Seinfeld: The Making of an American Icon

by Jerry Oppenheimer and Brinda Charry

The never-before-told story of how Jerry Seinfeld made his dream come true -- of how this very ambitious, extremely driven, compulsively perfectionistic carefully worked his way up through the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060188723
• ISBN13: 9780060188726
• Release Date: August 2002
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.5" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

gritty road to riches

The most important thing about this book is that the author conveys to us the hard work and tedious endless preparation and joke revisions Jerry Seinfeld has done over the years to develop a clean act for grownups. It is nice to know that he stuck to it even when college kids and disco dancers ignored him as he performed. He was not an over-night star. I am enjoying the book. I feel a little uneasy with all the innuendo of gayness (not that there's anything wrong with that) the author interjects. But other than that, I find his detailed accounts and multiple quotes fascinating.

Enoyable though unflattering portrait of Seinfeld

Read SEINFELD: THE MAKING OF AN AMERICAN ICON,an unauthorized biography by Jerry Oppenheimer . . . I really enjoyed it, though methinks that Seinfeld would not be as pleased with the portrait in that it is not an overly flatteringone.The beginning of the book was of particular attention to me,in that I grew up in Freeport, Long Island--no too far from where he did (Massapequa) . . . he, like me, was alsothe son of a salesman . . . but that's about the end ofour similarities.Seinfeld went on to become an enormously successfulstand-up comedian, long before he cocreated in the late80s what is considered to be most brilliant and successfulmust-see TV sitcom in the history of the medium . . . duringthat time, he developed a series of relationship with both men and women that made for reading that was quitecaptivating.I also learned about a comedy strike that helped its participants get paid for the first time . . . previously,they had only paid a performer if he or she was the headliner . . . Jay Leno, a key participant in the work stoppage, helped get a settlement as a result of having posed as being near death (when hit by a thug) . . . in reality, he was fine--but did not want anybody else to know that fact.There were several memorable passages; among them:[Mike Costanza, a college friend, describing a scam they both ran]" 'Hi, Mr. Cohen, this is Mike Davis from Ambet Lighting,you remember us--w're the handicapped Vietnam veterans withthe lighting company.' Then one of us would drop the phoneon the floor, step on it like ten times, pick it up and bang it against the desk, and then pick up the phone again and say,'Mr. Cohen, are you still there? You know it's hard to get used to these hooks, but I have these two cases of light bulbs for you.' "[from his first performance on the TONIGHT SHOW]He did a bit about TV weather reports. "This is reallyhelpful," he said. "A photograph of Earth comes from ten thousand miles away. Can you tell if you should take a picture from that shot? He did a bit about aperplexed driver looking under the hood of his broken-downcar. "What are you looking for?" Jerry asked. "Whatever's wrong, you can't fix it. You stand there looking for somethingincredibly, obviously wrong--something so simple even you can handle it--a giant on-off switch." Off-camera, Johnnywas laughing, especially when Jerry did his riff about GUINNESS BOOK OF WORLD RECORDS heaviest man,Bob Hughes. What would happen, Jerry wondered, if he losta few hundred pounds? "What would his friends say? You'rea rail, baby, look at you!"[Jerry asserted that he lost money on every investment]"People always tell me, 'You should have your moneyworking for you.' Well, from now on, I've decided I'lldo the work, I'm going to let my money relax."

DO WHAT SEINFELD DID AND YOU WILL BE A MILLIONNAIRE

I read this to my wife and both of us enjoyed it very much. This tells about Jerry S. from his beginnings to the present day. He has great personal focus on what he wants to accomplish and lets nothing interfere including women and social engagements. It does appear many of the TV shows are most autobiographical and you learn about his friends in real life. To give this book a 1 or 2 star rating is terrible, yet....that is why they make chocolate and vanilla ice cream; all people like different things.