"The standup interstitials for this episode were actually recorded twice." "The first time, the set was very brightly lit and featured an old-fashioned piano behind Jerry making it appear as though he was performing in a church basement." "The set was redone to look more like a nightclub and Jerry performed the material again." "Some material from that first recording session can be found elsewhere in this collection." "Though it aired third, "Male-Unbonding" was the first of the four first season episodes to be filmed." "The table read for this episode took place on February 7, 1990." ""Male-Unbonding" was filmed on February 13, 1990." "NBC first broadcast the episode on June 14, 1990." "It received a Nielsen rating of 13.6 with an audience share of 24." "Executive producer Howard West was alarmed when Hollywood trade magazine Variety did not include Seinfeld in its list of picked-up pilots." "He was told this was because the show had been ordered through NBC's Late Night and Specials department and could not be considered a sitcom." "So Seinfeld, though it's one of the most popular half-hour series of all time, is not officially a sitcom." "Rick Ludwin, NBC's vice president of that department remained NBC's liaison to Seinfeld for all nine seasons." "The original draft of this script included Jerry asking how many flavors floss comes in." "George tells him there are three flavors:" "Plain, mint and cinnamon." "Jerry wonders why cinnamon is sold." ""Don't you find that odd?"" "George replies: "Plain I find odd."" "As this sequence happens in real time it is the only chance viewers have to see how long it takes the elevator to go from the lobby to Jerry's floor." "Thirty-four seconds." "Considering how quickly many subsequent visitors made it up to Jerry's apartment, it's safe to say they either took the stairs or the elevator was replaced with a faster model." "GEORGE GIRLFRIEND COUNTER:" "#1" " Unnamed Floss Hater" "Though unnamed in the broadcast episode she is called Lois in an early draft of the script." "Note that Jerry's apartment is numbered 411." "This was later changed to 3A, then to 5A." "Early production scripts for this episode had Kramer called Breckman." "Most TV and film productions use the 555 telephone prefix as it is unused by phone companies." "This prevents innocent people from receiving unwanted phone calls from curious viewers." "Prior to these first four episodes' initial broadcast NBC requested the show's title be shortened to simply Seinfeld." "This was done to avoid confusing it with another 1990 sitcom called The Marshall Chronicles on ABC." "The Marshall Chronicles was described as Woody Allen meets The Wonder Years." "It lasted six episodes." "The renamed Seinfeld lasted nine years." "Jerry once said that he would prefer to dispense with a conventional plot line and just have his show be an aimless wandering through life." ""It will always be some sort of progression of events but we want to structure it very loosely."" "Joseph Stalin (1879-1953) was the second leader of the Soviet Union and one of history's deadliest tyrants." "Stalin is considered responsible for the deaths of millions of his own people through famine, political purges and forced labor camps." "The real Jerry had several odd jobs while struggling to build his career as a standup comic." "These included selling light bulbs over the phone and selling jewelry and umbrellas on the streets of New York." "Many early reviewers compared Seinfeld to the recently cancelled It's Garry Shandling's Show." "The program ran on cable's Showtime network from 1986-1990." "In that irreverent series, comedian, Shandling, played himself often breaking the reality of the show by speaking directly to the camera." "To help distinguish one episode of a TV show from another each is given a title." "In the case of Seinfeld almost all of the episodes being with the word "The."" "For example, "The Pen," "The Wallet" and "The Pez Dispenser" are all names of individual episodes." "Jerry decided to do this to avoid writers wasting hours trying to come up with clever names which the public never usually sees anyway." ""Male-Unbonding," is the only exception to this unwritten rule of "The" titles." "Lenny Bruce, born Leonard Alfred Schneider was a comedian famous for his controversial comedy routines in the 1950s and '60s." "Eventually, his material about religion, race and politics led him to be blacklisted from most American nightclubs and banned from appearing on television." "Bruce died of an apparent drug overdose in 1966." "Anita Wise (Waitress) appeared again later in the first season in "The Robbery."" "Kevin Dunn (Joel) is a veteran of television and films." "His television credits include roles in:" "Bette, The Beach Boys:" "An American Family and JAG." "Dunn was also considered for the part of George in the casting of the pilot." "Kevin Dunn's sister, Nora, was a regular on Saturday Night Live." "In an early draft of "Male-Unbonding," this scene was set at the dry cleaner's." "Prior to production, the setting switched to a bank." "The dry cleaner material resurfaces later in the first season in "The Stock Tip."" "Jason Alexander's real name is Jay Scott Greenspan." "He was born on September 23, 1959 in Newark, New Jersey." "He adopted the stage name Jason Alexander when he was 15 years old." "Jason studied drama at Boston University." "During college, Jason starred in a low-budget horror movie called The Burning." "His costar was the then-unknown Holly Hunter." "Frank Piazza (Customer) also appeared as a cop in the season two episode, "The Stranded."" "Patrick Ewing played in the National Basketball Association from 1985 to 2002." "Ewing played center for the New York Knicks from 1985 to 2000." "Jason Alexander's first television work was in the cast of a 1984 CBS sitcom called ER, which starred Elliot Gould and a young George Clooney." "Alexander played Harold Stickley, the hospital's administrator." "He next starred in the short-lived CBS sitcom, Everything's Relative." "In 1989, Alexander won a prestigious Tony award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Musical for Jerome Robbins'Broadway." "In 1990, Jerry Seinfeld described his show as " a stand-com sort of a low-concept comedy."" "Believe it or not this scene was originally set in Kramer's apartment!" "In the very first draft Jerry and George enter to find Kramer on the phone with Horneck." "The only description given for the apartment is:" ""There's a sprawling sectional sofa fit for Nero and lots of clutter."" ""Male-Unbonding" is the first of many Seinfeld episodes to be directed and produced by Tom Cherones." "Cherones' other television credits include:" "My Sister Sam, Ellen, Caroline in the City, and NewsRadio." "During his time on the series Cherones received three Emmy Award nominations." "In 1993, he won a Director's Guild Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in a Comedy Series for his work on the fourth season episode, "The Contest."" "KRAMER ENTRANCE COUNTER: #3" "Kramer realizes his dream of opening a pizza place where you make your own pie in the season six story, "The Couch."" "In interviews to promote the debut of the first series Jerry explained the philosophy for the series:" ""It was important to do the standup bits so we could do the type of joke we wanted without trying to shoehorn them into the dialogue." "When I watch most TV sitcoms, everybody's so witty I can't believe it." "I've never been in situations like that where everyone has the perfect line." "The script works best when it doesn't sound like a script." "It just sounds like this is the way people will talk and that's what we're trying for." "And we also want the plots to be things that really happen."" "A trapezoid is a quadrilateral with two parallel sides." "A rhombus is an oblique-angled equilateral parallelogram." ""Male-Unbonding" marks the debut of the Elaine character." "Curiously, Elaine did not appear in the first draft of "Male-Unbonding."" "This is particularly surprising considering NBC's condition upon ordering the four additional episodes:" "The creators were to introduce a new female character to join the regular cast." "Jerry recalls a competition he had with Julia during the filming of this scene:" ""It was the first scene we ever did together." "We were waiting for the camera to reload film and we were playing with these MMs." "She told me how she could crack open a peanut MM without disturbing the peanut." "I said 'T here's no way.' And she proceeded to do it." "I guess that sums up what's so great about Julia." "She cracks you up without breaking your nuts."" "Auditions for the role of "Eileen," as Elaine was at one point called began on January 15, 1990." "Other actresses who auditioned for the role included:" "Patricia Heaton, Wendie Malick, Rosie O'Donnell, and Megan Mullally." "Helen Hunt was also invited to audition but she passed on the role." "KRAMER ENTRANCE COUNTER: #4" "Throughout the audition process, casting director, Marc Hirschfeld, continued to think of Julia Louis-Dreyfus for the role." "Louis-Dreyfus appeared on Saturday Night Live and the short-lived NBC sitcom Day by Day." "She had a deal with Warner Bros. that expired on February 1, less than a week before Elaine's first episode." "The day after Julia's deal ended, Hirschfeld sent her a copy of an early script and arranged a meeting." "She loved the material and, after an informal conversation, was offered the role of Elaine." "During the 1990 season, the New York Knicks finished with a record of 45 wins and 37 losses." "An alternate ending for this episode was filmed." "In it, Jerry tells off Joel once and for all." "Horneck exits in a huff then pops his head back in to tell Jerry he'll return Jerry's K.D. Lang tape the following week." "This alternate ending can be seen elsewhere on this disc." "This second version of the monologue was filmed on March 6, 1990." "The music for the Seinfeld series was composed by Jonathan Wolff." "Instead of using standard instruments, Wolff used organic sounds such as finger snaps, mouth pops, lip smacks and tongue noise." "Wolff recorded the signature pops himself." "To help pace the theme music to Jerry's performances Wolff watched some of the comedian's 1988 HBO Special, and clocked a tempo for it." "He then built the music around that tempo." "The bass is there to support the melody of Jerry's voice."