If all TV manufacturing stopped at the moment and no new TV reveals had been ever created, then each TV lover on the earth had been requested to call the best present within the historical past of tv, there is a rattling respectable likelihood that “Seinfeld” would come out on high. Rewatchable, hilarious, and completely singular, it stays a miracle greater than 25 years after it went off the air. A lot of that’s attributed to the core ensemble forged made up of Jerry Seinfeld (Jerry), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Elaine), Jason Alexander (George), and Michael Richards (Kramer). For practically the entire present’s 180 episodes, this group anchored the traditional sitcom. We are saying virtually as a result of there was one episode that Alexander sat out.
Like many nice reveals, “Seinfeld” took a few seasons to search out its footing. By season 3, although, it was totally off to the races. That season comprises a number of traditional episodes, together with the third episode, the twentieth of the present total, titled “The Pen.” Whereas followers have come to adore the episode within the years because it first aired, it is the one episode of the whole nine-season run to not function Alexander’s George Costanza.
“The Pen” is taken into account to be one of many present’s most underrated episodes. In it, Jerry and Elaine go to Jerry’s dad and mom in Florida, the place Jerry’s father is being honored by his rental affiliation. Throughout dinner, Jerry turns into enchanted by a particular astronaut’s pen owned by one of many affiliation members. Jerry later accepts it as a present, which units off quite a lot of rigidity along with his dad and mom, who imagine he ought to have refused. Hilarity ensues, with George sitting on the sidelines.
Jason Alexander wasn’t comfortable about being written out of The Pen
As talked about, that is the solely episode out of 180 that George does not seem in. Richards’ Kramer additionally sat this one out, with the actor solely lacking out on two throughout the present’s historic run total. (Kramer was additionally absent from the season 2 episode “The Chinese language Restaurant.”) Followers will care to notice that the absences of these characters occurred comparatively early on within the present’s run. There is a good motive for that.
Larry David, of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” fame, was the inventive driving drive behind “Seinfeld” alongside the titular comic. It seems that Alexander wasn’t notably comfortable about being written out of “The Pen” and, because the story goes, the actor let David know simply how sad he was. In a 2016 interview, Alexander defined that he advised David in no unsure phrases that this is able to be the final time he was written out of the present, or he would not be a part of it sooner or later.
“You wrote me out of the present. I solely wish to be right here if I am indispensable […] When you do it once more, do it completely,” Alexander advised him. That was that. George was in each episode from then on out. “Seinfeld” remained a large hit, with the forged incomes big paydays over the remainder of the present’s run. They’re nonetheless benefiting to today, with the streaming rights promoting to Netflix a number of years again, and the cable rights going to Comedy Central in 2023. Luckily for all concerned, the episode turned out nice, David and Seinfeld by no means wrote out any of the principle characters once more, and the present sailed easily from then on out … save for the finale, however that is one other story solely.
“Seinfeld” is presently streaming on Netflix.
