Seinfeld, Master of Its Domain Revisiting Television's Greatest Sitcom

by Lavery, David; Dunne, Sara Lewis

• ISBN13: 9780826418036
• ISBN10: 0826418031
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-01-20
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

After a slow and inauspicious beginning, Seinfeld broke through to become one of the most commercially successful sitcoms in the history of television. This fascinating book includes classic articles on the show by Geoffrey O'Brien and Bill Wyman

Table of Contents

Preface	1	(12)
David Lavery and Sara Lewis Dunne (Middle Tennessee State University), "Part of Popular Culture": The Legacy of Seinfeld
I. "Giddy-up!": Introductions
Albert Auster (Fordham University), Much Ado About Nothing: Some Final Thoughts on Seinfeld	13	(10)
David Marc (Syracuse University), Seinfeld: A Show (Almost) About Nothing	23	(5)
Bill Wyman, Seinfeld	28	(8)
Reflections on Seinfeld	36	(13)
II. "Maybe the dingoes ate your baby": Genre, Humor, Intertextuality
Michael Dunne (Middle Tennessee State University), Seinfeld as Intertextual Comedy	49	(9)
Barbara Ching (University of Memphis), They Laughed Unhappily Ever After: Seinfeld and the Sitcom Encounter with Nothingness	58	(12)
Dennis Hall (University of Louisville), Jane Austen, Meet Jerry Seinfeld	70	(7)
Amy McWilliams (Texas A&M University), Genre Expectation and Narrative Innovation in Seinfeld	77	(12)
III. "If I like their race, how can that be racist?": Gender, Generations, and Ethnicity
Joanna L. Di Mattia (Monash University), Male Anxiety and the Buddy System on Seinfeld	89	(19)
Matthew Bond, "Do you think they're having babies just so people will visit them?": Parents and Children on Seinfeld	108	(9)
Jon Stratton (Curtin University of Technology), Seinfeld is a Jewish Sitcom, Isn't It? Ethnicity and Assimilation in 1990's American Television	117	(22)
IV. "It is so sad. All your knowledge of high culture comes from Bugs Bunny cartoons": Cultural, Pop Cultural, and Media Matters
Geoffrey O'Brien, The Republic of Seinfeld	139	(9)
Sara Lewis Dunne (Middle Tennessee State University), Seinfood: Purity, Danger, and Food Codes on Seinfeld	148	(11)
Eleanor Hersey (Fresno Pacific University), "It'll always be Burma to me": J. Peterman on Seinfeld	159	(10)
Elke van Cassel (Radboud University, Nijmegen), Getting the Joke, Even If It Is About Nothing: Seinfeld from a European Perspective	169	(17)
Michael M. Epstein (Southwestern University School of Law), Mark C. Rogers (Walsh University), and Jimmie L. Reeves (Texas Tech University), From Must-See-TV to Branded Counterprogramming: Seinfeld and Syndication	186	(17)
V. Afterword
David Lavery (Middle Tennessee State University) with Marc Leverette (Colorado State University), Rereading Seinfeld after Curb Your Enthusiasm	203	(20)
VI. "Get out!": Back Pages
Betty Lee, Glossary of Seinfeldian Terms	223	(8)
Seinfeld Episode and Situation Guide	231	(24)
Seinfeld Intertexts and Allusions	255	(2)
Contributors	257	(2)
Bibliography	259	(10)
Index	269