Hello, Wayne Knight.
December 3, 2016 10:20 AM   Subscribe

Hey, Aren't You... is a short (15 min) DVD extra featuring interviews with many of the actors who played supporting characters on Seinfeld and the impact the show had on their life.
posted by Room 641-A (18 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
I can't imagine any show having this kind of reach now.
posted by lmfsilva at 10:43 AM on December 3, 2016 [2 favorites]


I can't imagine any show having this kind of reach now.

Yep - having come of age as a punk in the 80s and 90s railing against mass cult, it's still a little disconcerting to have, in some way, won that particular culture war. Every aspect of the culture now feels like an endless, baffling content firehose that I can't even begin to get any comprehensive handle on.

Ah, well - I'm glad it worked out pretty well for Wayne Knight. He seems like a decent guy.
posted by ryanshepard at 11:07 AM on December 3, 2016 [2 favorites]


Wayne Knight is what you'd get if God designed a "fat guy" comedic character actor. He stole the show in "Dead Again" and I will always love him for that.
posted by thelonius at 11:07 AM on December 3, 2016 [1 favorite]


I don't know if this should be celebrated as a triumph of a television show having achieved maximum global reach or of it should be gazed upon with horror of American Hegemony across the planet.
posted by hippybear at 11:18 AM on December 3, 2016


Yep - having come of age as a punk in the 80s and 90s railing against mass cult, it's still a little disconcerting to have, in some way, won that particular culture war.

Except big bad television got "killed" and exploded into a million other mass cults. And the evil advertisers have intimate knowledge of everyone that Big Brother could've only dreamed of. And the current president-elect is making fucking Ronald Reagan look like a perfectly sane, reasonable leader.

We didn't win the culture war, it metastasized.
posted by Celsius1414 at 11:45 AM on December 3, 2016 [3 favorites]


We didn't win the culture war, it metastasized.

Oh, I never dreamed of winning the political war - I just wanted to watch something other than "Hill Street Blues" or "Dallas" without a colossal expenditure of time and effort to find something less toxic and stupid. Now, for example, I can stream a huge chunk of the Criterion Collection for free from my public library - utter science fiction in 1986.

In terms of quantity, quality, and things that appeal to my interests, TV time has really improved here inside the iron cage.
posted by ryanshepard at 12:18 PM on December 3, 2016 [1 favorite]


And the current president-elect is making fucking Ronald Reagan look like a perfectly sane, reasonable leader.

He's making Ronald McDonald look like a perfectly sane, reasonable leader, though.
posted by Grangousier at 12:22 PM on December 3, 2016 [3 favorites]


He's making Ronald McDonald look like a perfectly sane, reasonable leader, though.

You ever see Hamburglar in jail? McDonald is a coddler who puts all of our food at risk.
posted by rhizome at 12:37 PM on December 3, 2016 [1 favorite]


Ah, well - I'm glad it worked out pretty well for Wayne Knight. He seems like a decent guy.

I actually remembered him from the year he was on this very short-lived sketch comedy show right before Seinfeld. It was pretty dark and didn't last that long...and also featured another cast member who went on to a different other show that she probably gets recognized for all the time.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 12:41 PM on December 3, 2016 [1 favorite]


This article is kind of hilarious because the video is a DVDrip from the box set. Go AV Club!

The thing that freaks me out in an "I will never break out of being a mere consumer," way is that you watch these interviews and it's jarringly apparent that these people are actors. I know that sounds banal, but when a character is so engraved into culture that you forget that all of these people, ALL, are some version of the drama buddies you had in high school and are mired just as much as ever in the Hollywood industry. Puddy, Soup Nazi, Newman...all honing their craft, looking toward a next role, trying not to wait tables, all of that. Regular people in a way.
posted by rhizome at 12:51 PM on December 3, 2016 [2 favorites]


I wonder how much someone like Danny Woodburn/Mickey or Steven Hytner/Bania gets in residuals. Enough not to have to have a day job? Mickey was in 7 episodes, Bania 6, and Seinfeld is on reruns just as much as Chuck Lorre shows are.
posted by rhizome at 12:55 PM on December 3, 2016


To Seinfeld's comment likening telling someone they'd mixed together two episodes to the Marshall McLuhan moment in Annie Hall, I'd say that I'd imagine having people constantly come up to you and do "bits" or ask you to do "bits" would be more like the two mooks accosting Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) outside a theater in that same film and yelling to passersby, "Alvy Singer ovah heah!"
posted by the sobsister at 2:15 PM on December 3, 2016


> I wonder how much someone like Danny Woodburn/Mickey or Steven Hytner/Bania gets in residuals. Enough not to have to have a day job?

The sibling of a family friend played a minor character on Seinfeld, and appeared semi-regularly (a couple-few times a season, though I don't know which season they started).

The upshot is: Their career was as a "That Guy" character actor. The residuals from perpetual reruns would be enough to keep them well-fed and housed in, say, West Virginia or Montana, but as a working actor the residuals mostly ensured a safe retirement income while they continued doing bit parts in other sitcoms and the occasional TV commercial. Living in NYC is expensive.
posted by at by at 2:50 PM on December 3, 2016 [1 favorite]


The thing that freaks me out in an "I will never break out of being a mere consumer," way is that you watch these interviews and it's jarringly apparent that these people are actors.

What freaked me out was their stories of how many people think they're their characters. I'm pretty much always watching actors, it's rare that I forget that even in the moment. It's interesting to me that so many people aren't like that.
posted by bongo_x at 10:39 PM on December 3, 2016


I kind of feel bad for Reni Santoni (Poppie). People telling you that you peed on stuff has gotta get pretty old.
posted by AndrewInDC at 7:42 AM on December 4, 2016 [1 favorite]


Especially when you've had a HUGE career before that!
posted by rhizome at 11:41 AM on December 4, 2016


I have a vague fantasy of seeing Bryan Cranston and running up to gush over him being Tim Whatley. I'm sure that would make me the obnoxious fan, but I can't guarantee I wouldn't do it, and Mr. Cranston seems to be a very good sport with fans.
posted by cmoj at 11:33 AM on December 5, 2016


Can I get a shtickle of ink on this Playbill?
posted by rhizome at 12:47 PM on December 5, 2016 [1 favorite]


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