Seinfeld-The Complete 3rd Season (1990)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Informational Subtitles-Notes About Nothing Featurette-Inside Look Audio Commentary-7 Episodes, Cast And Crew Deleted Scenes-In The Vault Introduction-Jerry Seinfeld - The Boyfriend Featurette-Kramer vs Kramer: Kenny to Cosmo Outtakes-Not That There's Anything Wrong With That - Bloopers Featurette-Master of his Domain TV Spots-Sponsored by Vandelay Industries Gallery-Photo Deleted Scenes
Rating
Year Of Production	1990
Running Time	?
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (4)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Andy Ackerman Jason Alexander Tom Cherones David Steinberg
Studio Distributor	Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	Jerry Seinfeld Julia Louis-Dreyfus Michael Richards Jason Alexander
Case	?
RPI	$79.95	Music	Stan Ridgway Jonathan Wolff

    Here we go again...more stories about 'nothing' from that great long running TV comedy, Seinfeld.  But I'm not complaining! Join Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer for even more insanely funny situations and views on life in this second box set from the show.

    Although this particular set is called Volume 2, it actually contains the complete 3rd season of the show. Confused? It's called Volume 2 because the complete first and second seasons were contained in Volume 1. The episodes are arranged in the order of their original production.

    Overall the stories seem even funnier than those in the first 2 seasons. The writers have obviously gained more experience with the characters and situations, whilst the actors have become more comfortable with their roles and with each other. I noticed that Jerry in particular seemed more comfortable now with acting in a group situation, and didn't seem as much in his stand-up mode as I felt he was in the earlier seasons.

    All 22 episodes are very funny and would be rather familiar to local fans of the show as these seem to be amongst the most repeated ones on local TV. There are some classics in here including: The Pez Dispenser, The Boyfriend, The Limo and The Pen. Of course, every fan will have their own particular favourites.

The Episodes

    I won't provide the story for each episode as detailed guides can be found on the Net. One good example is at the www.tvtome.com website. Details of episode-based extras are also provided below:

Disc 1

    1. The Note

    Inside Look -  short compilation of recent interviews with cast and crew members with excerpts from the episode.

    Deleted Scene (runtime 0:44)

    Notes About Nothing -  fact track packed with continuous supply of trivia about the episode, general background information, cast information and much else. Even includes 'counters' of Kramer's entrances, as well as Jerry's girlfriends.

    2. The Truth

    Notes About Nothing

    3. The Dog

    Deleted Scene (runtime 2:32)

    Notes About Nothing

    4. The Library

    Inside Look

    Commentary by writer Larry Charles - reasonably entertaining, if a little dry at times.

    Notes About Nothing

    5. The Pen

    Inside Look

    Commentary by Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David - very entertaining, though some gaps are starting to appear. Perhaps they recorded the commentaries for a number of episodes in one long session and were starting to get bored or tired.

    Notes About Nothing

Disc 2

    6. The Parking Garage

    Inside Look

    Commentary by Director Tom Cherones and Production Designer Tom Azzari - a somewhat more 'technical' look at the making of the episode, though nevertheless quite entertaining.

    Deleted scene (0:38)

    7. The Cafe

    Inside Look

    Notes About Nothing

    8. The Tape

    Notes About Nothing

    9. The Nose Job

    Inside Look

    Deleted Scene (1:12)

    Notes About Nothing

    10. The Alternate Side

    No extras

Disc 3

    11. The Red Dot

    Inside Look

    Deleted Scene (0:28)

    Notes About Nothing

    12. The Suicide

    Inside Look

    Notes About Nothing

    13. The Subway

    Inside Look

    Commentary by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander and Michael Richards. I find the commentaries by these three the funniest in the set as they are rather entertaining and let fly with quite a few barbs about each other, and about Jerry!

    Notes About Nothing

    14. The Pez Dispenser

    Inside Look

    Commentary with Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David

    Notes About Nothing

    15. The Boyfriend (part 1 and 2)

    Episode introduction by Jerry Seinfeld for a later rerun of this episode. Interestingly he refers to it as "The New Friend". Perhaps to soothe some viewers' sensitivities? Incidentally, this is the only Seinfeld episode in which the episode title appears.

Disc 4

    17. The Fixup

    Inside Look

    Deleted Scenes (1:48) - 2 separate scenes deleted before the final airing.

    18. The Limo

    Inside Look

    Commentary with writer Larry Charles

    Notes About Nothing

    19. The Good Samaritan

    Inside Look

    Deleted scenes (2:46) - extensions to existing scenes

    Notes About Nothing

    20. The Letter

    Inside Look

    Deleted Scenes (3:50) - quite extensive considering the length of the episode

    Notes About Nothing

    21. The Parking Space

    Inside Look

    Commentary with Tom Cherones and Tom Azzari

    22. The Keys

    Inside Look

    Notes About Nothing

Video

    The episodes are presented in their original ratio of 1.33:1 full screen and are not 16x9 enhanced. Some of the extras are presented in 'widescreen' but are letterboxed and not 16x9 enhanced.

    The picture quality of the episodes is surprisingly good, considering the age and nature of the source material.

    The picture is quite sharp most of the time, though does occasionally get a little soft, which is perhaps attributable to the original source rather than any fault in the transfer. Shadow detail is good and there is no low level noise.

    Colour is reasonably good, though it does have a tendency towards looking slightly reddish at times.

    Grain is quite apparent in some scenes though it never becomes too distracting. It's especially noticeable on some of the 'stock' footage of the outdoor scenes.

    I couldn't spot any positive or negative artefacts, nor any traces of aliasing or moire effect.

    Subtitles were available in English as well as a number of other languages. The subtitles in English were accurate and in sync with the spoken words.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The soundtrack on this disc is pretty much just in mono, though the music does spread to the front left and right speakers.

    Audio is available in English and Spanish, clearly for the American market.

    Dialogue is clear at all times and is in sync with the actors' lip movements.

    The music, by Jonathon Wolff, is really only used during the opening and closing credits, as well as the 'return from commercial breaks'. It's upbeat and catchy and features the distinctive 'popping' sounds made by the composer himself!

    The audio is spread only across the front speakers with the majority being dialogue via the centre channel. The rear surrounds remain silent.

    The subwoofer is only kept alive depending on re-directed bass signals in your decoder.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu Audio

    Each disc has a differently themed menu which is wonderfully done with short excerpts from an episode, as well as the theme music playing in a long loop. Each submenu on the disc is also themed accordingly.

Featurette - Kramer vs Kramer : Kenny to Cosmo (runtime 22:37)

    Quite a long documentary focusing on the much loved character Cosmo Kramer. There is footage from Michael Richards' previous TV comedy work as well as interviews with him, other cast members as well as extensive interviews with the real life character, Kenny Kramer. Kenny was Larry David's neighbour and apparently formed the basis for the TV character.

Outtakes - Not That There's Anything Wrong With That (15:18)

    Extensive collection of bloopers from many of the season 3 episodes. Occasionally one can even hear the Director's cues in the background after a mistake has been made. Often these bloopers are due to one or more of the cast breaking into fits of laughter.

Featurette - Master of his Domain (10:13)

    Excerpts from Jerry's stand-up routines created for the TV series but not actually aired as part of the episodes.

TV Spots - Sponsored by Vandelay Industries (2:00)

    Collection of US TV spots for the original airing of some of the episodes in Season 3.

Photo Gallery

    Collection of stills both posed and taken during filming. Each photo auto-advances after about 5 seconds. The theme music plays in the background.

Deleted Scenes - In the Vault

    This selection allows access to all the deleted scenes on the disc. They can also be selected from the episode menu.

Inside Looks

    Allows access to each of the Inside Looks on the discs. These can also be accessed directly from the menu for the relevant episode.

    The R4 version appears to be identical to the R1 release. There may be some differences in the cover artwork.

    The R4 version is the one to go for unless there are real savings to be had from overseas vendors (and your player is R1 compatible of course)

    Like the Volume 1 box set, this set has been lovingly put together for the fans of the show. The packaging, the menu design and the great extras make this a must-have for any fan of the show. The picture and sound quality is better than it ever was on TV, though it's still not in widescreen or Dolby Digital 5.1 of course!

    The extras may not be as plentiful as in the first box set, though there is still more than enough to satisfy any fan. It's good having different participants in the commentary tracks as it adds a different perspective to the show, rather than having the same persons doing all the tracks. I think there are just enough commentary tracks in this set to feel satisfied, with being over-saturated.

    Fans of the show will definitely want to have this as part of their collection.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall