The series finale of Seinfeld was doomed from the start.
How is it possible to successfully end a series so beloved, so specific, and so ridiculously casual? In short, it's not. It's a fool's goal. But it had to be done.
If you recall, the Seinfeld series finale felt like a bit of a departure from the rest of the series. But that was Seinfeld co-creator Larry David's goal. He wanted to bring back the entire cast of recurring characters and ultimately punish his four protagonists for their selfish behavior... The episode was a two-parter and felt like a movie. It took the cast out of the coffee shop and apartment into the big bad world... It was different than the rest of the series... Audiences were split... and so was the cast...
There are a ton of little-known facts about the Seinfeld series as well as the series finale, and this includes who the cast and crew actually felt about it.
So, who feels it sucks? And who is eager to defend it?
Let's find out...
Larry David Actually Came Back For The Finale And Stands By It
For those who don't know, Larry David actually quit the show a couple of seasons before it ended. However, Jerry Seinfeld and the other producers convinced him to return to write the finale. Because of the demand to have him return, Larry had free reign over what to do with the finale... After all, the guy was basically the father of the show and half of the best ideas came from his own terrible experiences.
In an eye-opening interview with Variety, one of the show's producers said, "Larry could have pitched us anything and we would have said, ‘Fantastic!’ We don’t have to have this burden of coming up with the finale on our shoulders. We were so tired that I’m not sure we could have mustered the energy to do a good version of anything anyway.”
Larry has defended his creative choice for the finale for years despite the fact that so many audience members had issues with it.
In an interview with Bill Simmons, he had this to say: "Let me toot my own horn for a second. I thought it was clever to bring back all those characters in a courtroom and testify against them for what they did, and then show those clips, and also for why they even got arrested in the first place. And then to wind up—forget the self-aggrandizement here—I thought it was clever."
The Cast Wasn't All That Thrilled With It But Found Their Own Silver Lining... Except Maybe Jerry
Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Eliane), in an interview, had this to say...
"I know there was controversy about it," Julia told Emmy TV Legends. "But I liked it."
Aside from the fact that her good friend Larry came back for it, Julia said she liked the finale because it felt like she was an audience member. Particularly when all of the recurring characters came through the courtroom to air their grievances. It put the main cast in the position where they could be entertained the same way the audience was.
In an interview with Emmy TV Legends, Jason Alexander (George) shared a slightly different opinion about the cast's experiences with the finale.
"I can't tell you if, um, if Julia and Michael [Richards] or even Jerry went into the last episode going 'This is great! This is everything we wanted!' I can tell you, that for me, I thought it was a good episode. Not a great episode."
Jason then went on to say that, similarly to Julia, he loved to see all of the faces from the series past back in an episode together. So, the process of making that episode was "joyous".
Michael Richards (Kramer) thought the idea, at least, was brilliant.
"While we were making the show, I certainly knew it would be interesting. I don’t know if it deserved the critique it got. Everybody had huge expectations — God knows what they’re fantasizing — but I thought the overall idea was brilliant. It reminded me of the end of Fellini’s ‘8 ½’’ where all the characters come out and they’re in full circle."
As for Jerry Seinfeld himself, well, he's been a tad flip-floppy about it all...
In a 2014 Reddit AMA, he said that he was "very happy" with the finale as it was a way to thank all of the people who worked on the show. But, in 2017 in an interview at the New Yorker Festival, he had this to say: “I sometimes think we really shouldn’t have even done it. There was a lot of pressure on us at that time to do one big last show, but big is always bad in comedy.”
The Seinfeld Reunion On Curb Your Enthusiasm Poked Fun At The Finale
One of the most creative decisions good buddies Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld made was hosting the Seinfeld reunion on Curb Your Enthusiasm. For the longest time, fans were eager to see a reunion of all of their favorite characters. But Jerry and Larry had both been vocal about how much most reunion shows suck.
So, what better way to appease fans than doing a show-within-a-show that made fun of that very fact? Essentially, it was the making of a reunion episode that featured scenes from the reunion episode... of course, this all took place on a completely different show that focused on Larry David...
HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm is a fictitious portrayal of Larry David's actual life where he interacts with a number of "real" celebrities, so hosting a Seinfeld reunion on it made sense.
Of course, the world of Curb Your Enthusiasm was the dominant force, but the backdrop of the entire seventh season was the cast making the reunion show.
Within the season, every cast member cracked a joke or two about how lame the Seinfeld series finale was. That is, except for Larry. The show version of himself (much like reality) stuck by the finale.
Although the seventh season of Curb Your Enthusiasm was a reunion show, in many ways it was the casual, truthful finale that many fans wanted. And all the cast seemed pleased.
