Seinfeld, Kevin Smith and The Superfriends. What's the connection? One David Mandel, the award-winning Seinfeld
scribe who penned the memorable Bizarro episode (among others) and is a creator/executive producer of ABC's
upcoming Clerks animated series.
How do Dante, Silent Bob and Jay differ from Seinfeld's notoriously neurotic foursome? "One of the biggest
differences is that there is an age thing," Mandel tells TV Guide Online. "Seinfeld was about people in their 30s who
were dealing with the foibles of their lives, and these characters are younger. These are the kids that were watching
Seinfeld. There is something interesting about writing characters that the audience are rather than characters they will
be in five or 10 years."
Truth be told, there's another reason why Mandel is so excited to be working on an edgy project like Clerks. "This may
sound horrible, because Seinfeld was an incredible experience and a great show and I was a fan before I worked
there, but you look around and everyone is doing Seinfeld. Everyone has taken Seinfeld, stolen Seinfeld. This is a
chance to not do Seinfeld. These are not characters that sit around and worry that their girlfriend eats too many peas
one at a time because, quite honestly, these guys don't have girlfriends!"
That is not to say that Clerks won't preoccupy itself with minutiae on occasion. On the contrary, Mandel says, the show
will include "small little safety tips and magic tricks and stuff like that. Like the old Superfriends [cartoon]."
He's joking, of course, but he tells us that "If you're a fan of the Superfriends, you just may want to sit there [watching]
with a pen and paper. Let's just leave it at that."- Jonathan Reiner
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