It’s been 11 years since I left New York for the sunnier shores of Los Angeles, but I would still never claim to be from LA. No matter how long I live here, I’ll always be from New Jersey. Its fingerprints are all over my identity and impulses—no matter how many green juices and golden lattes I drink each week. That’s why (in addition to being Jewish), people don’t seem to understand how it’s possible that Seinfeld has never really been my thing. But in the last several years, I’ve noticed my eye wandering , an affinity warming in my chest that reminds me of when my mother told me I’d eventually grow into a love lox. Apparently, it’s fated. Or maybe it’s just nostalgia.
During this period of reconciliation, I was tipped off to an Instagram account called @seinfeld_ambience featuring the noticeably Jerry/Kramer/Elaine/George-less interiors in which the show’s well-described nothingness takes place. The discovery was equal parts bewildering and also totally to be expected (after all, we live in a world where the wonderful @loonytunesbackgrounds exists). The account currently boasts 46,700 followers and is run by Alan Leber, a marketing professional who resides in Brooklyn, New York. He launched the account in 2019 as a sort of ode to the show that was “the background ‘noise’ of family time” after plunging into a full series rewatch. “As I moved through the episodes, I got excited by the challenge of trying to capture interesting details in the exterior and interior shots.” To do this without any of the actors was definitely a challenge: “Sometimes, a 25-minute episode would take me two hours to watch as I played/paused/played/paused repeatedly to get the shot right as actors walked in/out of the frame.”
The account began as a pet project that only family and close friends were aware of, but before long, popularity grew. “I’m always amazed by how the most obscure images receive the most likes and comments,” Alan tells me. “Seinfeld fans only need a small amount of information to identify episodes, plots, and quotes.” @seinfeld_ambience serves as a superfan gathering ground—an opportunity to flex identification skills from just a screengrab. But that’s not the only draw: “The aesthetic appeal of ’90s sitcoms is undeniable,” Alan admits.
In this tiled archive, you’ll find the neon-lit facade of the coffee shop, Jerry’s drab kitchen with glass-front cabinets to show off a myriad of cereal options, street views of dimly lit Manhattan apartments, laundromats, Jerry’s desk ephemera, and more. Recurring themes include chunky sofas, table lamps and sconces, carpet, and houseplants. Here, we see a particularly chic vignette featuring a lovely glossy black table lamp and pops of brick red juxtaposing the worn-in beige and slate grays. Like any IRL living space, the interiors fluctuate subtly and some iterations are cuter than others.
