It's easy to forget that Seinfeld became a completely different beast in its later seasons. The first few seasons had some hilarious infrequent characters pop up here and there, but the episodes rarely focused on anybody outside of the main gang.
However, as time went on, and Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld fully realized what the show about nothing could be, it became a rotating cast of zany characters loosely based on real-life people. Those characters often outshined Jerry himself, and the likes of Newman, J. Peterman, Jackie Chiles were the MVPs of the later years.
The first season of Seinfeld is a lot different from the other seasons, so much so that it even had a different name, as the pilot episode was aired as The Seinfeld Chronicles. But of all the changes made to the show after season 1, there was one character who was consistent from the beginning.
Kramer was peak Kramer from the very beginning, as at one point, he takes two slices of bread out of his robe's pockets and asks Jerry, "Got any meat?" He went on to have even more exciting episodes, and Kramer has many strange jobs in the later seasons, but from the very first slide through the door in the first episode, he instantly became a classic character.
From drugging a woman to spying on his neighbor, some things about Jerry have definitely aged poorly. However, his specific sense of humor is timeless, and his rather clunky jokes of the first season were smoothed over for season 2. The first season was largely an experiment, as it was finding its footing between the characters and being a show "about nothing."
But season 2 hit its stride and Jerry finally had a character of his own that was just as interesting as George, Elaine, and Kramer. From regretting getting Elaine an apartment in his building to his impatience at the Chinese restaurant, season 2 saw Jerry, for a brief moment, as the best character of his show.
George's comedy is intrinsically tied to his different jobs in the show. Seinfeld and Elaine, for the most part, are completely stable in their careers, and Kramer gets by with his wild schemes, but George is constantly switching between jobs. His best career arc isn't when he's working on the sitcom Jerry, or when he ends up working for the New York Yankees, but when Elaine gets him a job at Pendant Publishing.
George royally screws up every offer handed to him, including when he sleeps with the cleaner in season 3. And on top of that, the season is filled with some of George's dumbest moments. He pretended to be the leader of the Aryan Nation and even faked his own IQ test, one of the worst things George has ever done.
Jerry and Elaine's relationship has always been one of the most talked-about things of the series, but the great thing about Elaine is that she doesn't exist simply as Jerry's love interest, unlike many other sitcom characters. Instead, she's intelligent and assertive, and possibly even more superficial than either Jerry or George. And that's why it's just as funny when Lady Karma hits her just as bad as the guys.
Season 4 saw karma come down on Elaine hard, and it was hilarious seeing her life go from bad to worse after she had it so much easier than everyone else. "The Airport" is a classic Elaine episode where she's rattled by anything and everything going on in coach. And the season culminates in the whole Christmas card photo slip-up, which saw an out-of-control Elaine at her angriest and most defensive.
Even the characters who appear less frequently still have their iconic catchphrases, such as Frank's "Serenity now!" as a means to cope with his stress. But even though that moment didn't come until season 9, Frank Costanza had been hilariously bickering since season 4, with the best of it throughout season 5.
The season sees Frank outrageously getting angry at Elaine for taking one of his prized collectible TV guides. But the best of all comes in "The Raincoats," where the Costanzas meet Jerry's parents, and naturally, they hate each other. Frank is the character that turned Jerry Stiller into a star, and he went on to play essentially the same character in The King of Queens for nine seasons too.
As he is mostly used sparingly, only appearing when needed, Newman became a fan favorite, but the sixth season saw his part in the show expand exponentially. For most of Seinfeld's early years, Newman was more like Kramer's sidekick, only ever featuring alongside Jerry's dopey neighbor. But he slowly started getting his own episode arcs, the best of which arrived in season 6.
In a strange, expectation-subverting turn of events, many of the episode arcs in season 6 surround Newman's love life. In one episode, Jerry is disgusted over the fact that he and Newman dated the same woman. And more interestingly, perhaps as a way of getting back at him for playing second fiddle all those years, Newman sleeps with Kramer's mother.
Though she isn't the first character who springs to fans' minds, and she isn't the funniest of season 7, she has such a strong presence in the season, appearing in 10 episodes. On top of that, she's the catalyst for most of the season's best storylines too.
The seventh season wouldn't be half as good if it wasn't for Susan, as it sees George at his absolute worst all because of her. Susan leads George to want her to die, and he doesn't show one bit of remorse when she does end up passing away by toxic poison from their wedding invitation envelopes.
After the first few seasons of Seinfeld, all the most iconic characters started to get introduced. Season 6 introduced J. Peterman, season 7 saw him as a recurring character, and he stole the show for the final three seasons, peaking in season 8.
Though he's Elaine's boss over at the real-life J. Peterman catalog, the character is completely fictional, as if his ridiculously eccentric personality would make anyone believe otherwise. Peterman is hilariously upper class, and though he tries to understand, he's completely out of touch with everyday life. The season sees Peterman become a white poet warlord in the Burmese jungle, buy Kramer's life stories to pass them off as his own, and fire Elaine because she doesn't like The English Patient.
Though there are many characters in Seinfeld that take inspiration from real-life people, none are more obvious than Jackie Chiles, who is based on O.J. Simpson's lawyer, Johnnie Cochran. The character appeared throughout the later seasons of the show, mostly representing Kramer when he tries to sue coffee companies and Big Tobacco. But his best appearance in the show is in the two-part finale of the last season.
He may not have appeared much in season 9, but Jackie was by far the most memorable part of it. And after the tepid response of the finale, as it was essentially a glorified clip show, Jackie Chiles was the character who left an overwhelmingly positive lasting impression amongst fans. The character came full circle too, as so much of the finale was parodying the actual final days of the O.J. Simpson trial.
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