Jason Alexander almost quit Seinfeld after George Costanza was written out of an early episode, but even he admits that, in retrospect, leaving the show would’ve been a really bad idea. Seinfeld’s four main cast members appeared in almost every episode of the show, but there were some exceptions. Elaine isn’t in the pilot, for example.

In season 3, episode 3, “The Pen,” Jerry and Elaine go to Florida to visit Jerry’s parents. Unlike Seinfeld’s subsequent Florida episodes, there’s no B-plot back in New York, so the characters who didn’t go to Florida — George and Kramer — are absent from the episode entirely. This almost led to Alexander leaving the show (but, thankfully, it never came to that).

Seinfeld’s “The Pen” Made Jason Alexander Think About Leaving The Show

“If You Don’t Need Me Here Every Week, I’d Just As Soon Go Back Home”

“The Pen” is one of Seinfeld’s most iconic episodes. It introduced audiences to the insanity of Morty and Helen’s retirement community, and it has the hilarity of a drug-induced Elaine screaming “Stella!!” over and over again. But in order to streamline the script and focus on the action in Florida, Larry David left out George and Kramer.

Alexander has since explained (via Access Hollywood) that this almost made him quit the show. When he was first cast in Seinfeld, he had “a very successful career” in the New York theater scene, which he expected to continue for the rest of his life. Early in Seinfeld’s run, he would’ve been happy to quit the show and go back to the stage.

When I was written out of an episode, I came back the next week, and I said to Larry, ‘Look, I know. I get it. But if you do that again, do it permanently. If you don’t need me to be here every week’ — ‘cause I didn’t know Seinfeld was gonna be Seinfeld — I said, ‘If you don’t need me here every week, I’d just as soon go back home and do what I was doing.’”

After being written out of an episode, Alexander confronted David and told him that if he was going to write him out of another script, he should make it a permanent departure for the character. If he wasn’t going to be used every week, he would happily return to New York.

David initially “freaked out” about the prospect of having to come up with storylines for four characters in every single episode, but he granted Alexander’s request. He kept his promise to give George something to do every week. By the time Seinfeld ended its nine-season run, “The Pen” was still the only episode that George wasn’t in.

It’s A Huge Relief Jason Alexander Didn’t Quit Seinfeld (And The Actor Agrees)

Seinfeld Probably Wouldn’t Have Had Its Longevity Without George

Alexander has since confessed that, when he first made this request to David and threatened to leave the show, he had no idea how hugely successful it was going to be. He added, “Thank God he didn’t say, ‘Take a hike,’ ‘cause I would’ve had no life.”

George is arguably Seinfeld’s funniest character, and the role ultimately made Alexander an icon, so it’s best for everyone that he didn’t quit the show. Seinfeld probably wouldn’t have run for nine seasons without the power of Costanza.

Source: Access Hollywood

Seinfeld

9/10

Release Date

1989 – 1998

Directors

David Steinberg, David Owen Trainor, Art Wolff, Jason Alexander

Writers

Darin Henry, Bruce Eric Kaplan, Bill Masters, Bruce Kirschbaum, Steve O’Donnell, Tom Leopold, Don McEnery, Greg Daniels, Jon Hayman, Kit Boss, Lawrence H. Levy, Matt Goldman, Matt Selman, Billy Kimball, Fred Stoller, Charlie Rubin, Steve Lookner, Steve Skrovan