Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Elaine Benes on Seinfeld is a special character in part because she doesn't specifically stand out as special on the show. Of the sitcom's four protagonists, she is the only woman, but she is just as selfish, mean, depraved, egotistical and funny as the men. It's an important part of the show's legacy – but it wasn't always the case, and there is a story behind how things changed behind the scenes.
Writer Larry Charles, who was a writer on the first five seasons of Seinfeld, has a new memoir titled Comedy Samurai: Forty Years of Blood, Guts, and Laughter, and during a recent promotional interview with CBS Mornings (via Instagram), he told the story of how the sitcom's writer's room changed their approach to stories for Elaine. It started when Julia Louis-Dreyfus stood up for herself and made it known that she wasn't happy with the material she was being given:
Julia came into the office one day crying because we were not writing for her; we weren’t really giving her great stuff. And it’s like, ‘Well, how do you fix that?’ And Larry had the idea: ‘Let’s take this George story and just give it to Elaine and see what happens.’ And that exploded Elaine, because we’d never written women before, honestly. And so now, we had a way to write a woman that was kind of like the guys. She was as dark, as untrustworthy, as vain as the guys were, and that made her fun – fun to write for and expanded her character.
This issue probably could have also been addressed by having more women writing the show... but I suppose it was a different era.
Larry Charles didn't specifically cite when this big change was made behind the scenes – but it is noteworthy that the show ended up addressing this issue in brilliantly meta fashion during Season 4. In the episode "The Shoes," Jerry and George are working on their pilot script for the show they are developing at NBC, and while they have told Elaine that she is going to be one of the characters, they abandon the idea when they realize that they don't know how to write for a woman. This changes when Elaine first complains and then even pitches a joke for herself.
Elaine being "one of the guys" was not a prominent thing on television during the late 20th century, as most shows kept women characters in gender-specific stories. But Seinfeld is a show that is recognized as revolutionary for many reasons, and the hilarious Elaine Benes is a significant part of the tale. Charles continued,
That was very unprecedented on television at that time. Most characters have honor, they have morals, they learn a lesson at the end. But the main slogan on Seinfeld was ‘No hugging, no learning,’ and Julia was part of that ultimately, and she embraced it.
Unquestionably one of the greatest sitcoms of all time, Seinfeld shines thanks to the genderless madness of Elaine Benes. Should you care to enjoy her many, many ridiculous antics alongside her friends Jerry, George and Kramer, the show is available to stream instantly to Netflix subscribers, and physical media collectors would be wise to pick up the show's 4K UHD box set.
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