Seinfeld: 15 Recent Revelations

15 Seinfeld Reveals The Only Other Person That Could Play Kramer

Seinfeld told Howard Stern that the only other person aside from Michael Richards, who could pull off Kramer, would have been Andy Kaufman. Seinfeld told Stern, “I worshipped Andy Kaufman. He was the first comedian I ever heard of on Long Island. That’s why I went into the city to go to these clubs.”

14 Seinfeld AI Written Joke And VO

The YouTube channel “Speaking of AI” released a Jerry Seinfeld stand-up set completely crafted by artificial intelligence. The creator said, “I used GPT-3 to write a Jerry Seinfeld stand-up routine about cats - and then used DeepFake voices to perform it. The results are surprisingly good!” What do you think?

13 Season One Of Friends Creates A Seinfeld Plothole

Because of crossovers between the shows, Friends, Mad About You, and Seinfeld are supposed to all take place in the same universe, in the same New York City. To bridge the gap, Kramer sublet his apartment from Mad About You’s Paul Bauchman in a cameo connecting Seinfeld to Mad About You. Then in Mad About You, Phoebe Buffay’s sister, Ursula Buffay, waited on Paul and Jamie Buchman, connecting Friends to Mad About You and by proxy, Seinfeld. HOWEVER, this means that because of the Friends episode “The One With The Blackout”, wherein all of New York City suffers a power outage in 1994, the Frogger episode of Seinfeld becomes moot, because George’s high scores would have been wiped out from said power outage! Was Jerry lying to George about the scores being erased just to rile him up?

12 What Jerry Calls One Of Seinfeld’s Greatest Moments

Steven Spielberg has been open about the impact Seinfeld had on him while he was directing Schindler’s List. Spielberg was carrying a massive emotional toll on his back from having to recreate such a traumatic experience for art’s/education's sake and admitted that one of the only things that would lift his spirits was watching Seinfeld every week. Jerry told Reddit, “That was really one of the great moments in the history of the show for us when we heard that. We really felt like we were doing something worthwhile.”

11 How Seinfeld Helped Kenny Rogers’ Roasters Expand Nationwide

The Seinfeld episode “The Chicken Roaster” in which Kramer has to deal with the blinding red lights of a Kenny Rogers' Roasters outside his apartment is actually based on a true story from one New York lawyer who got sick of the Kenny Rogers' Roasters below his office and hung a sign that said “bad food” outside his window just like Kramer. Because Kramer actually gets addicted to the succulent birds, the episode gave a huge marketing advantage to the chain. The company spokesperson Randy Rogers said, "It costs a million dollars a minute to advertise on that show. And it didn't cost us a penny,"

10 What Seinfeld Had To Do With Frank Sinatra’s Daughter Missing His Death

Here’s a very sad story about Nancy Sinatra missing the death of her father just to keep things exciting. In 1998, the night of the Seinfeld finale, Nancy Sinatra was planning to visit her 82-year-old father, Frank Sinatra, but decided to stay in and watch the Seinfeld finale along with 76 million other people watching the show. Unfortunately, during the finale, Frank Sinatra had a heart attack and passed away. Nancy said, "Now, I know that in order to live a happy life you're supposed to let go of your anger and move on, but I was five minutes down the road, watching TV, while my dad was dying. That's something I will never forget, let alone forgive."

9 The Moment Jason Alexander Realized He Was Playing Larry David

For the first few episodes of Seinfeld, Jason Alexander modeled the character of George after the mannerisms of Woody Allen. However, Alexander told Triple M, “Somewhere around episode ten a script came to the table and we read it for everybody, and it just seems preposterous. The situation just seemed crazy. So I went to Larry and I said, ‘Larry, please help me with this because this would never happen to anybody, but if it did, nobody would react like this.’ And he said, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, this happened to me and it’s exactly what I did!'” Alexander said that at that moment, he realized he wasn’t playing Geroge, he was playing Larry David.

8 Julia Louis-Dreyfus Swearing In Front Of Elmo

A video that has recently gone viral shows Julia Louis-Dreyfus swearing in front of poor Elmo on Sesame Street when she can’t remember her line. Elmo must be pretty used to it though because he immediately quips, “She said a bad word, five dollars!”

7 There Is A Seinfeld Cookbook

Ever wish you could scarf down Elaine’s big salad, the Soup Nazi’s mulligatawny soup, or George’s sex pastrami sandwich? Look no further than the Seinfeld Official Cookbook by Julie Tremaine and Brendan Kirby.

6 How Monk’s Got Its Name

Jerry Seinfeld revealed to New York Magazine in 1998 that David and he mostly got their names from whatever was around them while they were writing. David pitched his neighbor as a character, and just kept his name, Kramer. Seinfeld said, “We called the coffee shop Monk's because there was a Thelonious Monk poster in the office where Larry and I were writing, and we just needed a name."

5 An Elaine Signature Bit Predates Seinfeld

Elaine’s signature shove often accompanied by the phrase, “GET OUT!” was actually a part of Louis-Dreyfus's comedy arsenal long before Seinfeld. A former comedy collaborator of hers from college, Paul Barrosse, said, "The way that she would shove guys—that's the way she had to treat us. That kind of physicality was on display very early."

4 Soup Nazi Joke Fans Missed

After Elaine reveals all of the Soup Nazi’s recipes to the world, the soup chef is forced to give away the remainder of his soup at the end of the episode before leaving America for good. Redditor U/peji911 pointed out that Newman informs Jerry that the Soup Nazi is relocating to Argentina, which is a joke unto itself as Argentina saw a flood of actual Nazis fleeing to the country after the end of World War II.

3 How Pretty Woman Led To Jason Alexander’s Role On The Show

You may remember that before Seinfeld was on the air, Alexander appeared in the role of Philip Stuckey in the film Pretty Woman. Gary Marshall, the film's director bragged about Alexander’s performance, and word eventually got around to Rob Reiner, the head of Castle Rock Entertainment, which was casting for Seinfeld. Alexander was brought in to audition, then audition a second time against fellow Pretty Woman actor, and Jerry Seinfeld’s best friend, Larry Miller. Alexander was sure he wasn’t going to get the part so he just had fun with the audition and was informed he got the role before his plane back to NYC hit the ground.

2 Larry David Debunks That Seinfeld Was Pitched As A Show About Nothing

Larry David confirmed in an ancient 1998 Charlie Rose interview that when they pitched the show, they in no way said it was “a show about nothing.” He says for some reason everyone got the notion that that’s how it was pitched due to how George and Jerry pitch their show in the sitcom itself, but no such event occurred in the actual NBC offices. 

1 The Friends Star That Auditioned For Kramer

Although we know no one else could pull off Kramer (except for Andy Kaufman), the second front-runner for the role was the Friends star, Larry Hankin. On the Beyond The Backlot podcast Larry Hankin said that he and Michael Richards were friends before the show because they often auditioned for the same roles, and it was Richards who suggested Hankin be cast as Kramer in the “Jerry” pilot in the sitcom.

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Top Image: NBC