The Pitch

I didn't watch Seinfeld for a long time because I generally hate laugh tracks. But once I started I couldn't stop watching, until this episode. I had to stop and thank the friend who kept recommending it to me.

IMO this episode (and Season 4 as a whole) is where the show REALLY starts to shine.

They may call it a "show about nothing" but it is richly layered with details, jokes, and interwoven plotlines. It's an absolute delight to watch! The meta aspect pays off even more so when you watch Curb your enthusiasm and realise that Jason Alexander was a proxy for Larry David himself. You're watching the conception of the show as a storyline within the show with hilarious parallels and the storyline continuing for the entire season integrating details like real Kramer's antics really makes it a 10/10 for me.

NBC shows an interest in Jerry, asking if he might be interested in a possible series. But he needs to come up with an idea. George gets the idea that the show should be about "nothing." And Jerry buys into it and takes it to the producers. It is hilarious as George gets on his high horse trying to sell his ridiculous idea. Newman and Kramer exchange a helmet for a radar detector which will lead to a whole other issue. Also, there is a psychotic guy who must be feared.

I like the bit where Newman got a speeding ticket because the radar detector didn't work

As I said on my review of The Trip I believe that The Pitch/The Ticket is the actual start of Season 4. The Trip felt like a part of a mini series that began with The Keys and ended with Season 4 two part nightmare.

Getting specific with The Pitch/The Ticket, I think this is the perfect start of the season. Being an hour episode (and one of the best in that format) you are given the time to get invested in the arc about Jerry and George writing a sitcom. If they had done the same plot in a half hour episode it would have felt rushed and if they had done half of the plot it would have felt disjointed.

The side story is Kramer and Newman's trade and eventual team up to get Newman out of a legal problem. Wayne Knight is absolutely fantastic in this episode fomenting further on that he is one the best supporting characters in the show. His chemistry with Michael Richards is unbelievable in this episode and their scene in court is priceless.

Along the episode we get a lot of seinfeldisms mainly from the Jerry and George story. Like the "salsa" bit, Jerry screwing it up by telling Davola about Kramer's party, Jerry's telephone talk with TMI, George getting upset because Susan asked him to pay for the vest, Jerry and Uncle Leo's situation. It's the kind of social commentaries we love about the show.

The real glory of Season Four begins here, with a two-part episode that emphasizes just how wonderfully insane the stories could get in Seinfeld and why Larry David and the other writers got away with it every time: it's just so much fun to watch.

Back in New York after the recent trip to L.A., Jerry is asked to pitch a sitcom to NBC executives. George decides to help and comes up with a show about "nothing". Meanwhile, a person known as "Crazy" Joe Davola starts stalking Jerry, Kramer has one of his quirky ideas again, and Newman has trouble with a speeding ticket.

There's nothing like hindsight, obviously, but even back in 1992 it must have been possible to realize Seinfeld was really becoming something special, despite Jason Alexander thinking Larry's idea about an "arc" went against everything the show embodied. Man, how wrong was he: predating Curb Your Enthusiasm's second season (in which Larry, playing "himself", tries to come up with a new successful comedy series) by nine years, the show-within-the-show storyline is arguably one of the funniest things that have ever aired on American network television. If it weren't for that arc and its shameless self-referencing (right down to the casting of Bob Balaban as Russell Dalrymple, a fictional version of Warren Littlefield, the NBC guy who gave Seinfeld the green light against all odds and whom Balaban played for real later on), there would be no 30 Rock.

Still not convinced? Okay, then how about this: when Jerry questions George's talents as a writer, the "Lord of the idiots" (who, let's remember this, is based on Larry David) replies: "What writer? It's a sitcom!". Considering this is the season that got Larry a long awaited Emmy for Best Writing, the irony is almost too delicious.