Share and Follow
“Seinfeld,” of course, is about more than Jerry Seinfeld, as it centers on his comedic misadventures in New York City with his good friends Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), George Costanza (Jason Alexander), and Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards). Perhaps he could have gone with “Friends” (but another NBC sitcom went on to seize that golden opportunity in 1994), but no matter what other title he could think of, the comedian ultimately knew all roads would lead to “Seinfeld.”
“We couldn’t think of another title, and we figured that’s what people are gonna call it anyway,” Seinfeld explained to GQ. “The show is always the name of the guy — it’s not ‘The Tonight Show,’ it’s Fallon. You know: I did a Conan; I did a Fallon.”
Read Related Also: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves – Chloe Coleman on Becoming Kira
Defying Seinfeld’s expectations, his eponymous sitcom lasted for 173 episodes — much more than he expected at the start. Asked by GQ which episode a viewer should watch if they were going to watch only one, Seinfeld couldn’t oblige and instead deferred to a restaurant metaphor. It all makes sense, considering how Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer spent a considerable amount of time in “Seinfeld” in a diner.
“The thing that is most similar to comedy is food, in that everybody’s taste is totally personal,” Seinfeld observed. “You go to any restaurant [and say to yourself]: ‘I think it was great.’ ‘I thought it was mediocre.’ ‘I thought it was too salty.’ And it’s the same thing with comedy. So, you can’t really recommend comedy, in the way that you can’t recommend food.”
