Seinfeld’s Jason Alexander Makes Rare Appearance in Los Angeles

Jason Alexander continues to find serenity now.

Almost thirty years after Seinfeld ended, the actor was seen having lunch with his friend Peter Tilden in Los Angeles on May 30th. It was a rare public outing for him.

For a relaxed outing, Jason wore a plaid shirt and a gray jacket with blue jeans. He kept his familiar horseshoe mustache, but added a salt-and-pepper goatee.

Jason, known for his work with Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Michael Richards on the nine-season show Seinfeld (1989-1998), wasn’t the first choice to play George. He explained that several other well-known actors were also considered for the part.

He mentioned being familiar with Chris Rock, Danny DeVito, Paul Schaefer, and Rosie O’Donnell, sharing this on his podcast, Really? No, Really? He also noted that Steve Buscemi’s name came up as a surprising suggestion.

In the end, the producers were drawn to Jason’s portrayal of the character, which he based largely on Larry David, the co-creator of Seinfeld. He described his take as neurotic.

Jason described George as completely self-assured and confident. He contrasted this with Larry, who, while not as intense, constantly sought validation, always asking, ‘Am I right?’

Does Jason ever critique his own acting when he watches old episodes of Seinfeld? He says he does, but also that he separates himself from it. He doesn’t usually think, ‘That was a terrible performance.’ Instead, he’ll sometimes think, ‘He did that well,’ or ‘He should have done that differently.’

Jason explained that he didn’t view the final episode of the NBC sitcom as either good or bad, simply stating he couldn’t categorize it as one or the other.

He noted that despite the show’s generally unemotional approach, Larry managed to bring back almost everyone who had played a significant role, even those with small parts, to ensure the series could conclude as a team.

Jason explained that the experience had a deep impact on him, and now he always views the episode with that positive impression, admiring how well it was handled.

For more behind-the-scenes secrets about Seinfeld, read on…

The show started as a 90-minute TV special intended to air during Saturday Night Live. It was initially called Stand Up or The Jerry Seinfeld Show. As Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David worked on it, they realized a longer format wouldn’t work, so they created a pilot called The Seinfeld Chronicles, which aired on July 5, 1989. NBC wasn’t immediately convinced, but executive Rick Ludwin supported the show and used some of his own budget to give it a chance. The network was still hesitant, so they only ordered four episodes for the first season—the shortest season in television history.

Although Seinfeld is often described as “a show about nothing” – even portrayed that way within the show itself – that wasn’t the original idea. As Jerry Seinfeld explained in a 2014 interview, the initial pitch to NBC in 1988 was about showing where comedians get their jokes. The “show about nothing” line was actually a joke from one episode years later, and both Seinfeld and Larry David are still surprised it became the popular way people describe the series, as they always saw it as being about something.

Elaine wasn’t in the very first episode of Seinfeld. Instead, there was a diner waitress named Claire, played by Lee Garlington. She didn’t continue with the show, and there’s some disagreement about why. NBC executive Warren Littlefield said he didn’t think a waitress could be considered part of the main group. Jason Alexander claims Garlington was let go because she rewrote parts of the script without permission. However, Jerry Seinfeld has stated that the producers were simply looking for an actress who could play a more central role.

Although Alexander is now famously known as George Costanza, he wasn’t the first actor considered for the role. In an interview with Access Hollywood, he shared that he initially wanted his friend, Jake Johannsen, to play George, but Johannsen turned it down.

As a huge fan, I always found it fascinating to learn about the behind-the-scenes dynamics of Seinfeld. Apparently, out of the show’s 173 episodes, Jason Alexander only missed one – an episode called “The Pen” from season three. Larry David decided not to include George Costanza or Kramer in that particular installment, and Jason was pretty upset! He actually confronted Larry and laid down a bit of a condition. He explained in an interview with Access Hollywood that before Seinfeld, he had a thriving theatre career in New York, and that was his original plan. So, after being written out of that episode, he told Larry that if it happened again, he’d prefer to leave the show permanently. Basically, he was saying if they didn’t need him every week, he’d rather go back to his first love – the stage. Thankfully, Larry listened, and George was in every episode after that! It just shows how valuable Jason was to the show, and how much he loved what he did.

Although David is widely believed to be the model for the character George Costanza, the name actually came from Jerry Seinfeld’s old friend, Michael Costanza, who wasn’t happy about it. In 1998, Michael Costanza wrote a book called The Real Seinfeld: As Told by the Real Costanza and then sued Seinfeld, David, and NBC for $100 million, claiming they had slandered him and used his name and likeness without permission. Costanza pointed out the similarities between himself and the character in an interview with ABC News, saying, “George is bald. I am bald. George is stocky. I am stocky. George and I both went to Queens College with Jerry. George’s high-school teacher nicknamed him ‘Can’t stand ya.’ So did mine. George had a thing about bathrooms and parking spaces. So do I.” However, the lawsuit was ultimately dismissed.

As a bit of Seinfeld trivia, you might be wondering why Elaine isn’t in the very first episode. Well, Julia Louis-Dreyfus actually wasn’t part of the show when it was initially picked up, so naturally, she wasn’t in that pilot. Interestingly, she’s said she didn’t even know about the episode until years later – all the way back in 2004! – and she’s playfully refused to watch it ever since, claiming it’s out of superstition. It’s a fun little piece of Seinfeld history!

Before Julia Louis-Dreyfus was cast as Elaine, several other actresses were considered for the part, such as Rosie O’Donnell, Megan Mullally, Mariska Hargitay, and Patricia Heaton.

9. When the show introduced Elaine’s intimidating father Alton Benes in the season two episode “The Jacket,” it was meant to be a recurring role. However, when life imitated art and the actor playing Alton, Lawrence Tierney, stole a kitchen knife from the kitchen set and hid it under his jacket, only to pretend to stab Seinfeld while shrieking the infamous Psycho shower scene music, it was clear that he had to go. “I remember looking at Tom [Cherones], I remember looking at Julia, and just going, this is, we’re in the land of the sick now,” Alexander said in season two DVD extra. Louis-Dreyfus put it more bluntly: “I’ll tell you something about Lawrence Tierney. He was a total nutjob.”

Originally, in the first episode, Kramer was called Kessler. This was because the real-life inspiration for the character, Kenny Kramer (a former neighbor of Larry David), was reluctant to have his name used on the show. Michael Richards, the actor who played Kramer, never even met Kenny. Eventually, Seinfeld and David paid Kenny $1,000, and he agreed to let them use his last name. Kenny then started the Kramer Reality Tour, a bus tour of New York City highlighting locations featured in Seinfeld. Later, in season eight, the show playfully referenced this with a storyline where Kramer shares his life stories for a book and then starts his own tour called The Peterman Reality Tour.

In her 2016 book, Seinfeldia, Jennifer Keishin Armstrong explains that Jason Richards became so deeply immersed in his character, and approached the role with such intensity, that his costars felt they never truly knew him, even after working together for years. They also weren’t fans of the enthusiastic applause he consistently received from the studio audience during his dramatic entrances, as it disrupted the flow of filming. Eventually, directors had to ask the audience to quiet down.

David intentionally avoided any emotional growth or change for the characters on the show. He famously stated that many viewers missed the show’s cynical side, pointing out that bad things consistently happen to the characters – they lose their jobs, relationships end tragically, and people face difficult personal issues. This, he explained, was the kind of humor he preferred.

The famously strict “Soup Nazi” character on Seinfeld was inspired by a real chef, Al Yeganeh, known as The Original SoupMan. Yeganeh ran a soup stand in New York City with incredibly strict rules – if you didn’t follow them, you wouldn’t get any soup! He was unhappy when Seinfeld featured a similar character in 1995. Jerry Seinfeld was personally banned from Yeganeh’s shop, and Yeganeh publicly criticized Seinfeld on CNN, calling him a “clown” and condemning the show’s use of the term “Nazi.” Despite being suggested that the show made him famous, Yeganeh insisted it was the other way around, claiming he was the one who brought Seinfeld fame.

Although the show generally didn’t shy away from any topic, one episode was scrapped even after sets were built and rehearsals had begun. The episode, written by Larry Charles (who later directed Borat), involved Elaine buying a gun. A joke referencing the Kennedy assassination – with Elaine imitating the act of shooting herself – proved too sensitive for everyone involved. Director Tom Cherones famously said, “Guns aren’t funny.” Jerry Seinfeld explained in a Reddit AMA that they did a read-through and then decided to cancel the episode, finding it wasn’t actually funny to try and make light of the situation. The episode was ultimately replaced with “The Phone Message.”

The show’s memorable opening theme music wasn’t always the same. Composer Jonathan Wolff subtly changed it each week to match the episode’s beginning. He’d get a list of the opening lines and use them as inspiration for a new, jazzy variation. In a 2015 interview with Vice, Wolff explained that this process was more work than usual, but he felt it was worthwhile. He enjoyed creating new music alongside the show’s creator, and as long as the creator continued to innovate, Wolff was happy to do the same.

The surprising decision to eliminate George’s fiancée, Susan, at the end of season seven – famously, by having her lick poisonous envelopes – actually came from Julia Louis-Dreyfus. As Larry David explained in a 2015 interview with Howard Stern, the actress who played Susan, Heidi Swedberg, had a comedic style that didn’t quite mesh with his. He felt he couldn’t effectively play scenes with her, and eventually Jerry Seinfeld agreed. “They realized it just wasn’t working,” David said, clarifying he had no personal issues with Swedberg. “Julia even suggested killing the character off, and Larry immediately said, ‘Let’s do it!'”

The cast of Seinfeld got into a strange conflict with Roseanne Barr and her husband, Tom Arnold, after Julia Louis-Dreyfus accidentally parked in Arnold’s designated spot at the CBS studio. Arnold responded with a very offensive note on her windshield, prompting Louis-Dreyfus, along with Jason Alexander and Jerry Seinfeld, to confront him. Later, she found a disturbing Polaroid photo and a derogatory slur written on her windshield. Barr then publicly escalated the feud, calling Louis-Dreyfus a name during an appearance on David Letterman’s show and sarcastically suggesting the Seinfeld cast acted like they were performing highbrow drama instead of a comedy. According to the book Seinfeldia, Alexander responded to Barr’s comment by implying she likely hadn’t read any work by the playwright Samuel Beckett.

The famous scene in the Seinfeld episode “The Junior Mint” wasn’t originally planned with Junior Mints at all. Kramer was first supposed to drop popcorn into the patient during surgery. However, writer Andy Robin changed it after talking to his brother. “He said, ‘No, make it Junior Mints because it’s funnier,'” Robin explained to HuffPost in 2015.

The now-iconic dance Elaine performed in season eight, which really showcased Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ comedic talent, almost didn’t make it into the show. Writer Spike Feresten revealed that Larry David, a key figure on the series, strongly opposed the storyline, and it only got the green light after he left after season seven. Even during filming, there were doubts. Jennifer Crittenden, another writer, pulled Feresten aside after seeing Louis-Dreyfus dance for the first time and worried it might harm her career. Feresten reassured her, and ironically, that same year Louis-Dreyfus won an Emmy.

During the third season of Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus became pregnant. Jerry Seinfeld suggested they write her character, Elaine, gaining weight as a storyline to address it. Louis-Dreyfus was deeply offended by this idea and cried, so they decided instead to conceal her pregnancy with props and oversized clothing. Years later, on his show Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, she admitted that Seinfeld’s original suggestion actually would have been a good approach.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus didn’t seem to care for her character, Elaine. In an interview with New York Magazine near the end of the show’s run, she described Elaine as someone who would date absolutely anyone who showed even a little interest. She thought Elaine was a bit crazy, attributing it to low self-esteem. Louis-Dreyfus pointed out that Elaine spent time with three men in a rundown apartment, which didn’t suggest a healthy sense of self-worth, and suggested Elaine really needed to see a therapist.

Let me tell you a story about taking risks! Early on, NBC seriously considered scrapping what would become one of the most iconic Seinfeld episodes ever. It was the season two episode, “The Chinese Restaurant,” where the whole gang just waits for a table the entire time. Can you believe it? The executives were totally baffled by a script that didn’t seem to have a plot! Even the show’s biggest supporter within the network had reservations, but Larry David, the show’s creator, really fought for it. He insisted it perfectly captured the show’s quirky spirit. Thankfully, they trusted his vision and let it air. And, well, the rest is television history! It just goes to show you, sometimes the most unconventional ideas are the ones that really resonate.

Just before the final season ended, the network had to issue an apology for an episode titled “The Puerto Rican Day.” The episode, which featured the characters stuck in traffic during a parade, was criticized by Manuel Mirabal, president of the National Puerto Rican Coalition, who called it a deeply offensive insult. Robert Wright, then-president of NBC, responded with a statement explaining that their enjoyment of Seinfeld‘s humor didn’t diminish their respect for the Puerto Rican flag.

Near the end of the show, Elaine was baffled by a cartoon in The New Yorker and attempted to draw her own, featuring a pig. Remarkably, fourteen years later, The New Yorker acknowledged the episode by publishing Elaine’s cartoon and inviting readers to write captions for it.

Jerry Seinfeld chose to end his show after nine seasons, partly because he simply liked the number. He explained to Vanity Fair in 1998 that he thought “nine is cool,” and while others suggested ten seasons, he felt ten was uninspired. Nine, he said, was his lucky number, and he later discovered it symbolizes completion in numerology.

NBC really wanted to continue the popular show Seinfeld for another season and offered a huge deal – $5 million per episode, totaling $110 million. This was three times more money per episode than any other TV show had ever offered. However, Jerry Seinfeld turned down the offer. He was likely able to do so comfortably thanks to a very profitable syndication agreement he already had.

Following the massive $1.7 billion syndication deal for Seinfeld, Jerry Seinfeld became the highest-paid celebrity in 1998, earning a reported $267 million that year, according to Forbes. Larry David came in second with $242 million. The syndication deal proved incredibly profitable, generating an estimated $4.06 billion by early 2017 for both of them.

The TV show Seinfeld came full circle, ending with the same topic it started with: buttons. The very first lines of dialogue after Jerry’s stand-up routine in the pilot episode involved a discussion about the awkward placement of the top button on a men’s shirt. The series finale mirrored this moment, with Jerry repeating the same line to George while they were all in jail with Elaine and Kramer. George’s reply? “Haven’t we had this conversation before?”

Okay, so the finale… everyone talks about how much people hated it, or loved it, it was just… huge. But can you believe this? While we were all glued to the screen, Frank Sinatra actually died during the West Coast broadcast! I mean, seriously? It’s so tragic. His daughter, Nancy, had planned to visit him that night, but she got completely sucked into the episode and never made it over. She said she was so caught up watching that “damn show”! And get this – a fire chief told the Daily News that there was barely any traffic in L.A. while the ambulance rushed to Frank’s place because everyone was watching the finale. It’s just… mind-blowing. The finale literally stopped a city. It’s a crazy, sad piece of TV history, and I’ll never think about that episode the same way again.

Although Seinfeld ended after nine seasons, there were discussions about creating a spin-off show. A year after the original series finished, rumors surfaced about a potential show centered around Phil Morris’s character, Jackie Chiles – a lawyer inspired by Johnny Cochran. The concept involved Chiles being the only Black lawyer in a predominantly white law firm. Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David collaborated with Morris on developing the idea, but it ultimately didn’t move forward.

2026-06-03 02:49

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