The Marriage Ref

Here's an interview with Jerry Seinfeld from The Guardian. In it he talks about his appearances on the new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm as well as his new gameshow 'The Marriage Ref'.

He doesn't think much has changed in the pitching process since he was talking to NBC about Seinfeld in the 1980s. "Broadcasters still use the word excited to mean nervous," he nods. "Like, Endemol saying they have loads of shows out here that they're excited about." He gives a sly grin.

The Seinfeld Reunion on Curb

Seinfeld Meets Steinberg

Jerry Seinfeld interviewed by David Steinberg in the LA Times.

"When you’re in comedy, people always come up and say, “Oh, it must be so hard.” It really isn’t hard unless you’re not good at it. If you can do it, it’s really kind of fun and easy."

Popular in the US Not Popular in the UK

Here's a pretty pointless feature from The Guardian asking why Seinfeld wasn't a hit in the UK. Simply because the BBC could not give one fuck about it. Once I sat up to watch an episode, scheduled for around midnight, and I'm not making this up by the way, this did happen, only to discover that it had been cancelled to make way for shinty. That's no wacky random thing I've came up with, it was genuinely cancelled in order that BBC show highlights of a shinty match that had by the looks of it only about 30 spectators at the actual game.

I once bought an unofficial guide to Seinfeld. As you'll see by the photo in the link it's endorsed by the BBC. That about says it all on their commitment to the show.

You could ask why a lot of US sitcoms weren't hits over here and it's all pretty much down to scheduling. In the link on top US sitcoms that I featured yesterday Night Court is included. It also appears on one of the links in that article at 18th in the list of most watched TV show finales. Why was Night Court not a hit here? It wasn't because we didn't enjoy Harry Anderson and John Larroquette's clowning, it was cos it appeared infrequently late night on BBC2 (if I mind right).

A good and popular sitcom in the US has no guarantee it's going to be a success here and that's usually because whoever imports programmes and schedules them for the terrestrial channels over here has to be convinced first. Let's not even get started on Arrested Development.

A Celebrity Auction

This is one ebay auction you'll want to get right in on the bidding for. Some muppet was at the scene of Jerry Seinfeld's recent car accident, and he's found a terrific souvenir from the incident for your bidding pleasure. What's he offering for sale? A quarter. That's right a quarter, a 25 cent coin. But not just any quarter, this quarter apparently belonged to Jerry and 'fell out' at the scene of the accident. Do you think multi-millionaire Jerry Seinfeld carries loose change about with him? Why would anyone want to own this? I would call this opportunist if there actually was any sort of opportunity there. Check out the postage costs too.