The Seinfeld Chronicles - Production

Production

Seinfeld said that the idea of the episode was to show there are "gaps in society where there are no rules." The pilot was filmed at Stage 8 of Desilu Cahuenga studios, the same studio where The Dick Van Dyke Show was filmed (this was seen by the crew as a good omen), and was recorded at Ren-Mar Studios in Hollywood. The stand-up element of the pilot was seen as a distinctive feature; however, some of this material was not included in the broadcast version. In the pilot, Kramer has a dog called Ralph, included so a stand-up routine Seinfeld had written about dogs could be used. However, this routine was cut, and as a result Ralph was never explained, and did not appear in any other episodes.

Originally, the pilot was to feature George, as well as Jerry, as a comedian. Early versions of the script featured George, named "Bennett," discussing his stand-up performance. However, this idea was abandoned, and George became a real estate broker. Claire the waitress was originally called "Meg." The character of Kramer did not appear in the first draft of the script. In later scripts, he appears as "Kramer." However, as Kramer was named after a real person (Kenny Kramer) he was called "Hoffman," and later "Kessler," because of worries about the rights to use the name. The original title of the pilot was Stand Up. This later was changed to The Jerry Seinfeld Show, then Good News, Bad News. However, the production staff and writers refer to the pilot as The Seinfeld Chronicles, to avoid confusion with a later Seinfeld episode called "The Pilot". Other titles considered included Signals and The Airport Pick-Up. The pilot features different title music, written by Jep Epstein, which was never used again. Jonathan Wolff takes over as the main person who provided the trademark slap bass music. Some of the people in the studio audience were paid extras, but all the laughter heard is genuine.

A deleted scene from the episode features Jerry and George driving to the airport, where they talk about changing lanes on the road and giving "Thank you waves." This was reused in later episodes "The Good Samaritan" and "The Puerto Rican Day". Some parts of the stand-up material featured in the pilot were filmed for an episode in the second season, "The Ex-Girlfriend", but were cut from the episode.