Set predominantly in an apartment block on New York City's Upper West Side, the show features a host of Jerry's friends and acquaintances, which include George Costanza, Elaine Benes, and Cosmo Kramer, who are portrayed by Jason Alexander, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Michael Richards, respectively.
[3] The pilot episode was met with poor reviews, and as a result, NBC passed on the show.
However, NBC executive Rick Ludwin believed the series had potential and therefore gave Seinfeld a budget to create four more episodes, which formed the rest of season 1 and began airing on May 31, 1990.
[4][5] The first season is considered the smallest sitcom order in television history.
[5] The streaming rights for all 180 episodes of the series transferred from Hulu to Netflix in 2021.