Reddit reviews My Seinfeld Year (Kindle Single)

Fred Stoller's book My Seinfeld Year
(http://www.amazon.com/Seinfeld-Year-Kindle-Single-ebook/dp/B006Z499M0) is a good look into the writing process of that show.

Apparently the way it worked was a writer had to pitch & get approved a Jerry story, Elaine Story, Kramer story & George story, then map out how all the stories intersected w/ each other.
Once Larry & Jerry approved all this, the writer had permission to write the episode.
Once done, they turned it in & Larry & Jerry proceeded to punch it up. Sometimes only changing a few names, other times rewriting every joke until nothing was left but set pieces & structure.

Brandon Johnson comptrols for the fourth episode in a row; Jeff will finally return the following week.


Dan's Instagram songs have really taken on a life of their own (especially now that he has a self-driving car).


Dan is referencing the bizarre (and highly meme-able) story about Trump touching a glowing orb in Saudi Arabia.


The image of feeding checks into the heart monitor is so hilariously dystopian -- it really conjures up the perfect genre-based feeling.


Dan's Kumail impression still isn't great (or even good, really), but it's come a long way. Not sure when his previous attempts were, but it's definitely been a while.


I had entirely forgotten about this pug rant, but it is absolute gold. His rescue dog joke didn't land for me because I immediately thought of a pug trying to rescue someone instead of a dog being rescued. Also, Dan is referencing the music video for Blind Melon's "No Rain", which has such a heartwarming concept.


I really don't know what to make of Dan's approach of not hiding red flags but waving them like a matador. Maybe it's a good way of getting rejections out of the way early on so time isn't wasted on people who are pretty certain to not end up working out anyway.


"In his defense, he didn't know what he was doing was illegal." I love how this is just thrown away.


"Getting defensive over nothing" is such a pithy summation of Dan's M.O., isn't it? It's good that he's at least acutely aware of it here, and I think therapy continues to ameliorate this tendency.


This is such a beautiful title quote, though.


It's really incredible how "Ram Dass ain't no joke!" was set up four episodes ago in "The Final Meltdown." Brandon Johnson, you sly motherfucker.


Nothing is funnier than imagining someone narrating their own mushroom trip.


"It never gets any better than sitting under a tree, grooming each other, and waiting to die."


Fred Stoller doesn't feel to me like the best fit for Harmontown (maybe it's his particular energy or older comedy style), but he's at least entertaining. Here are My Seinfeld Year and Five Minutes to Kill.

He wrote this which is a short but fun read: https://www.amazon.ca/gp/aw/d/B006Z499M0/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1474656818&sr=8-2&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=fred+stoller&dpPl=1&dpID=41JFf6mGzOL&ref=plSrch

He has a short kindle book on amazon, its kind of interesting.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B006Z499M0/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1397004404&sr=8-2&pi=SY200_QL40

When it comes to comedy writing, I suggest checking out Fred Stoller's Kindle Single called My Seinfeld Year. It's his recollections of being a writer on Seinfeld for one season, and what that process was like. There's also a lot of great behind the scenes info (some of which covers writing and development) about NBCs golden era of sitcoms in Warren Littlefield's book, Top of the Rock. If you want to read some scripts, this site is one of the best collections I know of.

Here's a kindle single by someone who wrote for Seinfeld for a year. He was a writer and also played the character Denim Vest.

From what he writes, it sounds like writing for Seinfeld was not such a dream job and a lot of people didn't last very long.