Acquired
01:08:45 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[01:08:45] S1: Yes. Viewers didn't really like the cast of supporting characters. They thought the scenes of Jerry and his friends just hanging around were boring. Not good. [01:08:53] S0: Yeah. But in 1989, they weren't wrong. I mean, there wasn't really anything to come back for yet. The show that people couldn't stop watching that it would eventually become was really built out over those nine seasons of shared history. So all the things you know, Vandelet Industries, Festivus Yes. Every single time that Newman walks in and goes, hello, Jerry, All of it gets so much funnier the more you see. [01:09:19] S1: Yep. And then Tropic just did the same thing with Claude. For most people, every conversation with an LLM has been like the Seinfeld pilot. You explain what you're working on, how you like things done, and the next time you sit down, it has no idea who you are again. Now their new memory functionality carries across chat and co work, So all of that accumulates no matter where you're working in Claude. And for teams in Slack, Claude Tag does this for your whole team. One Claude in the channel that's read every thread, knows the standing instructions, and can notice things nobody asked it about.
01:09:19 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[01:09:19] S1: Yep. And then Tropic just did the same thing with Claude. For most people, every conversation with an LLM has been like the Seinfeld pilot. You explain what you're working on, how you like things done, and the next time you sit down, it has no idea who you are again. Now their new memory functionality carries across chat and co work, So all of that accumulates no matter where you're working in Claude. And for teams in Slack, Claude Tag does this for your whole team. One Claude in the channel that's read every thread, knows the standing instructions, and can notice things nobody asked it about. [01:09:54] S0: So the value basically just keeps building the more you use it. A conversation with Claude isn't disposable anymore. It carries into the next one. And so if you wanna learn more about how Claude can help transform your chats into tangible, memorable work, check out Claude dot a I slash acquired. And if you are inquiring about enterprise usage, just tell them that Ben and David sent you. So adding Elaine. Yes. Arguably makes the show. Mean I Yes. When you watch the pilot, you're like, oh, yeah. There is a giant ingredient missing. And it's not just because the couch is weird and Jerry's apartment's weird and, like, there's an Elaine shaped hole in the show.
01:09:54 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[01:09:54] S0: So the value basically just keeps building the more you use it. A conversation with Claude isn't disposable anymore. It carries into the next one. And so if you wanna learn more about how Claude can help transform your chats into tangible, memorable work, check out Claude dot a I slash acquired. And if you are inquiring about enterprise usage, just tell them that Ben and David sent you. So adding Elaine. Yes. Arguably makes the show. Mean I Yes. When you watch the pilot, you're like, oh, yeah. There is a giant ingredient missing. And it's not just because the couch is weird and Jerry's apartment's weird and, like, there's an Elaine shaped hole in the show. [01:10:32] S1: Totally. Elaine makes the show. And it's not just NBC's note of you need a girl. It's so much more than that. I mean, yes, adding a female character gives Seinfeld a lot more appeal to more demographics than the pilot did. But the character of Elaine is also this incredible act of subversion to the network. Because by you need a girl in it, NBC meant give Jerry a love interest. And that is not what Larry and Jerry are doing with Elaine. And I think it's really what establishes what Seinfeld the show is. [01:11:12] S0: Yes. Because if you look at every other sitcom, I I bet NBC felt like they didn't even need to give the full note. Give Jerry a female friend who will have an on again, off again, is there a flame here and then eventually end up together and give the viewers what they want. [01:11:31] S1: It's Sam and Diane in cheers. Yes. It's Ross and Rachel. Blah blah blah.
01:11:31 · David Rosenthal, Ben Gilbert
[01:11:31] S1: It's Sam and Diane in cheers. Yes. It's Ross and Rachel. Blah blah blah. [01:11:35] S0: Eventually, Jim and Pam. Like, this is the formula. And the way that Jerry and Larry chose to interpret the note is literally, but we're not gonna do any of that other stuff. [01:11:46] S1: Yeah. We're just gonna need a girl. So, George Shapiro, the talent manager, has a great quote about this, about what you need a girl means. He says, the network wanted Jerry and Julia to be married or dating. That was normal network thinking. Fortunately, we had two creators who didn't give a crap. Jerry and Larry felt strongly that Jerry and Julia shouldn't have a relationship, and they were ready to walk away from the show because of it. [01:12:10] S0: And the way that they pulled this off is Elaine is a former love interest. Yes. Like, they've already had a relationship, and it didn't work, and they broke up. And so, viewers, you don't even need to take your minds there because we already told you it's not gonna work. There is one episode where they explore deal. Yes. Incredible episode. But then after that, the the... I think that's the end of a season. They come back the next season. The whole thing is forgotten. They don't take it anywhere. These characters are not a love interest, period.
01:12:10 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[01:12:10] S0: And the way that they pulled this off is Elaine is a former love interest. Yes. Like, they've already had a relationship, and it didn't work, and they broke up. And so, viewers, you don't even need to take your minds there because we already told you it's not gonna work. There is one episode where they explore deal. Yes. Incredible episode. But then after that, the the... I think that's the end of a season. They come back the next season. The whole thing is forgotten. They don't take it anywhere. These characters are not a love interest, period. [01:12:37] S1: That episode, the deal where they... The two of them reexplore the romantic relationship is even more subversive to the network because they do it. Larry Larry and Jerry do that episode, and then they just never mention it again. There's no resolution. There's no... They continued. They didn't continue. There's no development. There's no relationship. It's just, that didn't happen. [01:12:59] S0: This show would go on to be number one by throwing out the playbook entirely and going straight off of the thing that Jerry and Larry wanted to make with no, like, reverence for the roles that you were supposed to do to get to number one.
01:12:59 · Ben Gilbert, David Rosenthal
[01:12:59] S0: This show would go on to be number one by throwing out the playbook entirely and going straight off of the thing that Jerry and Larry wanted to make with no, like, reverence for the roles that you were supposed to do to get to number one. [01:13:14] S1: Exactly. So this is why, you know, when I said that the Elaine character makes Seinfeld what it is. So what is Seinfeld? It is a merging of stand up and the sitcom. Just like the whole development of the show, this is what it's leading to. Like a sitcom, Seinfeld, the show has continuity of characters, places, relationships, across episodes, across seasons, across years of the show. You get to know these characters. You know the apartment. You know the coffee shop. [01:13:44] S0: You know George just can't help himself. [01:13:46] S1: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. [01:13:47] S0: Every time, you can count on them to do the wrong thing, to see the temptation and to give in to the temptation. And by creating these consistent characters, it helps have a framework for those jokes. [01:13:59] S1: What does stand up comedy not have? Continuity. Consistency. That doesn't exist in the stand up world. Okay. Now flip it on the other side. Like stand up, Seinfeld doesn't have any development of these characters and places and relationships. Jerry is always Jerry. George is always George. Elaine is always Elaine. You could tune in in any episode. There's no development of the relationship, the characters. They never learn anything. The places don't change. The apartment is the same. The coffee shop is the same.