An Ensemble Is Born
Comedian Jerry Stiller, who played the volatile, eccentric Frank Costanza, has called Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Michael Richards “the best comedy ensemble since the Marx Brothers.” There was, however, a casting process that could very well have produced a different result. And the question that is always asked is: Could Seinfeld have been Seinfeld without the actors who will be forever remembered for their roles as Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer? One thing is certain: the show would not have been the same without them.
You can’t see one without thinking of the others. The gang in 1997, showing off their Screen Actors Guild Awards for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series.
Paul Smith/Featureflash/Shutterstock.com
Calling All Kramers
In an interview with EmmyTVLegends.org, Seinfeld producer George Shapiro said that the very first member of the show cast—outside of Jerry Seinfeld, a given—was Michael Richards in the Kessler role for the show’s pilot episode. Larry David was familiar with Richards’s work from Fridays (1980–1982), a late-night sketch comedy show in which they had both appeared as regulars. Shot live, Fridays was ABC’s attempt to capture some of the magic of Saturday Night Live (1975–present) on rival network NBC. Fridays ran for fifty-four episodes, from 1980 through 1982. Shapiro recalled that Richards finished up his audition while standing on his head. NBC executive Brandon Tartikoff, who was on hand, quipped, “Yeah, if you want to go for funny.” Other actors who auditioned for the Kessler-Kramer role were Larry Hankin, Steve Vinovich, and Tony Shalhoub. Shalhoub went on to star as San Francisco detective Adrian Monk in the long-running USA network series Monk (2002–2009).
By George, I Think We’ve Found Him
The character of George Costanza was the next one cast. Paul Shaffer, David Letterman’s bandleader, claims in his 2009 memoir, We’ll Be Here for the Rest of Our Lives, and in interviews that he was offered the part. “The receptionist took a message: ‘Jerry Seinfeld called. He’s getting his own show,’” he remembered. “‘He wants you to be his sidekick. You don’t even have to audition.’ And I was kind of overwhelmed, and I said: ‘Jerry Seinfeld. What kind of show could he possibly get?’” Shaffer admitted that he didn’t even return the call because he had so many other things on his plate at the time. It’s hard to envision Paul Shaffer, even with his shiny baldpate, as George Costanza.
Before Jason Alexander, David Alan Grier auditioned for the role of George. Grier, an African-American comedian, would have no doubt supplied viewers with a vastly different George than Jason Alexander’s portrayal of the neurotic character. After getting bypassed for the role, Grier did all right for himself when he landed a job on the no-holds-barred sketch FOX network comedy show In Living Color, on which he appeared in 142 episodes, from 1990 through 1994.
Believe it or not, the raspy-voiced Steve Buscemi also auditioned for the George part. The actor sported a thick head of hair at the time, which would have been quite a contrast from the increasingly bald George Costanza as played by the increasingly bald Jason Alexander. Buscemi has since appeared in a string of television shows and movies, including Miller’s Crossing (1990), Fargo (1996), and The Big Lebowski (1998). He also had recurring roles on the HBO series The Sopranos (1999–2007), as Tony Blundetto, and Boardwalk Empire (2010–2014), as Nucky Thompson. Other actors considered as possible George Costanzas were Danny DeVito, Nathan Lane, Kevin Dunn, Larry Miller, and Brad Hall, Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s husband.
When Jason Alexander was asked to audition for the role he was living in New York City and working in the theater. With little enthusiasm, he completed a taped audition for the folks in Los Angeles who were casting the show. “To my mind, it was just a courtesy read,” Alexander recalled in the show’s DVD commentary. “They were just putting actors on video. I can’t even tell you whose office it was. Because I think it was just like they called some poor, schnooky New York casting director and said, ‘Just put this list of people on tape.’ And I never thought that I’d get a job from it, so I made a very broad choice of doing a kind of Woody Allen approach to the material . . . and a very broad-based New York accent . . . and glasses that I didn’t wear at the time. I knew no one and nothing connected with the show, so I was just relying on blind instinct.”
In the EmmyTVLegends.org interview, George Shapiro remembered the initial reaction upon seeing Jason Alexander’s taped audition: “Everybody said, ‘That’s him—that’s George Costanza!’ It was absolutely amazing. He did come in and read later on to seal the deal.”
Goodbye Claire, Hello Elaine
In the original casting, Lee Garlington won the role as Claire, the waitress in Pete’s Luncheonette. When the show was given a make-or-break four-show shot after the pilot aired, it was decided to do away with Claire and recast the female lead character as Elaine Benes. The network insisted the male-centric show have a strong female lead, or it was no dice. Actresses who auditioned for the role included Patricia Heaton, who ultimately went on to play Debra Barone on CBS’s Everybody Loves Raymond, and Megan Mullally, who landed the role of Karen Walker on NBC’s Will & Grace. Both were very popular long-running series. Rosie O’Donnell, of whom Larry David thought highly, tried out for the Elaine part, too, but in the end lost out to Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who was just perfect for the role. Larry David had worked with Louis-Dreyfus while both were with Saturday Night Live several years earlier, and he knew what she could do with the character. After missing out on the Seinfeld role, O’Donnell found her niche and became the “Queen of Nice” for a time on her highly rated daytime talk show, The Rosie O’Donnell Show. She also appeared as a regular for a contentious spell on The View, Barbara Walters’s much-discussed morning talk show, and returned for a contentious encore in 2014. In addition, O’Donnell has popped up in many television shows and movies along the way, including playing herself on Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000–2011).
Frank and Morty
Before there was Jerry Stiller in the role of Frank Costanza, there was Tony Award–winning actor John Randolph. Before there was Barney Martin in the role of Morty Seinfeld, there was veteran character actor and writer Phil Bruns. Both Randolph and Bruns appeared in only one episode—the former in “The Handicap Spot,” and the latter in “The Stakeout.” For syndication of the series, the scenes with John Randolph were re-shot with Jerry Stiller. It was deemed appropriate to do this because fans had become so accustomed to his high-octane portrayal of Frank. The Phil Bruns scenes were not, however, re-shot with Barney Martin.
While John Randolph had a long and distinguished acting career, Larry David, Jerry Seinfeld, and company concluded that the part of George’s father merited a stronger comedic flair—a certain zaniness that Stiller could deliver better than anyone else. Randolph, too, was seventy-eight years old and tired looking when he appeared as Frank Costanza. In watching “The Handicap Spot” all these years later—a classic episode with the characters at their hilariously callous best—it’s evident that the writers had not yet conceived the definitive Frank Costanza. Frank was grumpy, yes, but hardly frenetic and far from unreasonable. He was even involved in charity work and received an award for his philanthropy. This was not the Frank Costanza of subsequent episodes—not by a long shot. So, even when one watches the re-shot scenes in “The Handicap Spot,” with Jerry Stiller instead of John Randolph, it’s very strange to see, given how the character’s personality dramatically changed after this episode. Phil Bruns, meanwhile, was not brought back to reprise his Morty Seinfeld role because the show’s creators were looking for someone who could portray him with a little more bite—and they found him in veteran character actor and former New York City police detective Barney Martin.
Estelle Harris and Liz Sheridan played the characters of Estelle Costanza and Helen Seinfeld, respectively, for the entire series. Harris appeared in a total of twenty-six episodes, while Sheridan appeared in twenty-one episodes during the series’ nine-year run.
Since the series finale in 1998, John Randolph, Phil Bruns, and Barney Martin have passed away: Randolph, in 2004, at the age of eighty-eight; Martin, in 2005, at the age of eighty-two; and Bruns, at the age of eighty, in 2012.
Hello Newman, Goodbye Newman, Hello Again Newman
The character of Newman, as played so wonderfully by Wayne Knight, was originally conceived as an African-American man, the son of Jerry’s landlord, and Kramer’s distressed and suicidal friend. Two actors, Tim Russ and William Thomas Jr., auditioned for the part, which was intended as a one-shot guest role in the episode “The Revenge.” Thomas got the job and his scene was filmed, but it ended up on the cutting-room floor. Larry David ultimately supplied the voice of Newman, who is never seen in the episode. For syndication, Wayne Knight dubbed over David’s voice.
As for Wayne Knight, he originally landed the role of Newman, beating out Armin Shimerman and Dan Schneider, both of whom also auditioned. Once again, Newman was not expected to be a recurring character. He would appear in the episode “The Suicide”—period. But Knight’s performance as Newman so impressed Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David that they correctly surmised that there was a lot more comedic mileage left in the character. Newman appeared in a total of forty-four episodes, including “The Finale.”
What distinguished Seinfeld from its competitors was its penchant for dealing with the ordinary and mining the human condition for laughs. After all, who doesn’t know a low-talker? Card from the Seinfeld Scene It game.
Encore Performances
There were many notable recurring characters in Seinfeld, including Elaine’s rather unconventional boss and fashion catalog guru, J. Peterman, played so marvelously by John O’Hurley. In early 1995 the actor had been cast in the ABC sitcom A Whole New Ballgame, which was unceremoniously canceled after only seven episodes. Larry David’s office promptly contacted O’Hurley concerning a guest spot on the show. He would play this quirky character prone to erudite long-windedness, which the Seinfeld casting people believed was tailor made for his comedic talents.
During the table read, however, O’Hurley admitted to being less than bowled over by the script of the episode. He noted that Seinfeld is an extremely funny show that doesn’t necessarily read funny because it is not dependent on one-liners and comic zingers—like so many other sitcoms—but labyrinthine stories instead. O’Hurley described the overall Seinfeld experience as quite manic, with some endings of episodes not written until the eleventh hour. Shows typically ran over their time constraints, too, leading—alas—to some of Peterman’s more voluble monologues being trimmed down. Nonetheless, Peterman was an enormously popular character and brought back in guest spots from 1995 through 1998, for a total of twenty episodes. His very first appearance was in “The Understudy” and his last—like so many others—“The Finale.”
Patrick Warburton is another actor who was very well received in his Seinfeld guest part. Playing the deadpan David Puddy, Elaine’s on-again, off-again boyfriend, he reprised the role and appeared in a total of ten episodes. Warburton recalls being ecstatic when he was asked to audition for what was his favorite show. Little did he realize at the time that David Puddy, New Jersey Devils hockey fan extraordinaire, who loved nothing more than painting his face and body “devil red” for a game, would become an important part of the Seinfeld lore.
Danny Woodburn, who played Kramer’s little buddy Mickey Abbott, was one more popular guest star. Woodburn described his Mickey character as not stereotypically a little person part, which he greatly appreciated. He immensely enjoyed his appearances in seven Seinfeld episodes, including “The Finale.”
The roster of characters who were brought back for encores because of their popularity and, in some instances, importance to a season’s story arc include Heidi Swedberg as Susan Ross; Len Lesser as Uncle Leo; Richard Herd as Matt Wilhelm; Ian Abercrombie as Justin Pitt; Richard Fancy as Mr. Lippman; Steve Hytner as Kenny Bania; Bob Balaban as Russell Dalrymple; Peter Crombie as “Crazy” Joe Davola; Phil Morris as Jackie Chiles; Sandy Baron as Jack Klompus; Bryan Cranston as Dr. Tim Whatley; Lisa Mende as Carol; and Warren Frost and Grace Zabriskie as Mr. and Mrs. Ross. Each of the aforementioned characters appeared in a minimum of five episodes. Of course, it should also be noted that the character of George Steinbrenner, as voiced by Larry David, appeared in multiple episodes while George Costanza was in his employ with the New York Yankees.