And the show got much more popular after that episode.”ĭavid’s show reveal came during a chat with his former stars that was organized to benefit Texas Democrats in hopes of raising money and volunteer awareness for the key battleground state in the 2020 presidential election. “It really catapulted us to another place. “That show changed something about how we were perceived in television land,” said David of the episode. That episode, the gang acknowledged, put Seinfeld on the map as the watercooler show. “It’s a very feminist point of view, and kind of critical I think, looking back on it.” “It’s a very important cultural moment for that reason,” said the actress of her character fighting her way into the contest. Indeed, though the ending is somewhat ambiguous over whether or not Alexander’s George is the true winner, Elaine doesn’t break the final two. “No one was going near a subject like this, but here’s what’s so subversively wonderful about the show - Elaine’s in the contest! And she doesn’t win!” “All of our shows broke some ground about what you could get away with on TV,” noted Alexander of the revolutionary idea to plot a show around masturbating without ever uttering the word (see: “Master of your domain”). “Fortunately, they didn’t say a word,” he recalls. I’m gonna quit.'”īut much to his surprise, there was no pushback. But I was ready to pack the whole thing in if they didn’t let us do this show: ‘I’m quitting. I was watching and I couldn’t tell how much they liked it. I had worked myself up into a lather because the read-through really went great. “I just wanted them to come and see the read-through. “This one, I didn’t even put on the board because I didn’t want them asking,” David said. But “The Contest” was an idea that David strategically kept close to the vest. “The Contest” had a simple premise that, in a rarity, involved all four characters in the same episode-long storyline: Who could go the longest without masturbating?ĭavid explained that he used to keep his episode ideas on a blackboard, one that the NBC executives would take a look at after a table read and ask about upcoming shows. I was convinced that the network was going to come in and say, ‘This is not going to work out,'” recalled Louis-Dreyfus, who played Elaine Benes on the nine-season comedy, of the anticipated NBC reaction. Of course it was Kramer tapping out of the contest within the span of 30 seconds that pushed the contest and the episode out of the atmosphere.“When we were making this episode, I was convinced we were going to be shut down. in her aerobics class helped string the Kennedy thread through the history of the series. The fact that Elaine got her rocks off to the spank bank images of John F. We were all still two years away from the Jocelyn Elders debacle too.Īnd with porn so prevalent on smart phones now, the novelty of jacking it to a copy of Glamour is sweetly-innocent.Įven the concept of a woman masturbating - giggle giggle - was foreign in 1992. Censors in 1992 were still scared of the m-word. Today if a current sitcom tackled this same subject it wouldn't be a big deal. The phrase "master of my domain" would become code for taming your lustful onanistic urges. Serious topics like drugging a woman to play with her toys, puffy shirts, and soup counter dictators.īut with "The Contest" the Seinfeld tapped into uncharted territory for television. Jerry Seinfeld himself was the one who championed it.įor all the show's inanity and nothingness, they did a good job of shoving social issues into the forefront. You can check out David and the cast talking about the genesis of the episode here on YouTube. Written by Larry David, it's easily one of the best episodes of the series and it ushered in a public dialog. "How long can a modern human go without masturbating?" they asked, without even using the dreaded M-word, with more than 22 minutes of side-stepping stuttering hilarity. On November 18, 1992, the creators and writers of Seinfeld posed a serious question to Americans, just weeks after they elected Bill Clinton as their new president.
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