"Holy cow!" - George's talking Phil Rizutto keychain
Seinfeld: Season 8 DVD Review
By Jonathan Boudreaux
I'm going to go out on a limb here and proclaim that Seinfeld: Season 8 is the series' funniest. When co-creator Larry David left the series at the end of the seventh season, Seinfeld could have taken a turn for the worse. Instead, the cast and crew rallied, creating twenty-two nearly flawless episodes that introduced the world to "man hands," "yada, yada, yada," and "jimmy legs."
Just in case you've been trapped in a Karl Farbman chest-of-drawers for the past few decades, Seinfeld follows the exploits of comedian Jerry Seinfeld (played-you guessed it!-by comedian Jerry Seinfeld) and his self-absorbed pals. As the eighth season opens, Jerry reveals that his brief engagement to Jeannie Steinman (Janeane Garofalo, The Larry Sanders Show) ended when they simultaneously realized they hated each other. Now Jerry is free to date other women...and to dump them because they have "man hands" ("The Bizarro Jerry") or have inadequate mentors ("The Fatigues"). George Costanza (Jason Alexander) is also celebrating his own newfound freedom after his own reviled fiancée died from licking the poisonous envelopes included with the cheapo wedding invitations George chose. As fate would have it, the deceased Susan was actually a millionaire, and George is stuck serving on the board of a foundation started in her name in order to give away all of her money to worthy causes ("The Foundation"). Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) finds herself running the J. Peterman catalogue when Peterman (John Hurley) decides to run off to Burma. Her main contributions including putting the ridiculous Urban Sombrero on the catalog's cover ("The Foundation"), alienating the rest of the company by promoting a scary war vet who she is afraid to fire ("The Fatigues"), and running up her expense account ("The Chicken Roaster"). Kramer (Michael Richards) starts another nuisance lawsuit-this time against the tobacco industry after the smokers' lounge he opens in his apartment leaves him looking dried-up and ugly ("The Abstinence").
In this set's bevy of extras, Jerry Seinfeld admits that he is amused by the "inexplicable malevolence" of the minor characters the friends meet in season eight-like the garbage dumps that refuse to accept bags of muffin stumps because the tops are missing ("The Muffin Tops"). There's no logical reason why perfect strangers would act this way, but it is extremely funny. It's even funnier because the self-absorbed friends are just as shameless. George remains unmoved by Susan's death, but regrets that he missed out on the chance to be filthy rich and own a fancy townhouse ("The Foundation"). Suspicious that the board of the foundation thinks he killed Susan, he hides a tape recorder in his briefcase to hear what they talk about when he is out of the room ("The Soul Mate"). He pretends that a photo of a model is actually of his dead fiancée so that he can get sympathy dates with hot women ("The Bizarro Jerry"). George also competes with an elderly survivor of the Andrea Doria disaster for an apartment ("The Andrea Doria") and dates a prisoner because then he can control when he has to see her ("The Little Jerry"). Elaine goes to great lengths to prove that she is not a difficult patient, but tales of her bad behavior spreads to every doctor-and veterinarian-in the city ("The Package"). She has Kramer help her attempt to sabotage a store when a clerk there is rude to her ("The Millennium"). She also worries that she is "like a walking candy apple" when a boyfriend accuses her of having a "giant freak head" ("The Andrea Doria"). Kramer dominates his karate class...mostly because it's a class for kids ("The Foundation"). Jerry competes with his new girlfriend's step mother for top placement on her speed-dial ("The Millennium"). Yes, the gang is petty, vain, and obnoxious...not to mention funny.
Every episode in season eight is a winner, but some stand out more than others. The spotlight is on Elaine's spastic dancing-described by George as a "full body dry heave set to music"-in "The Little Kicks." Louis-Dreyfus is sheer perfection in this unselfconsciously goofy bit of physical comedy, proving herself to be on par with Lucille Ball. In "The Chicken Roaster," the opening of a Kenny Rogers Roasters across the street from Kramer's apartment leads to total chaos when its giant neon chicken bathes his home in red light. This is a funny concept made even funnier by the fact that it involves Kenny Rogers Roasters as opposed to a generic restaurant. (FYI, the restaurant chain currently has only one outpost in the United States.) In "The Susie," a co-worker mistakenly calls Elaine "Susie" and begins criticizing Elaine to "Susie." Elaine can't bring herself to correct the woman and goes to great lengths to hide her identity. George takes slacking off to new lows when he builds a cubbyhole under his desk so that he can get more rest in "The Nap." In "The Yada Yada," George dates a woman who tends to skip over large chunks of conversational narratives by using the words "yada, yada, yada." Jerry observes that "she's very succinct-it's like dating USA Today," but George becomes concerned about what she's leaving out. In the same episode, Jerry is accused of being an "anti-dentite" when he objects to his dentist converting to Judaism "for the jokes."
My favorite episode of the season-and possibly of the entire series-is "The Pothole." Elaine becomes obsessed with ordering a special flounder dish from a neighborhood Chinese restaurant. There's only one problem-they won't deliver to her apartment. China Panda doesn't deliver below 86th Street, and she lives on the south side of 86th. As the joint's owner points out, "If we deliver to you, then what? 85th Street? Wall Street? Mexico? 84th Street?" More determined than ever to get the flounder, she commandeers the janitor's closet in a building across the street and orders from there.
Jerry: You're pretending to live in a janitor's closet just to get this flounder?
Elaine: It's better than eating it alone in the restaurant like some loser.
Meanwhile, George tries to retrieve his keys (and his talking Phil Rizzuto head keychain) from the bottom of a freshly repaired pothole, Kramer adopts a stretch of highway and implements a "wide lane" policy, and Jerry "finds fault on a subatomic level" when he knocks his girlfriend's toothbrush into the toilet and she uses it before he gets a chance to warn her. This episode is especially strong because each of the subplots is equally funny and they all manage to intersect in the end.
The season ends with "The Summer of George," a riff on the season seven closer. Fired from his job with the Yankees, George decides to use his severance package to take the summer off. Elaine crosses paths with an annoying coworker (expertly played by Molly Shannon, Saturday Night Live) who doesn't swing her arms when she walks. Kramer wins a Tony...sort of...and is recruited to fire Broadway diva Raquel Welch because she doesn't move her arms when she dances in a musical based on the Scarsdale Diet murder. The episode ends with the gang back at the hospital, but this time it is George who has been sidelined by a malevolent set of invitations. Again, the subplots neatly mesh, and entire season comes full-circle.
So yes, I say that Seinfeld: Season 8 is the series' funniest season. And that's a position I'll always maintain. At least until Season 9 is released on DVD this fall.
Familiar faces that help make Season 8 so stellar include Grace Zabriskie (Twin Peaks), Warren Frost (Twin Peaks), Bruce Davison (Kingdom Hospital), Richard Herd (T.J. Hooker), A.J. Langer (My So-Called Life), Phil Morris (Mission: Impossible 1988), Debra Jo Rupp (That '70s Show), Brenda Strong (Desperate Housewives), Bob Odenkirk (Mr. Show with Bob and David), Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, David Letterman, Kyle Gass (Tenacious D), John Michael Higgins (Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law), Kathryn Joosten (Desperate Housewives), Sarah Silverman (Greg the Bunny), Ben Stein (Win Ben Stein's Money), Christine Taylor (The Brady Bunch Movie), Kristin Davis (Sex in the City), Jack McGee (Rescue Me), Lloyd Bridges (Sea Hunt), Chelsea Noble (Growing Pains), Bryan Cranston (Malcolm in the Middle), Robert Wagner (Hart to Hart), Jill St. John (Emerald Point N.A.S.), Debra Messing (Will & Grace), Stephen Caffrey (Tour of Duty), Lauren Graham (Gilmore Girls), Jack Riley (The Bob Newhart Show), Amanda Peet (Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip), and Neil Flynn (Scrubs).
The twenty-two episodes that make up Seinfeld's eighth season are divided onto four discs. The clean, elegant design of this set will be familiar to owners of the previous Seinfeld releases. The discs are housed in slim, clear keepcases. The front covers each feature a different publicity photo of one of the show's stars. The back covers include episode numbers, episode titles, and plot synopses. The double-sided coversheets show through to the insides of the cases and feature a photo of George's pothole. Each DVD is imprinted with a publicity shot of the same star depicted on its case. The four keepcases slide into two cardboard sleeves, both of which feature the same publicity photo of the cast members. A booklet listing the basic production credits for each episode is also included.
The menus are visually and navigationally similar to those in the previous releases.
