Sony Pictures Television, Crackle.com
Jerry Seinfeld has been busy with his latest, highly successful effort, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. Streaming on Crackle.com, the show mixes Jerry's love of cars with his love of comedy and fellow comedians. The show merges the gear-heading of NPR's Car Talk with the delightful nothingness of Seinfeld. Each episode starts with the turn of a key and subsequent engine firing, Jerry then goes on to describe the car he's driving in the episode. Each car is specially selected with the show's guest in mind.
For the seventh season premiere of Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, Jerry Seinfeld picked up the 44th President of the United States, Barack Obama. For the Commander in Chief, Jerry selected a 1963 Corvette Stingray, the American made vehicle once driven by all astronauts in the space program. This one has a bumper sticker that reads, 'My Other Car is a 5 Ton Bulletproof Limousine.' Unfortunately, they weren't able to leave the grounds of 1600 Pennsylvania as the guard rebutted the title of the show, 'You’re a comedian with the president going nowhere.' As for Mr. Obama's qualifications for appearing on the show about comedians, his funny lines each year at the annual White House Correspondents Dinners just qualified him for the part.
Jerry arrived at the Oval office like you'd arrive at your best friend's house complete with knocking on the window and spot-on silent hand gestures to go around front. They hardly say hello to one another, 'you ready?' Jerry impatiently asks. Barack responds without looking up, 'got some stuff to do.' With that, a bored Jerry slumps into a couch and grabs an apple. They finally set off adventuring the grounds in the Corvette, touring The White House, exploring the presidential vehicle, and chatting over coffee in the basement break room.
It turns out, you can really cover a lot over cars and coffee: the joy of saying barackobama as one word, Stephen Colbert quoting Neutral Milk Hotel, Michael Richards expressing genuine gratitude to Jerry for his support and friendship, Jimmy Fallon on the hilarity and awkwardness of comedy shorts and Seth Meyers on begrudging summer when, 'everything I want to do is inside.' Oh Seth, I knew we were simpatico.
The comedians usually get a kick out of their car selection and are up for whatever journey Jerry has planned. As for the cars, his favorite kind of vehicles are the toy-like vehicles like his Land Rover, Porsche 911 and Boston Whaler. The conversations he leads are loose, letting anything fly or meander. I think the unique spark of the show really comes from Jerry's passion about cars. You can't help but engage as he excitedly shares details about the cars in the intros which, in turn, provides new insights about his guests. I liken his gear-heading to my fangirling. I'm glad both Jerry and I are kicking off the year right with his gearheading and my fangirling front and center! Here's to more excitable moments in 2016! Cheers, Jerry!