Seinfeld is one of the most popular sitcoms in the history of television.
Many of the show’s iconic moments were created on the fly.
And now Jerry Seinfeld just revealed how one of Seinfeld’s funniest moments almost never happened.
One of Seinfeld’s most memorable episodes
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld went on an ambitious press tour recently to promote the release of his new Netflix movie, Unfrosted.
He will forever be remembered for his beloved NBC sitcom, Seinfeld.
During an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show, Seinfeld told for the first time a story about how one of the most memorable moments of the show almost didn’t happen.
The storyline for “The Marine Biologist” – the 14th episode of Seinfeld’s season five – centers around George Costanza pretending to be a marine biologist after Jerry tells his former college crush, Diane, that he became one.
Kramer proceeds to get 500 Titleist golf balls from a driving range to practice his swing at a beach.
While at the beach, George rushes to save a beached whale to impress Diane.
George saves the whale and confesses that he’s not a marine biologist, leading Diane to dump him immediately.
Seinfeld spills the beans
The episode ends with George giving a monologue about rescuing the whale and reveals that one of Kramer’s golf balls landed in its blowhole.
Of all 180 episodes of "Seinfeld," @JerrySeinfeld has stated that perhaps his favorite is "The Marine Biologist" on account of how the biggest laugh came at the very end—and how difficult that is to achieve@IJasonAlexander nailed it in just 1 take 🐳pic.twitter.com/oHpoAiCSp4
— TrivWorks (@TrivWorks) April 30, 2024
But the speech wasn’t in the script.
“When Kramer is hitting golf balls at the beach and George is dating this girl, pretending to be a marine biologist, and walking on the beach and then saves a whale on the beach, we’re shooting the episode—I don’t know the schedule that week, but let’s say we’re shooting it on Wednesday, it’s Tuesday—we don’t have ‘the golf ball goes into the blowhole of the whale.’ We don’t have it. It was never in the script,” Seinfeld explained.
He and Seinfeld Producer Larry David brainstormed the idea the night before.
“It was the night before we shot the scene with Jason in the coffee shop,” Seinfeld explained. “I said to Larry [David], ‘Hey, what if what puts the whale in distress is Kramer’s golf ball?’ He’s hitting golf balls at the beach. George is walking on the beach with the girl. We haven’t connected them. We saw no connection.”
David and Seinfeld wrote the monologue at two in the morning for the shoot the next day.
They gave the two-page speech to Jason Alexander, the actor who played George and gave him half an hour to memorize it.
Seinfeld also revealed another secret about George’s monologue.
“I got a nugget for you,” Seinfeld said. “When Jason is doing the speech, there’s one cut to me with my eyes, my eyebrows, I’m watching him. You think I’m reacting to the story. I’m reacting to, I can’t believe he’s getting this speech word perfect. That is what I’m thinking.”
“It’s not film. In movies, you screw it up and we do it again. In TV, this live audience is going to hear this speech for the first time once. Once. So you want those juicy laughs of they’re hearing these jokes the first time and he’s getting it perfect,” he added.
One of the funniest moments in Seinfeld happened due to some creative inspiration from Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld.
