Jerry Seinfeld: The King Of Sitcoms

The number of sitcom writers and actors in the world could outnumber the population of some countries. Everyday aspiring writers, actors, and more often than not a combination of both make the rounds of various studios and television channels in the hope of getting that break. Most of them do not even make it past the receptionist and only a fraction of the miniscule amount that do make it, get an opportunity to show their script to the bosses. On an average studios and television channels greenlight less than 2% of the scripts that they come across.

Jerry Seinfeld was the uncrowned Emperor of the world of sitcoms for close to decade. Every week America would religiously tune into "Seinfeld." It was a show that cut across all the demographics of society. It did not matter if you were rich or poor, young or old, black, white, yellow or brown, you had to watch Seinfeld. In a world where all TV programming focused on a theme that would be relevant to a certain segment of the population, Seinfeld was a show about nothing. An entire half hour would be devoted to everything from waiting for a table in a Chinese restaurant to trying to get the name of a girlfriend right. There was a never a core issue that the show dealt with. It revolved around the mundane events in the lives of Jerry and his 3 neurotic friends, George (Jason Alexander), Kramer (Michael Richards) and Elaine (Juliette Dreyfuss).

Although the self-proclaimed "show about nothing" was really a show that did not seem to have any continuity or storyline of any kind, it did give America an irreverent mirror to look at. It questioned people’s priorities in a very insidious manner. The best part was that while it did this, it made you laugh like crazy. It even provided a whole new set of words to add to the vocabulary - "master of your domain," "close talker," "anti-dentite," or "Soup Nazi." The show also had a fixation with one of Jerry’s childhood idols – Superman, there would be a Superman sticker or figurine strategically placed in Jerry’s living room in every episode.

Sienfeld won the Emmy in 1993 and Jerry won the American Comedy Awards for Best Actor in a Comedy Series in 1992 and 1993. It was during this time that he was chosen to be the spokesman for American Express. The show went on to be syndicated all over the world making Jerry Seinfeld one of the wealthiest individuals in show business.

But the road to success was a long and arduous one, Jerry was an exceptional student at Queens College and became a regular on the comedy club scene upon graduation. He survived doing an eclectic mix of jobs that included a scam where he sold light bulbs over the telephone and fake jewelry on the street. Recognition began to come when he started to get regular gigs on the prestigious Late Night With David Letterman and The Tonight Show. It was in 1990 that he was given his big break with his own sitcom. Seinfeld remained at the top of the rating charts for nine consecutive years. Following which Jerry brought out his very popular book called Seinlanguage.

In 1999, he discontinued the show despite protestations from NBC, the studio that owned the show. He was adamant that he wanted to get out while it was still at the top of the charts. He married public relations executive Jessica Sklar in December 1999 and they had their first child, a daughter named Sascha in November 2000. There were rumors that a "Seinfeld" movie was in the making and a comeback to television may be happening but these haven’t been confirmed by Jerry himself. He remains dedicated to his first love – stand-up comedy and tickets for his world tours are sold out weeks in advance.

A typical Seinfeld stand-up routine:
I was audited last year. I have been through an audit. Even though I.R.S. kind of sounds like Toys R' Us, they're not fun people. There are things they could do to liven up the audit. I think they should take all your receipts and put them in one of those big sweepstakes drums, and just crank it around---you know, give you a feeling like you might win something. Then they can pull 'em out one by one and go, "Oh, I'm sorry. That's another illegal deduction. But we do have some nice lovely parting gifts for you. . .Jail."