Editing Seinfeld (section)

===Conception===
''Seinfeld'' began as a 23-minute pilot titled "[[The Seinfeld Chronicles]]". Created by [[Jerry Seinfeld]] and [[Larry David]], developed by NBC executive Rick Ludwin, and produced by [[Castle Rock Entertainment]], it was a mix of Seinfeld's stand-up comedy routines and idiosyncratic, conversational scenes focusing on mundane aspects of everyday life like laundry, the buttoning of the top button on one's shirt, and the effort by men to interpret the intent of women spending the night in Seinfeld's apartment.<ref name=TVGuide>Battaglio, Stephen (June 30, 2014). "'Annoying' 'Disorienting' 'Boring': On ''Seinfeld's'' 25th anniversary an exclusive look at the memo that almost killed the show". ''[[TV Guide]]''. pp. 18–19.</ref>

The pilot was filmed at Stage 8 of [[Ren-Mar Studios|Desilu Cahuenga]] studios, the same studio where ''[[The Dick Van Dyke Show]]'' was filmed (seen by the crew as a good omen),<ref>{{cite video|people=[[Reiner, Rob]]|title=Seinfeld Seasons 1 & 2: Inside Looks – "The Seinfeld Chronicles"|medium=DVD|publisher=Sony Pictures Home Entertainment|date=November 23, 2004}}</ref> and was recorded at Ren-Mar Studios in [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]].<ref name=S1&2DVD-NAN>{{cite video|title=Seinfeld Seasons 1 & 2: Notes about Nothing – "The Seinfeld Chronicles"|medium=DVD|publisher=Sony Pictures Home Entertainment|date=November 23, 2004}}</ref> The pilot was first screened to a group of two dozen NBC executives in [[Burbank, California]], in early 1989. This one, however, did not yield the explosion of laughter garnered by the pilots for the decade's previous NBC successes like ''[[The Cosby Show]]'' and ''[[The Golden Girls]].'' [[Brandon Tartikoff]] was not convinced the show would work. A Jewish man from New York himself, Tartikoff characterized it as "Too New York, too Jewish".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Krieger|first=Rosalin|date=October 2003|title="Does he say the word Jewish?" – Jewish representations in Seinfeld|journal=Journal for Cultural Research|volume=7|issue=4|pages=387–404|doi=10.1080/1479758032000165048|s2cid=144869141|issn=1479-7585}}</ref> Test audiences were even harsher. NBC's practice at the time was to recruit 400 households by phone to ask them to evaluate pilots it aired on an unused channel on its cable system. An NBC research department memo summarized the pilot's performance among the respondents as "weak", which [[Warren Littlefield]], then second-in-command in NBC's entertainment division, called "a dagger to the heart".<ref name=TVGuide/> Comments included, "You can't get too excited about two guys going to the laundromat", "Jerry's loser friend George isn't a forceful character", "Jerry needs a stronger supporting cast", and "Why are they interrupting the stand-up for these stupid stories?"<ref name=S1&2DVD-NAN/> Seinfeld and David did not see the memo for several years, but after they became aware of it, they hung it in a bathroom on the set. Seinfeld comments, "We thought, if someone goes in to use this bathroom, this is something they should see. It fits that moment."<ref name=TVGuide/>

Around the time the show's pilot was filmed, Castle Rock Entertainment, which produced the show, had also produced another pilot for NBC that featured [[Ann Jillian]] in her almost-similarly eponymous TV series. When ''The Seinfeld Chronicles'' tested poorly with audiences, Castle Rock focused on Jillian's series, which tested better with audiences and received a full-season order. ''[[Ann Jillian (TV series)|Ann Jillian]]'' lasted only a single season of 13 episodes and was off the air by the end of 1990.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/seinfeld-finale-at-20-hidden-tales-vault-a-comedians-bizarro-world-1111377/ |title='Seinfeld' Finale at 20: Hidden Tales From the Vault of a Comedian's Bizarro World |last=Freeman|first=Marc |work=The Hollywood Reporter |date=May 13, 2018 |access-date=February 16, 2022 |quote=Castle Rock, which owned the series, had two pilots at NBC that year: Seinfeld and one with Ann Jillian. Whereas Seinfeld tested poorly, Ann Jillian tested through the roof and earned a 13-episode commitment. Castle Rock decided to focus on that.}}</ref>