Seinfeld-The Complete 7th Season (1995)

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General		Extras
Category	Comedy	Main Menu Audio Audio Commentary-The Showerhead, The Doll, The Friars Club,Yada Yada Featurette-Behind The Scenes-Inside Looks-The Cadillac Parts 1 & 2, The Friars Club Deleted Scenes-"In The Vault" Informational Subtitles-Notes About Nothing Featurette-Dr Cosmo On Marriage And Family, George And The Whale Featurette-Inside Looks
Rating
Year Of Production	1995
Running Time	522
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered Multi Disc Set (4)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Tom Cherones
Studio Distributor	SONY Pictures Sony Pictures Home Entertain	Starring	None Given
Case	?
RPI	$69.95	Music	Jep Epstein Jonathan Wolff

    The 7th season of this all-time classic comedy series is now out on DVD as a 4-disc boxset. This release follows the same format as the previous sets (except for Season 1 & 2 which were packaged as one boxset). This means that it has all the episodes from Season 7, 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 this season was first shown! I remember many of the episodes so clearly, and yet find them just as funny after repeated viewings. Now that they're on well presented DVDs, they even look better than ever before.

    There are some classic episodes in Season 7, including The Doll, The Maestro, The Wink, The Gum and of course the unforgettable Soup Nazi! 

    This boxset also includes a whole load of extras such as commentary tracks, trivia subtitles,deleted scenes, alternate endings and a number of standalone documentaries such as one focusing on Larry David's departure from the series, and another great one highlighting the character of Elaine Benes.

   The Episodes

    I won't provide the story for each episode as many 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 Engagement

        Inside Look (4:08) -  short compilation of recent interviews with cast and crew members with excerpts from the episode.

        Deleted scene (1:42)

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

        Sein-imation - a short animated version of a scene, which is supposed to look like a pencil on paper animation. Uses the original soundtrack from the scene.

    2. The Postponement

        Audio commentary with Jason Alexander and Julia-Louis Dreyfus.

        Notes About Nothing

    3. The Maestro

         Inside Look (4:25)

         Notes About Nothing

    4. The Wink

        Notes About Nothing

    5. The Hot Tub

         Deleted scenes (2:25) - 2 fairly lengthy scenes

         Notes About Nothing

    6. The Soup Nazi

        Inside look (7:34)

        Commentary with Jerry Seinfeld, Director Andy Ackerman, and writer Spike Feresten.

        Notes about nothing

DISC 2

    7. The Secret Code

        Inside look (2:31)

        Commentary with writers Alec Berg and Jeff Scoffer

        Notes About Nothing

    8. The Pool Guy

        Inside Look (5:40)

        Commentary with Jerry Seinfeld, Director Andy Ackerman, and writer David Mandel

        Notes About Nothing

    9. The Sponge

        Commentary with writer Peter Mehlman        

        Notes About Nothing

    10. The Gum

        Inside look (3:47)

        Commentary with writers Tom Gamill and Max Pross

        Notes About Nothing

    11. The Rye

        Inside look (7:22)

        Deleted scene (0:50)

        Notes About Nothing

    12. The Caddy

        Inside Look (2:11)

        Deleted Scene (1:31)

        Notes about nothing

        Extras

        Sein-imation   "George and the Whale" (2:40)

DISC 3

    13. The Seven

        Deleted Scene (0:40)

        Notes about Nothing

    14+15. The Cadillac (parts 1 & 2)

        Inside look (3:32)   

        Notes About Nothing

    16. The Shower Head

       Commentary with Jason Alexander and Julia-Louis Dreyfus

        Notes About Nothing

    17. The Doll

         Deleted scene (1:00)

         Commentary with writers Tom Gammill and Max Pross

    18. The Friars' Club

        Inside Look

        Deleted scenes (3:55) - 3 separate scenes

        Alternate ending (1:09)

        Commentary with writer David Mandel

DISC 4

    19. The Wig Master

        Inside Look (1:58)

        Deleted scenes (2:28)   - 2 separate scenes

        Notes About Nothing

    20. The Calzone

        Inside look (2:09)

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

        Notes About Nothing

    21+22. The Bottle Deposit (part 1 and 2)

       Inside Look (5:33)

       Notes About Nothing

    23. The Wait Out

       Notes About Nothing

    24. The Invitations

        Inside Look (8:24)

        Deleted scenes (3:57)  5 different scenes

        Notes About Nothing

Video

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

    Sharpness is great, considering the nature and the age of the source material. Shadow detail is good at all times. There is some very slight grain visible in outdoor shots (especially whenever 'stock' location footage was used).

    Colour is consistent but does have a very slight reddish tinge to it which gives skin tones a slightly ruddy hue.

    Overall a good clean print that has been restored well with very few visible positive or negative film artefacts. At times it looks very lovely and 'filmlike'.

    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

    As with the previous boxsets, the slight speedup that results from the NTSC to PAL conversion means that we have to put up with a slightly higher-pitch soundtrack. This makes some of the naturally high voices rather screechy at times! But you get used to it pretty soon and it's really only obvious if you compare it with the locally televised version of the show.

    The audio tracks are available in the original English, as well as in French and German.

    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. The sound is spread mainly across the front speakers.

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

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 a number 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's a pity that Michael Richards ("Kramer") dropped out of providing commentary for the last few seasons.

Featurettes - 'Inside Look'

    These are short (usually around 5 minute duration) documentaries about 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. Extremely worthwhile inclusion from which even the most ardent fan will learn something new.

Deleted Scenes

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

Featurette - Queen of the Castle - The Elaine Benes Story (runtime 16:12).

    Interviews with various cast and crew members focusing on the central character of Elaine Benes (played by Julia-Louis Dreyfus). Plenty of scenes featuring Elaine, including some very funny outtakes. Presented at 1.78:1 letterboxed.

Featurette - Larry David's Farewell  (7:52)

    Interviews with long time producer Larry David and other cast and crew members focusing on Larry's departure at the end of season 7. Presented at 1.78:1 letterboxed.

Featurette - Where's Larry? Seinfeld's Secret Guest Star (7:13)

    An extensive collection of clips from the show highlighting scenes in which Larry David appeared, either in person or at least his voice. It was mostly the latter, including as the voice of Mr Steinbrunner at the New York Yankees.

Featurette - Master of His Domain - Exclusive Standup Material (8:43)

    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. Presented in 1.33:1 fullscreen.

Featurette - Outtakes - "Not That There's Anything Wrong With That" (21:26)

    Huge collection of bloopers from Season 7 episodes. Very funny indeed!

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

    Given that the release date for our R4 version appears to be before that of R1, I would strongly recommend the R4 version.

    This boxset of season 7 is being released just in time to cash in on the Christmas shopping frenzy.

    Like the previous boxset releases, they've done a very good job putting this 4-disc set together. It includes all the episodes from the season, 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.

    Obviously, any fan who already has the first 6 seasons already would be rushing out to get this latest set (or would be dropping large hints about what they'd like for Christmas!).

    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 to start watching from the beginning. Yes...even for a show that oft purported to 'be about nothing' (but which actually covered just about everything!).

    Picture and sound are noticeably better than they were on TV, with the significant benefits of no commercial breaks and the loss of a precious few words of dialogue that 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