The day “Seinfeld” fans have dreaded since December is six days away, and the only things they’ll have afterwards are memories. And reruns.
There won’t even be the consolation of a Seinfeld character experiencing further adventures in a spinoff series.
If fans of “Cheers” can have “Frasier,” why can’t “Seinfeld” devotees have “Kramer?” If “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” could beget “Rhoda,” “Phyllis” and “Lou Grant,” why can’t there be an “Elaine in the City” or a “By George?”
Alas, it’s not to be — first of all, because Jerry says no, and, in light of that, most of the principals now have plans that don’t include perpetuating their characters:
– Jerry Seinfeld wants to reclaim his previous life as a standup comedian, and is planning tours to be capped by an HBO special this summer on Broadway. But, basically, he just wants to bum around.
– Julia Louis-Dreyfus intends to take time off to be with her two young children before tackling anything. She does lend her voice to “A Bug’s Life,” a November movie release from the makers of “Toy Story.”
– Jason Alexander is the busiest of the four, inking a television development deal with Studios USA, producing and starring in an independent film that starts this summer, and hoping to turn Paddy Chayefsky’s “Marty” into a musical.
– Michael Richards doesn’t have any concrete plans as of now. USA Today reported that he wanted the oddball Cosmo Kramer character to continue, saying in Vanity Fair he was “surprised” he hasn’t been approached.
Since Seinfeld announced in December that he was ceasing production of his top-rated comedy series, he, NBC, and the show’s production company, Castle Rock, have talked about the idea of setting up one of the characters in a new series.
“There had been informal discussions about each of the characters spinning off,” said Rick Ludwin, senior vice president in charge of specials, prime-time series and late night for NBC.
But Seinfeld and fellow comic and friend Larry David, who co-created “Seinfeld” and own the rights to the characters, nixed various ideas for any offspring, according to Ludwin, who was the executive instrumental in bringing Seinfeld to NBC back in the late 198mn0s.
“He really has no desire to visit a spinoff,” Ludwin said. “Every time we would say, `A spinoff can really be good, Jerry,’ and cite `Frasier,’ he would always think of `After MASH.’ “
Ouch. “AfterMASH,” which followed “M*A*S*H” characters Sherman Potter, Max Klinger and Father Mulcahy (Harry Morgan, Jamie Farr and William Christopher) in civilian life after the Korean War, lasted only a season-and-a-half between 1983 and 1984 on CBS.
Faring even worse was NBC’s “Beverly Hills Buntz,” a 1987 spinoff of “Hill Street Blues” starring Dennis Franz as edgy former police detective Norman Buntz involved in a private investigation business in Los Angeles. That lasted barely half of the 1987-88 season.
So when ABC’s “NYPD Blue” leaves the air, don’t look for “Seattle Sipowicz” to follow. It’s a good bet Franz would share the same sentiments as Seinfeld, who Ludwin said is concerned about debasing the reputation for high quality associated with his series since its premiere in 1990.
“It’s Jerry’s wish that this show, as he puts it, be sort of this perfect, untarnished trophy on a shelf,” said Ludwin, who was in Chicago earlier this week tracking “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” as it settled into a week’s worth of tapings here.
NBC proposed several ideas in an attempt to get Seinfeld to change his mind, said Ludwin, whose favorite was to have George Costanza’s parents (played by Jerry Stiller and Estelle Harris) move to Florida to live in the Del Boca Vista retirement complex next to Seinfeld’s fictional parents (Barney Martin and Liz Sheridan). “That meant that Jerry and Elaine and Kramer could come down and visit from time to time, as well as George,” Ludwin said.
Another idea was to have Kramer’s Johnnie Cochran-like lawyer Jackie Chiles (Phil Morris) litigate on his own.
“I did feel that `Del Boca Vista’ had possibilities,” Ludwin said. “It would be a different show, of course. It would be more like, I think, `The Golden Girls.’
“It turns out we didn’t get very far with that discussion.”
It’s understandable that Seinfeld wouldn’t want to damage his show’s credibility by putting out something inferior. One of the main reasons why “Frasier” works so well is that a lot of writers and producers from “Cheers” followed “Frasier” star Kelsey Grammer onto the new project.
“If I were Jason Alexander or Julia Louis-Dreyfus or Michael Richards, I wouldn’t take work just for work’s sake. There’s an opportunity to really make a bad leap when you’ve got a pretty good brand name going,” said Betsy Edgerton, managing editor of Electronic Media, a television trade publication based in Chicago.
Ludwin predicted that initially a spinoff from “Seinfeld” would do well, with fans tuning in to see if the show had any of the appeal of the original.
However, “unless it was as good as people expected it to be, I think they would drift rather quickly,” Ludwin said. “It would mean having some of the key writers now on the show theoretically move over to whatever the spinoff would be.”
USA Today reported that many of the writers and producers of “Seinfeld” already have committed to other projects.
“Michael Richards has a lot of talent doing his particular thing. But I don’t think that would carry over,” Edgerton added. “I mean, would you want to see a half-hour show once a week about that character?”
Who can say? It would depend on the premise.
Here are a few ideas we suggest Ludwin try to sell to the Master of His Domain:
– “Kramer!”–Cosmo Kramer decides to take all of his mad schemes and promote them through Kramerica Industries, which has been infused with cash (and yet still based in Kramer’s apartment) from a mysterious benefactor who is never seen. Kramer makes Newman (Wayne Knight) vice president of manufacturing.
– “George of the Concrete Jungle”–With his best friend Jerry relocating to Hollywood to seek fame and fortune, George Costanza is left alone in New York (without Jerry as a glue to their friendship, the others scatter). George scams a low-level job with the mayor’s office and through a series of misadventures, winds up head of the city.
– “Get Out!”–Elaine Benes and her off-again, on-again boyfriend David Puddy (Patrick Warburton) get married–but separate and reconcile each episode. Elaine, meanwhile, continues to toil at the J. Peterman catalogue company, with the daffy owner (John O’Hurley) and assorted nuts trying her patience–and she trying theirs.
