Laughs without hugs or morals: 50 data to enter the Seinfeld universe

More than 22 years since the last time it was aired, this October 1, 180 episodes of Seinfeld go up to Netflix and will be available for the first time globally on the same platform.

For those who never saw her, the series revolves around the wanderings of a comedian (fictional) called Jerry Seinfeld who lives in New York, and her three friends, Elaine (Julia Louis Dreyfus), George (Jason Alexander) and Kramer (MichaelRichards).

The actions occur mainly in the department of Jerry and in a coffee called Monks, but throughout the nine seasons, the situations in which the comedy was developed expanded to an infinity of places.

From inside a subway car and the waiting tail for a Chinese restaurant to the Yankees stadium, everything served to put the microscope on those minorities of the daily interactions that usually happen automatically.And make us laugh (a lot).

Although the idea that Seinfeld is "a show about nothing" has already been refuted until tiredThe infinity of daily banalities that until then had not been in the center of a comic program.

According to Seinfeld and David, they came up with the idea while entering a Korean supermarket and began to comment on the various products on the shelves.

Talking (and mocking) of the minutiaes that entail shopping, asking for coffee or having a subway would become the skeleton of one of the most revolutionary programs in television history.

The series was born from a minimum cell: four friends chatting in an apartment or in a restaurant about anything that could have monopolized its attention, and turning one around after another until it takes it to its smaller expression (or absurd).

Anchored in the maximum wielded by Larry David of "No Hugging, No Learning" (neither hugs nor teachings), Seinfeld dodged the temptation of edifying plots with morals and built a universe based on a single inviolable commandment: it has to be funny.

1-All episodes arrive in Netflix after 6 years have been in Hulu

The 180 episodes of Seinfeld's nine seasons will be available in Netflix as of October 1.The company acquired the rights for all the episodes of the comedy in September 2019 after paying 500 million dollars Sony, the program distributor.

Netflix advanced with the operation shortly after losing the rights for Friends and The Office, who moved to HBO Max and Peacock, respectively.

This will be the first time that a single platform has the global rights for Seinfeld transmission.Hulu, the platform on which Seinfeld was six years.

2-It was issued over nine seasons and has 180 episodes

The program premiered on June 5, 1989 by the NBC chain.During the first two seasons it was on the tightrope, and that is reflected in the amount of episodes: the first one had just 5 while the second had only 12.

The program was consolidated from the third and fourth season, when it went on to occupy Thursday at 9 p.m..30, just after Cheers ended, one of the most successful comedies of the moment.

It was from that moment that it never dropped from the 22 episodes per season, a standard measure for the United States air stations sitcoms.Episodes 23 and 24 of season 9 were the final chapter, and air came out on May 14, 1998.

3-The creators never thought about it as "a show about anything"

Define Seinfeld as "a show about nothing" began to become popular in the last years in which he was air, and even more since he finished.

At first glance it is understood why this idea turned on, while Seinfeld does not have a clearly definable arc that is repeated from chapter by chapter.

To this we must add that, within the plot, Jerry and George embark on the creation of a television program that is a copy of Seinfeld.When the television chain executives ask George what he is going to be treated, he responds by saying that it will be "about nothing".

In 2014, Jerry Seinfeld declared that the premise with Larry David proposed the NBC program in 1998 was to be a sitcom about how a comedian gets his material.

On more than one occasion, Seinfeld has said that he is surprised by that definition of being “a show about nothing” since it was a joke they did within the program, and nothing else.

And what is Seinfeld then?Of the topics on which Jerry Seinfeld effectively returns again and again in his specials: the minutiae of everyday life, the bizarre directions in which an interaction can derive, the kicks of Pata, the absurdity of certain social conventions.

4-It was originally conceived as a 90-minute special

Before Seinfeld became the massive success of nine seasons that ended up being, the first idea was that it was a single special program of ninety minutes to be broadcast on NBC during the time of Saturday Night Live.

Seinfeld and David began to develop the project, which was going to be called The Standup or The Jerry Seinfeld Show, but they quickly realized that their ideas would not work in that format.They decided to change and present a pilot for a 30 -minute program, which would be called The Seinfeld Chronicles.

That pilot was aired on July 5, 1989, but did not convince NBC.However, a producer named Rick Ludwin liked it and offered part of his budget to make a first season that ended up being only 5 episodes.

5-Jerry Seinfeld rejected an offer of 110 million dollars to make a season 10

During the Christmas recess of recording that the members of Seinfeld, the main responsible, the authors and the main authors, gathered to evaluate how they felt the season came, and if they wanted to continue.

It was at that meeting during the ninth season where they agreed that it was time to finish.Beyond that everyone agreed that it was better to conclude when they were still in a good time, the truth is that there were mitigating circumstances: Larry David was no longer in command of the program (he had gone after season 7), and Jerry Seinfeld noI wanted to continue fulfilling the double role of creator and actor.

In spite of all this, NBC tried to convince him to follow a more season offering up to 5 million dollars per episode, which in total gave almost 110 million, but Seinfeld did not accept.

6-The 30 seconds of advertising of the final episode cost more than 1 million dollars

Seinfeld's final episode was a double chapter of 1 hour and 15 minutes that was issued on May 14, 1998.

He had an audience of 76 million people and marked a record for the cost of advertising: more than one million dollars for a space of 30 seconds.

It was the first time in history that a program that was not a unique event, such as the Super Bowl, reached that figure.

Beyond the expectation and high audience, the criticisms of the final episode were rather poor, pointing more than anything to the decision to make a racconto of what had happened throughout the nine seasons and that there were few new jokes.

7-It was a turning point in the history of television comedies

The debate around Seinfeld in the history of the sitcom is eternal and fluctuating.In a 2012, a TV Survey Guide revealed that its readers considered it better of all.Vanity Fair magazine led another similar survey in 2015, and had the same results: Seinfeld was the best.

In 2021, Rolling Stone made a list of the 100 best sitcoms of all time, and Seinfeld was third behind the Simpsons and Cheers.

For the critics of the magazine, the influence of the Simpsons, who practically created animated television for adults (and still still on the air), and that of Cheers, which consolidated the libretto of establishing chemistry between two characters as a successful formula,surpassed what Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David had managed to exercise.

Seinfeld's impact can be seen throughout the sitcom universe.Comedies such as The Office, arrest Development and It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, to name just a few, are direct heirs of the multiple ways in which Seinfeld broke the mold.

A humor obsessed with the minutiae of daily life, a script structure where all the protagonists have their own narrative arch and the introduction of openly horrible characters with which the audience could identify themselves are counted as beans in their favor.

Another factor to consider is the importance of Elaine.Until that time, it was not common for a female character to have that agency level: his future was not tied to his romantic life, and his stories were crossed by the same level of humor and absurd as that of the "boys".

8-The creators had a strict policy that there were never "either hugs or teachings"

It was Larry David who summarized Seinfeld's ethos as "no Hugging and no Learning" (neither hugs nor teachings).The comedian's maxim was not issued as a literal sentence (the characters, once every so often, at least hugged), but as a concept on which the humorous skeleton of the program was built.

Conceived at the end of the 80s, Seinfeld's mantra was in open opposition to the sitcom conventions of that moment: there were no moments of emotion or situations that could be considered "edifying".

In that sense, it would not matter what the situation they were going through, none of the four characters "learned" nothing to leave a moral, and they never evolved in labor or personal terms (except Jerry, none is laborically successful, and there were no weddings or children or children).

9-The exterior images of the restaurant are from a real place in New York that became iconic

Seinfeld's exterior shots were not abundant, since practically the entire series was filmed in recording studios and interior sets.There is, however, a real place that appeared in the series constantly over the years and that at this point is almost an icon of Manhattan.

This is a place called Tom's Restaurant, whose facade appears in the program as if it were the outside of the Monk's Cafe, the restaurant in which numerous scenes of the program follow each other.

Located in the corner of Broadway and West 112th Street, in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, the restaurant is constantly visited by fans of the series, which takes photos withdrawal shots that were seen in Seinfeld.

As color fact, it is said that one of its regular diners before the place was famous was Barack Obama, who studied at Columbia University, a few blocks from there.

10-The program staggered at the beginning and remained afloat thanks to critics and sponsors

It is no accident that the first two seasons have only 5 and 12 episodes.Focus's report after the premiere said that the pilot episode had been a "weak" performance and that it had generated "a warm enthusiasm between young people and adults, and almost null reactions among children".

The reason was that the audience, like much of NBC executives, did not understand "what I was going".It bothered that the protagonist had to explain everything, that humor was "too New Yorker" (which was equivalent to saying, according to an executive, that he was "too Jewish"), and that situations did not generate expectation."It is difficult to get excited about two types by going to the self -founded," a viewer synthesized.

The exasperation that spread among the NBC authorities can be summarized in the reaction that Warren Littlefield, president of the station at that time, had in front of the episode The Chinese Restaurant (the Chinese restaurant, season 2), which occurs entirely while the 4 waitgive them a table in a restaurant.

“I read the script and I remember that I thought 'nothing happens, do I miss pages?Are they trying to save money? '' Littlefield recalled years later, who acknowledges that he resisted until the last moment the recording of that episode before letting him advance.

And how did they hold?Thanks to critics, who practically praised the concept of the program, and the sponsors, since the program did work in a highly desirable demographic strip: men from 21 to 32 years.

11-Despite that the series was set in New York, it was filmed in Los Angeles

Few things are more associated with Seinfeld than New York urban culture.Pizza, coffees and Delis serve as a permanent background to conversations between Jerry, Elaine, George and Kramer.Numerous icons of the Big Brest, from the Metro stations and the Public Library to the Yankees Stadium and the US Open, appear throughout the episodes.

The building where Jerry and Kramer live is supposedly located in 129 West 81st Street, while Elaine is in 16 West 75th Street.The Monks Cafe address, actually Tom's Restaurant, is located at 2880 Broadway.The city is an inseparable part of Jerry Seinfeld's royal race, the place where it emerged and consolidated, and therefore a crucial part of the series of the series.

However, the bulk of all filming was done in studies in Los Angeles.The interior of the department of Jerry and El Café, two of the most used spaces, were built in study 19 of the CBS Studio Center, in the San Fernando Valley.

The exterior streets that sought to be Manhattan filmed in studies 14 and 15, known as the New York Street set.In a larger lot what was the central Park was replicated.

Not even the exterior images of the Jerry housing complex were from New York, but of a building known as "Shelley" located in 757 s.New Hampshire Avenue, in the Koreatown neighborhood, in Los Angeles.

12- Jerry Seinfeld's favorite episode is the marine biologist

The debate about what is the best episode of Seinfeld is long and extensive.There is no absolute consensus around the best, but a rapid review throughout the raks reveals that there are certain episodes that appear in almost all:

-The answering (the competition, season 4), where the 4 compete to see who endures the greatest amount of time without masturbating.

-The oppose (the opposite, season 5), where George decides to stop making decisions based on his instincts and causes a change in his life.

-The Soup Nazi (the Nazi of the soup, season 7), focused on a strict soup cook that rejects the purchase of any customer who does not adhere to their indications.

-The outing (revelation, season 4), focused on the behavior of George and Jerry after a journalist believes they are a gay couple.

-The Chinese Restaurant (the Chinese restaurant, season 2), which occurs entirely while the 4 wait for a table to be given in a restaurant.

One of the chapters that also appears on those lists, The Marine Biologist (Marino Biologist, Temporad 5) is Jerry Seinfeld's favorite.According to the comedian, it is due to the final monologue that George gives in that episode, in which he is forced to save a whale after having lied to his girlfriend that he was a marine biologist.

Apparently, the final monologue was not part of the original script, and Seinfeld and David wrote it the night before the end was recorded.Already on the set, they told Jason Alexander that he had an hour to memorize the monologue before recording.The actor did it, and his performance was so convincing that it was only necessary to make a sequence taking.

13- Jason Alexander did not know that George was an alterego of Larry David until the second season

When Jason Alexander did the casting to be George Costanza in Seinfeld, his first impression was that the character was inspired by Woody Allen.There were reasons to think about it: a low man with a sense of humor built around irony and insecurity seemed to fit with the description of Annie Hall director.

In fact, he decided that the character used glasses based on this assumption.Beyond that whether or not it was, the truth is that Alexander was chosen based on that interpretation.

In an interview in 2013 with the Television Foundation Academy, Alexander said that at a given time he went to talk to Larry David because he felt perplexed regarding the direction they were giving the character.

"I went and said, 'No human being acts in this way, Larry, please help me, this could never happen to anyone, and if he went to someone, nobody would react like that'.He replied: 'How not?He happened to me, and I reacted like this! '.There I realized that George is actually based on Larry David, ”Alexander explained.

14-Elaine's character was not part of the pilot and was added later

In the program pilot, which was issued on July 5, 1989, Jerry, George, Kramer and a female character named "Claire, La Moza" appeared, who attended them when they were going to eat at the restaurant.Interpreted by actress Lee Garlington, the original idea was that she was the central female character.

However, this did not convince the managers or the authors, who thought (rightly) that it would not be completely plausible that a girl was later going to the department of one of them.The bad tongues also say that David was disgusted with Garlington, after the actress "suggested" some dialogue changes for the character.

Thus, Elaine's character was born, Jerry's ex -girlfriend played by actress Julia Louis Dreyfus.

15-Kramer's character was originally called Kessler

Kramer's character, played by actor Michael Richards, is Jerry Seinfeld's neighbor.Like so many other things from the Seinfeld universe, it is based on a real fact of the life of Larry David, who also had a neighbor named Kenny Kramer when he was younger.

At first, the staff was going to be called Kessler, since the real Kramer was not sure to want his name to appear.Finally he agreed after agreeing a price with the producers, which according to him was only $ 1000.

Several things that the true Kramer has made have appeared in the series.He created a “reality tour” to carry fans of the series by New York places that appear in the series, a fact that was later replicated within Seinfeld.

The strip and loosen around the rights of his name was also recreated when Jerry and George created their own sitcom within the program, this time with the character Kramer played by Richards.

16-The creators "murdered" Susan's character because the protagonists got along with the actress

The death of Susan, George's fiancee, is a moment remembered by all Seinfeld fans, both for the absurd way in which it happened (poisoned by licking poor quality in which I was sending their marriage invitations), and byThe (no) reaction that caused in the four protagonists.

Apparently, the lack of emotion regarding the disappearance of the character was identical to what the actors felt regarding Heidi Swedberg, the actress who interpreted the role.

According to Alexander in an interview in 2015, he failed to congenize professionally with Swedberg, and felt that the timing of comedy between them did not work.Far from being a problem only yours, the other actors also noticed the same as they began to share scenes with her.

"We all said it was impossible to work with her.And it was Julia who said, 'Don't you want to kill her?'.

17-HUBO A SEINFELD reunion program in 2009 at the Sitcom Curs your enthusiasm

Both Seinfeld and David have alluded, a little jokingly and a little seriously, to the fact that Seinfeld's final episode was considered a disappointment.For years, both had refused to make a “Episode meeting” of Seinfeld, but the consolidation of Curb Your Enthusiasm, the HBO series created and starring Larry David, gave them the ideal frame to carry it out.

The tenth and last episode of season 7, which came to the air on November 22, 2009, revolves around the fictitious recording of a Seinfeld meeting chapter.

The plot is thus built around the situations that occur to the four leading actors that appear by making themselves, and "acting" as their character for the episode that is being recorded within the CURB universe.

18-David and Seinfeld earn more than 400 million dollars per year for reproduction and merchandising rights of Seinfeld

While the program co-creators, Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld owners of a Seinfeld reproduction rights.They started with 7.5% each, and then negotiated an increase up to 15%.

Since it ceased to be broadcast in 1998, the program has generated more profits than when it was on the air, and has become one of the most profitable in television history in the United States.

The first retransmission agreement in 1998 generated 1700 million dollars of profits, which for David and Seinfeld meant an income of 250 million dollars for each.Since then, the program has gone through numerous channels and renegotiation contracts, to which we must add what at the time they charged for DVD sales and various merchandising products.

In the last two decades, the Seinfeld universe has generated more than 4000 million dollars of profits, and it is estimated that the creators have taken more than 400 million each per year.

This arrangement has generated rispideces with the other 3 protagonists, who sought to obtain a percentage of rights, but they were denied.It was based on that refusal that decided to ask for salaries well above the average for the last season, which was granted: each of the three earned more than 600 thousand dollars per episode during the ninth season, an absolute record that wasthen broken by the salaries charged by Friends's cast.

19-Ben Stiller's father played George Costanza's father

From Courtney Cox to Bryan Cranston, there were numerous actors who did special participations in Seinfeld and then ended up being stars.Jerry Stiller, Comedian Ben Stiller's father, was part of the regular cast, while playing Frank, George Costanza's father.

And while Stiller was an actor with an established trajectory at the time of participating in the series, the fame that gave him his interpretation of Frank Costanza revitalized his career and opened it to numerous other roles, including Arthur Spooner in The King ofQueens.

According to those responsible for Seinfeld, it was Stiller who asked Larry David to change the way he had to play Frank Costanza."I had asked me to do it as a meek man, but I realized that it didn't work, and I asked them if I could change the tone," Stiller recalled.

The result was the interpretation that became canonical, that of that agitated man who is always on the verge of an attack of anger.The result was so funny that they never gave Stiller an indication about how he should interpret the role.

20-many episodes arose from real events that happened to Larry David

While Larry David does not have the level of recognition of Jerry Seinfeld, he is as responsible for Seinfeld's success as the comedian who ended up starring in it.Not only was the co-creator of the project presented to NBC, but he was also the main screenwriter and executive producer over seven seasons.

He was also in charge of making the offices of several characters, and also had several appearances inside the plot.David used numerous instances of his personal life within Seinfeld's plot.To begin, he made his real neighbor a comedy character, but also replied episodes that had happened to him.

In 1984, Larry David was a screenwriter of Saturday Night Live when he decided to resign untamed fifteen minutes before the program began, frustrated because his sketches did not reach the final version.On the way home, the amount of silver he was going to lose and, encouraged by his neighbor, Kenny Kramer, decided to return to work on Monday and make an account like nothing had never happened.

In the episode The Revenge, (Revenge, Season 2), George does the same after giving up his work and repenting.The answer (the competition, season 4), where the three men and Elaine compete to see who endures the greatest amount of time without masturbating, was also based on a similar competition that David carried out with a couple of friends.A competition that, according to David, easily won.

21-George's role was offered to Danny Devito, but he didn't want to do it

The actors who took part in the casting to be part of the Seinfeld cast is long and illustrious.Most have not publicly talked about the subject, and those who have usually done so have said that the choice of the actors was perfect.

Among men, the most relevant anecdote that George's role was offered to Danny Devito, but preferred not to do so.The actor came to make a taxi, and he was already in a more consolidated phase of his career.A recognized actor who apparently wanted the role of George was Chris Rock, who did the casting but was not.

For years he ran the rumor that Steve Bus.

There were numerous actresses who were later recognized that they sought to keep the role of Elaine.Rosie O'Donnell, Patricia Heaton and Megan Mullaly were among the candidates who remained on the road. Mullaly, quien luego fue Karen Walker en Will & Grace, fue la que más cerca estuvo de convertirse en Elaine, según contó años después Jerry.

The creators of the program liked the interpretation of Mullaly who even summoned her as a guest actress in a chapter: he made George's girlfriend in the episode The Implant (the implant).

22-Newman was Jerry's favorite secondary character

Wayne Knight played Newman, a mailman who lives in the same building as Kramer and Jerry, and acts as the comedian's nemesis.

The character was in fact created as a kind of opponent for Jerry's role in the series, a kind of "lex luthor" for the comedian who is a declared fan of Superman.

Newman is described by Seinfeld as someone who is "pure evil", and the clashes between the two are a seasoning of the dynamics of the program.

The “villain” essence of the character lit at the audience and was remembered even when the comedy was no longer on the air.In a list that Rolling Stone made in 2016 about the “40 best villains in television history”, Newman was in place 16.

Despite his enmity on the screen (or perhaps due to them), Seinfeld acknowledged in a Reddit questions and answers that Newman was his favorite secondary character.“Having his own nemesis, like Superman, was a dream come true for me.There is no superhero without nemesis, ”he said.

23-then that George did not appear in an episode, Jason Alexander threatened to resign

Except Jerry Seinfeld, the only protagonist of the series that was present in all episodes, the other actors had absences throughout the nine seasons.However, Jason Alexander did not get well the first time he ran into a script in which he did not appear.

After seeing that he would not be in The Pen (the pen, season 3), the actor went to see Larry David and told him that if he left him again, "to do so forever".

The creator of the program tried to explain the difficulties of handling so many plot lines, but Alexander was overwhelming: "Do not tell me your problems, if you do not need to be here, I am not interested in being".George's character was never absent again.

24-The Nazi character of the soup was based on a real person

The "Nazi Soup" is at this point a Seinfeld icon.The character (and his header phrase, "I don't soup for you!").

He has made numerous advertisements and has appeared in other comedies interpreting the role, famous for his strict demands that should follow those who wanted to buy their soup.

Without disdaining Thomas's performance, the truth is that the character is based on a real person named Ali "al" Yeganeh, who had a soup sales stand in Manhattan in the 80s.

Like the character, the true soup chef was known by incredibly punctatory and demanding with the behavior of customers who went to his premises.Yeganeh was enraged with the way he appeared in the series and accused Seinfeld.

He even gave an interview with CNN, where he claimed that in reality the fame of the program was due to him, and not vice versa.Naturally, Yeganeh prohibited Jerry Seinfeld from entering his place after the episode.

25-HUBO A DANCE SPIN off after Seinfeld's end, but in the end he did not materialize

After the end of the ninth season, Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld had in mind to continue their humorous universe through one of the secondary characters of the series.

The idea was to make a spin off around the character of Jackie Chiles, Kramer's lawyer who also represents the four protagonists in the final episode trial.

Chiles, who is vaguely inspired by a famous lawyer named Johnny Cochran who represented OJ Simpson, had appeared in six seinfeld episodes.The idea in the end failed to materialize, for reasons that were never explained.

While it was not an official idea, Jason Alexander once commented that he would have liked a spinoff about Jerry and George's parents living together in the same Conodominium complex in Florida.

26-Hubo fear that Elaine's dance would ruin Julia Louis Dreyfus's career

The scenes where De Elaine starts dancing are moments of the character, while a physical mark that defined the character with the fair mixture of laughter and crying.

And while now they are an inseparable part of the humorous universe of the program, before giving green light to the sequence there was fear among the screenwriters that such a deployment of clumsiness could affect not only the series, but the professional future of the actress, Julia Louis Dreyfus.

Nervousism arose because David had to be convinced to do so, since he didn't want.However, the co-creator left the program shortly after, and there were no more impediments.

Anyway, screenwriter Spike Ferestten highlighted years after shortly before recording, a partner asked if he was sure what he was about to do.

He replied that no, but they advanced the same.The bet in the end turned out, since that year he won his only Emmy as a comic actress for Seinfeld (1996).

27-The character of Elaine's father only appeared once because the cast was afraid of the actor

Elaine's father, a renowned writer named Alton Benes, appeared for the first (and unique) time in The Jacket (the jacket, episode 3 of season 2).The original idea was that it was a recurring character, but the truth is that the actor, Lawrence Tierney, intimidated the rest of the cast so much that they decided to discard that narrative line.

According to the stories arising about those recording days, Tierney stole a useful knife from the Seinfeld department and recreated the psychosis shower scene.

28-Jerry once proposed a turn to Elaine that made Julia Louis Dreyfuss end in tears

Although Jerry Seinfeld did not do a television show after Seinfeld's end, he never stayed still.He made Standup Tours, Netflix specials, and even put his voice for animated films.

One of its most visible incursions was the Comedians in Car Getting Coffee web (comedians in Auto going to drink coffee), which launched in July 2012 on the crackle platform, and which is currently in Netflix.

The premise is revealed in the title: Seinfeld goes up to a car specially chosen for the occasion (the comedian is a car collector Porsche) and is going to look for a colleague with him then chat while they drink coffee.

One of the guests was his former cast partner in Seinfeld, Julia Louis Dreyfus.It was during that meeting that a particular episode was revealed during the filming of the series that left the actress plunged into tears.In 1997 the actress was pregnant with her second child, Charle, and we had to find a way of working around this.

With his first pregnancy he had done it with pillows and chamber angles, but now Jerry had another idea: what if we directly stated that Elaine fattened?The actress's reaction was so severe that the project was filed on the spot.

"I exploded in tears.Automatically.It was like a death sentence.I have two things to say about that.The first is that you have zero intrapersonal communication skills, and the second is that it was a great idea and we should have done so.It would have been a great story...I regret not having said yes, "said Dreyfus regarding the episode.

29-Jjason Alexander did not believe that the program was going to succeed

Unlike Seinfeld and David, Jason Alexander is an actor made and right that does not come from the standup world.It was his agent who approached the script to do the casting for the role of George Costanza, and Alexander was fascinated with the idea of the program.

Paradoxically, his enthusiasm for the project was inversely proportional to the faith he could succeed.“From the first moment I read the script, I thought it was the brightest thing that I had ever proposed to participate...And that would not last a day in the air, ”he recalled in an interview years later.

Alexander's skepticism reasons had to do with their tastes, and what he considered working on television.“After recording the pilot, Jerry asked me if I thought I was going to work and I told him no.When I wondered why, I told him that the audience for this program was someone like me, and I don't watch television, ”Alexander confessed in an interview with Larry King.

30- Larry David left Seinfeld after the end of season 7 and returned to do the final episode

For some critics, David's departure meant the end of the best era of Seinfeld.In that line, Jason Alexander once declared that, with the departure of the comedian-guy, the person who best understood George's psychology, and that that was noticed in the quality of the plots that were created for the character was best.

According to David himself, the primary reason for his departure was because he worried that the program was beginning to lose his comic nerve, and that he would not be able to maintain the level he had.To this we must add that their relationship with the managers was very worn, after years of shocks and discussions.

In the rigor of truth, this was not a new concern for David.The possibility of not doing a satisfactory product was something that caused him to panic.

The comedian confessed that, when the station renewed the contract to make the 23 episodes of Season 3, he felt his eyes "filled with tears".Finally, he agreed to return to the final double chapter and close the Seinfeld stage.

31- Introductory music was never the same and was based on Seinfeld's monologue

The chords caused by the SLAP on the bass with which each Seinfeld episode begins are recognizable for any comedy fan.

And while the first impression is that the melody is repeated the same in each introduction, the truth is that the composer, Jonathan Wolff, prepared each one in a particular way based on the introductory monologue of Seinfeld of each week.

In an interview with the Vice site in 2015, Wolff said that he recorded various sounds in his study, on which he then worked based on Seinfeld's verbal cadences.Once the monologue audio obtained, he mapped the introductory theme based on the location and duration of the sounds and silences.

"It was a bit more laborious than what was done for most other programs, because it had to redo the opening every time we did an episode.But it was worth it.I was creating new material.While he was deploying new things, I did the same and tried to create with him, "he explained.

32-Kramer's popularity bothered the other actors

Cosmo Kramer's character was the most outgoing and eccentric of the four protagonists.His strange movements, his unpredictable behavior and humor built based on jokes and gags made it quickly becoming a favorite of the audience.

His past is a mystery: beyond the relationship with his mother Babs, it is the only one of the four that a family network is not known throughout the nine seasons.His father never appears, and there is also no reference to having any brother.

In many ways, it would seem to be the most “pure” character in the series: he works sporadically and does not worry about money, he embarks on unbridled adventures without thinking twice, and cares about his friends.The creators even determined that all the clothes used by actor Michael Richards was a larger waist, with the idea of accentuating his rather carefree attitude.

Kramer's popularity created some friction with his cast companions.When they appointed Richards to leave and present themselves during live recordings, the public applauded to rage for several minutes, which forced to delay the departure of the other actors.

Apparently, some of them complained about this, claiming that he interfered with the rhythm of the series.Because of this, the production began to ask the audience to "contain" their desire to applaud every time Kramer appeared.

33-Eline Benes is the only character of the 4 who is not New York

The character of Elaine is the only one of the protagonists who was not on the pilot and was added later.It was by suggestion of NBC executives, who wanted a strong.

Larry David accepted that they should include a female voice of more weight, one of the few times the comedian, who was notoriously reluctant to accept suggestions, agreed to a request from the chain authorities.

Thus, the character of Elaine Benes, a ex -girlfriend of Jerry with whom they followed friends after the breakup was born, and that is inspired by at least two former real girlfriends of Seinfeld, the comedian Carol Leifer and Susan McNabbb.It was also based on Monica Yates, a ex -girlfriend of Larry David with whom they remained friends.

Unlike the other three characters, Elaine is not a native of New York, but Baltimore.His father, a very famous writer, appeared once in the program, but his mother never did.He has a sister and a nephew, but they never appear in the program.

Throughout the nine seasons, she worked as an editor and personal assistant.As can be rebuilt according to the information revealed in the series, Elaine and Jerry left about three years, between 1986 and 1989.

34-Frank Sinatra died the day the final chapter was released

The iconic singer Frank Sinatra died on May 14, 1998 at age 82 at the Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, the same day the final episode of Seinfeld came to air.

A curious fact that reveals the impact that the last broadcast of the program had was revealed by the ambulance that was sent to the singer's house, after he suffered a heart attack on his residence.

The medical team could reach the house of Sinatra and transfer it to the hospital in just a few minutes, because the streets and highways were practically empty, a real anomality in Los Angeles.

Everything happened around 9 at night, and the hypothesis that all raised was that the lack of traffic was due to the large number of people in their homes watching the final episode of Seinfeld.

One of Sinatra's daughters, Nancy, confessed years after the night his father died planned to see him see him.He lived just three blocks from his father's house, a walk of approximately 5 minutes.

But she also was prey to her desire to see the final episode, and it was never.He learned what had happened when his father was already dead."I know that to live in peace you have to release anger, but knowing that I was watching television 5 minutes from my dad while he was dying, it's something that I'm never going to be able to forgive," he lamented.

35-A man named Michael Costanza sued the program claiming that George's character was based on him

Shortly after Seinfeld's premiere, a real man named Michael Costanza, who was a friend of Jerry Seinfeld, he thought he saw his traces in the character of George Costanza.In fact, they shared the last name.

Costanza (the true) decided to sue the creators of the program for 100 million dollars, claiming that the series had violated its intimacy.

While the claim reached the courts, justice did not make room for the request for Costanza, in principle because the deadline to request compensation for such crimes had already expired.

David and Seinfeld have always said that George is based on David, but Costanza wrote a book where he wrote the reasons why he thought he was inspired by him: both were peeled, morrudos and had been companions of Jerry Seinfeld in Queens College.

36- Michael Richards had a severe racist incident that led him to leave the standup

In 2006, eight years after Seinfeld finished, Michael Richards was doing a standup routine at Laugh Factory, a comedy club in Los Angeles.Richards apparently got angry with a group of black people who interrupted him and bothered him, a practice that in the standup world is known as "Heckling".

After they refused to shut up, he broke out in a cataract of racist insults.In addition to calling them "Nigger", Richards made allusions to lynchings and racial laws of Jim Crow, two highly offensive issues for the black population of the United States.

Richards made a request for public apologies within a few days in David Letterman's program, and also appeared with black civil leaders, where he was repentant.

The theme achieved extensive impact, and parodies of the incident in Family Guy and South Park appeared.Richards took the episode with humor in a chapter in curb your enthusiasm.

However, in 2012 he appeared on the Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee web program, by Jerry Seinfeld, and said that the situation had marked it deeply, and that it was one of the reasons why I had stopped doing standup.

37-The owner of the Yankees initially did not want to give authorization for the team to appear in the program

George Steinbrenner was an American businessman who owns the New York Yankees baseball team.He was incorporated as a character inside Seinfeld from an episode in the fifth season, and ended up becoming a comedy classic.

An actor played Steinbrenner, who always appeared on his back and never entirely.Larry David was the one who made the voice.

The first contact between the parties was when the creators asked permission to use the team logo in an episode.Steinbrenner refused, but Seinfeld ignored him and used it without his consent.A year later they asked him to make an appearance in the progam.

Steinbrenner said not after reading the script, in principle because he thought that George's character was a mockery towards him.When he finally saw an episode, he liked the series and authorized the program to use the Yankees uniforms.

For the closure of season 7 a small cameo of Steinbrenner was filmed, but it never came to air.

38-HUBO An episode dedicated to weapons that finally canceled

At first glance it would seem that no subject was out of limits for Seinfeld.Throughout nine seasons, they got with masturbation, orgasm, homophobia, religion, the right to abortion and disability, among many others.

However, there was an issue that ended up being too controversial: weapons.

During season 2, David wrote the script for an episode that was going to be called The Bet (the bet), which would revolve around a bet between Jerry and Elaine where he challenges her to buy a weapon for personal protection.

According to the testimonies of some of those involved (among them, the same Seinfeld), already during the reading of the script there was discomfort and tension in the air.One of the jokes was that Elaine jokes with which she is accidentally shot in the head.

It was one of the directors who eventually went to talk to David to protest, telling him that there was no way to do "something funny with weapons".The chapter got up and was replaced by the episode The Phone Message (the telephone message).

39-Marisa took a special appearance just because they liked her name

One of the most routilating actresses in making an appearance in an episode of Seinfeld was undoubtedly Marisa Tomei.The actress, who won an Oscar for her performance in the movie Mi Primo Vinny, made herself in a double episode called The Cadillac, of season 7.

In that chapter, George becomes obsessed with getting Tomei's phone after a woman who knows her tells the actress like "funny, peculiar and peeled men".George finally manages to have coffee with Tomei, who is effectively fascinated with him.

The relationship is finally truncated by a small detail that George "forgets to mention".

In an interview with the NPR public chain, Tomei revealed that a given moment asked Seinfeld's creators why they had invited her to play that little role.

“They told me it was because they liked the rhythm of my name.That is, in the end it had nothing to do with me, only they liked to say my name and surname, ”he revealed.

40-One of the actors always tried to avoid Seinfeld in the breaks while filming

Patrick Warburton played Puddy, an Elaine boyfriend with whom he separated and gathered again.It appeared for the first time in season 6, in what was originally going to be a single chapter participation.But creators liked his role, and appeared in another episode.

Thanks to the fact that another program in which he worked was canceled, he could participate more fully in season 9, and appeared in eight episodes, including the end.

In an interview in which he talked about his experiences during Seinfeld's years, Warburton confessed that by the way he avoided crossing Seinfeld in the breaks during the recordings.

According to the actor, he did this for fear of saying something that could fall badly to the comedian, and thus put his participation in the program at risk."I wanted to say my dialogues, to laugh, and to end every day thinking 'I like that character of Puddy, let's keep calling him," Warburton completed.

41-Jerry Seinfeld gave Cartier watches to the entire cast that participated in the final episode

Known to be a rather grim and distant person, not even Jerry Seinfeld was able to subtract the emotional burden that meant recording the last episode of the comedy that bore his name.

The thanks was such that, the last day of recording, the comedian presented each cast member a clock bracelet Cartier, with the name Seinfeld enlarged in the back.

According to the IMDB file, there were at least 65 accredited actors for that episode.And while it is not known what model bought, assuming an average price of $ 6500, currently the invoice for that gift would cost more than 422 thousand dollars.

The four protagonists had a small ritual that they met before leaving to greet the public when they recorded each program: they got together in a round behind the decoration and wishing luck.

Prior to go out to greet for the last time, Seinfeld gathered his three classmates and said: "For the rest of our lives, when someone thinks of one of us, he will think of all four, and I can't think of another group of peoplewith which it would cause me more pleasure to be associated ".

The other three had to contain the tears, since they just started calling them and had to greet themselves as if nothing had happened.

42-Hubo at least 22 films mentioned in the series that were fictitious

Seinfeld was one of the first television series that blurred the boundaries between reality and fiction and made wide use of the concept of metafiction.In fact, the series is born from that diffuse limit when talking about a fictional character called as one of the creators.

Real situations were recreated and parodied to infinity, from specific episodes that had happened to someone, to historical moments, such as the theory about the murder of John Kennedy that was exposed to the movie JFK.

Until the creation of the same program became a tensioning theme between reality and fiction, when Jerry and George created "Jerry", a television program practically equal to Seinfeld.

One of the most crossed issues by this practice were the films that the characters were going to see within the program.

While there were some real films and series (there are memorable sequences around "the English patient" and the series "Mad About You"), the vast majority were apocryphal.From Sack Lunch and Rochelle Rochelle to Death Blow and Ponce de León, Seinfeld is a source of films that sound like true, but never existed.

43-A chapter revolved around a serial killer who had been captured shortly before in New York

Joel Rifkin is a serial killer who murdered nine women between 1989 and 1993.Five months after his arrest, Seinfeld premiered the episode The Masseuse (the masseuse), in which they propose that Elaine goes out with a man named the same as the murderer whose name is on the cover of all newspapers.

The discomfort you feel when you feel that everyone is observing them leads to try to make man make a name change.

In an ironic turn that no one could have planned, Elaine suggests that you adopt the initials "OJ" after reading a sports magazine where the former American football player, OJ Simpson appeared.

Seven months after the episode came to the air, Simpson was arrested and accused of the murder of his ex -wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and a friend of her, Ron Goldman.

44-The chapter that goes backwards was inspired by a work by Harold Pinter

One of Seinfeld's most celebrated episodes is The Betlayal (the tradition, season 9), which has the peculiarity of going backwards.That is, the first scene is the conclusion of the episode, and from there it progresses until it ends in what would be normal, opening.

The chapter revolves around a trip to India that Jerry, Elaine, George and his girlfriend, Nina, do to attend a wedding.As the episode progresses, the existence of two love triangles is also revealed, which also proceed backwards: from the discovery until the moment it begins.

The episode in its entirety is a tribute to the British playwright Harold Pinter, who in 1978 premiered in London a work called Betrayal (betrayal).The piece was also structured based on an inverted chronology, and revolved around a love triangle.

We mentioned that in Seinfeld's episode there were two love triangles: one starring Jerry, George and Nina, and another by Elaine and the couple who married, her friend Sue Ellen Mischke and the boyfriend.What was this character called?Pinter.

45-A man was accused of sexual harassment and fired for commenting on an episode

JEROLD MACKENZIE was an executive of the beer company Miller in 1993 when he was fired after a co -worker named Patricia Best denounced him as harassment while commenting on a chapter of Seinfeld.

In the episode The Junior Mint (Mint's candy, season 4), Jerry does not remember the name of his girlfriend, and only knows that rhyme with a part of the female anatomy.

After shuffling options (George suggests that it could be called "mulva"), the bride realizes that she does not know her name and separates.It is about the end that Jerry falls on the account and the window shouts "Dolores!".

Mackenzie was fired for commenting the episode to Best and, after she did not understand the rhyme, show her a photocopied leaf where she said "Clitoris".The woman filed a complaint, claiming that it was the last episode of a series of episodes of harassment that Mackenzie had carried out.

The man then filed a lawsuit for unjustified dismissal and won it: a jury ordered the company to pay 26 million dollars of compensation.

46-A episode received an award for raising awareness about skin cancer

One of the narrative arches of The Slicer episode (the cutter, season 9) revolves around Jerry Seinfeld and a girlfriend of his who is dermatologist.

Irritated because the woman spends her saying that her work saves lives, Jerry makes fun of the woman's profession, just before the appearance of a former patient who thanks her from saving her life.When Jerry asks him what he had saved, the man replies that he had had skin cancer.

Although the mention of dermatology was a lower aspect of the episode, the American Dermatology Academy praised its task of providing information regarding skin cancer in the midst of humorous situations, and gave it a prize for its awareness work.

According to doctors, the episode highlighted how important the preventive work was when detecting and treating the condition.

47-The Farrelly brothers created one of Seinfeld's most famous episodes

Peter and Bobby Farrelly are screenwriters, producers and film directors, known for successes as a fool and crazy and crazy about Mary.Before being Hollywood stars, however, they were television scriptwriters, and one of his works was to write episodes for Seinfeld.

It was during the fourth season that they proposed the plot of The Virgin (the Virgin), which ended up being one of the best known episodes of the series.

The chapter revolves around the situations that occur when Jerry learns that his girlfriend of the moment, a girl named Marla, is a virgin.According to Peter Farrely, it was they who "sold" the idea of David and Seinfeld, but the script was written by another person.

"It was an intimidating moment, since none of them laughs when you are telling him the idea, but luckily they liked and could do," Farrely recalled in an interview.

48-George's costumes a smaller waist was designed to accentuate the character's discomfort

Narcissism, insecurity, dishonesty and bitterness are just some of George Costanza's characteristics.Despite this cocktail apparently revulsive, it is perhaps the character that most connected with Seinfeld's audience.

Jason Alexander once declared that the comment he received most in connection with his interpretation of the character was that "everyone knows a George in his personal life".

With the intention of strengthening the general discomfort of the character, the people in charge of the Seinfeld costume designed a precise strategy: to wear Alexander with clothes a smaller waist.

Pants, shirts, shirts and chombas, everything was slightly smaller than the actor normally used and thus add (one more reason) to George's displeasure.

49-Hubo significant changes between the pilot and the second episode

Seinfeld's pilot is a separate chapter in the history of the series.For starting, it was not even called Seinfeld: his original name was The Seinfeld Chronicles (the Seinfeld chronicles).The change was apparently decided in an attempt to generate a more direct title.But that is not the only significant change that occurred between the first and second episode.

It was already said that above that Elaine was not part of the pilot, and was only from the second episode that joined the cast.This also resulted in the exit of the character of La Moza Claire, which is the pilot's central female presence.

In that initial episode there is also a series of other aspects that were not maintained: George has less patetism and even a stable job as a real estate agent, the coffee they eat is not Monk's, but Pete’s Luncheonette;And Jerry's clothing style is more casual and youthful.

50-like the Jerry Seinfeld fictitio, the comedian is also a superman fan

The references to Kal-el, such is Superman's real name, were repeated throughout Seinfeld's nine seasons.

A screenwriter once explained this was not asked or planned, but a kind of organic evolution because the fictional comedian shared fanaticism by Superman with the real Seinfeld, who considers her her favorite film.

References to Superman not only materialized in dolls in the department of Jerry, but also became part of the plot.

The Episode The Race (the race, season 6) was perhaps the most explicit tribute to the character: Jerry not only runs a career against an old rival of the school while Superman's theme sounds in the background, but has a girlfriend named Lois Lois.

A screenwriter who went through the program once commented that the identification with Superman was a bit surprising, while "the man of steel identified with truth and justice, while Seinfeld's characters are constantly dedicated to lying and cheating".