Super Seinfeld : But Just How Do They Come Up With Those Ideas, Anyway?

It’s a damp Friday morning, and Jerry Seinfeld is sitting at a corner table at Hugo’s in West Hollywood perusing the breakfast menu.

Suddenly, an excitable woman in her early 30s materializes at Seinfeld’s table. “I am sorry!” she says, jumping up and down nervously. “I am (here) all the way from New York. I love your show! I know you probably hate people like me, but your show is so funny. I just had to tell you.”

Seinfeld breaks into a bemused grin.

“Thank you,” he says.

“Could I have your autograph?,” she asks, thrusting a card on the table. “I have a pen.”

“What’s your name?” Seinfeld asks.

“Laurie. Thank you, thank you.”

“She was very excited,” Seinfeld says wryly, not too surprised. No wonder; such scenes are becoming more and more commonplace for this comic.

And for good reason. Seinfeld’s laugh-out-loud Emmy-winning NBC comedy series is suddenly, in its third season, on a roll. Seinfeld--and co-stars Julia-Louis Dreyfus, who plays his ex-girlfriend Elaine; Jason Alexander, his befuddled best friend George, and Michael Richards, the high-haired Kramer--have taken over the pop-culture landscape.

It’s a rare Friday morning now that folks at the office copy machine or the corner car pool aren’t talking about the odd little “Seinfeld” slice-of-life they saw the night before.

“We (always) had a strong following, you know,” Seinfeld says matter-of-factly, working up to an order of pumpkin pancakes and a cappuccino with skim milk. “Everybody who worked on the show knows that it is a very broad-based hit. But the perception was it was like a narrow, demographic hit--urban, yuppie, whatever. There were all different kinds of people watching the show--including Laurie.”

And a lot more of them are watching now, since NBC switched “Seinfeld’s” time slot from Wednesdays at 9 p.m., opposite ABC’s popular sitcom “Home Improvement,” to Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. following “Cheers.” Since the February move, the series has carved a solid niche for itself in the Nielsen Top 10. (Last month, series director Tom Cherones won the prestigious Directors Guild of America award for his direction of “The Contest” episode.)

One thing Seinfeld would like to clear up: the idea that he and co-creator and executive producer Larry David pitched the show to NBC as a comedy basically about “nothing.”

“We said it would be a show about conversation, which is almost the same as nothing,” Seinfeld explains. “It wouldn’t be heavy on story.”

But as the series developed, stories kept emerging. “They were hard to resist and now we do a lot of stories, offbeat stories, but they are stories.”

He modestly won’t brag that these are extremely witty and clever stories that consistently push the envelope of TV comedy, and get tongues wagging all over the country.

Diving into his pancakes, Seinfeld acknowledges that the writers and producers don’t actually map out the season. The only story arc planned this year was an art-imitating-life story line about Jerry and George writing a comedy pilot about “nothing” for NBC. “The first show would be the meeting at NBC and the last show would be the filming,” he says. “We considered a few times just abandoning the whole thing. We are kind of trying to determine if people were interested in the story line, if they wanted to see what this pilot would be.”

Since “Seinfeld” premiered in the spring of 1990, the series has turned its comedic eye to topics that don’t generally fall into sitcom land: masturbation, outing, breast implants and the neo-Nazi movement. An upcoming episode deals with, of all things, B.O.

Exactly how do they think up this stuff? Who came up with the concept of Kramer shooting Elaine’s photo for her Christmas cards--and not telling her her breast was exposed? Or how about the malevolent bubble boy?

“A lot of times they are things that happened to the writers,” Seinfeld says, stopping mid-sentence to admire his cappuccino.

“Look at this foam,” he muses, picking up his spoon and running it through the foam. “I wish I had this kind of lather on my shampoo this morning.”

Maybe an episode in the making?

Seinfeld leans across the table. “Let me tell you a secret about ideas,” he says. “Many people ask, ‘Where do you get this idea and where did you get that idea?’ The real, secret truth of the genesis of ideas is that nobody knows where they are coming from. They make up things.

“Nobody really knows the truth to that question. It is a mystery. If jokes come into your head, you become a comedian. But you don’t know where the jokes are coming from. If songs come into your head, you’re a musician. But you don’t really know where the music is coming from.”

Supervising producer and writer Larry Charles agrees. “(Episodes) are not planned,” he says. “We don’t have a grand scheme. From week to week, we just try to do the funniest possible show we can. We are in a complete state of panic virtually week to week in trying to come up with a great show. In that panic-stricken mode, we throw around ideas and we think about stuff.”

“Seinfeld” may be about “nothing,” Charles says, “but being about nothing, it is sort of about everything. The show is extremely dense with actual information.

“The shows are almost like albums to me. They get better with repeated viewing--all the in-jokes that are kind of dropped into the show, for the fan, really enhance the show. It is sort of like listening to the Beatles records, like the ‘White Album’ and hearing references to other things, like the ‘Walrus was Paul.’ We do a lot of stuff like that.”

As series producer, Seinfeld co-writes every script. “I don’t take credit for it, but I am involved in the writing of every show,” he says. “Actually, Larry David and I do a lot of writing. He does most of the writing. We have a few writers who contribute scripts. We don’t have a big gang.”

Scripts evolve during the week. “But,” Seinfeld says, “it all depends on the script. Sometimes we hardly change it. Sometimes we change them drastically--the whole story, every line gets changed.”

“It is not the typical sitcom,” Charles adds. “We don’t do things as a committee. Basically, Larry and Jerry make the executive decision. It is based on Larry’s syntax. He just goes with his feelings about things. He lays down on the couch and says, ‘This is what we will do.’ The script does evolve over the course of a week, but it evolves based on Larry’s take on it.

“It is not just sitting in a room and throwing out punch lines and punching it up. We are not as concerned with punch lines as we are in finding the truth of the situation. That’s where the laughs really are for us.”

NBC, Seinfeld says, has never censored the scripts.

“We have impeccable manners and taste,” he says, with tongue firmly in cheek. “We always do a (subject) in the highest moral standards. We are not trying to get away with anything in terms of language or in terms of subjects. The thing is to do it the right way.”

The series doesn’t want to offend people, Seinfeld says, but “you almost always have to offend in some way just to do comedy. I mean, if people don’t have a sense of humor about themselves and they are the subject, they are going to be offended. But it doesn’t make (the comedy) offensive.”

What it does do is make it unpredictable. “That’s the big thing with us,” Seinfeld says. “You don’t see it coming. Most of the time, within a few minutes (on other shows), you know what the story is and you know how it is going to work out. In our show, we don’t resolve the problem. Sometimes things just get worse and then it is over. Sometimes it gets better. It’s more stimulating. We try to avoid familiar patterns.”

According to Charles, no subject is taboo.

“This is Larry David’s brilliance, really,” he explains. “He has the innate sense to take almost any provocative subject, find the right tone for it, and the right angle and make it palatable to an audience. I think that is part of his genius. He is totally fearless facing almost any subject matter, but he knows how far to go. He knows the boundaries of it and he finds the humor.”

Like fellow stand-ups-turned-sitcom-stars Roseanne Arnold and Tim Allen, Seinfeld has developed into a fine comedic actor. “Aren’t I terrific?,” he says, grinning. “I was nominated for an Emmy, so I must be pretty good. I am good. I just do what fits the story. The story is the thing.

“I have no ego about the show, believe it or not. I don’t even care if I am in it, to tell you the truth. If it is a good show, that’s all that matters to me. I would love not to be in one. I think that would be really fun. To do that we would definitely have to do a Superman episode in which George and Elaine get stuck in a cave. ...”

Superman frequently comes up during a conversation with Seinfeld. Man of Steel references also pop up on the series; a picture of Supe adorns Jerry’s refrigerator door. Seinfeld even played Superman last year on a “Saturday Night Live” sketch.

So, what’s the skinny on Superman?

“Well, it’s really the most important show because it deals with life on a level of a super man,” Seinfeld says with a touch of sarcasm.

“Imagine, if you had all of these powers, and still look at the problems that you would have. The problems just increase to match the size of your ability. Even though you are super, life has many nuisances. I watch and discuss (Superman) daily.”

In fact, Seinfeld says, “I am Superman on the show, George is Perry White, Elaine is Lois Lane and Kramer is Jimmy Olsen.”

With “Seinfeld” now through production for this season, Seinfeld is doing comedy concerts across the country. These days, his audiences are bigger than ever and come from a broader cross-section of the populace. “People who like the show are going to like my act, and vice versa,” he says.

If “Seinfeld” ended tomorrow, he wouldn’t mind returning full-time to the life of a stand-up comic. “I am a comedian, that’s what I do,” Seinfeld explains. “The show has come along and that has been great, but doing stand-up is really my first love. There are certain things that you do in life that when you are doing them, you get this feeling that is what I am supposed to be doing. Something just feels right. ...”

Laurie the fan interrupts him. “Thank you again,” she says enthusiastically as she shakes Seinfeld’s hand.

“Nice to meet you Laurie,” he tells her.

As she walks away, Seinfeld quips: “Boy, some people want to meet the Pope. Not her.”