A popular neighbor: As annoying sitcom neighbors go, Kramer on “Seinfeld” rates right up there. The NBC comedy character, played by Michael Richards, has quickly joined an illustrious pantheon of the irritating yet entertaining, ranging from Norton of “The Honeymooners” to Larry, Daryl and Daryl of “Newhart.”
To adequately illustrate Kramer’s stature, TV Land in Vernon Hills has just the right thing-it is the exclusive east-of-the-Mississippi home of his portrait. “It’s of Kramer looking very Kramer-like,” said Josh Lowitz, owner of the store, which specializes in boob-tube paraphernalia.
That’s right, for just $20, and only in Lake County (outside of the Idaho town where the portait is produced), you too can pick up a pinup of a dorky but endearing guy wearing a wrinkled jacket. (TV Land got the opportunity to market the portrait because of Lowitz’s ties with the “Seinfeld” staff who were eager to test how it would sell.)
The 24-by-36-inch lithograph, Lowitz said, has been a runaway best-seller since December.
The lithograph is from a portait painted by California artist Lawrence Salk for a “Seinfeld” episode in which Jerry Seinfeld’s TV girlfriend-of-the-moment, a painter, does Kramer’s portrait and sells it for $5,000 to two tony connoisseurs who alternately find in it “a man-child crying out for love” (female view) and “a loathsome, offensive brute” (male view). The point is, they both love it.
So apparently do a lot of other folks.
