":wli PERFI~i , M AT ARK. Dick Siegel, Ann Arbor's own folk singer extraordinaire, performs at the Ark on Saturday, May 23. The show starts at 8 p.m. Call 761-1800 for more information. ARTS 'Seinfeld' series finale By Michael Galloway Daily Arts Editor Perhaps nothing could have been sat- Wssfying after all the hype and secrecy built up around the last episode of "Seinfeld." In fact, nothing would have been satisfying. Nothing, as in the tiny details of everyday life, was what made the show great. But the season finale was about something, breaking an unfortunate precedent unrivaled for at least six of the show's nine years of existence. This overused way to describe "Seinfeld" never accurately described 9he show. The catchphrase "a show about nothing" comes from the fourth season of "Seinfeld" as an idea for a TV sitcom pilot that George and Jerry pre- sent to NBC. "Seinfeld" may always be about minutiae, but the show was never about nothing. "Seinfeld" has actually tackled every issue out there -- from masturbation to euthanasia to the U.S. mail service - ut the show never had "a very special episode." "Seinfeld" was original because nothing dramatic ever hap- pened to the main characters, such as a near plane crash or a court room trial with actual jail time possible. So why make the season finale about something? Well, a court room trial allows witnesses to be called, or in other words, creates a way for all the favorite characters from past episodes to appear again. Half the finale rested on this unoriginal and shallow plot idea. Ironically, this one episode about some- thing has less substance than most of the previous "nothing" episodes. The final episode could have been called "The Clip Show II" since it essentially performed the'same function as "The Clip Show" which aired right before it. The court room idea could have worked if Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld had stayed with the ; basic formula of the show when { they wrote the "Seinfeld" script. An average series finale Seinfeld episode has at least three UN concurrent plot NBC lines. Watching May 14,55p.m. how these stories interweave makes the show hilari- ous. The finale had one plot line. The re-airing of Jerry and George's TV pilot leads to the famous foursome taking a trip to Paris aboard NBC's private jet. Kramer, trying to get some water out of his ear after visiting the beach, falls into the cockpit, and the plane nearly crash- es. The pilots land the plane in Latham, Mass. for a check-up, and while waiting in town, the four friends witness a "fat man" get car-jacked. Because they do nothing about the crime but cruelly is sub-par mock the victim, they get arrested under the "Good Samaritan" law. Never mind that the policeman who picks them up must have been watching the crime as well and doesn't aid the victim either. Of course, one might not have noticed the plot flaw - this dis- play of scorn was so out of character that little else was evident. Only Newman and dentists have ever really been openly insulted on the show. Character witnesses are called to tes- tify against the four for the so-called crime. the prosecution sets out to show that they have always callously mocked others, and some of the series' most famous characters return, such as the Soup Nazi, Babu, Mr. Pitt and Mr. Bookman, the library cop. Sure, it's great to see the old charac- ters again. They and the flashbacks to old episodes were the best part, but TV's famous foursome spends a good deal of time just sitting in the court- room. Whether the plots of "Seinfeld" are about nothing or not, Jerry, Elaine, Kramer and George rarely do or say nothing at all. But that wasn't the case in the finale - they just sat there in the court room for half of it. Whether they were stealing a marble rye, throwing a big rubber ball of oil out of an office building window, or protesting the Kenny Rogers' Roasters that opened across the street, the viewer always had something to watch. But the finale was sub-par not just for a Cwtesy of NBC 40 million households tuned in to a 'Seinfeld' finale that didn't quite measure up to the media hype and network secrecy. a singular plot. There was hardly one new single joke or gag. One notable exception comes during the jury's delib- eration, when all the minor characters are waiting and often interacting with one another. The Soup Nazi takes his soup back from Poppi, the chef who doesn't wash his hands. Elaine's face- painting, laconic, on-and-off boyfriend Frank Puddy gets souse sun. And Jerry's archenemy Newman sleeps in the back of his car on a pillow of empty junk food wrappers. This little diversion from the plot lasts about a minute. The final episode may have been nostalgic and funny to some, but few will likely count it amongst the show's greatest episodes. But perhaps too much was expected of the sign off of "Seinfeld," and nine seasons of laughs more than make up for one minor dis- appointment. Students say 'show about nothing' not much to watch By Michael Galloway Daily Arts Editor After months of patient waiting, the year's biggest event in television finally occurred last 'thursday as "Seinfeld" *signed off. As exciting as it was, the big finish didn't quite live up to the expec- tations of many students around cam- pus .Some students watched the big final "Seinfeld," some watched the Red Wings playoff game, and some didn't watch TV at all. But how the "Seinfeld" finale fared against the most viewed shows of all time is speculative. According to Nielsen Media Research, the final episode of W *A*S*Hl* in 1983 still reigns supreme with a 60.2 market average and about 50 million households. "Seinfeld" only took a 43 2 market average, which doesn't even put it in the top-30 most-watched TV shows, according to Nielsen Media Research. At the same time, 40.5 million house- holds are estimated to have watched, which makes Seinfeld just short of #22, ,,he "Cheers" series finale. Regardless of how it ranks against other season finales, there is no ques- tion that the final "Seinfeld" was a huge television event, made even bigger by all the hype surrounding it. LSA junior Abby Magid, an avid fan, was not satisfied. "I usually watch it every week,' Magid said. "But I was a little disappointed [with the finale]'. "I liked how the trial showed flashbacks .. I thought it was a little silly that they end up in prison, and it made them look like really bad people." Engineering juniors Kristy Barefoot, Amy Baceault and Carolyn Tate were divided in their opinions. "I already knew what the plot was gonna be. I heard it." Barefoot said, "The Boston Herald leaked what the plot was gonna be about. So it wasn't much of a surprise to me, and I was very disappointed with it." Barefoot is referring to the front page story of The Boston Herald last Wednesday which scooped the plot of the last Seinfeld, getting information from a mysterious informant who used the pseudonym "Art Vandalay," the alias George Costanza often uses. Baceault liked the way "Seinfeld" finished. "I thought it was pretty cool. They ended up going to jail. It was awesome," she said, laughing with Tate. "It was different. All the other shows that have ended in the past, they just all moved away. They're all teary-eyed, but I liked it." Travis Maures, a pre-med student in LSA, didt think the finale lived up to the hype. "It was kind of like I was expecting so much, and then it was kind of a letdown." "All the shows are really about noth- ing and that one was about something. It was all about a trial." Maures said there were "spaces in it where there was nothing funny going on sometimes. "But then some of it was funny," Maures continued. "The funny parts were looking back and seeing all the (old clips). When you've watched for about nine years, you remember every- thing, so it's cool. That was the funniest part, but that's a highlight reel basical- ly." LSA sophomore Sunita Doddamani taped the finale, but missed the last five - MEXICAN CAFE 9 Ann Arbor's Finest Mexican Style Fooci Michigan's Largest Selection of Gourmet Hot Sauces & Salsas! WE DELIVER! Call761-6650 'til a.m. Sun. - Tues. 'til3a.m.W. -'sat. 333 E. Huron minutes. My tape stopped and rewound so I didn't get to see the very end. But the parts that I did see were really good. I liked it because I love the recurring characters. They were so funny. Like the Soup Nazi. Oh my God, I was dying when the Soup Nazi came on." Doddamani was not the only one who tuned her VCR in to NBC last 'thursday. LSA senior Geoffrey Ream and his friends taped it. Ream hadn't viewed the tape yet, but lowered his expectations after hearing repeadedly that the show was disap- pointing. "If you liked Seinfeld all along, they said you're going to like the finale. And if you haven't liked Seinfeld all along, then you're not going to like the finale," Reams said. But in the end, according to students, all the hype ended up hurting the show, which simply could not live up-to the ridiculously high expectations. < '. e;; .: ;, . "" a. {; £: :> .: i ;+ z :: , *6 Barbers *No Waiting * No Appointment Needed M-F 8:30-5:20 Sat. til 4:20 RICHARDSON'S Student discounts on eye exams and eyeglasses Great Brands Polo TommyHilfiger Calvin Klein . , * M a s. 668-9329 610 E. Liberty, off State