Seinfeld-The Complete 6th Season (1990)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Audio Commentary-Yada Yada Yada - 8 Episodes Featurette-Inside Look Informational Subtitles-Notes About Nothing Deleted Scenes-In The Vault Featurette-Making Of-Running With The Egg: Making A Seinfeld-Parts 1 & 2 Featurette-Sein-imation - The Big Race Outtakes-Not That There's Anything Wrong With That Featurette-Sein-imation - Seinfeld Noir Featurette-Master Of His Domain Featurette-Sein-imation - Kramer Vs Monkey Easter Egg
Rating
Year Of Production	1990
Running Time	?
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (4)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	1,2,3,4,5,6	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	Jonathan Wolff

    Season 6 of this fantastic American comedy is now out on DVD as a 4-disc boxset. And what a set it is! It follows the same format as the previous 4 sets (Season 1 & 2 were in one boxset), which means that it has all the Season 6 episodes, remastered for higher quality picture and sound, as well as a veritable plethora of extras. It's hard to imagine that it's been over 10 years since Season 6 was first shown. The show is just as funny, and now that it's on a well presented DVD set, it looks even better than ever before.

    Whilst there are some classic episodes in Season 6, I felt that overall the episodes weren't quite as funny as in the preceding two seasons, though by no means were they ever unfunny or boring. The plots perhaps became a little more twisted (such as in The Pledge Drive - with the 'high talker'), and the writers continued their exploration of slightly more controversial topics. However, one particularly good thing with Seinfeld is that they never tried to be too topical or too political, which perhaps has allowed this show to continue to appeal 10 years down the track.

    This boxset also includes the special 100th episode entitled "Highlights of a 100" which, funnily enough, shows highlights of the first 99 episodes.

   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.tv.com website. Details of episode-based extras are provided under the title of the relevant episode:

DISC 1

    1. The Chaperone

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

        Deleted scene (0:55)

        Notes About Nothing - trivia track which contains much useful background information on scenes, characters, locations.

    2. The Big Salad

        Inside Look

        Deleted scenes (0:39)

        Notes About Nothing

    3. The Pledge Drive

         Inside Look

         Deleted scenes (1:55)

         Notes About Nothing

    4. The Chinese Woman

         Deleted scenes (1:53)

        Notes About Nothing

    5. The Couch

         Inside Look

         Deleted scenes (3:25)

         Notes About Nothing

    6. The Gymnast

        Deleted scenes (1:48)

        Commentary with Jerry Seinfeld, Director Andy Ackerman, and writers Alec Berg and Jeff Schaffer.

DISC 2

    7. The Mom and Pop Store

        Inside look

        Deleted scene (1:51)

        Commentary with writers Tom Gammill and Max Pross

        Notes About Nothing

    8. The Soup

        Inside Look

        Deleted scenes (3:12)

        Notes About Nothing

    9. The Secretary

        Notes About Nothing

    10. The Switch

        Inside look

        Deleted scenes (2:05)   

        Notes About Nothing

    11. The Race

        Sein-imation - pen on paper animation based on a scene from the episode using the actual soundtrack from the episode. A curious but enjoyable addition.

        Inside look

        Deleted scenes (2:29)        

        Commentary with Jerry Seinfeld and director Andy Ackerman

        Notes About Nothing

    12. The Label Maker

        Inside Look

        Deleted Scene (0:58)

        Commentary with writers Alec Berg and Jeff Schaffer

        Notes about nothing

DISC 3

    13. The Scofflaw

        Deleted Scene (0:50)

    14. The Highlights of 100

        Additional introduction by Jerry (0:34)

        Notes About Nothing

    15. The Beard

        Deleted scene (0:40)

        Commentary with Jason Alexander and Julia-Louis Dreyfus (Michael Richards seems to have left the commentary team this season)

        Notes About Nothing

    16. The Kiss Hello

         Inside Look

         Notes About Nothing

    17. The Doorman

        Sein-imation ('Seinfeld Noir') (1:21)

        Inside Look

        Deleted scenes (1:47)

        Commentary with writers Tom Gammill and Max Pross

        Notes About Nothing

DISC 4

    18. The Jimmy

        Inside Look

        Deleted scenes (1:37)

        Notes About Nothing

    19. The Doodle

        Deleted Scenes (1:11)

        Notes About Nothing

    20. The Fusilli Jerry

        Inside Look

        Commentary with Jason Alexander and Julia-Louis Dreyfus

        Notes About Nothing

    21. The Diplomat's Club

        Inside Look

        Deleted scene (0:58)

        Commentary with writers Tom Gammill and Max Pross

        Notes About Nothing

    22. The Face Painter

        Sein-imation - "Kramer vs Monkey" (1:22)

        Inside Look

        Deleted scenes (1:10)

        Notes About Nothing

    23. The Understudy

        Inside Look

        Deleted scenes (2:49)

        Notes About Nothing

Video

    The episodes are presented in their original fullscreen aspect ratio of 1.33:1. Some of the extras, such as the Inside Looks, are presented in 1.78:1 letterboxed, with clips from the show being at 1.33:1.

    Sharpness is reasonable, considering the nature and the age of the source material. Shadow detail is good at all times. There is some grain visible in outdoor shots (especially 'stock' footage).

    Colour is consistent but does have a slight reddish tinge to it which gives skin tones a slightly ruddy hue. During the stock footage of circus clips in the Gymnast episode there was obvious colour bleed probably due to the age and source of the material.

    Overall a good clean print has been used that has been restored well with very few visible positive or negative film artefacts.

    Subtitles are available in a number of languages and are all selectable 'on the fly' via the remote, or via the setup menus.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    The audio tracks are available in the original English, as well as in French and German. It's somehow amusing to sample the German or French versions of some scenes.

    Dialogue is well synchronised to the actors' lip movements at all times (except in the dubbed soundtracks of course). The dialogue is clear and undistorted at all times.

    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 suits the show nicely.

    The surround channels went on holiday during this show. Even the front left and right speakers were barely audible, with the vast majority of the soundtrack (even the audience applause) being carried by the centre channel. This a little disappointingly results in a rather monophonic soundtrack.

    The subwoofer chipped in to fill out the bottom end of the soundtrack, such as during the music.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

Main Menu Audio and Animation

    Each disc has a menu that's themed to one of the episodes on the disc. The submenus are themed likewise.

Audio Commentary - 'Yada, Yada, Yada'

    Commentary by various cast/crew members is provided on 8 of the episodes. The commentary varies in terms of information and entertainment between the various parties doing the commentary tracks. However, overall they are an extremely valuable and enjoyable addition. It is interesting that Michael Richards ("Kramer") seems to have dropped out of providing commentary for Season 6. I wonder who'll be left providing commentary for the next 3 seasons...?

Featurette - 'Inside Look'

    These are short (around 5 minute duration) looks at the particular episode in question with recent interviews with relevant cast and crew. These are presented in 1.78:1 letterboxed with the clips from the episodes presented in 1.33:1 fullscreen.

Informational Subtitles - 'Notes About Nothing'

    These are continuous streams of information on characters, actors (including the many background actors), locations, and production snippets relating to each episode. They continue the counters for such things as Kramer's entrances and Jerry's and George's girlfriends. An extremely worthwhile inclusion from which even the most ardent fan will learn something new.

Deleted Scenes

    Included for most of the episodes. These range from extensions to existing scenes, to alternative takes on a scene, to scenes completely left out. Once again, highly worthwhile at least for the sake of completeness.

Featurette-Making of - "Running with the Egg: Making a Seinfeld" (runtime 33:34)

    An excellent, interesting and informative featurette on the making of an episode. There's plenty of background and on-set footage.

Featurette - Sein-imation - The Big Race

    Animation that's supposed to look like 'pen on paper' animation, based on a scene from the episode using the actual soundtrack from the episode. A curious but enjoyable addition.

Featurette - Sein-imation - Seinfeld Noir

    Animation based on the episode The Doorman.

Featurette - Outtakes - "Not That There's Anything Wrong With That" (22:29)

    A slightly long collection of bloopers from Season 6 episodes. Very funny indeed!

Featurette - Master of His Domain

    A collection of Jerry's pseudo-live stand-up comedy routines like those shown before and after each episode. The ones that appear in this featurette were not used in any episodes.

Easter Egg

    I found one or two of these across the discs. I'm sure there are more and I'd be happy if any reader could post clues.

    The R1 version lacks the German soundtrack that's on the R4 release. The R1 release also lacks quite a number of the subtitles present on the R4 release.

    There doesn't appear to be any material on the R1 release that is not on the R4 release.

    Given that the release dates for the R1 and R4 versions appear to be the same, I would strongly recommend the R4 version.

    However, there are a number of options in the R4 market, including a set that combines Season 5 and 6 in a special box.

    The boxsets for Season 5 and Season 6 are being released simultaneously, obviously to cash in on Christmas shopping.

    Like the previous boxset releases, they've done a very good job putting Season 6's together. This set includes all the episodes from the seasons, in their entirety, remastered for better quality video and audio. There's also a whole raft of extras including commentary tracks, trivia tracks, deleted scenes and stand-alone featurettes and documentaries. Season 6 introduces the Sein-imations, which are brief and curious 'hand drawn' animations of a couple of scenes.

    Obviously, any fan who already has the first 4 box sets would be rushing out to get this latest set (or would be dropping big hints about Christmas presents).

    Those who are curious about the Seinfeld 'phenomenon' and haven't yet purchased the earlier releases would be advised to try those out first. Although one would quickly pick up on the characters and interrelationships even without viewing previous seasons, it would add greater depth and understanding if you began at the start. Yes, even for a show that oft purported to 'be about nothing' (but which actually covered just about everything!)

    Picture and sound are better that they were on TV with the significant benefits of no commercial breaks and the subsequent loss of a precious few words of dialogue which often happened on TV when they cut to a break.

     The discs are filled with great and worthwhile extras.

    A highly recommended purchase.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall