Continuity about Nothing
“Han shot first.” Three little words that will mean nothing to most people, but everything to fans of the original Star Wars trilogy. They form a rallying cry against the numerous edits, cuts, and changes that George Lucas introduced to his movies throughout the years. Most notably, starting with the 1997 Special Edition re-releases, which among many edits, featured a change in the cantina scene where Han Solo shoots and kills the green bounty hunter Greedo. For people who are fortunate enough to not know about the change and the outcry it spawned, Wikipedia provides an ample summary.
This change is particularly bothersome to many fans because they felt that it fundamentally altered the character’s personality. It is far from the only change in the Star Wars films made over the years, as this list details. The reason for making these changes varies, from adding new computer-generated elements to removing lines that would contradict storylines in the prequels. And some of them simply have no rhyme or reason at all.
Thus, I, like many other fans, found myself more and more favoring the original versions and nothing more. They were the versions I watched countless times on my dad’s VHS tapes growing up. Forget about George Lucas’ vision, my memories were of the original versions and quite frankly, I felt the movies were simply better without the endless meddling of its creator.
The original version is always better, I thought. Then, I found out about the changes to Seinfeld over the years.
Yes, Seinfeld. The sitcom that ran for nine seasons on NBC. Sure, it was an immensely popular show, but at its heart it was still a network sitcom from the era of laugh tracks. Did continuity actually matter enough to warrant several edits to the show throughout the years?
Apparently, yes.
I was a kid when Seinfeld originally aired. My mother was an intense fan, so it was definitely Must See TV in our house, but I remember watching only a few episodes as they were being broadcast for the first time. The vast majority of my experience with the series would come as it aired in syndication on countless channels throughout the years. That was the Seinfeld I knew.
The DVDs did not start coming out until I was in college. I snapped them up eagerly as they were released, and for the first time, I had easy access to the series on demand, sequentially and as the creators intended. The collections, which are expertly produced and contain more details than anyone should ever know about the show, revealed something I never knew: episodes were re-shot for continuity reasons in syndication.
Was Seinfeld co-creator Larry David cut from the same cloth as George Lucas? It couldn’t be so, but on the DVDs the original and syndicated versions were both presented, clear as day. The episodes I grew up with were not the true versions after all! My world was collapsing around me.
Okay, not really. But it is surprising that Larry David was so detail-oriented to actually care enough and go back to make the little changes that he could.
The earliest example is from the second season episode “The Revenge.” Originally broadcast in 1991, it featured a small plot line with Kramer and his suicidal friend, Newman. Yes, that Newman. But at the time, Newman was simply a voice off-screen, and he was voiced by Larry David himself, who provided a great number of voices for the show over the years.
Of course, Newman was eventually developed into the maniacal postal employee/nemesis of Jerry, played by Wayne Knight. For syndication, Wayne Knight re-dubbed all of Newman’s lines in “The Revenge,” so that the character would have the same voice throughout the series.
Re-dubbing a few lines, though, is nothing compared to re-shooting entire scenes. Yet that is exactly what happened with season four’s episode “The Handicap Spot.” This episode from 1993 was the first introduction viewers had to George’s father, Frank Costanza. He was originally played by actor John Randolph. Envisioned as the soft-spoken compliment to George’s mother, fiery Estelle Costanza (already introduced in the infamous episode “The Contest”), the role of Frank was written originally as a calm, quiet, and kind man.
This is nothing like the Frank Costanza we would all come to know throughout the years as portrayed by Jerry Stiller. This first appearance in “The Handicap Spot” actually centers on Frank’s charity work, which sounds nothing like the man who would eventually move across the country purely out of spite.
The amount of work that went into fixing the continuity of this episode did not just involve a quick re-shoot. It comprises multiple scenes throughout the episode, featuring principal cast members as well as numerous extras. There’s no doubt that if Seinfeld had not been as popular as it was by the time this episode was going into syndication, any TV executive would have laughed at the notion of paying for it all just to make Larry David happy. Seinfeld was a hit, though, and so he got his wish.
“It would seem odd that George would have two different fathers, so I prevailed on Castle Rock and NBC to let me re-shoot those scenes.” -Larry David
George was not the only character who had different actors play his father in the series—the same actually happened to Jerry himself. His parents were introduced in the first season episode “The Stake Out” from 1990, and while his mother Helen would be portrayed by Liz Sheridan throughout the series, his father Morty was played in this episode by Phil Bruns, before being replaced by Barney Martin in subsequent episodes.
Larry David actually did want to go back and re-shoot this episode as well, but by the time Seinfeld became a hit, it was decided that the characters had aged too much to make it believable, since five years had passed. So, Jerry lives on with two fathers, while it is canon that George had only one.
It is basically impossible for any long-running series to be completely free of continuity errors. It’s the nature of storytelling, especially when many writers and actors join the mix, and a show experiences its ups and downs. No one working on Seinfeld knew that the show would go on for as long as it did, and especially in the first few seasons, minor supporting character details were not so consequential as they would later be in the series.
As a fan, I can easily forgive these flaws despite being deeply (and sadly) engaged in the universe of the show. For example, I had seen “The Stake Out” numerous times in syndication and I was aware that the actor portraying Jerry’s father was different, but it made sense that not everything and everyone could be the same throughout the series.
And that’s not to say that there aren’t still continuity errors. Both Jerry and George early on reference having siblings—Jerry mentions a sister in “The Chinese Restaurant” and George claims his brother impregnated a woman named Pauline in “The Suicide.” Neither sibling is ever present in the series and their later interactions with their parents and relatives would seem to indicate that both are only children.
Even in the aforementioned episode “The Revenge,” when we first meet the character Newman, Kramer describes him as having “no job,” yet we later find out that he has been working for the United States Postal Service for years.
Another notable example is when George admits to saying “I love you” to his girlfriend in the second season episode “The Ex-Girlfriend,” yet in the sixth season episode “The Face Painter,” he reveals that he has only said it once, to a dog. There are plenty of examples.
Despite these flaws, his commitment to continuity when possible is a testament to the mad genius of Larry David. It certainly surprised me when I first viewed the original versions on DVD, and it often surprises other people whom I mention it to, people who are casual fans of the series.
It brings me back to the opening paragraphs about Star Wars and George Lucas. With Star Wars, I detest the revised versions, even if some of the changes were made for the sake of continuity. But with Seinfeld, I usually will watch and prefer the syndicated versions. Sure, part of it is the familiarity, as I grew up mostly watching the syndicated cuts. But I think most of it is because I get the feeling that, unlike in Star Wars, the changes were made to help tell a complete story. Nothing more, nothing less. Even on a sitcom from the 90s, Larry David felt that was important. I guess I do, too.
