'Seinfeld' cast returns to TV with Thursday special

NEW YORK -- History has it that "Seinfeld" ended in 1998. Yet it thrives in reruns airing twice a day in syndication in some cities, and as many as four times a day on cable's TBS.

Even so, a dual-pronged retrospective of this series that has never gone away is rolling out this week -- not that there's anything wrong with that.

NBC will air "The 'Seinfeld' Story" at 9 p.m. Thursday, comprising clips and interviews with Jerry Seinfeld and fellow cast members, as well as co-creator and executive producer Larry David.

More than a look back, the show is also serving as a come-on for the DVD package "Seinfeld: The First Three Seasons," which, available Tuesday, is expected to become the best-selling TV series compilation ever.

Volume 1 contains the 18 episodes of the first and second seasons, as "Seinfeld" felt its way from what initially was planned as a 90-minute late-night special, then emerged as a 30-minute pilot that aired in July 1989, followed by just four more episodes a year later, then by 13 more, resuming in January 1991. Volume 2 contains the 22 episodes from 1991 and 1992 (season three).

And if you're willing to spring for the combined box set ($119.95), you get bonus keepsakes like salt and pepper shakers from Monk's Diner, and a copy of a script with notes by Larry David.

In David's conception (as "How It Began" will remind you), the idea underlying "Seinfeld" was "to make fun of stuff."

But it was stuff no sitcom had ever made fun of before: countless quotidian issues so microscopically irrelevant as to be invisible anywhere else.

"Seinfeld," of course, is about Jerry Seinfeld, a standup comic (played by standup comic Jerry Seinfeld), along with neurotic George (played by Jason Alexander), bizarre Kramer (Michael Richards), and Jerry's adorable though high-strung ex-girlfriend, Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus).

More co-dependents than pals, they all live in Manhattan, where they spin their wheels stuck in existential potholes.

Elaine: "What are you doing?"

Jerry: "I'm taking this shoelace out. It came undone and touched the floor of the men's room. That's the end of it."

Linked by their rigorous probing of the near-meaningless, Jerry and his chums remain smugly separated from everyone else, connecting with each other through their private, impromptu code: terms like master of your domain, Soup Nazi, nip, pick and (don't forget) puffy shirt.

Despite the love -- and a surely astronomic upgrade of his salary, already a reported $1 million per show -- Seinfeld chose to wrap the series six years ago after 180 episodes, 10 Emmys, a Peabody, huge ratings and an untold grip on the American psyche. His decision broke the hearts of viewers and, even more so, NBC management.

Airing May 14, 1998, the 75-minute "Seinfeld" conclusion found Jerry, George, Kramer and Elaine declining to help stop a carjacking. Typically self-absorbed, the foursome made jokes and videotaped the heist instead. They were arrested and found guilty of indifference, then sentenced to a year in a shared jail cell. Fade out.

Some 76 million viewers saw the finale. Overall for that last season, "Seinfeld" was the top-rated show.

"I don't think we'd be here today with this kind of excitement," Jerry Seinfeld effused to his Rainbow Room crowd, "if we hadn't ended with the kind of excitement that we had in May of '98."

Or, in the all-purpose shorthand that lives on with his show: Yada, yada, yada.

------

On the Net:

http://www.nbc.com

http://www.sonypictures.com

------

EDITOR'S NOTE -- Frazier Moore can be reached at fmoore(at)ap.org