Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee is an American web series talk show directed and hosted by comedian Jerry Seinfeld, distributed for the first nine seasons by digital network Crackle, then moving to Netflix for season ten (2018). The series premiered on July 19, 2012.
Episodes feature Seinfeld introducing a vintage car selected for a guest comedian, followed by a drive to a pre-selected café or restaurant for coffee. Episodes diverge from the format spontaneously, as when Michael Richards implores Seinfeld to take a side street, when Seinfeld returns after coffee with Carl Reiner to join him for dinner with Mel Brooks--or when car trouble arises. As of May 2015, the series had been streamed nearly 100 million times.
The show's ninth season premiered on January 5, 2017. That same month it was announced that the series would migrate from Crackle to Netflix, with the ninth season being the final one to premiere on Crackle. Twenty-four new episodes will stream on Netflix in 2018, with most of the previous episodes becoming available on the streaming service starting on January 5, 2018--the episode with Louis C.K. was not included in the collection until January 10th, and the episode with George Constanza was not included. The previous episodes were repackaged into four "collections" for Netflix, reordering the episodes and removing the product placement spots.
Video Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee
Production
Development
Seinfeld has stated that the roots of the concept traced to a DVD extra he made for his 2002 documentary Comedian along with a later trip he made after purchasing an old VW Beetle in New Mexico, subsequently filming the return trip to the east coast with a friend. Later describing the birth of the series Seinfeld said the series birth was "an experiment"--as "kind of a guess."
Prior to development of the series, Seinfeld was told by leading social network advisers, including those at Facebook and Yahoo, that a show length exceeding five minutes had little chance of success on the web. Howard Schultz, coffee magnate and Chairman of Starbucks, turned down the opportunity to sponsor the show. Acura eventually sponsored the show, giving Seinfeld creative license with creating the commercials and product placements.
Format
Episodes are estimated to cost roughly $100,000, with guests being paid in cash and the initial raw shoot lasting on average three-and-a-half hours, which is then edited over a two-week period down to a 12-20 minute episode. The process uses a lean production staff, involves a minimum of network interaction, and is designed as an edited and unscripted talk show without an audience that can be comfortably watched on a smart phone.
The show's format around the car drive and "movement," specifically because "when attempting to show the meandering, silly and sometimes deep conversations that comedians share, you have to remove the audience to keep the participants from dropping into their acts," adding that "part of what makes the show watchable is that it's always moving. There's no narrative [to] drive the story. We know what happens. We know they're going to get coffee. You need a kinetic energy to move it along, moving people around keeps them awake."
Bob Einstein became the first repeat guest on the show, appearing in the first season and again in the ninth season. Jimmy Fallon's appearance in the fifth season was split into two episode. Several episodes have featured multiple guest appearing together including: Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks, Colin Quinn and Mario Joyner, and Kathleen Madigan and Chuck Martin. Colleen Ballinger appeared in-character as Miranda Sings as a guest on an episode, and Jason Alexander reprised the role of George Costanza from Seinfeld for an episode.
Maps Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee
Episodes
Season 1 (2012)
Season 2 (2013)
Season 3 (2014)
Season 4 (2014)
Season 5 (2014)
A serialized yet separated storyline started in this season, featuring Michael Richards as Crackle President Dick Corcoran. Joan Rivers had been asked by Seinfeld to be the fifth season's first guest, however she postponed the appearance due to a scheduled medical procedure. Rivers died as a result of that procedure.
Season 6 (2015)
Season 7 (2015-16)
Season 8 (2016)
Season 9 (2017)
Season 10 (2018)
Guests appearing in season 10 include Dave Chappelle, Kate McKinnon and Tracy Morgan.
Unaired episodes
Seinfeld revealed on August 21 2017, on Facebook and Instagram that he recorded an episode with Jerry Lewis in Las Vegas, "As I've said many times, if you don't get Jerry Lewis, you don't understand comedy. Spending an afternoon with him a couple of months ago in Vegas for Comedians in Cars was a comedy life moment for me."
Reception
Brian Lowry of Variety said the series is the kind of short-form concept that feels stretched even at 18 minutes. David Hinckley of The New York Daily News gave the series 3 out of 5 stars. Mike Hale of The New York Times said: "The [series' segments]... are presented in a clean, elegant template with a studiously casual pencil-drawn logo. And the filming and editing are, if you break them down, impressively complex and artful for a Web series."
The New York Times's Anand Giridharadas critiqued the show as being out of touch with the everyman, and more of a showcase of Seinfeld's wealth. Giridharadas wrote: "The democracy of observational humor has become, in Mr. Seinfeld's reincarnation, an oligarchy of mutual admiration". Other publications have been more positive in their opinion. The New York Daily News wrote of the show's format and first three seasons that, "It all sounds random, which it is, and trivial, which it is and isn't. In the end, the fun is contagious." Newsday then graded season four of the series with an "A".
Awards and nominations
See also
- Carpool - similar web series hosted by English actor and comedian Robert Llewellyn
References
External links
- Official website
- Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee on IMDb
- Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee on TV.com
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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