Coffee Table Book (Seinfeld)
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The Coffee Table Book About Coffee Tables is a fictional book written by Cosmo Kramer, featured in the NBC sitcom Seinfeld.
[edit] Origin
Kramer's idea to create a coffee table book "about coffee tables" originated in the fifth season of the series. Kramer's quest to get the book published became a running gag throughout the season. Elaine was portrayed as disliking Kramer's idea to write the book. It was Kramer's girlfriend Toby (who worked at Pendant Publishing) from the episode "The Fire" that allowed the book to get published.
The storyline reached its end in the fifth-season finale "The Opposite," which featured Kramer making a guest appearance on Regis and Kathie Lee to promote the book. It was at the end of his appearance that he took a sip of hot coffee and spit it out all over Kathie Lee Gifford, which caused Mr. Lippman (Elaine's boss and head of Pendant Publishing) to discontinue TV promotion on the book.
Nevertheless, the book would continue to garner success for Kramer years later. In the episode "The Wizard," a "big Hollywood so-and-so" options the book for a movie, earning Kramer enough royalty money to allow him to retire to Florida at his early age. Although Kramer moved back to New York almost immediately, he presumably was still a made man after this.
[edit] The Book
In "The Opposite," Regis Philbin describes the book as being filled with pictures of celebrity coffee tables. It was then that Kramer revealed that the book itself had fold-out legs and could turn into a coffee table of its own if the owner did not have one. The legs were shown to support the weight of a coffee mug when placed on the cover.
According to the Regis and Kathie Lee interview, Kramer thought of the idea for the Coffee Table Book while skiing. However, the first mention of the book occurs in the house of Frank and Estelle Costanza in "The Cigar Store Indian."
In 2004, Sony Pictures Television created a limited run of 500 actual collector's item "coffee table books" signed by Jerry Seinfeld and given to affiliates who were running the show in syndication. The color book was an overview of the entire Seinfeld run, with episode by episode anecdotes, and actually came contained in a dark wood book that had legs that folded out in order to make it stand on the table.
| Seinfeld |
|---|
| Characters |
| Main Characters: Jerry Seinfeld | George Costanza | Elaine Benes | Cosmo Kramer |
| Related to Jerry: Helen Seinfeld | Morty Seinfeld | Uncle Leo | Kenny Bania | Sally Weaver | Dr. Tim Whatley |
| Related to George: Estelle Costanza | Frank Costanza | Susan Ross | Mr. Wilhelm | Mr. Kruger | Lloyd Braun | George Steinbrenner |
| Related to Elaine: J. Peterman | David Puddy | Mr. Lippman | Justin Pitt | Sue Ellen Mischke |
| Related to Kramer: Newman | Mickey Abbott | Jackie Chiles | Bob Sacamano | Babs Kramer | Lomez |
| Other: Soup Nazi | "Crazy" Joe Davola | Minor characters in Seinfeld |
| Culture of the Seinfeld Universe |
| Festivus | Master of Your Domain | Regifting List of fictional films in Seinfeld | Coffee Table Book About Coffee Tables |
| Episodes |
| List of Seinfeld episodes | The Seinfeld Chronicles |
| Other |
| List of Seinfeld references to actual people | Running gags in Seinfeld |
