"As season two began, Jerry shared his thoughts on the show's survival with USA Today" ""Success was not part of the plan." "We figured we'd do six and out." "We wanted to be a legend." "The show they should have left on." "People would say, 'Boy, did you guys get screwed.'" "That's what we were shooting for."" ""The Ex-Girlfriend" was the first episode of Seinfeld to be filmed at the CBS Studio Center in Studio City, California." ""The Ex-Girlfriend" was first read by its cast on Wednesday, October 17, 1990." "GEORGE GIRLFRIEND COUNTER:" "# 2" " Marlene, the boring Southern belle" "Very positive reviews of Seinfeld appeared in newspapers on January 16, 1991." "Unfortunately, the reviews were wasted because the episode didn't air until a week later." "This was because Seinfeld' s second season premiere was pre-empted due to the start of the first Gulf War." ""The Ex-Girlfriend" first aired on NBC at 9:30 p.m. on Wednesday, January 23, 1991." "Material was cut from this discussion which had George proposing to stage his own kidnapping while walking on the street with Marlene." "He would pay two guys to grab him, shove him in their car and drive off." "George would then hide out until Marlene had given up on him." "This additional material can be found on this disc." "WHERE'S NORMAN?" "There he is, walking by right to left in a trenchcoat and cap." "Most of "The Ex-Girlfriend" was filmed in front of a studio audience on stage 19 on Tuesday, October 23." "But this scene and the two car scenes later in the show were filmed from 5:00 to 8:30 p.m. the night before." "The first half of this scene featuring the exterior with Elaine approaching the parked car was filmed on CBS Studio Center's original "New York Street."" "The "street" is a generous description since it consisted of four very small store fronts." "This was all Seinfeld' s writers, producers and director could use to replicate New York City in its first five seasons." "WHERE'S NORMAN?" "There he is again, walking by left to right as Jerry begins to pull away from the curb." "He is hunched and dressed differently so as to appear to be another person." "Extras were often re-used in Seinfeld' s early days to keep expenses to a minimum." "Amazingly, many people watching still assume  Seinfeld was shot entirely in New York City." "Those same people probably think Jerry is actually driving in this scene." "He isn't." "The car is not even moving." "The rocking motion is achieved by one or two members of the crew shaking the car." "Other crew members move lights to simulate street lights or the headlights of other cars." "The "car" following behind Jerry is just two lights on a wheeled stand being moved into position by another crew member." "This technique of make-believe driving is referred to as "poor man's process" as it is far cheaper than other ways of achieving this effect." "George's rendition of "Nods to Nothing" is a parody of "Rags to Riches" as sung by Tony Bennett." "The Blob was a 1958 film starring Steve McQueen." "It is about an unstoppable jelly-like alien who continues to grow as it consumes everything in its path." "A less successful remake was filmed in 1988 though it's unlikely that Jerry is referring to this version." "Note:" "Jerry's buzzer has now changed to the one which remained part of the set for the remainder of the series." "KRAMER ENTRANCE COUNTER: #10" "At this point in the show Kramer has still not been seen outside Jerry's apartment but this was not due to agoraphobia as some have claimed." "According to Larry David, the real Kenny Kramer would often spend 22 of 24 hours a day in their apartment building." "Kramer himself claims that Larry David did not even have keys to the building and would simply rely on Kenny buzzing him in when necessary." "Returning fruit became a story four years later when Kramer attempts to return fruit to Joe's market and is banned in the fifth season episode, "The Mango."" "Jerry told Entertainment Weekly that Seinfeld is not a show about being on TV, like Garry Shandling's despite many early critics' comparisons." ""This is a show about being a human being or, in my case, about being a comedian which is almost the same thing."" "Jerry also noted that the camaraderie of the actors offscreen began to creep into their onscreen friendships by the second season." "The characters are starting to look like they really are friends." "On a show like this it's important that viewers want to hang out with these people." "You have to believe they really like one another." "It can't seem 'cast." '" "Kramer originally re-entered at the end of this scene with some of his fruit on toothpicks." "George takes a bite and proceeds to make the smacking sound." "This material was cut before telecast, but it can be found on this disc." "For the record, that entrance does not count on the Kramer Entrance Counter." "Though George clearly has an attachment to his books in "The Ex-Girlfriend" his feelings change soon after." "By the season six episode "The Couch" George will do anything to avoid reading Breakfast at Tiffany's for his girlfriend." "Tom's Restaurant at Broadway and 112th Street in Manhattan doubles for the exterior of the Monk's Coffee Shop as seen on Seinfeld." "Tom's Restaurant also inspired the 1987 Suzanne Vega song "Tom's Diner."" "A remixed version of the hit peaked at number five on the Billboard charts in November 1990." "This episode of Seinfeld aired two months later." "In 1991, dinner at Tom's ran about $6." "The specialty shish kebab was priced at 7.50." "Nearby Columbia University students flock to Tom's for their famous Broadway Shake made of coffee and chocolate ice cream." "Marlene is played by Tracy Kolis." "Kolis' other acting work includes appearances on series such as The Nanny, Quantum Leap and NYPD Blue ...as well as starring on soap operas such as All My Children." "She returned to Seinfeld in its sixth season playing Kelly, a waitress at Monk's in "The Soup."" "In it, she takes George's order while he is sitting in the exact booth she is now sitting in as Marlene." "Other actresses who auditioned for the part of Marlene included Jeri Ryan later of Star Trek.:" "Voyager and Amy Yasbeck of Problem Child (co-starring Michael Richards) and Pretty Woman, in which she played Jason Alexander's wife." "Heidi Swedberg, who joined Seinfeld in the fourth season as NBC executive Susan Ross, also auditioned for the role." "Moby Dick by Herman Melville involved a sea captain named Ahab who was obsessed with the destruction of a great white whale." "Sets in the second season of Seinfeld were designed by Tom Azzari." "Azzari was able to re-use sets because production company Castle Rock had rented a storage facility." "This meant that sets didn't have to be built from scratch every week." "It also saved money." "This was particularly helpful when Seinfeld scripts involved over a dozen sets for a 22-minute episode." ""The Ex-Girlfriend," however, contains only one new set." "This chiropractor's office." "The operating theater mentioned in this routine was later used in the classic fourth season episode "The Junior Mint."" "NBC promoted Seinfeld heavily airing many different commercials for the show's Wednesday premiere." "Many of the spots included George's upcoming "Sinatra" line." "Francis Albert Sinatra was a singer and film star born in 1915 in Hoboken, New Jersey." "He died on May 14, 1998." "Coincidentally, this was also the exact day the final episode of Seinfeld premiered on NBC." "Jerry Seinfeld told the LA Times that Larry David was key to Seinfeld' s unique style." ""Most of the stories are from his life." "He just has a tremendous wellspring of ideas." "I mean, he just fills notebooks with ideas and I try to help him, but Larry is really the designer of the show."" "The idea for this episode came from Larry David's own experience giving a ride home to a woman who had recently dated a friend of his." "JERRY GIRLFRIEND COUNTER:" "# 3" " George's ex, Marlene" "KRAMER ENTRANCE COUNTER: # 11" "This is the first evidence of Kramer's love for golf." "The hobby remained important to the character throughout the series." "He even tried to join the senior PGA golf tour in season seven's "The Caddy."" "Michael Richards claims to have never played golf but Larry David is an avid golfer." "In an early version of this scene Marlene's answering machine message to Jerry was:" ""Jerry, I don't care what anyone says, these are not the good old days."" "Kramer's unique hairstyle developed accidentally." "Around the time Seinfeld began Michael Richards had received a shorter-than-normal haircut and he got into the habit of twisting the growing hair and pulling it up." "The hair maintained its altitude giving the character his most distinctive physical attribute." "This scene features one of the earliest examples of Kramer's philosophy on friendship and relationships." "Even in the show's first years, Julia Louis-Dreyfus felt Seinfeld was the most fun she had ever had at a job." "Back in 1991, she told an interviewer:" ""I just love it." "It's never a drag to go to work." "I hope it never is." "I don't think it will be." "We really enjoy one another's company and that is reflected onscreen." "At least, I think it is." "We even have fun in rehearsals." "It's a riot."" "In the original draft of this episode this coffee shop scene was set in the library." "At the end of the scene, the librarian having shushed Jerry and George intermittently finally decides to kick them out." "Jerry, dumbstruck, can only say, "I'm 36 years old." "I'm getting kicked out of the library."" "Of course this scene's conversation had nothing to do with the library." "This is probably why it was eventually decided to move it to the coffee shop." "The money saved on the library set may have gone to pay for the "poor man's process" in the following scene." "Notice on the awning that Jerry's apartment building is called The Shelley." "Jerry's act was honed by years of performing in small nightclubs." "During his first appearance onstage in 197 6 he was so nervous all he could remember were his one-word joke topics." "He blurted them out one after another and then left the stage." "But the audience laughed at the topics and Jerry, thankfully, stuck with it." "On its first airing, "The Ex-Girlfriend" received a rating of 10.9 with an audience share of 17." "By today's standards, this is a hit show but NBC was disappointed by Seinfeld' s rating." "After three more weeks the network pulled the show from its schedule." "Jerry's monologue for this episode along with those for "The Pony Remark" and "The Busboy" was filmed on October 29, 1990." "Once stand-up material for an episode was recorded Jerry changed wardrobe then returned to do material for the next episode." "Some of his routines were cut from the show prior to broadcast." "A selection of this deleted material can be found in this volume of the DVD."