Includes articles on the show by Geoffrey O'Brien and Bill Wyman, and a selection of essays by television scholars in the US - looking at issues of Seinfeld's Jewishness, alleged nihilism, food obsession, and long-running syndication. This work covers a comprehensive episode guide, and Betty Lee's lexicon of Seinfeld language.
"Noted television and pop culture academic and critic Lavery-who haspreviously written and edited scholarly texts on such television supernovasas Twin Peaks, The X-Files, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer-has whipped up afrothy egg cream of an essay collection on Seinfeld for eggheads. Sixteenessays (some new, some previously published and revised) are divided amongfour topical sections with an afterword and supplementary material featuringa glossary of Seinfeld terms and expressions and an episode guide. Theessays in Part 1 generally give an overview of the show before segueing intoPart 2's exploration of "genre, humor, and intertexuality." Part 3 treatsissues of "gender, generations, and ethnicity," while Part 4 concludes withessays on "cultural, pop cultural, and media matters." As Lavery notes inhis preface, despite Seinfeld's iconic stature-half of us loved it, and theother half loved to hate it-only one serious monograph has been published.This anthology featuring the likes of Geoffrey O'Brien and Eleanor Herseywill best serve academic media and pop culture collections and seriousreaders who like their TV eggs hard-boiled. The recent release of the showon DVD should increase interest".- Library Journal, February 2006
