"All stand-up material for "The Stock Tip" was filmed on March 13, 1990." "Usually two or three episodes' worth of stand-up footage would be shot at a time." "This was because a nightclub set had to be built on stage often in or next to Jerry's apartment set." "It also allowed time for Jerry to write material related to the stories in the episodes." "In these early episodes, storylines were often written to complement Jerry's most successful stand-up material." ""The Stock Tip" was shot in front of an audience at Ren-Mar Studios in Hollywood, California on March 12, 1990." "This is the first mention of Superman in Seinfeld establishing Jerry's interest in the costumed superhero." "In an earlier draft, this conversation ended with Jerry arguing that in the event of a nuclear holocaust when everybody's really depressed Superman would be super humorous and cheer everyone up." "George responds that nobody will laugh because they'll blame him for not preventing the catastrophe in the first place." "Seinfeld was produced by Castle Rock Entertainment." "The company was founded by five Hollywood creators and executives including Rob Reiner, the director of films such as This Is Spinal Tap When Harry Met Sally, A Few Good Men The Princess Bride and Misery." "In 1994, Reiner directed North which featured Jason Alexander and Julia Louis-Dreyfus as the title character's parents." "ELAINE BO YFRIEND COUNTER:" "#2 – Robert, the cat guy." "Vanessa is a rare example of Jerry dating a woman for more than one episode." "He courted her in "The Stake Out," two episodes earlier." ""The Stock Tip" premiered on NBC at 9:30 on Thursday, June 21, 1990." "It received a Nielsen rating of 13.5 with an audience share of 24." ""The Stock Tip" was the final new episode to air during the summer of 1990." "The following week, NBC repeated The Seinfeld Chronicles pilot with altered opening titles to reflect the new theme music and show titles." "The ratings for that rerun actually went up from "The Stock Tip" to a 13.9 rating and a 26 audience share." "Soon after, NBC ordered 13 more episodes to air in the middle of the 1990-91 TV season." "Note that Jerry is buying cereal." "In an original scripted exchange, Jerry boasted to Vanessa that he is a " virtuoso of cereal combining" and that cereal boxes are "instruments which he conducts in a symphony for bowl, spoon and milk."" "Benjamin Lum (stock boy) appears again as a mail carrier in the season five episode, "The Cigar Store Indian."" "His other television appearances include Star Trek.:" "The Next Generation  Married... with Children and Coach." "According to Larry David, Vanessa returned for "The Stock Tip" because she and Jerry had been dating at the end of "The Stake Out."" "Since no break-up was ever shown David decided to use the same character in another relationship storyline." "This was an unconventional move for situation comedies which usually insist that at the end of each episode the events of that story would be forgotten the next week." "Besides her two episode stint in Seinfeld, Lynn Clark (Vanessa) has also appeared on Days of Our Lives  Melrose Place, Santa Barbara and Friends." "KRAMER ENTRANCE COUNTER: #8" "In the first draft, Kramer knocked and Jerry told him to use his key to open his apartment door." "This was removed and Kramer's entrances without knocking were left unexplained for the rest of the series." "Junk bonds are bonds (or promises to pay back money) issued by companies in weak financial condition." "Though a high risk investment junk bonds can yield very high rates of return." "Kramer's Roll-out Tie Dispenser idea is one of the first entrepreneurial notions of the show." "Kramer is based on Kenny Kramer series' co-creator Larry David's neighbour in New York City." "On hearing he had inspired a sitcom character the real Kramer begged to be cast as himself." "He never got to audition though he did appear as an extra in the sixth season episode "The Face Painter."" "Larry David was born in Brooklyn on July 2, 1947." "He graduated from the University of Maryland." "After struggling through various jobs without success he went to the Improv comedy club and realized that being a comedian was something he could do." "His offbeat performances led to his being described as a comedian's comedian." "He was a comic who the other comedians would come to see but general audiences were often unimpressed with his choice of material." "In fact, unresponsive audiences were often verbally abused by David for not laughing at his jokes." "His act got him discovered by ABC executives who added him to the cast of Fridays the network's attempt to mimic the success of the then-new Saturday Night Live." "Michael Richards (Kramer) was also in the cast of Fridays." "In the early '80s, David also had small roles in two Woody Allen films Radio Days and Another Woman." "He joined the writing staff of Saturday Night Live during the 1984-5 season." "During the whole year, David only had one sketch to be performed and that aired in the last 10 minutes of the show." "After performing stand-up comedy in 1988 at Catch a Rising Star comedy club he joined acquaintance Jerry Seinfeld for a late night snack at a nearby deli." "Seinfeld had just become attached to the NBC project but at the time did not know what format his show would take." "The two comedians riffed about the food and after the laughing died down David commented that such conversations would make a great show." "The concept of doing a show about where comedians get their ideas was hatched." "Jerry presented the ideas to NBC and these bits ultimately took their shape as the script for The Seinfeld Chronicles pilot." "A fictionalised version of Larry and Jerry's late-night conversation was written into the season four episode, "The Pitch."" "Additional material about dry cleaners was filmed which was cut for time." "In it, Jerry talked about how awkward it would be to go to a party and run into your dry cleaner who's wearing your clothes." "This kind of encounter became the basis for a storyline in the sixth season episode, "The Secretary."" "TV Jerry's Manhattan apartment building is actually in downtown Los Angeles." "If you look closely, you can see the building has been fitted with fixtures to help avoid damage during an earthquake." "Network TV seasons run most of their new programming from September to May." "NBC's original plan was to air the Seinfeld series in April but at a very bad timeslot." "NBC offered Castle Rock executive Glenn Padnick a second option." "In it, Seinfeld would miss air in the summer which meant that it would never be considered for the fall 1991 schedule." "The advantage to this was that Seinfeld would air in the summer in NBC's best comedy time slot, Thursdays after Cheers." "It also gave Seinfeld the opportunity to fly in under the radar of network pressure and get a decent sampling by viewers of Cheers." "KRAMER ENTRANCE COUNTER: #9" "While filming this scene, Kramer made an unscripted re-entrance." "A woman in a trench coat joins him and Kramer says that she is the woman he had gone down to the street to meet." "Jason Alexander had secretly arranged her entrance as a practical joke on Jerry." "To add to the surprise, the woman began removing her clothing." "She stripped down to a G-string and walked around the apartment before the director yelled, "Cut."" "For obvious reasons, this footage is not included on this DVD collection." "WHERE'S NORMAN?" "There he is appearing as the bed and breakfast manager." "Jerry Seinfeld had acted on a sitcom prior to Seinfeld." "For a short time, he played the part of "Frankie" on the early 1980s sitcom Benson." "Hired as a series regular Jerry only ended up appearing in a handful of episodes." "He was never told he had been fired he just showed up for work one day and there was no script for him." "That experience left the comedian shy of doing more situation comedy work until he could exercise more control over the material he was given to say." "When promoting the first season Jerry described the experience of essentially playing himself:" ""What I'm doing in this sitcom is not what you would call difficult acting work." "This isn't exactly My Left Foot." "It's just repeating what I normally do in life."" "Despite this, Jerry received five Emmy nominations for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series." "Throughout the series, dozens of women were called upon to play girlfriends of Jerry, George and Kramer." "Casting director Marc Hirschfeld recalls the difficulty of finding guest actresses who were both funny and beautiful." "Because each role was designed to find the potential of a relationship and destroy it over two acts, specific types were required." "Often actresses auditioned five or six times before finally booking the part they were best suited to play." "Though the four-episode order was notorious for being the smallest order in television history NBC executive Rick Ludwin believes that not getting a fall order was a blessing in disguise." "It gave the show's creators time to refine and define what the series was going to be." "Warren Littlefield, an NBC exec who went on to become president of NBC agrees." ""They were true to their vision and they came up with a show that defied history and was probably the greatest comedy that has ever been on television."" "But by the time the show's five-week run had ended NBC's fall schedule for 1990 had been announced." "This meant that, despite its relative success the soonest Seinfeld could return was early 1991 as a mid-season replacement." "As a result, NBC ordered 13 more episodes of Seinfeld which would make up the show's second season." "Though the cast set and the money coming in the future of the show was riding on how well sitcom novices Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld would do at writing and producing 13 more episodes." "The public would begin to see the results of their labour on January 23, 1991 when the second season of Seinfeld premiered on NBC." "At the end of each TV season production companies usually throw "wrap parties" to celebrate the final shooting of that year's episodes." "In later years, Seinfeld would celebrate at The House of Blues The Griffith Observatory and other Hollywood hotspots." "For the four-episode first season producers were slightly less ambitious." "The first year's wrap party consisted of a few drinks and snacks on the stage."