Miracle at 129 West 81st Street, Apartment 5A

It seems like everyone this past weekend was waiting in lines to see what is probably going to be the biggest, record busting film of all time -- Star Wars: The Force Awakens. And just like everyone else, I was waiting in line too, but not to see a movie about Jedi’s, aliens, robots, and such. No, I was waiting in line to see Jerry Seinfeld’s apartment!

Hulu, who earlier this year acquired the rights to stream Seinfeld on their service brought an exhibit of sorts that includes a replica of Jerry’s apartment from the show to a gallery in Hollywood. In addition there were props and other interactive pieces to gander at up close. The event itself is called “Seinfeld: The Apartment” and was up for a few days between Wednesday, 12/16 through Sunday, 12/20. We went there Saturday morning, and boy were we surprised to see how long the line was.

Although, we shouldn’t have been surprised considering Seinfeld was (still is) one of most popular shows of all time, so it was naïve for us to think that. The line for this gallery event was long; like really loooong. The entrance was on Melrose Ave. in Hollywood, and the line for it snaked down the street eastward, turned onto Melrose Alley going west, then up La Cienega Blvd northward about one block. This is where the line started for us when we got there at 11am.

Around the half way point (about 2 hours waiting in line) signs were setup as a way for cheap entertainment, but were still enjoyable and broke up the mundane from standing in line nonetheless. They were contests where you submit your answers via Instagram to earn prizes. Some games included matching quotes from the show, guessing quotes via emojis, and singing the theme song to the show. Well, more like mouthing the bassline than singing actual lyrics.

Weather was mixed as standing in direct sunlight was bright and warm while standing in the shadows of buildings felt like a drop in temperature of about 20 degrees. It rained later in the evening so I’m glad we got there in the morning. While in line, a video production crew walked by a few times filming everyone there. One time as they passed by, they interviewed someone a few spots ahead of us. Not sure where any of that footage is going to air at, but probably on Hulu’s “behind the scenes” kind of thing or on the Seinfeld website. Probably the latter because the mic had the Seinfeld logo as oppose to the Hulu logo.

While waiting, you’re able to observe and soak in a part of Hollywood living. People there dress trendy, wear goofy sunglasses, and saw my share of young, skinny dudes wearing beards waking down the street. Meaning, I saw a bunch of hipster doofuses. Heck, we even saw a guy pushing a baby stroller with a dog sitting in the carriage. We saw him walk into a store with the dog still in the stroller…he walked out 30 seconds later, probably asked to leave. And since the event was on Melrose Avenue, there were a ton of trendy businesses where half the names don’t really tell what the store is selling. Some of these businesses even have graffiti as their front décor (so edgy). At the same time, there were a bunch of “for lease” signs on the windows, so I’m guessing most stores there have a short life span and go out of style like the clothes everyone there wears. Glad I’m just visiting and don’t live there.

After rounding the corner and passing a food truck, we were at the front of the line; nearly four hours later. The front of the building has a portrait of George in his sexy pose. It was surprising to see that it was actually painted on the building rather than being a wrapper covering the front of the entrance. Once we were inside, it was a total eye full.

The gallery was setup like an amusement ride, like a haunted house where you follow a set path and go through a number of rooms. The first room was a large open space with quotes from the show spewed across the walls with green and black colored text. There were many ushers there (who by the way were all wearing white t-shirts where the front was an outline of the puffy shirt) willing to help by taking pictures of you or your group as there was a bunch of things to stand next to and take a picture with. There were many interactive exhibits there and that’s why so many of them were there to assist with taking pictures. More on that later.

The first room with the quotes on the walls also had the booth from Monk’s Café where the characters of the show would normally meet up. Unfortunately you were not allowed to sit on it. Along the wall were a number of props laid out on display. Each had a display stand next to them which also noted the season number and episode title where the prop was seen. Some included the Tropic of Cancer book, the Maestro’s bent wand, and the photo of George’s boss being photoshopped out, but then hand drawn back in. Next to the props was a parody portrait of The Last Supper, but with all the writers for the last episode with Jerry in the middle as Jesus.

Around the corner was Puddy’s Jersey Devils hockey jersey. That was displayed behind a glass case, but next it was the Frogger machine. In front of it was an iPad that showed the clip from the show where the arcade cabinet was seen. I forgot to check if the first place score had the initials G.L.C. Next was the Tweety Bird Pez dispenser placed on a theater chair from the episode where Elaine busted out laughing when Jerry placed it on her while they watched a piano recital. By the way, sorry for the poor quality of photos. Me, plus phones, plus shaky hands equal blurry images.

While waiting in line to see the replica apartment, there’s a spot where you can view people sitting and posing the same way George did in the show, similar to what is painted on the front of the building. Surprisingly, many people did this, with ushers acting the part of the flamboyant photographer telling their muse to stick out there hand and do the tiger claw. The crowd went wild when a super skinny guy went “all the way” and took everything off but his underwear and posed for shots. The crowd went wild again a minute later when a dad placed his baby in the same pose too, but unlike the skinny nerd the baby was fully clothed.

Seinfeld’s apartment was fully replicated and was cool to walk around. They captured the apartment hallway, the living room, kitchen, bathroom, and hallway with the bike hanging on the wall. Sorry, but I don’t want to share the majority images here of the apartment as I’m in many of the shots, but to focus on video games, I took a picture of the shelving that has his stereo and VHS tapes. And it’s true: up close you can see he has a copy of games like Tetris, SimCity, and Super Spike V'Ball. It makes me wonder if Jerry had an NES next to his TV.

When you leave the apartment, you exit through the hallway leading to his bedroom, but instead of the bedroom it’s the next room in the gallery, which is a Festivus setup where you can get a picture of cardboard standups of both George and Frank Costanza with a banner overhead reading “Another Festivus miracle!” All around, you are surrounded by dozens of unadorned aluminum Festivus poles. This was probably the cheesiest part of the gallery, but with it currently the season for the holiday, it had an excuse to be there.

What was cool, though, was seeing a vinyl replica of a brick wall that had signatures from what seems like everyone who has worked on the show. I didn’t recognize the majority of the signatures, but I did see some familiar names like Kathy Griffin, Larry Thomas (the Soup Nazi), and Jerry Stiller. Another interactive piece is standing in front of a red curtain, a mic, and a spotlight so you can reenact Jerry’s intro scene where he’s doing standup comedy.

Towards the end of the gallery you’re back in the front room with more props to look at. Some of them include the Superman figure on the shelf in the living room, George’s sable Russian hat, and the script to the final episode signed by the cast. When you leave the gallery, you are given two items. The first is a Festivus postcard and second is a box of Junior Mints. I thought that was clever.

It was a pretty cool experience and I thought it was worth the wait in line. If I were to add something to make it better, it would have been neat to have a Seinfeld store towards the end to buy related items from the show like shirts, DVDs, or dumb things like a Tweety Bird Pez dispenser or a pack of John Voight pencils. It also would have been cool to see a video playing while waiting in line for the apartment room where each of the cast members are thanking everyone for coming to the event, or possibly even having one of them show up to the gallery unexpectedly, but that’s just wishful thinking.

Happy Festivus, everybody! Now let the airing of grievances begin.

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