Microsoft To Announce Jerry Seinfeld Ads Cancelled 587
An anonymous reader writes "Valleywag says the Jerry Seinfeld ads are over — In a phone call, Frank Shaw confirms that Microsoft is not going on with Seinfeld, and echoes his underlings' spin that the move was planned. There is the 'potential to do other things' with Seinfeld, which Shaw says is still 'possible.' He adds: 'People would have been happier if everyone loved the ads, but this was not unexpected.'"
So, back to mojave then (Score:4, Informative)
...I'm seeing those ads all over the place; I've only seen the Seinfeld ads twice, I think.
What's strange is this --didn't MS drop the ad agency that came up with the Mojave ads because they were a flop?
I guess when you've got nothing ...you've just got nothing.
Re:George Orwell and Grammar! (Score:4, Informative)
This has been in use for quite a while. I remember translating Cicero, and he used a lot of it, so it's at least 2000 years old.
Re:Penny Arcade called it (Score:5, Informative)
For God's sake, there is even an episode where George is pretending to be a Whale Biologist to get a woman and when they are wandering the beach they happen to come across a beached whale!
It's called "exaggeration".
The joke is an absurd extenstion of a guy pretending to be a doctor/movie producer/interested in Russian poetry/etc. to impress a girl and getting caught at it.
Although later seasons did become a bit tedious, seasons 3-5 were probably the best non-sketch comedy show at its prime, with season 4 being close to perfect. The show probably jumped the shark in season 6, when it did a 100th episode clip show.
I liked Seinfeld, but these commercials aren't even close to a bad episode, and I'm surprised they made it to TV.
Re:The ads weren't that great. (Score:3, Informative)
Y'know I've never been a fan of negative ad campaigns. If the best thing you can say about your product is "we don't suck as much as the other guy" I'm probably not going to bother switching.
This is why I often don't vote - none of the parties tell me what *they* plan to do, they only tell me what they think the other party is going to get wrong. So clearly if they aren't going to tell anyone about their policies then the policies are probably not worth voting for.
Sadly, negative campaigns (both commercial and political) seem to become more and more popular so presumably they do work. :(
Re:Penny Arcade called it (Score:5, Informative)
Re:People would have been happier? (Score:2, Informative)
a day late,a dollar short,and unable to do anything but rip off the Mac.
Yep, that's Microsoft.
Re:Here is the joke (Score:5, Informative)
It's basically a Comedy of Manners [wikipedia.org]. Most of my favorite sitcoms, The Office, The Sopranos, Fawlty Towers, Curb Your Enthusiasm are.
Society has all these hidden rules. We all know what the rules are. We might not realize how important they are or how serious a breach of these social rules will be until someone does it. George and the others, for whatever reason, ends up breaching these rules constantly on the show, usually when he's put into a situation where breaching the rules = personal gain (or avoiding a personal loss). For example, a fire in which he tramples old people, cripples, women and children to get out alive and then has to justify his "unmanly" behavior later when confronted with it.
Often, Seinfeld himself plays the role of the straight man. So he doesn't get the funniest lines or to do the funniest things, but he does get to react to other characters (both the main ones and some of the weird guest stars). He acts as "the voice of reason" informing the characters that something is a bad idea as an aside, "Oh, that should be enough video tape to record the experiment, the arrest and most of the trial."
Re:Penny Arcade called it (Score:5, Informative)
Thats how comedy works. If anyone isnt familiar with the process... a comedian spends time from the start trying to get a good 5 minutes of solid jokes... then from there they work to 15 good minutes... and then to a half hour.... then to an hour. They build up a library of good, successful humor. They work through trial and error as they work clubs, noting what works what doesnt.
A comic doesnt just get a TV show. A comic's half our of material is reviewed by a producer, perhaps from the tonight show, or a network show. If the comedian doesnt have enough material, the producers generally say "i like what you're doing, your style, character... your jokes but you need a good solid hour. When you get a good solid hour... We might have a spot for you on the tonight show"
Of course no one gets an hour on the tonight show, but the producers like to pick and chose your jokes... so they need a certain amount to pick from. Sometimes they let you do what you want.. and sometimes you just need a good half hour of jokes... but the point is... if you havent built a library of jokes that "work"... they think you're too green for prime time.
Jerry, and Larry David, had been comics for a while. Larry was a writer on SNL... Jerry had less experience... but had an act... it was fleshed out, he was fine tuned... and the networks come to you with the idea that "we like what we saw in your act, and i think it could work"
So yes the show reflects their comedy persona... and material.
In Larry and Jerry's case, they had gone back and forth with the networks before signing a deal, they proposed script ideas etc. This is all common place with comedians when they reach a certain level.
Pretty much every comic on TV went through this process... like Steven Wright, Bill Hicks, Louie C.K., Jim Norton, Patrice Oneal, Dennis Leary, Lenny Clark, Chris Rock.... etc
They all work their material, fine tune it... and the networks (cable and the major 3) take notice, or are notified by agents that so and so is hot.
Its a process. You just dont end up on TV one day with a new idea. Its an evolution in a comedians life. Many comics arent keen on the sitcom thing because.. often they suck. In the case of Sienfeld... it was brilliant and well respected... but in the case of Full House... not so :) Yet Bob Sagat is a funny fucking man. So sitcoms arent quite the goal anymore, perhaps movies... but definitely the tonight show, letterman and HBO are goals for most comics