Where to watch Seinfeld (1989–1998)

Trivia & production notes

• The pilot was filmed at the same Desilu Cahuenga studio where The Dick Van Dyke Show was made, which the crew considered a good omen.
• Brandon Tartikoff, the NBC executive who screened the pilot, dismissed it as "Too New York, too Jewish" and was unconvinced the show would succeed.
• Test audiences gave the pilot harshly negative feedback, with comments like "You can't get too excited about two guys going to the laundromat" and complaints that stand-up routines were interrupted by boring stories.
• NBC executive Rick Ludwin canceled a Bob Hope special to fund four additional episodes of Seinfeld, a decision a Chicago Tribune columnist later said was essential to the show's existence.
• The first season consisted of only five episodes total, the smallest sitcom order in TV history at that time.
• All scenes of actors walking through New York City were actually filmed on a backlot at CBS Studio Center in Los Angeles, despite establishing shots being filmed in actual New York locations.
• Jerry's apartment set was so cramped that Jason Alexander noted that knowing they would film for nine years would have led to building a larger space.
• The cast developed a routine of directing each other on set movements to compensate for scripts that contained minimal physical direction.
• When a joke in "The Marine Biologist" didn't get the desired laugh, Larry David rewrote an entire scene and required Jason Alexander to memorize a monologue in just minutes.
• Over 120 episodes of Seinfeld contain references to the Superman franchise, with Superman logos and figurines frequently appearing in Jerry's apartment.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article Seinfeld, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Rewritten for StreamShack; errors are ours — tell us about them.