Michael Richards Was ‘Embarrassed’ By Kramer’s Name Reveal
Seinfeld wasn’t exactly known for its big twists or dramatic reveals. Like, there was never an episode in which Elaine confesses that she has a secret opium addiction but used her love of poppy-seed muffins to cover it up.
That being said, this week marks the 30th anniversary of one of the show’s only true bombshells: the disclosure of Kramer’s first name.
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Season Six’s “The Switch” aired on January 5, 1995. In addition to Elaine’s quest to reclaim Mr. Pitt’s tennis racket, and Jerry’s attempt to hook up with his girlfriend’s roommate, the episode featured one of George’s most repugnant storylines. In an effort to discover whether or not his model girlfriend is bulimic (out of “concern” that he’s wasting money on expensive meals), George enlists the help of Kramer’s estranged mother, who happens to be a restroom attendant. But when she sees her son for the first time in years, Babs can’t help but exclaim, “Cosmo!”
Up until this point, Kramer had been known by just the one name. Even when he was suspected of being a serial killer, news reports noted that he was known “simply as Kramer.”
While “The Switch” suggests that Jerry has been trying to get Kramer’s first name out of him “for 10 years,” we never really see many characters asking about it, except for Elaine’s psychiatrist boyfriend, briefly.
Jerry Seinfeld recalled that they decided to give Kramer a first name because the writers suspected that “maybe people are wondering what his first name is.” And Larry David was compelled to do so because “it seemed like we were going out of our way not to say what his first name was.”
Why Cosmo? Michael Richards revealed that the name wasn’t actually in the script. After brainstorming names for two weeks, David approached him at the episode’s table read and declared, “I think it’s Cosmo,” “Cosmo” being the memorable name of a kid that had lived in the same building as David and his real-life neighbor Kenny Kramer.
But according to Seinfeld, Richards was genuinely uncomfortable with the Cosmo reveal. “I remember Michael almost seeming a little embarrassed for real in that scene,” Seinfeld claimed, suspecting that the actor didn’t like that “he had lost a little of his mystique.”
Incidentally, Kramer’s name was almost revealed on an earlier episode, and it wasn’t Cosmo. Larry Charles’ controversial script for “The Gun” — in which Elaine purchases a firearm — was ultimately scrapped, but in an interview with Screen Crush, the writer admitted that his lost episode would have included Kramer’s first name: Conrad. “Because I was kind of thinking of Conrad Birdie from Bye Bye Birdie,” Charles explained.
When a copy of the unproduced script finally surfaced online earlier this year, it did include Kramer’s first name; although it was actually “Konrad.” And the name only appears in the script in one handwritten edit, meaning that it wasn’t weaved into the story like in “The Switch.”
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Sure, Kramer may have lost some of his “mystique” by gaining a first name, but at least the show never caved and resolved the enigma that is Newman.
