Nasty and selfish to unsuspected levels, the George Costanza from ‘Seinfeld’ is undoubtedly one of the most mythical characters in the history of television comedy. However, we almost ran out of it since Jason Alexander was about to leave the series in its season 3.
Although we find it hard to imagine the comedy co-created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld himself Without one of the four leads, this began to cause some headaches for the writers, who couldn’t find a way to balance the presence of Elaine, Kramer, Jerry and George.
And that began to touch the morale of several of the actors, who began to see that they did not have enough screen time. Perhaps the one who gave the most war, to the point of issuing an ultimatum, was Jason Alexanderwho after seeing that there was an occasional episode in which he did not appear, approached Larry David and said: “If you take me away again, do it permanently.”
This occurred during a season 3 script readingbroadcast between 1991 and 1992. Already during season 2 we witnessed how the plot revolved a lot around the relationship between Jerry and Elaine and ‘The Pen’ (3×03), where both went to Florida and neither George nor Kramer appeared in any moment of the episode, was the straw that broke the camel’s back.
a complicated foursome
David tried to explain how difficult it is to try to treat each character equally every week, to which Alexander replied: “Don’t tell me your problems. If you don’t need me here, I don’t want to be here. His idea was, if things went wrong, to return to the theater where he had had a relatively successful career. What’s more, just before ‘Seinfeld’ he had won a Tony for best actor in a musical.
Fortunately things calmed down and Larry David and company They found a way to make it all work at a time when NBC, his network, was not too happy with the series because of how unconventional it was. In fact, episodes like the Chinese restaurant in season 2 caused some discomfort among executives.
This, along with other off-stage “dramas” and infighting between network and studio workers made up a delicate moment to decide the future from ‘Seinfeld’. Fortunately, it is during this same installment that the series found its sweet spot before becoming the phenomenon that it was from season 4.
Coincidentally, some of George Costanza’s big storylines, including his work with the Yankees, or his relationship with Susan (Heidi Swedberg) we find from then on. By the way, Jason Alexander was nominated seven consecutive years as best supporting actor at the Emmys, unfortunately he didn’t win any.
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