title: Fentanyl

text: Fentanyl's most common side effects, which affect more than 10% of people, include nausea, vomiting, constipation, dry mouth, somnolence, confusion, and asthenia (weakness). Less frequently, in 3–10% of people, fentanyl can cause abdominal pain, headache, fatigue, anorexia and weight loss, dizziness, nervousness, anxiety, depression, flu-like symptoms, dyspepsia (indigestion), shortness of breath, hypoventilation, apnoea, and urinary retention. Fentanyl use has also been associated with aphasia. Despite being a more potent analgesic, fentanyl tends to induce less nausea, as well as less histamine-mediated itching, than morphine.


title: Fentanyl

text: The duration of action of fentanyl has sometimes been underestimated, leading to harm in a medical context. In 2006, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) began investigating several respiratory deaths, but doctors in the United Kingdom were not warned of the risks with fentanyl until September 2008. The FDA reported in April 2012 that twelve young children had died and twelve more made seriously ill from separate accidental exposures to fentanyl skin patches.


title: Fentanyl

text: The most dangerous adverse effect of fentanyl is respiratory depression, that is, decreased sensitivity to carbon dioxide leading to reduced rate of breathing, which can cause anoxic brain injury or death. This risk is decreased when the airway is secured with an endotracheal tube (as during anesthesia). This risk is higher in specific groups, like those with obstructive sleep apnea.


title: Fentanyl

text: Sustained release fentanyl preparations, such as patches, may also produce unexpected delayed respiratory depression. The precise reason for sudden respiratory depression is unclear, but there are several hypotheses:


title: Fentanyl

text: Another related complication of fentanyl overdoses includes the so-called wooden chest syndrome, which quickly induces complete respiratory failure by paralyzing the thoracic muscles, explained in more detail in the Muscle rigidity section below.


title: Fentanyl

text: If high boluses of fentanyl are administered quickly, muscle rigidity of the vocal cords can make bag-mask ventilation very difficult. The exact mechanism of this effect is unknown, but it can be prevented and treated using neuromuscular blockers.


title: Fentanyl

text: A prominent idiosyncratic adverse effect of fentanyl also includes a sudden onset of rigidity of the abdominal muscles and the diaphragm, which induces respiratory failure; this is seen with high doses and is known as wooden chest syndrome. The syndrome is believed to be the main cause of death as a result of fentanyl overdoses.


title: Fentanyl

text: Wooden chest syndrome is reversed by naloxone and is believed to be caused by a release of noradrenaline, which activates α-adrenergic receptors and also possibly via an activation of cholinergic receptors.


title: Fentanyl

text: Wooden chest syndrome is unique to the most powerful opioidswhich today comprise fentanyl and its analogswhile other less-powerful opioids like heroin produce mild rigidity of the respiratory muscles to a much lesser degree.


title: Fentanyl

text: Fentanyl poses an exceptionally high overdose risk in humans, due to having an extremely unpredictable fatal dosage when mixed with other drugs. In its pure form, overdoses are only moderately unpredictable, with most overdose deaths occurring at serum concentrations of between 150 and 250ng/mL. In contexts of poly-substance use, blood fentanyl concentrations of approximately 7ng/ml or greater have been associated with fatalities. Over 85% of overdoses involved at least one other drug, and there was no clear correlation showing at which level the mixtures were fatal. The dosages of fatal mixtures varied by over three magnitudes in some cases. This extremely unpredictable volatility with other drugs makes it especially difficult to avoid fatalities.


title: Fentanyl

text: Naloxone can completely or partially reverse an opioid overdose. In July2014, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) of the UK issued a warning about the potential for life-threatening harm from accidental exposure to transdermal fentanyl patches, particularly in children, and advised that they should be folded, with the adhesive side in, before being discarded. The patches should be kept away from children, who are most at risk from fentanyl overdose. In the US, fentanyl and caused over 29,000deaths in 2017, a large increase over the previous four years.


title: Fentanyl

text: Some increases in fentanyl deaths do not involve prescription fentanyl but are related to illicitly made fentanyl that is being mixed with or sold as heroin. Death from fentanyl overdose continues to be a public health issue of national concern in Canada since September 2015. In 2016, deaths from fentanyl overdoses in the province of British Columbia averaged two persons per day. In 2017 the death rate rose over 100% with 368 overdose-related deaths in British Columbia between January and April 2017.


title: Fentanyl

text: Fentanyl has started to make its way into heroin as well as illicitly manufactured opioids and benzodiazepines. Fentanyl contamination in cocaine, methamphetamine, ketamine, MDMA, and other drugs is common. A kilogram of heroin laced with fentanyl may sell for more than US$100,000, but the fentanyl itself may be produced far more cheaply, for about US$6,000 per kilogram. Fentanyl was often produced in China and exported illegally to the United States. The United Kingdom illicit drug market is no longer reliant on China, as domestic fentanyl production is replacing imports.


title: Fentanyl

text: As of 2018, fentanyl was the most commonly listed opioid in overdose drug deaths, surpassing heroin. From 2013 until 2016, overdose deaths involving fentanyl were increasing by 113% per year. In 2021, the Public Health Agency of Canada noted that 87% of accidental apparent opioid toxicity deaths involved fentanyl.


title: Fentanyl

text: The intravenous dose causing 50% of opioid-naive experimental subjects to die () is "3mg/kg in rats, 1mg/kg in cats, 14mg/kg in dogs, and 0.03mg/kg in monkeys." The LD in mice has been given as 6.9mg/kg by intravenous administration, 17.5mg/kg intraperitoneally, 27.8mg/kg by oral administration. The LD in humans is unknown, but it's estimated that the lethal dose may be as low as 2mg in some people depending on body size, tolerance, and past usage.


title: Fentanyl

text: In the late 2010s, some media outlets began to report stories of police officers being hospitalised after touching powdered fentanyl, or after brushing it from their clothing. Topical (or transdermal; via the skin) and inhalative exposure to fentanyl is extremely unlikely to cause intoxication or overdose (except in cases of prolonged exposure with very large quantities of fentanyl), and first responders such as paramedics and police officers are at minimal risk of fentanyl poisoning through accidental contact with intact skin. A 2020 article from the Journal of Medical Toxicology stated that "the consensus of the scientific community remains that illness from unintentional exposures is extremely unlikely, because opioids are not efficiently absorbed through the skin and are unlikely to be carried in the air." The effects being reported in these cases, including rapid heartbeat, hyperventilation and chills, were not symptoms of a fentanyl overdose, and were more commonly associated with a panic attack.


title: Fentanyl

text: A 2021 paper expressed concern that these physical fears over fentanyl may inhibit effective emergency response to overdoses by causing responding officers to spend additional time on unnecessary precautions. The media coverage could also perpetuate a wider social stigma that people who use drugs are dangerous to be around.


title: Fentanyl

text: Many public health initiatives have been started to prevent the misuse and overdose of fentanyl. One of the initiatives that have been started to prevent fentanyl overdose is from the CDC [1]. The effort has been categorized as a Health Alert Network Advisory signaled to a multitude of professionals within the health field. The advisory explains four key action points. Those points include the (a) local need to expand the distribution and use of naloxone and overdose prevention education, (b) expand awareness, access, and availability of treatment for substance use disorders, (c) intervene early with individuals at highest risk for overdose, and (d) improve detection of overdose outbreaks to facilitate more effective response.


title: Fentanyl

text: Another initiative is a social media campaign from the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) called "One Pill Can Kill". This social media campaign's goal was to spread awareness of the prevalence of counterfeit pills that are being sold in America that is leading to the large overdose epidemic in America. This campaign also shows the difference between counterfeit pills and real pills. This campaign also offers resources for help with drug addiction and rehabilitation.


title: Fentanyl

text: Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid in the phenylpiperidine family, which includes sufentanil, alfentanil, remifentanil, and carfentanil. Some fentanyl analogues such as carfentanil are up to 10,000 times stronger than morphine.


title: Fentanyl

text: The structures of opioids share many similarities. Whereas opioids like codeine, hydrocodone, oxycodone, and hydromorphone are synthesized by simple modifications of morphine, fentanyl and its relatives are synthesized by modifications of meperidine. Meperidine is a fully synthetic opioid, and other members of the phenylpiperidine family like alfentanil and sufentanil are complex versions of this structure.


title: Fentanyl

text: Like other opioids, fentanyl is a weak base that is highly lipid-soluble, protein-bound, and protonated at physiological pH. All of these factors allow it to rapidly cross cellular membranes, contributing to its quick effect in the body and the central nervous system.


title: Fentanyl

text: Fentanyl, like other opioids, acts on opioid receptors. These receptors are G-protein-coupled receptors, which contain seven transmembrane portions, intracellular loops, extracellular loops, intracellular C-terminus, and extracellular N-terminus. The extracellular N-terminus is important in differentiating different types of binding substrates. When fentanyl binds, downstream signaling leads to the inhibitory effects, such as decreased cAMP production, decreased calcium ion influx, and increased potassium efflux. This inhibits the ascending pathways in the central nervous system to increase pain threshold by changing the perception of pain; this is mediated by decreasing propagation of nociceptive signals, resulting in analgesic effects.


title: Fentanyl

text: As a μ-receptor agonist, fentanyl binds 50 to 100 times more potently than morphine. It can also bind to the delta and kappa opioid receptors but with a lower affinity. It has high lipid solubility, allowing it to more easily penetrate the central nervous system. It attenuates "second pain" with primary effects on slow-conducting, unmyelintated C-fibers and is less effective on neuropathic pain and "first pain" signals through small, myelinated A-fibers.


title: Fentanyl

text: Fentanyl may be measured in blood or urine to monitor for abuse, confirm a diagnosis of poisoning, or assist in a medicolegal death investigation. Commercially available immunoassays are often used as initial screening tests, but chromatographic techniques are generally used for confirmation and quantitation. The Marquis Color test may also be used to detect the presence of fentanyl. Using formaldehyde and sulfuric acid, the solution will turn purple when introduced to opium drugs. Blood or plasma fentanyl concentrations are expected to be in a range of 0.3–3.0 μg/L in persons using the medication therapeutically, 1–10 μg/L in intoxicated people, and 3–300 μg/L in victims of acute overdosage. Paper spray-mass spectrometry (PS-MS) may be useful for initial testing of samples.


title: Fentanyl

text: Fentanyl was first synthesized in Belgium by Paul Janssen under the label of his relatively newly formed Janssen Pharmaceutica in 1959. It was developed by screening chemicals similar to pethidine (meperidine) for opioid activity. The widespread use of fentanyl triggered the production of fentanyl citrate (the salt formed by combining fentanyl and citric acid in a 1:1 stoichiometric ratio). Fentanyl citrate entered medical use as a general anaesthetic in 1968, manufactured by McNeil Laboratories under the trade name Sublimaze.


title: Fentanyl

text: In the mid-1990s, Janssen Pharmaceutica developed and introduced into clinical trials the Duragesic patch, which is a formulation of an inert alcohol gel infused with select fentanyl doses, which are worn to provide constant administration of the opioid over a period of 48 to 72hours. After a set of successful clinical trials, Duragesic fentanyl patches were introduced into medical practice.


title: Fentanyl

text: Following the patch, a flavored lollipop of fentanyl citrate mixed with inert fillers was introduced in 1998 under the brand name of Actiq, becoming the first quick-acting formation of fentanyl for use with chronic breakthrough pain.


title: Fentanyl

text: In 2009, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Onsolis (fentanyl buccal soluble film), a fentanyl drug in a new dosage form for cancer pain management in opioid-tolerant subjects. It uses a medication delivery technology called BEMA (BioErodible MucoAdhesive), a small dissolvable polymer film containing various fentanyl doses applied to the inner lining of the cheek.


title: Fentanyl

text: Fentanyl has a US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Administrative Controlled Substances Code Number (ACSCN) of 9801 and a 2013 annual aggregate manufacturing quota of 2,108.75kg, unchanged from the prior year.


title: Fentanyl

text: In the U.S., fentanyl is a Schedule II controlled substance per the Controlled Substance Act. Distributors of Abstral are required to implement an FDA-approved risk evaluation and mitigation strategy (REMS) program. In order to curb misuse, many health insurers have begun to require precertification and/or quantity limits for Actiq prescriptions.


title: Fentanyl

text: In Canada, fentanyl is considered a scheduleI drug as listed in Canada's Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.


title: Fentanyl

text: Estonia is known to have been home to the world's longest documented fentanyl epidemic, especially following the Taliban ban on opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan.


title: Fentanyl

text: A 2018 report by "The Guardian" indicated that many major drug suppliers on the dark web have voluntarily banned the trafficking of fentanyl.


title: Fentanyl

text: Illicit use of pharmaceutical fentanyl and its analogues first appeared in the mid-1970s in the medical community and continues in the present. More than 12 different analogues of fentanyl, all unapproved and clandestinely produced, have been identified in the U.S. drug traffic. In February 2018, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration indicated that illicit fentanyl analogs have no medically valid use, and thus applied a "Schedule I" classification to them.


title: Fentanyl

text: Fentanyl analogues may be hundreds of times more potent than heroin. Fentanyl is used orally, smoked, snorted, or injected. Fentanyl is sometimes sold as heroin or oxycodone, sometimes leading to overdoses. Many fentanyl overdoses are initially classified as heroin overdoses. Recreational use is not particularly widespread in the EU except for Tallinn, Estonia, where it has largely replaced heroin. Estonia has the highest rate of 3-methylfentanyl overdose deaths in the EU, due to its high rate of recreational use.


title: Fentanyl

text: Fentanyl is sometimes sold on the black market in the form of transdermal fentanyl patches such as Duragesic, diverted from legitimate medical supplies. The gel from inside the patches is sometimes ingested or injected.


title: Fentanyl

text: Another form of fentanyl that has appeared on the streets is the Actiq lollipop formulation. The pharmacy retail price ranges from US$15 to US$50 per unit based on the strength of the lozenge, with the black market cost ranging from US$5 to US$25, depending on the dose. The attorneys general of Connecticut and Pennsylvania have launched investigations into its diversion from the legitimate pharmaceutical market, including Cephalon's "sales and promotional practices for Provigil, Actiq and Gabitril."


title: Fentanyl

text: Non-medical use of fentanyl by individuals without opioid tolerance can be very dangerous and has resulted in numerous deaths. Even those with opiate tolerances are at high risk for overdoses. Like all opioids, the effects of fentanyl can be reversed with naloxone, or other opiate antagonists. Naloxone is increasingly available to the public. Long acting or sustained release opioids may require repeat dosage. Illicitly synthesized fentanyl powder has also appeared on the United States market. Because of the extremely high strength of pure fentanyl powder, it is very difficult to dilute appropriately, and often the resulting mixture may be far too strong and, therefore, very dangerous.


title: Fentanyl

text: Some heroin dealers mix fentanyl powder with heroin to increase potency or compensate for low-quality heroin. In 2006, illegally manufactured, non-pharmaceutical fentanyl often mixed with cocaine or heroin caused an outbreak of overdose deaths in the United States and Canada, heavily concentrated in the cities of Dayton, Ohio; Chicago; Detroit; and Philadelphia.


title: Fentanyl

text: Several large quantities of illicitly produced fentanyl have been seized by U.S. law enforcement agencies. In November2016, the DEA uncovered an operation making counterfeit oxycodone and Xanax from a home in Cottonwood Heights, Utah. They found about 70,000pills in the appearance of oxycodone and more than 25,000 in the appearance of Xanax. The DEA reported that millions of pills could have been distributed from this location over the course of time. The accused owned a tablet press and ordered fentanyl in powder form from China. A seizure of a record amount of fentanyl occurred on 2 February 2019, by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Nogales, Arizona. The of fentanyl, which was estimated to be worth US$3.5M, was concealed in a compartment under a false floor of a truck transporting cucumbers. The "China White" form of fentanyl refers to any of a number of clandestinely produced analogues, especially α-methylfentanyl (AMF). One US Department of Justice publication lists "China White" as a synonym for a number of fentanyl analogues, including 3-methylfentanyl and α-methylfentanyl, which today are classified as Schedule I drugs in the United States. Part of the motivation for AMF is that, despite the extra difficulty from a synthetic standpoint, the resultant drug is more resistant to metabolic degradation. This results in a drug with an increased duration.


title: Fentanyl

text: In June 2013, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a health advisory to emergency departments alerting to 14 overdose deaths among intravenous drug users in Rhode Island associated with acetylfentanyl, a synthetic opioid analog of fentanyl that has never been licensed for medical use. In a separate study conducted by the CDC, 82% of fentanyl overdose deaths involved illegally manufactured fentanyl, while only 4% were suspected to originate from a prescription.


title: Fentanyl

text: Beginning in 2015, Canada has seen a number of fentanyl overdoses. Authorities suspected that the drug was being imported from Asia to the western coast by organized crime groups in powder form and being pressed into pseudo-OxyContin tablets. Traces of the drug have also been found in other recreational drugs including cocaine, MDMA, and heroin. The drug has been implicated in multiple deaths from the homeless to young professionals, including teens and young parents. Because of the rising deaths across the country, especially in British Columbia where 1,716deaths were reported in 2020 and 1,782 from January to October2021, Health Canada is putting a rush on a review of the prescription-only status of naloxone in an effort to combat overdoses of the drug. In 2018, Global News reported allegations that diplomatic tensions between Canada and China hindered cooperation to seize imports, with Beijing being accused of inaction.


title: Fentanyl

text: Fentanyl has been discovered for sale in illicit markets in Australia in 2017 and in New Zealand in 2018. In response, New Zealand experts called for wider availability of naloxone.


title: Fentanyl

text: In May 2019, China regulated the entire class of fentanyl-type drugs and two fentanyl precursors. Nevertheless it remains the principal origin of fentanyl in the United States: Mexican cartels source fentanyl precursors from Chinese suppliers such as Yuancheng Group which are finished in Mexico and smuggled to the United States. Following the 2022 visit by Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan, China halted cooperation with the United States on combatting drug trafficking.


title: Fentanyl

text: India has also emerged as a source of fentanyl and fentanyl precursors, where Mexican cartels have already developed networks for the import of synthetic drugs. It is possible fentanyl and precursor production may disperse to other countries such as Nigeria, South Africa, Indonesia, Myanmar, and the Netherlands.


title: Fentanyl

text: In 2020, the Myanmar military and police confiscated 990 gallons of methyl fentanyl, as well as precursors for the illicit synthesis of the drug. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the Shan State of Myanmar has been identified as a major source for fentanyl derivatives. In 2021, the agency reported a further drop in opium poppy cultivation in Burma, as the region’s synthetic drug market continues to expand and diversify.


title: Fentanyl

text: In February2004, a leading fentanyl supplier, Janssen Pharmaceutica Products recalled one lot, and later, additional lots of fentanyl (brand name: Duragesic) patches because of seal breaches that might have allowed the medication to leak from the patch. A series of classII recalls was initiated in March2004, and in February2008 ALZA Corporation recalled their 25µg/h Duragesic patches due to a concern that small cuts in the gel reservoir could result in accidental exposure of patients or health care providers to the fentanyl gel.


title: Fentanyl

text: Brand names include Sublimaze, Actiq, Durogesic, Duragesic, Fentora, Matrifen, Haldid, Onsolis, Instanyl, Abstral, Lazanda and others.


title: Fentanyl

text: The fentanyl patch is one of a few medications that may be especially harmful, and in some cases fatal, with just one dose, if misused by a child. Experts have advised that any unused fentanyl patches be kept in a secure location out of children's sight and reach, such as a locked cabinet.


title: Fentanyl

text: In British Columbia, Canada, where there are environmental concerns about toilet flushing or garbage disposal, pharmacists recommend that unused patches be sealed in a child-proof container that is then returned to a pharmacy. In the United States where patches cannot always be returned through a medication take-back program, flushing is recommended for fentanyl patches because it is the fastest and surest way to remove them from the home to prevent them from ingestion by children, pets or others not intended to use them.


title: Fentanyl

text: In August 2018, Nebraska became the first American state to use fentanyl to execute a prisoner. Carey Dean Moore, at the time one of the longest-serving death row inmates in the United States, was executed at the Nebraska State Penitentiary. Moore received a lethal injection, administered as an intravenous series of four drugs that included fentanyl citrate, to inhibit breathing and render the subject unconscious. The other drugs included diazepam as a tranquilizer, cisatracurium besylate as a muscle relaxant, and potassium chloride to stop the heart. The use of fentanyl in execution caused concern among death penalty experts because it was part of a previously untested drug cocktail. The execution was also protested by anti-death penalty advocates at the prison during the execution and later at the Nebraska capitol building.


title: Fentanyl

text: Russian Spetsnaz security forces are suspected to have used a fentanyl analogue, or derivative, to incapacitate people rapidly in the Moscow theater hostage crisis in 2002. The siege was ended, but some hostages may have died from the gas after their health was severely taxed during the days long siege. The Russian Health Minister later stated that the gas was based on fentanyl, but the exact chemical agent has not been identified.


title: Fentanyl

text: Fentanyl in injectable formulation is commonly used for analgesia and as a component of balanced sedation and general anesthesia in small animal patients. Its potency and short duration of action make it particularly useful in critically ill patients. In addition, it tends to cause less vomiting and regurgitation than other pure-opiate (codeine, morphine) and synthetic pure-opioid agonists (oxycodone, hydromorphone) when given as a continuous post-operative infusion. As with other pure-opioid agonists, fentanyl can be associated with dysphoria in both dogs and cats.


title: Fentanyl

text: Transdermal fentanyl has also been used for many years in dogs and cats for post-operative analgesia. This is usually done with off-label fentanyl patches manufactured for humans with chronic pain. In 2012, a highly concentrated (50mg/mL) transdermal solution, trade name "Recuvyra", has become commercially available for dogs only. It is FDA approved to provide four days of analgesia after a single application before surgery. It is not approved for multiple doses or other species. The drug is also approved in Europe.


title: Seinfeld

text: Seinfeld ( ) is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. It aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, over nine seasons and 180 episodes. It stars Seinfeld as a fictionalized version of himself and focuses on his personal life with three of his friends: best friend George Costanza (Jason Alexander), former girlfriend Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and his neighbor from across the hall, Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards). It is set mostly in an apartment building in Manhattan's Upper West Side in New York City. It has been described as "a show about nothing", often focusing on the minutiae of daily life. Interspersed in earlier episodes are moments of stand-up comedy from the fictional Jerry Seinfeld, frequently using the episode's events for material.


title: Seinfeld

text: As a rising comedian in the late 1980s, Jerry Seinfeld was presented with an opportunity to create a show with NBC. He asked Larry David, a fellow comedian and friend, to help create a premise for a sitcom. The series was produced by West-Shapiro Productions and Castle Rock Entertainment and distributed by Columbia Pictures Television. It was largely written by David and Seinfeld, with script writers who included Larry Charles, Peter Mehlman, Gregg Kavet, Carol Leifer, David Mandel, Jeff Schaffer, Steve Koren, Jennifer Crittenden, Tom Gammill, Max Pross, Dan O'Keefe, Charlie Rubin, Marjorie Gross, Alec Berg, Elaine Pope and Spike Feresten. A favorite among critics, the series led the Nielsen ratings in Seasons 6 and 9 and finished among the top two (with NBC's "ER") every year from 1994 to 1998. Only two other shows – "I Love Lucy" and "The Andy Griffith Show –" have finished their runs at the top of the ratings.


title: Seinfeld

text: "Seinfeld" is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential sitcoms of all time. It has been ranked among television's best shows in publications such as "Entertainment Weekly", "Rolling Stone" and "TV Guide". Its most renowned episodes include "The Chinese Restaurant," "The Soup Nazi," "The Parking Garage," "The Marine Biologist" and "The Contest." In 2013, the Writers Guild of America voted it the No. 2 Best-Written TV Series of All Time (second to "The Sopranos"). E! named it the "Number 1 reason the '90s ruled", and quotes from numerous episodes have become catchphrases in popular culture.


title: Seinfeld

text: Many characters have made multiple appearances, notably Jerry's parents, Morty and Helen Seinfeld, who reside in Florida; George's parents, the overbearing Frank and Estelle Costanza; George's on-again, off-again fiancée Susan Ross; Jerry's Uncle Leo; Elaine's variety of bosses, Mr. Lippman, Mr. Pitt and J. Peterman; Elaine's on-again, off-again boyfriend David Puddy; and Kramer's friend, Newman, a mail carrier who lives in the same building and is Jerry's nemesis.


title: Seinfeld

text: In addition to recurring characters, "Seinfeld" features numerous celebrities who appear as themselves or girlfriends, boyfriends, bosses and other acquaintances. Many actors who made guest appearances became household names later in their careers or were already well known.


title: Seinfeld

text: Many "Seinfeld" episodes are based on the writers' real-life experiences, with the experiences reinterpreted for the characters' storylines. For example, George's storyline in "The Revenge" is based on Larry David's experience at "Saturday Night Live". "The Contest" is also based on David's experiences. "The Smelly Car" storyline is based on Peter Mehlman's lawyer friend, who could not get a bad smell out of his car. "The Strike" is based on Dan O'Keefe's dad, who made up his own holiday: Festivus. Other stories take a variety of turns. "The Chinese Restaurant" consists of George, Jerry and Elaine waiting for a table throughout the entire episode. "The Boyfriend," revolving around Keith Hernandez, extends through two episodes. "The Betrayal" is famous for using reverse chronology and was inspired by a similar plot device in a Harold Pinter play, "Betrayal". Some stories were inspired by headlines and rumors, as explained in the DVD features "Notes About Nothing," "Inside Look" and "Audio Commentary." In "The Maestro," Kramer's lawsuit is roughly similar to the McDonald's coffee case. "The Outing" is based primarily on rumors that Larry Charles heard about Jerry Seinfeld's sexuality.


title: Seinfeld

text: The series was often described as "a show about nothing." However, in 2014, Seinfeld stated: "The pitch for the show, the real pitch, when Larry and I went to NBC in 1988, was we want to show how a comedian gets his material. The show about nothing was just a joke in an episode many years later, and Larry and I to this day are surprised that it caught on as a way that people describe the show, because to us it's the opposite of that." David similarly commented: "I like taking the worst qualities that a person has and trying to make something funny out of it. Doesn’t everybody do terrible things and have terrible thoughts? Just by trying to be as funny, you’re going to deal with a lot of things that are real, so the show’s really about something. The whole thing about the show being about nothing is ridiculous." Much of the show's humor is based upon repeated use of irony, incongruity and (oftentimes unfortunate) coincidences.


title: Seinfeld

text: "Seinfeld" broke several conventions of mainstream television. David is credited with refusing to follow the predictable sitcom formula that would have a blossoming romantic relationship develop between Jerry and Elaine. The show offers no growth or reconciliation to its characters and eschews sentimentality. An episode is typically driven by humor interspersed with the superficial conflicts of characters with peculiar dispositions. Many episodes revolve around the characters' involvement in the lives of others with typically disastrous results. On the set, the notion that the characters should not develop or improve throughout the series was expressed as the "no hugging, no learning" rule. Also unlike most sitcoms, there are no moments of pathos; the audience is never made to feel sorry for any of the characters. Even Susan's death in "The Invitations" elicits no genuine emotions from anybody in the show. "Seinfeld" does not shy away from making light of tough topics, from death to illness to disability.


title: Seinfeld

text: The characters are "thirty-something singles with vague identities, no roots, and conscious indifference to morals." Usual conventions were broken, like isolating the characters from the actors playing them and separating the characters' world from that of the actors and audience. One such example is the story arc where the characters promote a TV sitcom series named "Jerry". The show within a show, "Jerry" was much like "Seinfeld" in that it was "about nothing" and Seinfeld played himself. The fictional "Jerry" was launched in the Season 4 finale, but unlike "Seinfeld", it wasn't picked up as a series. "Jerry" is one of many examples of metafiction in the show. There are no fewer than 22 fictional movies featured, like "Rochelle, Rochelle". Because of these several elements, "Seinfeld" became the first TV series since "Monty Python's Flying Circus" to be widely described as postmodern.


title: Seinfeld

text: Seinfeld is an avid Abbott and Costello fan, and has cited "The Abbott and Costello Show" as an influence on "Seinfeld": "Everybody on the show knows I'm a fan. We're always joking about how we do stuff from their show. George and I will often get into a riff that has the rhythm from the old Abbott and Costello shows. And sometimes I'll hit George in the chest the way Abbott would hit Costello." The series includes numerous references to the team. George Costanza's middle name is "Louis," after Costello. "The Old Man" episode features a cantankerous character named "Sid Fields" as a tribute to the landlord on the team's TV show. Kramer's friend is named Mickey Abbott. A copywriter for the J. Peterman catalog is named Eddie Sherman, after the team's longtime agent. In Episode 30, Kramer hears the famous Abbott and Costello line, "His father was a mudder. His mother was a mudder."


title: Seinfeld

text: Many terms were coined, popularized or re-popularized in the series' run and have become part of popular culture, including "Yada, yada, yada", "No soup for you!", "Master of my domain”, and "Not that there's anything wrong with that."


title: Seinfeld

text: The lexicon of Seinfeldian code words and recurring phrases that evolved around particular episodes is referred to as Seinlanguage, which is also the title of Jerry Seinfeld's best-selling book on humor. These terms include "man hands", "shrinkage", "regift", and "double dip".


title: Seinfeld

text: A signature of "Seinfeld" is its theme music. Composed by Jonathan Wolff, it consists of distinct solo sampled electric bass riffs that open the show and connect the scenes, often accompanied by beatboxing. The bass music eventually replaced the original piano/synth music by Jep Epstein when it was played again after the first broadcast of the pilot episode. The show lacked a traditional title track and the riffs were played over the first moments of dialogue or action. They vary throughout each episode and are played in an improvised funk style, matching the timing of Seinfeld's stand-up comedy delivery or transitions in the editing. An additional musical theme with an ensemble, led by a synthesized mid-range brass instrument, ends each episode.


title: Seinfeld

text: In "The Note", the first episode of Season 3, the bumper music featured a scatting female jazz singer who sang a phrase that sounded like "easy to beat". Jerry Seinfeld and executive producer Larry David both liked Wolff's additions, and three episodes were produced with this new style of music. However, they had neglected to inform NBC and Castle Rock executives of the change, and when the season premiere aired, the executives were surprised and unimpressed and requested that they return to the original style. The subsequent two episodes were redone, leaving this episode as the only one with additional music elements. In the commentary of "The Note", Louis-Dreyfus facetiously suggests it was removed because the perceived lyric related closely to the low ratings at the time.


title: Seinfeld

text: In the final three seasons, the bits were tweaked slightly with more frantic rhythms; a bass guitar was added in addition to the sampled bass from earlier seasons. Throughout the show, the main theme could be restyled in different ways depending on the episode. For instance, in "The Betrayal", part of which takes place in India, the theme is heard played on a sitar.


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text: "Seinfeld" stood out from family and group sitcoms of its time. The principal characters are not related by family or work connections but remain distinctly close friends throughout the series.


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text: Many characters were based primarily on Seinfeld's and David's real-life acquaintances. Two prominent recurring characters were based on well-known people: Jacopo Peterman of the J. Peterman catalog (based on John Peterman) and George Steinbrenner, owner of the New York Yankees. Many characters were introduced as new writers got involved with "Seinfeld". Other characters based on real people include the Soup Nazi and Jackie Chiles, who was based on Johnnie Cochran.


title: Seinfeld

text: "Seinfeld" follows a story structure: story thread is presented at the beginning of every episode, which involves the characters starting in their situations, and rapid scene shifts between plot lines bring the stories together. Even though it does not follow a pattern as other sitcoms, the characters' stories variously intertwine in each episode. Despite the separate plot strands, the narratives reveal the creators' "consistent efforts to maintain the intimacy" among the small cast of characters.


title: Seinfeld

text: The show maintains a strong sense of continuity, as characters and plots from past episodes are often referenced or expanded on. Occasionally, story arcs span multiple episodes and even entire seasons, the most memorable being Season 4, which revolved around the pilot pitch to NBC by Jerry and George. Another example is Jerry's girlfriend Vanessa, who appears in "The Stake Out" and with whom he ends the relationship when things do not work out in "The Stock Tip". Other examples are Kramer getting his jacket back and Elaine heading the "Peterman catalog". Larry David, the head writer and executive producer for the first seven seasons, was praised for keeping a close eye on minor details and making sure the main characters' lives remained consistent and believable. "Curb Your Enthusiasm", David's later comedy series, expanded on this idea by following a specific theme for all but one season in the series.


title: Seinfeld

text: A major difference between "Seinfeld" and sitcoms that preceded it is that the principal characters never learn from their mistakes. In effect, they are indifferent and even callous toward the outside world and sometimes one another. A mantra of the show's producers was "No hugging, no learning." "Entertainment Weekly"s TV critic Ken Tucker has described them as "a group dynamic rooted in jealousy, rage, insecurity, despair, hopelessness, and a touching lack of faith in one's fellow human beings." This leads to very few happy endings, except at somebody else's expense. More often in every episode, situations resolve with characters getting a justly deserved comeuppance.


title: Seinfeld

text: The show premiered as "The Seinfeld Chronicles" on July 5, 1989. After it aired, a pickup by NBC seemed unlikely and the show was offered to Fox, which declined to pick it up. Rick Ludwin, head of late night and special events for NBC, however, diverted money from his budget by canceling a Bob Hope television special, and the next four episodes were filmed. These episodes were highly rated as they followed summer re-runs of "Cheers" on Thursdays at 9:30 p.m., and the series was finally picked up. At one point NBC considered airing these episodes on Saturdays at 10:30 p.m. but gave the slot to a short-lived sitcom called "FM" instead. The series was renamed simply "Seinfeld" after the failure of short-lived 1990 ABC series "The Marshall Chronicles". After airing the remaining four episodes of its first season the summer of 1990, NBC ordered 13 more episodes. David believed that he and Seinfeld had no more stories to tell, and advised Seinfeld to turn down the order, but Seinfeld agreed to the additional episodes. Season 2 was bumped off its scheduled premiere of January 16, 1991, due to the outbreak of the Persian Gulf War. It settled into a regular time slot on Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m. and eventually flipped with veteran series "Night Court" to 9 p.m.


title: Seinfeld

text: TV critics championed "Seinfeld" in its early seasons, even as it was slow to cultivate a substantial audience. For the first three seasons, Jerry's stand-up comedy act would bookend an episode, even functioning as transitions during the show. A few episodes set a benchmark for later seasons. "The Deal" establishes Jerry and Elaine's relationship by setting rules about sleeping together and remaining friends. "The Parking Garage" was the first episode shot with no audience for the episode and, after "The Chinese Restaurant," to not show Jerry's apartment. "The Keys" contains a crossover to CBS show "Murphy Brown", marking the first such cooperation between rival networks. "The Busboy" introduces George, Kramer and Elaine as having their own storylines for the first time. Although Castle Rock Entertainment's Glenn Padnick thought Seinfeld was too generous, showcasing his co-stars' comedic talent became a trademark throughout the series.


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text: Larry Charles wrote an episode for Season 2, "The Bet," in which Elaine buys a gun from Kramer's friend. This episode was not filmed because the content was deemed unacceptable and was replaced by the episode "The Phone Message." "The Stranded," which aired during Season 3, was initially intended for Season 2. In the beginning of this episode, Jerry clears up the continuity error over George's real estate job.


title: Seinfeld

text: Season 4 marked the sitcom's entry into the Nielsen ratings Top 30, coinciding with several popular episodes, such as "The Bubble Boy" in which George and the bubble boy argue over "Trivial Pursuit", and "The Junior Mint" in which Jerry and Kramer accidentally fumble a mint in the operating room. This was the first season to use a story arc of Jerry and George creating their own sitcom, "Jerry". Also at this time, the use of Jerry's stand-up act slowly declined, and the stand-up segment in the middle of "Seinfeld" episodes was cut.


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text: Much publicity followed the controversial episode, "The Contest", an Emmy Award-winning episode written by David, whose subject matter was considered inappropriate for prime time network TV. To circumvent this taboo, the word "masturbation" was never used in the script, instead substituted for by a variety of oblique references. Midway through that season, "Seinfeld" was moved from its original 9:00 p.m. time slot on Wednesdays to 9:30 p.m. on Thursdays, following "Cheers" again, which gave the show even more popularity. Ratings also sparked the move, as Tim Allen's sitcom "Home Improvement" on ABC had aired at the same time and "Improvement" kept beating "Seinfeld" in the ratings. NBC moved the series after Ted Danson announced the end of "Cheers" and "Seinfeld" quickly surpassed the ratings of the 9:00 p.m. "Cheers" reruns that spring. The show won an Emmy Award for "Outstanding Comedy Series" in 1993, beating out its family-oriented, time-slot competitor "Home Improvement", which was only in its second season on rival network ABC.


title: Seinfeld

text: Season 5 was an even bigger ratings hit, consisting of popular episodes, such as "The Puffy Shirt" in which Jerry feels embarrassed wearing a "pirate" shirt on "The Today Show", "The Non-Fat Yogurt" featuring Rudy Giuliani, the Republican then-mayor-elect of New York, and "The Opposite" in which George, doing the opposite of what his instincts tell him he should do, lands a job with the New York Yankees and Elaine leaves "Pendant Publishing" because of a comedy of errors that led to its demise. Another story arc has George returning to live with his parents. In the midst of the story arc, Kramer creates and promotes his coffee table book. The show was again nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series, but lost to the "Cheers" spin-off "Frasier", then in its first season. "Seinfeld" was nominated for the same award every year for its entire run but, after its win at the 45th Primetime Emmy Awards in 1994, always lost to "Frasier", which went on to win a record 39 Emmy Awards in its 11-season run.


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text: In Season 6, Andy Ackerman replaced Tom Cherones as director of the show. The series remained well regarded and produced some of its most famous episodes, such as "The Beard", in which Jerry is put through a lie detector test to make him admit that he watched "Melrose Place;" "The Switch", in which Kramer's mom, Babs, reveals that his first name is Cosmo; and "The Understudy", in which Elaine meets J. Peterman for the first time. Story arcs used in this season were Elaine working as a personal assistant to her eccentric boss Justin Pitt and George's parents' temporary separation. This was the first season in which "Seinfeld" reached No. 1 in the Nielsen Ratings. The use of Jerry's stand-up act declined with the end stand-up segment no longer appearing because the storylines for all four characters grew denser.


title: Seinfeld

text: In Season 7, a story arc involved George getting engaged to his ex-girlfriend, Susan Ross, after the pilot "Jerry" proved unsuccessful. In it, George spends most of the season regretting and trying to get out of the engagement. Along with the regular half-hour episodes, two notable one-hour episodes were "The Cadillac", in which George plans to date award-winning actress Marisa Tomei, and "The Bottle Deposit", with Elaine and Sue Ellen participating in a bidding war to buy JFK's golf clubs in an auction.


title: Seinfeld

text: "Seinfeld’s" final two seasons were regarded as being distinct from the earlier seasons. Most noticeably, David left the writing crew (but returned to write "The Finale" in 1998), resulting in Seinfeld taking over David's duties as showrunner, and, under the direction of a new writing staff, "Seinfeld" became a faster-paced show. The show no longer contained extracts of Jerry performing stand-up comedy—Jerry had no time or energy for this with his new responsibilities—and storylines occasionally delved into fantasy and broad humor. For example, in "The Bizarro Jerry", Elaine is torn between exact opposites of her friends and Jerry dates a woman who has the now-famous "man hands". Some notable episodes from Season 8 include "The Little Kicks" showing Elaine's horrible dancing, and "The Chicken Roaster" which portrays the "Kenny Rogers Roasters" chicken restaurant which opened during that time. A story arc in this season involves Peterman going to Burma in "The Foundation" until he recovered from a nervous breakdown in "The Money", followed by Elaine writing Peterman's biography in "The Van Buren Boys", which leads to Kramer's parody of Kenny Kramer's Reality Tour seen in "The Muffin Tops".


title: Seinfeld

text: The final season included episodes like "The Merv Griffin Show" in which Kramer converts his apartment into a talk-show studio and plays the character of talk-show host, "The Betrayal" that presents in reverse chronological order what happened to Sue Ellen's wedding in India, and "The Frogger" in which George pushes a "Frogger" machine across the street, mimicking the action of the game itself. The last season included a story arc in which Elaine has an on/off relationship with Puddy. Despite the enormous popularity and willingness of the cast to return for a tenth season, Seinfeld decided to end the show after Season 9, believing he would thereby be able to ensure the show would maintain its quality and go out on top. NBC offered him over $100 million for a tenth season, but Seinfeld declined.


title: Seinfeld

text: A major controversy caused in this final season was the accidental burning of a Puerto Rican flag by Kramer in "The Puerto Rican Day". This scene caused a furor among Puerto Ricans, and as a result, NBC showed this episode only once. Seinfeld defused the protestors by not letting this episode continue in syndication, as revealed in "Inside Look" on DVD. However, the episode would be added to the syndicated rerun package several years later uncut.


title: Seinfeld

text: After nine years on the air, NBC and Seinfeld announced on December 25, 1997, that the series would end production the following spring in 1998. The announcement made the front page of the major New York newspapers, including "The New York Times". Seinfeld was featured on the cover of "Time" magazine's first issue of 1998. The series ended with a 75-minute episode (cut to 60 minutes in syndication, in two parts) written by co-creator and ex-executive producer Larry David, which aired on May 14, 1998. Before the finale, a 45-minute retrospective clip show, "The Chronicle", was aired. The retrospective was expanded to an hour after the original airing and aired again on NBC as an hour-long episode, and has since aired in syndication.


title: Seinfeld

text: It was the first episode since the finale of Season 7, "The Invitations", to feature opening and closing stand-up comedy acts by Seinfeld. The finale was filmed before an audience of NBC executives and friends of the show. The press and public were shut out of the taping to keep its plot secret; those who attended the shoot of the final episode were required to sign written "vows of silence". The secrecy only seemed to increase speculation about how the series would end. The producers of the episode tweaked the media about the hype, spreading a false rumor about Newman ending up in the hospital and Jerry and Elaine sitting in a chapel, presumably to marry.


title: Seinfeld

text: The final episode enjoyed a historic audience, estimated at 76.3 million viewers (58% of all viewers that night) making it the fourth-most watched regular series finale in U.S. TV history, behind "M*A*S*H", "Cheers", and "The Fugitive". However, the finale received mixed reviews from critics and fans of the show. The finale poked fun at the many rumors that were circulating, seeming to move into multiple supposed plots before settling on its true storyline—a lengthy trial where the gang is prosecuted for violating a "Duty to Rescue" law and sentenced to prison terms.


title: Seinfeld

text: According to "Forbes" magazine, Seinfeld's earnings from the show in 1998 came to US$267 million, including syndication earnings. He refused NBC's offer of $5 million per episode, or over $100 million total, to continue into a tenth season. The offer NBC made to Seinfeld was over three times higher per episode than anyone on TV had ever been offered before. Seinfeld told the network that he was not married nor had children, and wished to focus on his personal life. As reported in July 2007, he was the second-highest earner in the TV industry, earning at the time $60 million a year. The episode became the first to command over $1 million a minute for advertising—a mark previously attained only by the Super Bowl.


title: Seinfeld

text: According to Barry Meyer, chairman of Warner Bros. Entertainment (parent company of Castle Rock), "Seinfeld" made $2.7 billion through June 2010. the show had made an estimated $4.06 billion in syndication. Steve Bannon, who invested in the show, later said, "We calculated what it would get us if it made it to syndication. We were wrong by a factor of five". In September 2019, it was announced that Viacom (now Paramount Global) had acquired cable syndication rights to the series from TBS, with it airing on Comedy Central beginning in October 2021 and Nick at Nite in May 2022.


title: Seinfeld

text: "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.


title: Seinfeld

text: The pilot was filmed at Stage 8 of Desilu Cahuenga studios, the same studio where "The Dick Van Dyke Show" was filmed (seen by the crew as a good omen), and was recorded at Ren-Mar Studios in Hollywood. The pilot was first screened to a group of two dozen NBC executives in Burbank, California, in early 1989. It 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" (a sentiment which would also lead to the Cosmo character's later surname change from the more Jewish-sounding Kessler to Kramer). 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". 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?" 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."


title: Seinfeld

text: 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" lasted only a single season of 13 episodes and was off the air by the end of 1990.


title: Seinfeld

text: When NBC announced its 1989–90 (primetime) schedule in May 1989, "The Seinfeld Chronicles" was not included, but the show's supporters did not give up. The pilot first aired on July 5, 1989, and finished second in its time slot against the CBS police drama "Jake and the Fatman", receiving a Nielsen rating of 10.9/19. The ratings did not exhibit the regional skew Tartikoff predicted, much to the encouragement of the show's supporters. Ludwin canceled one of the Bob Hope specials budgeted for that season so the entertainment division had the money to order four more episodes of "The Seinfeld Chronicles", which formed the rest of the show's first season (the series was by then retitled to "Seinfeld")—a move without which "Chicago Tribune" columnist Phil Rosenthal later said there "would be no "Seinfeld"". Although this was a very low order number for a new series—and the smallest sitcom order in TV history—Castle Rock failed to find any other buyers when it shopped the show to other networks, and accepted the order. "Seinfeld" did not return to the airwaves until May 30, 1990, and it was another three years before it became a Top 5-rated show. Preston Beckman, in charge of NBC's research department at the time, reminisced, "The show was different. Nobody had seen anything like it. It wasn't unusual for poor-testing shows to get on the air, but it was very rare that they became hits."


title: Seinfeld

text: When it was first repeated on July 5, 1990, it received a rating of 13.9/26. These ratings were high enough to secure a second season. NBC research showed that the show was popular with young male adults, a demographic sought after by advertisers. This gave NBC an incentive to keep broadcasting the show. One DVD reviewer, Britt Gillette, wrote that "this initial episode exhibits the flashes of brilliance that made "Seinfeld" a cultural phenomenon."


title: Seinfeld

text: Other than the pilot, the series was filmed at CBS Studio Center, in Studio City, California. The first three seasons were filmed on soundstage 19; it then moved to the larger Stage 9 for the remainder of its production. Despite numerous establishing shots taken in New York City, all scenes of the actors walking in New York were also filmed at CBS Studio Center, on their New York Street backlot. Other locations on the CBS lot were also used, as well as scenes filmed at Paramount Studios and Warner Brothers Studios Hollywood.


title: Seinfeld

text: A source of problems for the cast was the small sets, especially that of Jerry's apartment; Alexander noted "If you knew you were doing a series for nine years, you would never build that set". Adding to the problem was that the scripts contained only minimal physical direction, leaving the actors struggling to come up with actions to perform while speaking. Eventually, they got into a routine of directing each other on how to make their movements look natural. Alexander said this helped them build chemistry with each other.


title: Seinfeld

text: Filming usually went long, as the cast and David were perfectionists. If a joke didn't elicit the reaction they hoped for, they rewrote it and performed it again. In at least one case, "The Marine Biologist", this led to David writing an entirely new scene requiring Alexander to memorize a monologue in only a matter of minutes. Laugh tracks were used only for matching shots, not for artificially adding laughter.


title: Seinfeld

text: There are two high-definition versions of "Seinfeld". The first is that of the network TV (non-syndicated) versions in the original aspect ratio of 4:3 that were downscaled for the DVD releases. Clips from this high-definition version in its upscale were seen on NBC during "The Seinfeld Story" special. Syndicated broadcast stations and the cable networks TBS and Comedy Central began airing the syndicated version of "Seinfeld" in HD. Unlike the version used for the DVD, Sony Pictures cropped the top and bottom parts of the frame, while restoring previously cropped images on the sides, from the 35mm film source, to use the entire 16:9 frame.


title: Seinfeld

text: Elizabeth Magnotta and Alexandra Strohl analyze the success of "Seinfeld" with recourse to the incongruity theory of humor: "The Incongruity Theory claims that humor is created out of a violation of an expectation. For humor to result from this unexpected result, the event must have an appropriate emotional climate, the setting, characters, prior discourse, relationships of the characters, and the topic." Specifically, Magnotta and Strohl focus on "The Marine Biologist", where George is embroiled in yet another lie, and on "The Red Dot", where George tries to save a few dollars at Elaine's expense by giving her a marked-down cashmere sweater.


title: Seinfeld

text: In "Translating "Seinfeld"", Jennifer Armstrong notes that "Seinfeld" is less popular among non-English speakers as its unique style of humor is "too cultural and word-based to make for easy translation". Carol Iannone sums up the legacy of this American hit in her "Modern Age" article ""Seinfeld": The Politically Incorrect Comedy" when she says, "It may be the first situation comedy truly to achieve the status of art".


title: Seinfeld

text: Nod Miller, of the University of East London, has discussed the self-referential qualities of the show:


title: Seinfeld

text: William Irwin has edited an anthology of scholarly essays on philosophy in "Seinfeld and Philosophy: A Book about Everything and Nothing". Some entries include "The Jerry Problem and the Socratic Problem", "George's Failed Quest for Happiness: An Aristotelian Analysis", "Elaine's Moral Character", "Kramer the 'Seducer, "Making Something Out of Nothing: Seinfeld, Sophistry and the Tao", "Seinfeld, Subjectivity, and Sartre", "Mr. Peterman, the Wicked Witch of the West, and Me", and "Minimally Decent Samaritans and Uncommon Law".


title: Seinfeld

text: "Seinfeld" has received awards and nominations in various categories throughout the mid-1990s. It was awarded the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series in 1993, Golden Globe Award for Best TV-Series (Comedy) in 1994 and Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series in 1995, 1997 and 1998. Apart from these, the show was also nominated for an Emmy award from 1992 to 1998 for Outstanding Comedy Series, Golden Globe award from 1994 to 1998 for Best TV-Series (Comedy), and Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series from 1995 to 1998. The show even received the Peabody Award in 1993.


title: Seinfeld

text: "TV Guide" named it the greatest TV show of all time in 2002. and in 2013, the magazine ranked it as the second-greatest TV show. A 2015 "The Hollywood Reporter" survey of 2,800 actors, producers, directors, and other industry people named "Seinfeld" as their #5 favorite show. In 2022, "Rolling Stone" ranked "Seinfeld" as the sixth-greatest TV show of all time.


title: Seinfeld

text: A recurring feature of "Seinfeld" was its inclusion of specific products, especially candy, as plot points. These might be a central feature of a plot (e.g., Junior Mints, Twix, Chuckles, Jujyfruits, bite-size Three Musketeers, Snickers, Chunky, Oh Henry!, Drake's Coffee Cake and PEZ), or an association of candy with a guest character (e.g. Oh Henry! bars) or simply a conversational aside (e.g., Chuckles, Clark Bar, Twinkies). A large number of non-candy products were also featured throughout the series.


title: Seinfeld

text: The show's creators claim that they weren't engaging in a product placement strategy for commercial gain. One motivation for the use of real-world products, quite unrelated to commercial considerations, is the comedy value of funny-sounding phrases and words. "I knew I wanted Kramer to think of watching the operation like going to see a movie", explained "Seinfeld" writer/producer Andy Robin in an interview published in "The Hollywood Reporter". "At first, I thought maybe a piece of popcorn falls into the patient. I ran that by my brother, and he said, 'No, Junior Mints are just funnier.'"


title: Seinfeld

text: Many advertisers capitalized on the popularity of "Seinfeld". American Express created a webisode where Jerry Seinfeld and an animated Superman (voiced by Patrick Warburton, who played the role of Puddy) starred in its commercial. The makers of the Today Sponge created the "Spongeworthy" game, on their website, inspired by "The Sponge". An advertisement featured Jason Alexander in a Chrysler commercial. In this, Alexander acts much like his character George, and his relationship with Lee Iacocca plays on George's relationship with Steinbrenner. Similarly, Michael Richards was the focus of a series of advertisements for Vodafone which ran in Australia where he dressed and acted exactly like Kramer, including the trademark bumbling pratfalls.


title: Seinfeld

text: In addition, the show occasionally incorporated fictional products like a Scotch brand called "Hennigan's" (a blend of "Hennessy" and "Brannigans") and a canned meat product called "Beef-a-reeno" (a parody of "Beef-a-roni").


title: Seinfeld

text: The hour-long, two-part clip show episode "The Highlights of 100" became the first "Seinfeld" episode available on home video when it was released on VHS in 1995.


title: Seinfeld

text: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released all nine seasons of "Seinfeld" on DVD in Regions 1, 2, and 4 between 2004 and 2007. On November 6, 2007, "Seinfeld: The Complete Series" was released on DVD. The complete series box set includes a 2007 "roundtable" reunion of the four main cast members and Larry David; only highlights of this were also included in the Season 9 set.


title: Seinfeld

text: In Australia (Region 4), the first complete series boxset was released on October 24, 2007. This set contained "The Coffee Table Book" and slipcase packaging and was a Limited Edition. In late 2007/2008, all the individual seasons were re-released in a single Amaray style case. The second boxset was released on December 2, 2008, and was a Collectible Fridge design packaging. On August 5, 2009, another Limited Edition boxset was released, similar to the first boxset but does not include the book and the packaging was slightly different. On November 23, 2011, another Limited Edition boxset was released, appearing to be almost identical to the 2009 version with some minor differences. On November 14, 2018, a Festivus Celebration Edition was released which contained napkins and cups, playing cards and thumb wrestle gadgets. On August 12, 2020, another The Complete Series boxset was released, this time the box is blue and contains 8 Amaray style cases.


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text: Free streaming service All 4 has been running "Seinfeld" in its original 4:3 format since February 2020.


title: Seinfeld

text: On April 29, 2015, it was officially announced, during Hulu's upfronts presentation in New York, that all nine seasons of "Seinfeld" would stream on the platform starting in June 2015. The deal was for around $130 million to $180 million. On May 20, 2015, Hulu announced that every episode would be available starting June 24, 2015. Hulu's streaming rights for the series expired on June 23, 2021.


title: Seinfeld

text: In January 2017, Amazon acquired the UK rights to all seasons of "Seinfeld" for its Amazon Prime Video streaming service.


title: Seinfeld

text: On November 8, 2016, the Australian streaming service Stan announced via Twitter that later in the week all episodes would be available to stream for the first time in Australia. All episodes were available from November 11, 2016, with the remastered versions of all episodes on the service featuring HD and Widescreen enhancements. The widescreen offered was cropped from the original 4:3 format negatives, thus resulting in better visual quality than the previously available DVD version, however, the top and bottom portions of the frame were cut out to achieve the widescreen aspect ratio. In April 2020, all seasons of "Seinfeld" were also made available on-demand via pay television service Foxtel, as well as its internet-based alternative Foxtel Now.


title: Seinfeld

text: In September 2019, Netflix and Sony Pictures announced that Netflix had acquired the exclusive global streaming rights for "Seinfeld", starting on October 1, 2021, superseding the above Hulu and Amazon rights. As of October 1, 2021, Netflix's version of "Seinfeld" is available in 4K resolution. The transition was criticized as the show, initially displayed in 4:3 aspect ratio, had been converted to 16:9, resulting in some gags getting cropped, similarly to how "The Simpsons" was initially rendered on Disney+. Netflix has yet to comment on this situation.


title: Seinfeld

text: On the November 1, 2007, episode of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart", Jerry Seinfeld mentioned the possibility of shooting one last scene, after the characters leave jail. He mentioned that he was too busy to do it at the time, but didn't announce what the scene would entail, as its production isn't a certainty.


title: Seinfeld

text: In a commentary from the final season DVD, Seinfeld outlines that he and Jason Alexander spoke about this scene being in Monk's Cafe, with George saying "That was brutal" about the foursome's stint in prison.


title: Seinfeld

text: On an episode of "Saturday Night Live" that Jerry Seinfeld hosted on October 2, 1999, a sketch was produced that showed what life was like for Jerry behind bars after being transferred to the fictional prison portrayed on the HBO series "Oz". The roughly four-minute sketch shows the opening credits for the HBO series with clips of Jerry mixed in doing various activities around the prison. The sketch continues and mixes in different storylines from both "Oz" and "Seinfeld" and has Jerry interacting with various characters from the show in his typical quick-witted, sarcastic way.


title: Seinfeld

text: Louis-Dreyfus, Alexander, and Richards have all tried to launch new sitcoms as title-role characters. Almost every show was canceled quickly, usually within the first season. This gave rise to the term "Seinfeld curse": the failure of a sitcom starring one of the three, despite the conventional wisdom that each person's "Seinfeld" popularity should almost guarantee a strong, built-in audience for the actor's new show. Shows specifically cited regarding the "Seinfeld curse" are Julia Louis-Dreyfus's "Watching Ellie", Jason Alexander's "Bob Patterson" and "Listen Up!", and Michael Richards' "The Michael Richards Show".


title: Seinfeld

text: This phenomenon was mentioned throughout the second season of Larry David's HBO program "Curb Your Enthusiasm", which aired in 2001. In real life, David has repeatedly dismissed the idea of a curse, saying, "It's so completely idiotic. It's very hard to have a successful sitcom."


title: Seinfeld

text: The success of Louis-Dreyfus in the 2006–2010 CBS sitcom "The New Adventures of Old Christine", which included winning the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series in 2006, led many to believe that she had broken the curse. In her acceptance speech, Louis-Dreyfus held up her award and exclaimed, "I'm not somebody who really believes in curses, but curse this, baby!" The show produced enough episodes to air in reruns in syndication for several years, something the other shows did not achieve. The "Saturday Night Live" episode hosted by Louis-Dreyfus made references to the curse. Nevertheless, the series ratings declined soon after and it was cancelled after the fifth season. She went on to win six further Emmys (for Lead Actress in a Comedy Series) for her acclaimed performance as Vice President Selina Meyer in the HBO comedy series "Veep". After "Veep" ended, Louis-Dreyfus officially joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2021 as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.


title: Seinfeld

text: Early in March 2009, it was announced that the "Seinfeld" cast would reunite for season seven of "Curb Your Enthusiasm". The cast first appeared in the third episode of the season, all playing fictional versions of themselves. The season-long story is that Larry David tries to initiate a "Seinfeld" reunion show as a ploy to win back his ex-wife, Cheryl. Along with the four main characters, some "Seinfeld" supporting actors like Wayne Knight, Estelle Harris and Steve Hytner appeared in the ninth episode at a table read for the reunion show. Although much dialogue in "Curb Your Enthusiasm" is improvised, the plot was scripted, and the "Seinfeld" special that aired within the show was scripted and directed by "Seinfeld" regular Andy Ackerman, making this the first time since "Seinfeld" went off the air that the central cast appeared together in a scripted show.


title: Seinfeld

text: Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander, and Wayne Knight, playing their respective "Seinfeld" characters, appeared in a spot presented during halftime of Super Bowl XLVIII on February 2, 2014. FOX came up with the idea of doing such a spot, due in part to the Super Bowl's location being New York City adjacent that year. An uncut version appeared on Crackle.com immediately afterward, as an episode of "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" titled "The Over-Cheer", establishing Seinfeld's character on the series as an older version of his "Seinfeld" character. Although the spot was used to advertise Seinfeld's web series, it was not considered a commercial, as Sony, which produces the series, did not pay for it. While Seinfeld indicated that the webisode would probably be the last cast reunion, saying, "I have a feeling you've seen the final coda on that very unique experience", since then, Michael Richards and Julia Louis-Dreyfus have also appeared in episodes.


title: David Harbour

text: David Kenneth Harbour (born April 10, 1975) is an American actor. He has played supporting roles in films such as "Brokeback Mountain" (2005), "Quantum of Solace" (2008), "State of Play" (2009), "The Green Hornet" (2011), "End of Watch" (2012), "Snitch" (2013), "The Equalizer" (2014), "Black Mass" (2015), "Suicide Squad" (2016), "Sleepless" (2017) and "Extraction" (2020). He gained global recognition for his portrayal of Jim Hopper in the Netflix science fiction drama series "Stranger Things" (2016–present), for which he received a Critics' Choice Television Award in 2018, two Emmy Award nominations and a Golden Globe Award nomination. Harbour portrayed the title character in "Hellboy" (2019), Red Guardian in "Black Widow" (2021) and the upcoming film "Thunderbolts" (2024), and Santa Claus in "Violent Night" (2022).


title: David Harbour

text: David Kenneth Harbour was born on April 10, 1975, in White Plains, New York, to parents Kenneth and Nancy (née Riley) Harbour. Both of his parents work in real estate, his mother in residential and his father in commercial. He attended Byram Hills High School in Armonk, New York, along with actors Sean Maher and Eyal Podell. Harbour graduated from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, in 1997. While at Dartmouth, Harbour majored in drama and Italian, and was a member of the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity.


title: David Harbour

text: Harbour began acting professionally on Broadway in 1999, in the revival of "The Rainmaker". He then made his television debut that same year in an episode of "Law & Order", playing a waiter. He appeared again in 2002 in an episode of "", playing a child murderer. Harbour portrayed the recurring role of MI6 Agent Roger Anderson in the ABC series "Pan Am". In 2005, he was nominated for a Tony Award for his performance in a production of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?".


title: David Harbour

text: Harbour is also known for his role as CIA Agent Gregg Beam in "Quantum of Solace", as Shep Campbell in "Revolutionary Road", and as Russell Crowe's source in "State of Play". He also received praise for his role as spree killer Paul Devildis in a 2009 episode of "". Harbour's other film credits include "Brokeback Mountain", "The Green Hornet", "End of Watch", and "Between Us". In 2013, he played a small role of a head doctor in the television series "Elementary". From 2012 to 2014, he also played the recurring role of Elliot Hirsch in "The Newsroom".


title: David Harbour

text: In 2014, Harbour portrayed the recurring character of Dr. Reed Akley in the first season of the historical drama series "Manhattan". In 2015, Harbour was cast as Chief Jim Hopper in the Netflix science fiction horror series "Stranger Things". For his role in the series, Harbour has received nominations for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series (2017 and 2018) and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film (2018). Harbour has won a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series (2017) along with the rest of the cast.


title: David Harbour

text: Harbour starred as the title character in the superhero reboot film "Hellboy" (2019). He most recently portrayed Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film "Black Widow" (2021), and will reprise the role in the upcoming film "Thunderbolts" (2024).


title: David Harbour

text: Harbour had a relationship with Alison Sudol. Since 2019, Harbour has been in a relationship with singer Lily Allen. They made their red carpet debut during the 26th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. A day after they obtained their marriage license, attended by Allen's two daughters, they married on September 7, 2020 in Las Vegas, in a wedding that was officiated by an Elvis impersonator.


title: David Harbour

text: Harbour previously followed several religions, including Catholicism and Buddhism. He is a former believer in the paranormal.


title: David Harbour

text: In an interview with "The Guardian" covering his role in "Black Widow" in July 2021, Harbour said he was a socialist, stating "I don't know that there's anyone who could disagree with socialist ideology," and later, "the idea of a kindergarten-type society where we share things is my ideal society; as opposed to this world where we're hunting and killing and destroying for our own personal hoarding, our own personal greed."


title: David Harbour

text: Harbour struggled with alcoholism in his past, and has been sober since his early twenties. He began drinking as a teenager and the habit worsened during college. He decided to stop drinking after feeling "very lonely and needing a different direction in my life" and has said "I enjoy consciousness too much now" to drink again.


title: Eiffel Tower

text: The Eiffel Tower ( ; ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower.


title: Eiffel Tower

text: Locally nicknamed ""La dame de fer"" (French for "Iron Lady"), it was constructed from 1887 to 1889 as the centerpiece of the 1889 World's Fair. Although initially criticised by some of France's leading artists and intellectuals for its design, it has since become a global cultural icon of France and one of the most recognisable structures in the world. The Eiffel Tower is the most visited monument with an entrance fee in the world: 6.91 million people ascended it in 2015. It was designated a "monument historique" in 1964, and was named part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site ("Paris, Banks of the Seine") in 1991.


title: Eiffel Tower

text: The tower is tall, about the same height as an 81- building, and the tallest structure in Paris. Its base is square, measuring on each side. During its construction, the Eiffel Tower surpassed the Washington Monument to become the tallest human-made structure in the world, a title it held for 41 years until the Chrysler Building in New York City was finished in 1930. It was the first structure in the world to surpass both the 200-metre and 300-metre mark in height. Due to the addition of a broadcasting aerial at the top of the tower in 1957, it is now taller than the Chrysler Building by . Excluding transmitters, the Eiffel Tower is the second tallest free-standing structure in France after the Millau Viaduct.


title: Eiffel Tower

text: The tower has three levels for visitors, with restaurants on the first and second levels. The top level's upper platform is above the ground – the highest observation deck accessible to the public in the European Union. Tickets can be purchased to ascend by stairs or lift to the first and second levels. The climb from ground level to the first level is over 300 steps, as is the climb from the first level to the second, making the entire ascent a 600 step climb. Although there is a staircase to the top level, it is usually accessible only by lift.


title: Eiffel Tower

text: The design of the Eiffel Tower is attributed to Maurice Koechlin and Émile Nouguier, two senior engineers working for the Compagnie des Établissements Eiffel. It was envisioned after discussion about a suitable centerpiece for the proposed 1889 Exposition Universelle, a world's fair to celebrate the centennial of the French Revolution. Eiffel openly acknowledged that inspiration for a tower came from the Latting Observatory built in New York City in 1853. In May 1884, working at home, Koechlin made a sketch of their idea, described by him as "a great pylon, consisting of four lattice girders standing apart at the base and coming together at the top, joined together by metal trusses at regular intervals". Eiffel initially showed little enthusiasm, but he did approve further study, and the two engineers then asked Stephen Sauvestre, the head of the company's architectural department, to contribute to the design. Sauvestre added decorative arches to the base of the tower, a glass pavilion to the first level, and other embellishments.


title: Eiffel Tower

text: The new version gained Eiffel's support: he bought the rights to the patent on the design which Koechlin, Nougier, and Sauvestre had taken out, and the design was put on display at the Exhibition of Decorative Arts in the autumn of 1884 under the company name. On 30 March 1885, Eiffel presented his plans to the ; after discussing the technical problems and emphasising the practical uses of the tower, he finished his talk by saying the tower would symbolise


title: Eiffel Tower

text: Little progress was made until 1886, when Jules Grévy was re-elected as president of France and Édouard Lockroy was appointed as minister for trade. A budget for the exposition was passed and, on 1 May, Lockroy announced an alteration to the terms of the open competition being held for a centrepiece to the exposition, which effectively made the selection of Eiffel's design a foregone conclusion, as entries had to include a study for a four-sided metal tower on the Champ de Mars. (A 300-metre tower was then considered a herculean engineering effort). On 12 May, a commission was set up to examine Eiffel's scheme and its rivals, which, a month later, decided that all the proposals except Eiffel's were either impractical or lacking in details.


title: Eiffel Tower

text: After some debate about the exact location of the tower, a contract was signed on 8 January 1887. Eiffel signed it acting in his own capacity rather than as the representative of his company, the contract granting him 1.5 million francs toward the construction costs: less than a quarter of the estimated 6.5 million francs. Eiffel was to receive all income from the commercial exploitation of the tower during the exhibition and for the next 20 years. He later established a separate company to manage the tower, putting up half the necessary capital himself.


title: Eiffel Tower

text: The Crédit Industriel et Commercial (C.I.C.) helped finance the construction of the Eiffel Tower. According to a "New York Times" investigation into France's colonial legacy in Haiti, at the time of the tower's construction, the bank was acquiring funds from predatory loans related to the Haiti indemnity controversy – a debt forced upon Haiti by France to pay for slaves lost following the Haitian Revolution – and transferring Haiti's wealth into France. The "Times" reported that the C.I.C. benefited from a loan that required the Haitian Government to pay the bank and its partner nearly half of all taxes the Haitian government collected on exports, writing that by "effectively choking off the nation’s primary source of income", the C.I.C. "left a crippling legacy of financial extraction and dashed hopes — even by the standards of a nation with a long history of both."


title: Eiffel Tower

text: The proposed tower had been a subject of controversy, drawing criticism from those who did not believe it was feasible and those who objected on artistic grounds. Prior to the Eiffel Tower's construction, no structure had ever been constructed to a height of 300 m, or even 200 m for that matter, and many people believed it was impossible. These objections were an expression of a long-standing debate in France about the relationship between architecture and engineering. It came to a head as work began at the Champ de Mars: a "Committee of Three Hundred" (one member for each metre of the tower's height) was formed, led by the prominent architect Charles Garnier and including some of the most important figures of the arts, such as William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Guy de Maupassant, Charles Gounod and Jules Massenet. A petition called "Artists against the Eiffel Tower" was sent to the Minister of Works and Commissioner for the Exposition, Adolphe Alphand, and it was published by "Le Temps" on 14 February 1887:


title: Eiffel Tower

text: Gustave Eiffel responded to these criticisms by comparing his tower to the Egyptian pyramids: "My tower will be the tallest edifice ever erected by man. Will it not also be grandiose in its way? And why would something admirable in Egypt become hideous and ridiculous in Paris?" These criticisms were also dealt with by Édouard Lockroy in a letter of support written to Alphand, sardonically saying, "Judging by the stately swell of the rhythms, the beauty of the metaphors, the elegance of its delicate and precise style, one can tell this protest is the result of collaboration of the most famous writers and poets of our time", and he explained that the protest was irrelevant since the project had been decided upon months before, and construction on the tower was already under way.


title: Eiffel Tower

text: Indeed, Garnier was a member of the Tower Commission that had examined the various proposals, and had raised no objection. Eiffel was similarly unworried, pointing out to a journalist that it was premature to judge the effect of the tower solely on the basis of the drawings, that the Champ de Mars was distant enough from the monuments mentioned in the protest for there to be little risk of the tower overwhelming them, and putting the aesthetic argument for the tower: "Do not the laws of natural forces always conform to the secret laws of harmony?"


title: Eiffel Tower

text: Some of the protesters changed their minds when the tower was built; others remained unconvinced. Guy de Maupassant supposedly ate lunch in the tower's restaurant every day because it was the one place in Paris where the tower was not visible.


title: Eiffel Tower

text: By 1918, it had become a symbol of Paris and of France after Guillaume Apollinaire wrote a nationalist poem in the shape of the tower (a calligram) to express his feelings about the war against Germany. Today, it is widely considered to be a remarkable piece of structural art, and is often featured in films and literature.


title: Eiffel Tower

text: Work on the foundations started on 28 January 1887. Those for the east and south legs were straightforward, with each leg resting on four concrete slabs, one for each of the principal girders of each leg. The west and north legs, being closer to the river Seine, were more complicated: each slab needed two piles installed by using compressed-air caissons long and in diameter driven to a depth of to support the concrete slabs, which were thick. Each of these slabs supported a block of limestone with an inclined top to bear a supporting shoe for the ironwork.


title: Eiffel Tower

text: Each shoe was anchored to the stonework by a pair of bolts in diameter and long. The foundations were completed on 30 June, and the erection of the ironwork began. The visible work on-site was complemented by the enormous amount of exacting preparatory work that took place behind the scenes: the drawing office produced 1,700 general drawings and 3,629 detailed drawings of the 18,038 different parts needed. The task of drawing the components was complicated by the complex angles involved in the design and the degree of precision required: the position of rivet holes was specified to within and angles worked out to one second of arc. The finished components, some already riveted together into sub-assemblies, arrived on horse-drawn carts from a factory in the nearby Parisian suburb of Levallois-Perret and were first bolted together, with the bolts being replaced with rivets as construction progressed. No drilling or shaping was done on site: if any part did not fit, it was sent back to the factory for alteration. In all, 18,038 pieces were joined together using 2.5 million rivets.


title: Eiffel Tower

text: At first, the legs were constructed as cantilevers, but about halfway to the first level construction was paused to create a substantial timber scaffold. This renewed concerns about the structural integrity of the tower, and sensational headlines such as "Eiffel Suicide!" and "Gustave Eiffel Has Gone Mad: He Has Been Confined in an Asylum" appeared in the tabloid press. At this stage, a small "creeper" crane designed to move up the tower was installed in each leg. They made use of the guides for the lifts which were to be fitted in the four legs. The critical stage of joining the legs at the first level was completed by the end of March 1888. Although the metalwork had been prepared with the utmost attention to detail, provision had been made to carry out small adjustments to precisely align the legs; hydraulic jacks were fitted to the shoes at the base of each leg, capable of exerting a force of 800 tonnes, and the legs were intentionally constructed at a slightly steeper angle than necessary, being supported by sandboxes on the scaffold. Although construction involved 300 on-site employees, due to Eiffel's safety precautions and the use of movable gangways, guardrails and screens, only one person died.


title: Eiffel Tower

text: Equipping the tower with adequate and safe passenger lifts was a major concern of the government commission overseeing the Exposition. Although some visitors could be expected to climb to the first level, or even the second, lifts clearly had to be the main means of ascent.


title: Eiffel Tower

text: Constructing lifts to reach the first level was relatively straightforward: the legs were wide enough at the bottom and so nearly straight that they could contain a straight track, and a contract was given to the French company Roux, Combaluzier & Lepape for two lifts to be fitted in the east and west legs. Roux, Combaluzier & Lepape used a pair of endless chains with rigid, articulated links to which the car was attached. Lead weights on some links of the upper or return sections of the chains counterbalanced most of the car's weight. The car was pushed up from below, not pulled up from above: to prevent the chain buckling, it was enclosed in a conduit. At the bottom of the run, the chains passed around diameter sprockets. Smaller sprockets at the top guided the chains.


title: Eiffel Tower

text: Installing lifts to the second level was more of a challenge because a straight track was impossible. No French company wanted to undertake the work. The European branch of Otis Brothers & Company submitted a proposal but this was rejected: the fair's charter ruled out the use of any foreign material in the construction of the tower. The deadline for bids was extended but still no French companies put themselves forward, and eventually the contract was given to Otis in July 1887. Otis were confident they would eventually be given the contract and had already started creating designs.


title: Eiffel Tower

text: The car was divided into two superimposed compartments, each holding 25 passengers, with the lift operator occupying an exterior platform on the first level. Motive power was provided by an inclined hydraulic ram long and in diameter in the tower leg with a stroke of : this moved a carriage carrying six sheaves. Five fixed sheaves were mounted higher up the leg, producing an arrangement similar to a block and tackle but acting in reverse, multiplying the stroke of the piston rather than the force generated. The hydraulic pressure in the driving cylinder was produced by a large open reservoir on the second level. After being exhausted from the cylinder, the water was pumped back up to the reservoir by two pumps in the machinery room at the base of the south leg. This reservoir also provided power to the lifts to the first level.


title: Eiffel Tower

text: The original lifts for the journey between the second and third levels were supplied by Léon Edoux. A pair of hydraulic rams were mounted on the second level, reaching nearly halfway up to the third level. One lift car was mounted on top of these rams: cables ran from the top of this car up to sheaves on the third level and back down to a second car. Each car travelled only half the distance between the second and third levels and passengers were required to change lifts halfway by means of a short gangway. The 10-ton cars each held 65 passengers.


title: Eiffel Tower

text: The main structural work was completed at the end of March 1889 and, on 31 March, Eiffel celebrated by leading a group of government officials, accompanied by representatives of the press, to the top of the tower. Because the lifts were not yet in operation, the ascent was made by foot, and took over an hour, with Eiffel stopping frequently to explain various features. Most of the party chose to stop at the lower levels, but a few, including the structural engineer, Émile Nouguier, the head of construction, Jean Compagnon, the President of the City Council, and reporters from "Le Figaro" and "Le Monde Illustré", completed the ascent. At 2:35 pm, Eiffel hoisted a large Tricolour to the accompaniment of a 25-gun salute fired at the first level.


title: Eiffel Tower

text: There was still work to be done, particularly on the lifts and facilities, and the tower was not opened to the public until nine days after the opening of the exposition on 6 May; even then, the lifts had not been completed. The tower was an instant success with the public, and nearly 30,000 visitors made the 1,710-step climb to the top before the lifts entered service on 26 May.


title: Eiffel Tower

text: Tickets cost 2 francs for the first level, 3 for the second, and 5 for the top, with half-price admission on Sundays, and by the end of the exhibition there had been 1,896,987 visitors.


title: Eiffel Tower

text: After dark, the tower was lit by hundreds of gas lamps, and a beacon sent out three beams of red, white and blue light. Two searchlights mounted on a circular rail were used to illuminate various buildings of the exposition. The daily opening and closing of the exposition were announced by a cannon at the top.


title: Eiffel Tower

text: On the second level, the French newspaper "Le Figaro" had an office and a printing press, where a special souvenir edition, "Le Figaro de la Tour", was made. There was also a pâtisserie.


title: Eiffel Tower

text: At the top, there was a post office where visitors could send letters and postcards as a memento of their visit. Graffitists were also catered for: sheets of paper were mounted on the walls each day for visitors to record their impressions of the tower. Gustave Eiffel described some of the responses as "vraiment curieuse" ("truly curious").


title: Eiffel Tower

text: Famous visitors to the tower included the Prince of Wales, Sarah Bernhardt, "Buffalo Bill" Cody (his Wild West show was an attraction at the exposition) and Thomas Edison. Eiffel invited Edison to his private apartment at the top of the tower, where Edison presented him with one of his phonographs, a new invention and one of the many highlights of the exposition. Edison signed the guestbook with this message:


title: Eiffel Tower

text: Eiffel had a permit for the tower to stand for 20 years. It was to be dismantled in 1909, when its ownership would revert to the City of Paris. The City had planned to tear it down (part of the original contest rules for designing a tower was that it should be easy to dismantle) but as the tower proved to be valuable for radio telegraphy, it was allowed to remain after the expiry of the permit, and from 1910 it also became part of the International Time Service.


title: Eiffel Tower

text: Eiffel made use of his apartment at the top of the tower to carry out meteorological observations, and also used the tower to perform experiments on the action of air resistance on falling bodies.


title: Eiffel Tower

text: For the 1900 "Exposition Universelle", the lifts in the east and west legs were replaced by lifts running as far as the second level constructed by the French firm Fives-Lille. These had a compensating mechanism to keep the floor level as the angle of ascent changed at the first level, and were driven by a similar hydraulic mechanism as the Otis lifts, although this was situated at the base of the tower. Hydraulic pressure was provided by pressurised accumulators located near this mechanism. At the same time the lift in the north pillar was removed and replaced by a staircase to the first level. The layout of both first and second levels was modified, with the space available for visitors on the second level. The original lift in the south pillar was removed 13 years later.


title: Eiffel Tower

text: On 19 October 1901, Alberto Santos-Dumont, flying his No.6 airship, won a 100,000-franc prize offered by Henri Deutsch de la Meurthe for the first person to make a flight from St. Cloud to the Eiffel Tower and back in less than half an hour.


title: Eiffel Tower

text: Many innovations took place at the Eiffel Tower in the early 20th century. In 1910, Father Theodor Wulf measured radiant energy at the top and bottom of the tower. He found more at the top than expected, incidentally discovering what are known today as cosmic rays. Two years later, on 4 February 1912, Austrian tailor Franz Reichelt died after jumping from the first level of the tower (a height of 57 m) to demonstrate his parachute design. In 1914, at the outbreak of World War I, a radio transmitter located in the tower jammed German radio communications, seriously hindering their advance on Paris and contributing to the Allied victory at the First Battle of the Marne. From 1925 to 1934, illuminated signs for Citroën adorned three of the tower's sides, making it the tallest advertising space in the world at the time. In April 1935, the tower was used to make experimental low-resolution television transmissions, using a shortwave transmitter of 200 watts power. On 17 November, an improved 180-line transmitter was installed.


title: Eiffel Tower

text: On two separate but related occasions in 1925, the con artist Victor Lustig "sold" the tower for scrap metal. A year later, in February 1926, pilot Leon Collet was killed trying to fly under the tower. His aircraft became entangled in an aerial belonging to a wireless station. A bust of Gustave Eiffel by Antoine Bourdelle was unveiled at the base of the north leg on 2 May 1929. In 1930, the tower lost the title of the world's tallest structure when the Chrysler Building in New York City was completed. In 1938, the decorative arcade around the first level was removed.