Below, EW is excited to premiere an excerpt fromSeinfeldia: How A Show About Nothing Changed Everything.
The mundane tasks of life and comic gold often merged into one for them.
Sure enough, they soon were making fun of the products they found among the fluorescent-lit aisles.
Credit: ILLUSTRATION by JOE CIARDIELLO for EW
Korean jelly, for instance: Why, exactly, did it have to come in a jelly form?
Was there also, perhaps, a foam or a spray?
The strange foods on the steam table: Who ate those?
This is the kind of discussion you dont see on TV, David said.
Some executive had brought him in for a meeting and everything.
Seinfeld didnt have any ideas for television.
He just wanted to be himself and do his comedy.
He felt David might be a good brainstorming partner.
Both seized on observational humor for their acts.
From then on, they couldnt stop talking.
They loved to fixate on tiny life annoyances, in their conversations and their comedy.
Soon they started helping each other with their acts and became friendly outside of work.
David, nearly broke, had given Leifer some jokes as a birthday gift.
As a result, it made sense for Seinfeld to approach David with this TV problem he now had.
Seinfeld was smart to consult David on this TV thing.
David did have a vision, if not a particularly grand one.
This, David said as they bantered in Lees Market, is what the show should be.
Jerry could play himself in that, for sure.
As they brainstormed, Seinfeld had one cup of coffee, then two.
He usually didnt drink coffee at all.
They were on to something.
From SEINFELDIA: How a Show About Nothing Changed Everything by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong.
Copyright 2016 by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong.
