"Jerry understands that being a stand-up may not be for everyone but it was second nature to him." ""Being onstage is a place where you can very quickly feel uncomfortable unless you practice." "I can stand in front of people." "I'm comfortable there." ""That's the irony." "I'm not so comfortable at a party or talking to a couple of people whom I've just met." "But in front of people, I feel very comfortable." "I guess it's that little distance." "I'm not expected to be a real person." "All you have to be is entertaining."" "The Helsinki Formula was not a film but a TV infomercial Robert Vaughn appeared in back in 1989." "The Helsinki Hair Formula was a product that promised to rejuvenate thinning hair and battle baldness." "Robert Vaughn has had a long, successful career acting in films and TV." "He was nominated for an Oscar for his work in The Young Philadelphians in 1959 and has also starred in The Magnificent Seven and the UK drama series The Protectors." "This episode aired in early May which is likely when Elaine's birthday falls." "Julia Louis-Dreyfus' birthday is January 13th." "In Seinfeld' s fourth season finale, The Pilot Jerry makes a TV pilot and the actress playing "Elaine" is asked to audition with lines of dialogue from this scene." "Julia Louis-Dreyfus described Jerry and Elaine's prior attempts at a relationship in an interview with The Record on May 2, 1991." ""The back story on this is that we were good friends for a very long time and then one of us said, let's try romance." "But it became too complicated." "Things start happening that you really don't have any control over like you might in a platonic relationship." "And so we bagged it."" "Writer Larry Charles believed Julia brought out the best in Elaine." ""It's TV vérité." "When the acting is really going well there is no line drawn between Julia and the role." "She is Elaine and Elaine is Julia." "There is no dichotomy there." "It fuses into a beautiful dialectic."" "As the second season was nearing the end of production concern was rising about whether NBC would order a third season." "Network executives, especially Warren Littlefield had been lobbying hard to have Jerry and Elaine become a couple again." "Larry David had resisted the idea certain that it was not a good direction to take the show comedically." "But with the show's fate hanging in the balance David complied and granted Littlefield's wish in "The Deal."" "Of course, once the show was renewed for a third season Jerry and Elaine went back to being just friends and their brief reconciliation was scrapped." "Larry David based this scenario on a real set of sexual rules he had incorporated into a relationship he'd been in years before." "During rehearsals, the blocking or placement of the actors on the couch proved controversial." "Several producers believed that Jerry and Elaine should be seated very close together to promote the intimacy." "Larry David, however, felt that this was not an intimate scene but a transaction and that sitting apart was more appropriate." "Ultimately, David's instincts won out and the scene was filmed as you see here." "An early draft of "The Deal" reveals an additional rule about weekends." ""The weekend is not set aside as a special time." "But sometimes after 'that' comes in to the picture the weekend takes on a special significance where people feel it's incumbent on them to socialize on a grand scale." "Okay, rule number two." "All days are of equal value." "No weekend imperative."" "Other aspects to the rules amplified the legal-speak." "Elaine originally said the following:" ""The act of sleeping is a separate and sovereign condition in no way affiliated with any other behaviour."" "While Jerry said:" ""In order not to be confused with 'them' (meaning couples) let's not even use their terminology." "No darlings, sweethearts or honeys."" "Elaine agrees, "In fact, we should impose penalties." "Five dollars for a honey." "$10 for a sweetheart." "Twenty dollars for a darling."" "Jerry adds, " And $50 for a public display of affection."" "Finally, Elaine asks a question:" ""Is any affection permissible that is not a direct prelude to 'that'?"" "Jerry firmly replies, "I would have to say no."" "The table reading for "The Deal" was held on Monday, February 25, 1991." "KRAMER ENTRANCE COUNTER: #34" "At one point during production Kramer was to say that platonic relationships only work if they remain outdoors." ""Indoors, you're asking for trouble."" ""The Deal" was shot in front of an audience on Friday, March 1, 1991." "It was one of the only times that Seinfeld was filmed on a Friday." "Aquaman, like Superman, is a member of the Justice League of America in the DC comic book." "Aquaman's real name is Orin, but he also uses the alias Arthur Curry." "In the first draft, Jerry wonders aloud:" ""If you got a guy like Superman around why did they even need any other Superheroes?" "Superman can't cover everything."" "George responds, "Well, I guess it gives the average person a sense of security to see a lot of costumed heroes around."" "Jerry feels that Seinfeld' s success is based on the simplicity of its premise:" ""It's a whole new way of telling a story." "We're trying to show the interior of a comic's mind." "This show is the actual experience of being a comedian how you find ideas for comedy in normal life." "I turn things that happen around and recreate them the way I want them to be." "It's all based on memory, but I change the details."" "George's rant about Jerry's details was originally longer." ""I have to say, over the years your details have really gone to the dogs." "I mean, there was a time when you could keep people on the edge of their chair for 45, 50 minutes."" "Julia Louis-Dreyfus once described what marriage to TV-Jerry would be like:" ""Marriage to TV-Jerry would be simple." "And odd, of course, because he's a TV character so there's only so far you can go." "And the set, of course, is missing a fourth wall so there wouldn't be much privacy." "I have always said that Elaine and Jerry would end up married one day when she's in her 50s and he's 60." "And then, six months later, they'll get separated and then divorce six months after that."" "It's not meant to be." "It wouldn't work." "George is a pain in the butt." "Kramer's always coming in and interrupting things."" "Jerry once explained what he believed were the differences between men and women." ""Men will always say they love women as a group but somehow seem to be less fond of them as individuals." "Women, on the other hand, often appreciate the man they're with but almost never have anything nice to say about our sex as a group." "Women are afraid of men they don't know." "Men are afraid of women they know very well." "Siobhan Fallon (Tina) joined the cast of NBC's Saturday Night Live shortly after her initial appearance in Seinfeld." "Fallon has also appeared in the films Men in Black Forrest Gump and Striptease." "Her television work includes guest-starring roles in The Golden Girls and Law and Order.:" "SVU." "Tina would return to plague Elaine two more times during Seinfeld' s nine-year run." "In season three, she begins dating Kramer in the episode "The Truth."" "Tina pops up again in the fifth season episode "The Opposite."" "WHERE'S NORMAN?" "There he is, working in the gift shop." ""Lara's Theme" is more popularly known as "Somewhere My Love."" "It was the love theme for the 1965 film Dr. Zhivago." "Jerry and George also discussed the birthday card in more detail in an earlier draft of this episode's script." "George complains that it took him two and a half hours to come up with a line for his 8-year-old niece's birthday card." "He then goes on to say that gift-giving is getting out of hand and proceeds to mention 10 different gift-giving holidays." "Jerry replies, "I know, and I still can't wrap."" "Nelson Rockefeller, nicknamed "Rocky," was a governor of New York and also served as vice president of the United States under Gerald Ford from 197 4 to 197 7." "His wife Margaretta was nicknamed "Happy."" "Jerry's stand-up material for "The Deal" was filmed on Thursday, February 28, 1991." "Jerry was always certain that being a stand-up would be the only constant in his performing life." ""The stage experience is very pure." "It's very empirical." "An authentic moment in your life." "You hope that you'll do some routine that can pull out of yourself something that would be especially fine."" ""You have to know how far you can get." "Something that hasn't been done."" ""And there is no one else who can do it, because no one else can do you."" "Larry David was nominated for an Emmy award for his writing in this episode." "KRAMER ENTRANCE COUNTER: #35" "KRAMER ENTRANCE COUNTER: #36" "William Butler Yeats lived from 1865 to 1939." "Yeats was an Irish poet and dramatist who received the Nobel Prize for literature in 1923." "He is considered one of the 20th century's greatest English-language poets." "The poem Kramer selected for Elaine is titled "The Municipal Gallery Revisited."" "Written late in Yeats' career, the poem was inspired by a trip to an art gallery where Yeats realized how many of the paintings were of and by friends of his who had since died." "Jerry has his own opinion on why commitment was so hard for him on and off camera during the production of Seinfeld." ""Some people go through life thinking there's an empty chair next to them and they're always looking for someone to fill it." "If I meet someone I want to sit next to for that long I can always pull one up."" "In the first season episode "The Stock Tip" George warned Jerry that " weekend trips" were also relationship killers." "In the first draft, George revealed that his break up with Carol from "The Phone Message" episode came about because of a fight on her birthday." "The only time Jerry drank coffee during his years making Seinfeld was while filming scenes in Monk's coffee shop." "He doesn't actually like coffee but drinking during coffee shop scenes gave him something else to do instead of just saying his lines." "Eating was too distracting, so coffee it was." "The comedian does enjoy cereal as much as his TV counterpart." "At the time Seinfeld' s second season was being filmed his home was stocked with many boxes." "His "standards" are Cheerios, Shredded Wheat, Rice Krispies Grape Nuts and Corn Flakes." "Prison denim is generally made of durable press cotton or poly-cotton blended fabric." "The denim shirts are usually short-sleeved and have two breast pockets." "KRAMER ENTRANCE COUNTER: #37" "An NBC press release preceded the broadcast of this episode." "It stipulated that Jerry and Elaine "will not expect anything more of each other than they did when they were just friends."" "The show's fate was still in question when this episode aired though Warren Littlefield did describe Seinfeld as an "in-house favourite."" "JERRY GIRLFRIEND COUNTER:" "#6 – Elaine" "ELAINE BO YFRIEND COUNTER:" "#5 – Jerry" "Larry David never worried about ending the scene with Jerry and Elaine as a couple." "He never thought about future seasons, because in some respects due to the work required to make Seinfeld he hoped that it would just end." ""The Deal" premiered on NBC on May 2, 1991." "Roughly 22.6 million people watched that night." "This translates into a Nielsen rating of 15.5 and an audience share of 25." "It also translates into a third season renewal from NBC president Warren Littlefield which is exactly what Seinfeld received two weeks after "The Deal" first aired."