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So, Jerry, We Were Just Wondering . . .

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‘Seinfeld” celebrates the minutiae of everyday life. Here’s some assorted minutiae about life in the “Seinfeld” universe:

George Has a Messy Resume: George (Jason Alexander) has had five very different jobs and a few stretches of unemployment during the series’ run.

“I started as a real estate broker,” Alexander says. “I was a hand model, I worked at a publisher for a while, I did the pilot (for an ersatz “Seinfeld” show for NBC).”

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George remains at his post with the Yankees.

“If we had known there was going to be a strike, I would have caused it somehow,” Alexander says. “We never figured it would have lasted. We started the season two or three weeks into the strike; everyone figured by the time we got on the air, it would be resolved and it’s old news.”

The series received permission to use the Yankees logo after team owner George Steinbrenner--who had never seen the show--caught one episode. He has been invited to play himself but has not responded.

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Jerry and Elaine Weren’t Made for Each Other: It has never been explained just how long Jerry and Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) dated before becoming platonic pals.

Says Louis-Dreyfus: “They weren’t together a long time, and the reason was that we weren’t compatible sexually. We’re mainly apart with these disastrous reunions. We came back together for an episode--I admitted I faked every orgasm. They were toying with making us a couple. Fortunately, they decided not to.”

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Kramer, Believe It or Not, Has Evolved Just Like the Rest of Us: Kramer (Michael Richards) is based on an actual neighbor executive producer and co-creator Larry David had in New York. At first, the neighbor didn’t want his real name used, so he was called Kestler in the pilot.

“In the first 10 shows, the Kramer I played was a million miles away from what I do now,” Richards says. “It took me a while to find this character. I played him slower, dumber. Now I play him as he has a real belief in himself--he really believes in life, is committed to what he does.”

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Kramer Is a Fashion Bellwether: Richards developed Kramer’s unique look. “Most of my clothes are out of the ‘60s--Shirt-Vacs,” he explains. “They were sold through Town and Country and JC Penney, and now you can’t get them. They’re worth a fortune.

“In the beginning, I was going to retro clothing shops, not to create a hip look for the character but because these clothes have always been Kramer’s, and he’s just never bought them. When I first tried to get them, I was up in Santa Barbara in an old clothing shop, and I was trying to explain to them--Shirt-Vacs, they have a pattern in the front, two buttons on the sides. They had five, still in the plastic bags. He sold them to me for $20 apiece. A good one is $200 today.”

Today, the program’s costume designer hunts them down, occasionally creating some from scratch. Richards has approval of each shirt.

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God Contributed a Gag to One Episode. In the parking-garage episode, in which the foursome get all manner of grief while wandering lost, looking for their car, “the original ending was that we were driving around, and we couldn’t find the exit,” Louis-Dreyfus remembers. “At 3 o’clock in the morning, that particular shoot was very difficult for many reasons, and we shot into the wee hours of the morning. And the last shot was in fact the final shot of the show--we were supposed to climb into the car and go.

“And when we did, Michael couldn’t start the car. It actually wouldn’t start. It was like God had actually given us a better ending to the script. We were laughing so damn hard that if you watch that episode, you can see--I think it’s Jason and me in the back seat, and our heads are bobbing, trying to stop our hysterical laughter, trying to keep it under control while the camera’s running.”

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You Can Make Masturbation Jokes When You Get Successful Too: “This show can get away with just about anything,” Richards says.

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“Very early on, we had an episode, and George was going to slip a mickey to his boss who had fired him,” co-creator David recalls. “And one of the executives at Castle Rock said, ‘You can’t have him poison his boss,’ and I said, ‘No, I think I can do it!’ So we fought about that one for a while. That was at the beginning of the series, but now that seems like nothing, poisoning a boss.”

“All of us expected someone from standards and practices to come down and say, ‘Sorry, guys, we’ve got to pull the plug this week,’ but it never came down,” Louis-Dreyfus says of the Emmy-winning masturbation episode.

“That particular show, I was very worried about,” says David, who wrote the episode. “And in my mind, I thought that I would quit if they wouldn’t let us do it. That’s what I was going to say; whether or not I was going to do it, I don’t know. I was expecting a lot of trouble and we didn’t get any.

“We get that leeway because of our success. But don’t talk too loud. Let’s not jinx ourselves.”

“The masturbation show, we got letters; people said, ‘We’re not watching “Seinfeld” anymore,’ ” Richards says. “We got a couple hundred letters. The Bubble Boy episode got letters.”

“We get a lot of letters, but we just go on and try to offend more people,” David says.

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George Had Better Never Have Back Problems: Another letter-writing campaign came after an early show on which George visited a chiropractor’s office.

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“George lambasted the guy,” Alexander recalls, “and we got letters from the chiropractors’ association. They were really upset. I just kept saying, ‘It’s George! Who the hell do they think he’s gonna influence?’ ”

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Sure, There Have Been Missed Opportunities: There are “Seinfeld” T-shirts and the Kramer poster, but Richards believes the show missed the boat on a marketing scheme.

“I always thought they should’ve come out with the Kramer coffee-table book; I always thought it was a pretty cool idea,” he laments, referring to a book Kramer had published that figured in a couple of episodes.

Alas, only one copy was made, and its whereabouts are unknown.

“The book had a nice cover of me; I had a pipe. I took it to New York to be taped on ‘Regis and Kathie Lee,’ and I accidentally left it at the studio. I don’t know who got it. As I got in the car, I said, ‘Jeez, who got that book?’ And no one knew. Somebody clipped it. Forty, 50 years from now, that’ll be real collectible.”

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The Four Food Groups Provide Actors With Nutrition--and Something to Do With Their Hands: The refrigerator in Jerry’s apartment is fully stocked. “Seven-eighths of all our business comes from that refrigerator,” Louis-Dreyfus says. “For the lack of nothing better to do, we eat constantly.” There are also 17 boxes of cereal in his cabinets.

On the set of Monk’s, the diner at which the four hang out, the specials board on the back wall always reads, without fail, “Monday’s Specials.” The prop menus offer ham hocks and lima beans for 75 cents and braised veal chops for 80 cents.

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It Takes a Lot of Living to Make a Set a Home: “The apartment was kind of empty when we first started out, and now it’s all full of junk,” Seinfeld says. “You get the feeling--which is really true, actually--that I had just moved into that apartment at the beginning of the series. And I’ve been living there now for four or five years.”

Jerry’s walls are covered with pictures evoking baseball, Porsches and New York City. His video collection contains such classics as “The Benny Hill Show,” “Wired” and “Child’s Play 2.” His refrigerator is covered with magnets, including a Mets schedule, a Comedy Central emblem, a Superman and a Statue of Liberty, and one for the movie “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.” A newsletter on the fridge from a professional race-driving course recounts Seinfeld’s stint as a pupil: “He started out conservatively but by the third day was the most aggressive student of the bunch and clearly was the fastest.” He has a cow puppet oven mitt. Though he’s such a tidy guy, the bathtub in Jerry’s apartment set is filthy.

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The Theme Music Had a Profound Effect on the Show’s Success: “There was a time when they had a bunch of girls singing in the theme music,” Louis-Dreyfus says. “They weren’t singing this, but it sounded to me like they were singing, ‘Easy to beat!’ At the time we were failing in the ratings, and I was convinced they were saying, ‘Easy to beat!’ So now they’re out, and now we’re the No. 1 show.”

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A Kiss Isn’t Always Just a Kiss: On the 100th episode, which will air Feb. 16, Kramer gives Jerry a big smooch right on the mouth; after the taping, executives associated with the show couldn’t remember a wilder reception to a gag.

Richards says of Jerry: “He’s passive. He waits for that kiss to come to you.”

Says Seinfeld: “They can’t tell me I’m not an actor anymore--I’ve kissed a man; Kramer, no less. It wasn’t that bad. It was like kissing a dog, you know? You know this is unnatural and incorrect, but somehow, it doesn’t bother you that much. The fact that all those people were watching me do it made me feel better. . . . Did you see the big wad of gum I had afterward?”

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