Acquired
01:48:01 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[01:48:01] S0: Not great and doesn't feel to me like the future of the network. I mean, the 17%, if you're thinking, oh, 17% versus 28%, they're like a close second or something like that. They got so much of it for free. Yeah. It's like, if you're gonna turn on your TV, there's four options, more or less, that people are actually watching in this time slot. So it should be very competitive. [01:48:22] S1: Yep. Larry and Jerry, though, and especially Larry, they don't care. Like, they're not making the show for the ratings. So this season, season four, they just go on like a... An all timer. So they start with... I I think the first season long meta arc ends up becoming a show long meta arc where they have NBC, a fictional NBC, ask Jerry in to pitch a TV show Called Jerry. Called Jerry. [01:48:55] S0: They went with his other name. Yeah. His other called Seinfeld. [01:48:58] S1: And he and George come up with the idea of a show about nothing to pitch it to NBC. That's the first episode of season four. That then continues off and on throughout the whole season. [01:49:08] S0: And the off and on is important because each of these episodes still can stand on its own. You don't have to be invested in the story, the multi episode season long arc in order to get it. [01:49:20] S1: Yep. Episode seven of season four is the Bubble Boy, another classic. [01:49:26] S0: I'm not sure you could make that now. Like, if that was actually a news story right now, making fun of the Bubble Boy that everyone is writing articles about is completely off limits.
01:49:26 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[01:49:26] S0: I'm not sure you could make that now. Like, if that was actually a news story right now, making fun of the Bubble Boy that everyone is writing articles about is completely off limits. [01:49:38] S1: Well, speaking of completely off limits, that brings us to the critical midpoint of the season where everything changes. Episode 11. [01:49:51] S0: Isn't the outing also in season four? [01:49:53] S1: Yes. But later after episode 11. [01:49:55] S0: Ah, I see. [01:49:56] S1: Also so good. [01:49:57] S0: Not that there's anything wrong with that. [01:49:58] S1: Not as good as episode 11. Not that there's anything wrong with the outing, but but it's not as good as episode 11. The contest. So... Oh, man. We've alluded to this. But for anybody listening who hasn't seen or heard of this episode, this is the master of your domain episode with the four characters making a bet to see who can go the longest. [01:50:25] S0: The episode opens. George walks into a diner, and the opening line that he gives Jerry, Elaine, and Kramer in the booth is, my mother caught me. [01:50:39] S1: I can't even keep it together just talking about the episode. [01:50:42] S0: They don't need to do much from there. They go the entire episode without saying what they are having a contest to try not to do. There's just this giant, unstated elephant. You know exactly what the elephant is the entire episode, and yet it's perfect. It doesn't break any rules, but they break all this new comedic ground.
01:50:42 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[01:50:42] S0: They don't need to do much from there. They go the entire episode without saying what they are having a contest to try not to do. There's just this giant, unstated elephant. You know exactly what the elephant is the entire episode, and yet it's perfect. It doesn't break any rules, but they break all this new comedic ground. [01:51:07] S1: So apparently, like all or almost all great Seinfeld episodes, this actually also happened to Larry in real life. Course, it did. And Larry... Even Larry was scared of this episode. He would been thinking, no, we can't do it. It's it's too much. But finally here by season four, they've got enough confidence and enough, you know, just no fear attitude. Larry's talking to Jerry and says the idea. And Jerry says, that's funny. Let's do it. So they write the episode, the two of them, in secret. Usually, what they would do in their office on the on the set, the Larry and Jerry's office that they shared together, They had a a whiteboard. So if you watch the Seinfeld reunion on Curb Your Enthusiasm, it's in the office. You can see the whiteboard. And on the whiteboard, they have all the plot points for all the characters and the candidates, etcetera, etcetera. So anybody could come in their office, the other writers, the NBC executives, they'd see what's on the whiteboard. They didn't put this one on. They just wrote it in secret. I don't know if they put decoys. That would be even better. [01:52:18] S0: Word did get out though.
01:52:18 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[01:52:18] S0: Word did get out though. [01:52:19] S1: Well, so the story continues. So they have it in secret all throughout the writing process, and then it gets to the table read. So the way the week would work was the cast would do a table read of the script first, and then do some rehearsals, and then they would shoot the episode. This is pretty close to filming. Like, you're well into production week at this point. They bring out the script, and NBC is just like, oh my god. [01:52:48] S0: We're gonna talk about the full schedule, the weekly schedule of making a Seinfeld episode in a few minutes. But know this. When you're at the table read, you are six days from shooting the episode for real in front of a live audience in studio.
01:52:48 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[01:52:48] S0: We're gonna talk about the full schedule, the weekly schedule of making a Seinfeld episode in a few minutes. But know this. When you're at the table read, you are six days from shooting the episode for real in front of a live audience in studio. [01:53:02] S1: Yep. You're pretty close to the point of no return or as close as Larry and Jerry could engineer getting Yes. Before revealing what they were doing. So the broadcast standards department at NBC, which is the in house sensor that is responsible for keeping all of NBC's programming up to broadcast standards, rules. They, of course, hear about this right away. They're just losing their minds. And the woman who runs this department, her name is doctor Roz Weinman in New York. She calls up Warren and is just apoplectic. And Warren's like, well, it is Seinfeld. It's the guys. They don't say the word. It's funny. And somehow, I don't know if she was a fan of the show, and she got it. She said, well, alright. We're gonna keep a close eye on this. Like, we could pull the plug at any time, But in this case, with this show, it might be enough that this show has a pact with its audience that we can get away with this. This is unbelievable.
01:53:02 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[01:53:02] S1: Yep. You're pretty close to the point of no return or as close as Larry and Jerry could engineer getting Yes. Before revealing what they were doing. So the broadcast standards department at NBC, which is the in house sensor that is responsible for keeping all of NBC's programming up to broadcast standards, rules. They, of course, hear about this right away. They're just losing their minds. And the woman who runs this department, her name is doctor Roz Weinman in New York. She calls up Warren and is just apoplectic. And Warren's like, well, it is Seinfeld. It's the guys. They don't say the word. It's funny. And somehow, I don't know if she was a fan of the show, and she got it. She said, well, alright. We're gonna keep a close eye on this. Like, we could pull the plug at any time, But in this case, with this show, it might be enough that this show has a pact with its audience that we can get away with this. This is unbelievable. [01:54:05] S0: Because broadcast standards really has two jobs. One is, are we literally going to fall afoul of any FCC regulations where we will get in trouble as a network? Two is, is there gonna be any blowback on our network where it hurts our brand? Yep. People don't like us anymore. Advertisers run, things like that. And if you're not running afoul of one because no words are coming out of your mouth, then it's really just about [01:54:32] S1: The question is only number two. Yeah. [01:54:33] S0: Right. Do we think the audience will love or hate this? [01:54:36] S1: Yep.