Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee

Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee
Genre	Talk show Comedy
Created by	Jerry Seinfeld
Directed by	Jerry Seinfeld
Starring	Jerry Seinfeld
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	8
No. of episodes	53 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Jerry Seinfeld
Running time	various
Distributor	Sony Pictures Television
Release
Original network	Crackle
Picture format	16:9 HDTV
Original release	July 19, 2012 (2012-07-19) – present
Chronology
Related shows	Seinfeld
External links
Website

Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee is an American comedy web series created, directed and hosted by comedian Jerry Seinfeld, distributed by digital network Crackle. The series premiered on July 19, 2012 and in 2016 aired its eighth season.

Episodes feature Seinfeld introducing a vintage car selected for a guest comedian, followed by a drive to a pre-selected café or restaurant for coffee. Episodes diverge from the format spontaneously, as when Michael Richards implores Seinfeld to take a side street, when Seinfeld returns after coffee with Carl Reiner to join him for dinner with Mel Brooks—or when car trouble arises. As of May 2015, the series had been streamed nearly 100 million times.^[1]

The show's eighth season premiered on June 16, 2016. It has been renewed for a ninth season.^[2]

Development and format

In a 2012 interview, Seinfeld said the roots of the concept traced to a DVD extra he made for his 2002 documentary Comedian along with a later trip he made after purchasing an old VW Beetle in New Mexico, subsequently filming the return trip to the east coast with a friend.^[3] In a 2014 interview with David Letterman at the Paley Center, Seinfeld said the series was born as "an experiment"^[4]—as "kind of a guess."^[5]

Episodes are estimated to cost roughly $100,000,^[4] with guests being paid in cash and the initial raw shoot lasting on average three-and-a-half hours,^[4] which is then edited over a two-week period down to a 12–20 minute episode.^[4] The process uses a lean production staff,^[4] involves a minimum of network interaction,^[4] and is designed as an edited and unscripted talk show without an audience that can be comfortably watched on a smart phone.^[4]

Prior to development of the series, Seinfeld was told by leading social network advisers, including those at Facebook and Yahoo, that a show length exceeding five minutes had little chance of success on the web.^[6] Howard Schultz, coffee magnate and Chairman of Starbucks, turned down the opportunity to sponsor the show.^[6] Acura eventually sponsored the show, giving Seinfeld creative license with creating the commercials and product placements.^[6]

Seinfeld intentionally crafted the show's format around the car drive and "movement," specifically because "when attempting to show the meandering, silly and sometimes deep conversations that comedians share, you have to remove the audience to keep the participants from dropping into their acts,"^[4] adding that "part of what makes the show watchable is that it's always moving. There's no narrative [to] drive the story. We know what happens. We know they're going to get coffee. You need a kinetic energy to move it along, moving people around keeps them awake."^[4]

Episodes

Season 1 (2012)

Season 2 (2013)

Season 3 (2014)

Season 4 (2014)

Season 5 (2014)

A serialized yet separated storyline started in this season, featuring Michael Richards as Crackle President Dick Corcoran. Joan Rivers had been asked by Seinfeld to be the fifth season's first guest, however she postponed the appearance due to a scheduled medical procedure.^[9] Rivers died as a result of that procedure.

Season 6 (2015)

Season 7 (2015–16)

Season 8 (2016)

Reception

Brian Lowry of Variety said the series is the kind of short-form concept that feels stretched even at 18 minutes.^[11] David Hinckley of The New York Daily News gave the series 3 out of 5 stars.^[12] Mike Hale of The New York Times said: "The [series' segments]... are presented in a clean, elegant template with a studiously casual pencil-drawn logo. And the filming and editing are, if you break them down, impressively complex and artful for a Web series."^[13]

The New York Times's Anand Giridharadas critiqued the show as being out of touch with the everyman, and more of a showcase of Seinfeld's wealth. Giridharadas wrote: "The democracy of observational humor has become, in Mr. Seinfeld's reincarnation, an oligarchy of mutual admiration".^[14] Other publications have been more positive in their opinion. The New York Daily News wrote of the show's format and first three seasons that, "It all sounds random, which it is, and trivial, which it is and isn’t. In the end, the fun is contagious."^[15] Newsday then graded season four of the series with an "A".^[16]

Awards

See also

• Carpool – similar web series hosted by English actor and comedian Robert Llewellyn

References

External links

• Official website
• Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee at the Internet Movie Database
• Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee on TV.com