld breaks is the one that says, the star gets all the good lines. And the Seinfeld cast, Michael Richards, Julia Louis Dreyfus, and Jason Alexander have been the beneficiaries of Seinfeld's generosity.

I think one of the most amazing things he did from the beginning of the show is unlike a lot of comics who come into a series, he was not hell bent on making it a vehicle for himself. You can see some people think, I don't see him think or I see him. It's almost like there's a machine going on back there. You can kind of telling it's working, but it doesn't reveal anything about it.

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