Jonathan Hayman And The Early Years of Seinfeld

In a TV landscape where critics tend to give all their weight to shows that had their run in the first ten years of the technology, “Seinfeld” broke the mold and showed those stuffy critics that there were still gems to be mined in the field of television comedy. Based on the stand up and life of Jerry Seinfeld, writers such as Larry David, Jonathan Hayman, and Seinfeld himself turned the show into an emotionless gag, taking life’s minutia and turning it into unbridled hilarity.

It will remain etched in the annals of time as one of the greatest and most popular sitcoms of all time. In a TV landscape where critics tend to give all their weight to shows that had their run in the first ten years of the technology, “Seinfeld” broke the mold and showed those stuffy critics that there were still gems to be mined in the field of television comedy. Based on the stand up and life of Jerry Seinfeld, writers such as Larry David, Jonathan Hayman, and Seinfeld himself turned the show into an emotionless gag, taking life’s minutia and turning it into unbridled hilarity.

Writer Jonathan Hayman (who also starred as the Bubble Boy in the episode of the same name), along with David and Seinfeld, was instrumental in the early days of success. With episodes like “The Parking Garage” and a show that was entirely themed around the gang waiting for a table at a Chinese restaurant, Hayman and his cohorts took the format of the sitcom into places that had never been explored. In the process, they inspired the inevitable clones (shows such as “It’s Like, You Know” which did not fare nearly as well), but none of them came close to matching the brilliance of the original. In later years, some argued that shows such as “Arrested Development” and David’s own “Curb Your Enthusiasm” took the original seeds of brilliance that made Seinfeld so great and blossomed them into something even more impressive, but there’s no question that the original show is still held by many to be the greatest sitcom of all time.

Things changed in the later years when Larry David and Jonathan Hayman left the show. Some argued that the episodes never again reached that epic level of mass hilarity those writers brought to the creative process. Still, the show remained as popular as ever and even the early defenders had to admit that there were still many moments of brilliance. Episodes in later years dealing with George’s conquering of a local Frogger machine or a “Soup Nazi” in downtown New York ensured that the show was never far away from the water cooler.

That water cooler talk reached a fever pitch when the show drew to a close. One of the few sitcoms in history to go out on top, many wondered how they would possibly serve the viewers a finale worthy of the show’s rich comedic history. As it turns out, many were dissatisfied with what was delivered, but it did little to stain the brilliant comedic trail that had led them to that point.