Sorry, "Seinfeld" friends: The gang won't be reuniting
Jerry, George and even Newman were together again at the coffee shop in a digital short that ran during the Super Bowl. But don’t expect a full-fledged "Seinfeld" reunion any time soon.
The short is an episode of Jerry Seinfeld’s web series, "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee." While Jason Alexander and Wayne Knight reprised their roles as George Costanza and Newman, Seinfeld said there will be no revival of his hit show, which ran on NBC from 1989 to 1998.
"We were all on the show and we did reunite, but it's not the usual, horrible, director's chairs – everybody's there, 'Oh my God, they got so old,'" Seinfeld said of the mini-reunion in a live streamed interview Monday. The interview was sponsored by BuzzFeed and "CBS This Morning."
BuzzFeed Editor Peter Lauria asked if the comedian was perhaps testing the waters for a bigger "Seinfeld" cast get-together.
"Test the waters? Oh God, no no no. No testing of waters. I don't test water," Seinfeld said.
"I know people would want a reunion show,” he said, adding that he would like one himself but “my theory of entertainment is, Do not give the public what it wants."
The idea is to leave the audience wanting more. "When people stop asking you for the reunion, then you know you’ve blown it."
Since 2012, Seinfeld has been hanging out with different guest comedians – and showcasing different wheels – on "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee." The most recent episode, "The Over-Cheer," featured a 1976 AMC Pacer for Alexander's hapless George Costanza.
"I described the Pacer as it doesn't work, it looks ridiculous and falls apart," Seinfeld said. "It's the perfect car for that character because he doesn’t work, looks ridiculous and falls apart.”
In the episode, Jerry and George end up at Tom’s Restaurant, where they run into Jerry's nemesis, Newman. Which raised the question for Lauria: So why does Jerry hate Newman anyway?
"There was no reason for me to hate Newman," Seinfeld admitted. "The real answer is because it just seemed funny to hate Newman."
Seinfeld doesn’t have any particular interest in returning
to the television sitcom, the medium that made him a superstar. He finds more
artistic scope on the Internet.
Seinfeld says the Internet has brought about monumental changes in daily lives, including the kind of entertainment people seek. That's led to a decrease in TV viewership. But one art form that hasn’t been adversely affected, he says, is his own craft: stand-up comedy.
"I kind of thought that stand-up comedy would suffer from
the Internet because people seem to know more about the craft of stand-up than
every before. I thought it would seem trite. Kind of like if you know more about magicians, you wouldn't love them," he said.
"That has not happened. You spend so much time in the
world of virtual that the actual -- which nothing is more actual than stand-up
-- it's a painful experience for the audience, and the comedian a lot of time –
we miss that."