“Seinfeld” could have looked very different if one of the main stars followed through on his threat to leave the hit show.
Michael Richards, who appeared on the show as Kramer, revealed that Jason Alexander, who played George Costanza, nearly quit the show after “The Pen” episode.
Neither Alexander nor Richards appeared in that episode, as Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) and Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) pay a visit to Jerry’s parents in Florida.
Page Six obtained an excerpt of Richards’ upcoming memoir, “Entrances and Exits,” where he says he took not being on-screen with “equanimity,” but says Alexander had a different approach.
“Jason threatens to quit after learning that he’s also not in the episode. He’s furious,” Richards wrote in his memoir, according to the outlet.
Richards was able to sympathize with Alexander.
“Jason came onto the show with the most confidence of anyone,” Richards wrote, Page Six reported. “He had won a Tony Award on the New York stage, not an insignificant achievement, and until the table read for ‘The Pen,’ he has assumed that ‘Seinfeld’ is a buddy show, starring him and Jerry.”
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He continued, “But this business breeds both massive egos and incredible insecurity, and this episode is one of those ego-jarring wakeup calls.”
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Alexander confirmed Richards’ claims in 2017. He told Access Hollywood at the time that he had snapped at Larry David, the lead writer for the sitcom, and threatened to leave the show.
Alexander said he had told David, “If you do that again, do it permanently … if you don’t need me here every week, I’d just as soon go back home and do what I was doing.”
“Thank God he didn’t say ‘Take a hike,’ because I would have had no life and no career,” Alexander emphasized at the time.
Reps for Alexander did not have any additional comment.
“Seinfeld” had massive success during its nine-season television run. The sitcom won numerous Emmy Awards while it was on the air from 1989 to 1998.
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Since his racist outburst nearly two decades ago, Richards has remained mostly out of the spotlight. Earlier this month, he returned to the red carpet for the first time in eight years to support his former co-star Jerry Seinfeld at the premiere of Seinfeld’s new movie, “Unfrosted.”
Richards recently spoke to Fox News Digital about his memoir, which includes anecdotes about the evolution of his character, Kramer, and other behind-the-scenes revelations. Of the hit show, he says, “It motivated us to work hard, to unfold greatness, to elevate comedy, and to serve it as gracefully as possible.”
Richards’ upcoming memoir will also address his infamous rant.
In 2006, Richards faced a major backlash after he shouted racial slurs at hecklers in the audience of his stand-up show at the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles. The situation “drove him to a lifelong spiritual quest, one that would help him move forward from apology and accountability to a greater appreciation for our shared humanity, a quest that continues to this day almost eighteen years later,” according to his publisher, Permuted Press.
