Real Stories of Near-Miss Casting
4/6/2012
by Andy Lewis


Rosie O'Donnell as "Seinfeld's" Elaine Benes instead of Julia Lous-Dreyfus

Originally, the show was going to revolve around the male leads: Jerry Seinfeld as himself, Michael Richards as Kramer, and Jason Alexander as George Costanza.

But the network believed the show needed a woman character for female viewers to identify with. George Shapiro, a producer, says, "We got a note that we needed a young lady. Rosie O'Donnell read. A whole lot of people read before Julia."

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/courteney-cox-nicollette-sheridan-kelsey-grammer-ted-danson-nbc-top-of-the-rock-casting-308749

that would have been effing terrible

Rosie O'Donnell as Elaine Benes would have sucked majorly. There is no way Jerry could ever be attracted to that hag.

I agree with both replies on this thread! I'm SO glad Rosie O'Donnell wasn't chosen for Elaine. Given the range of subjects they covered on Seinfeld I don't think that she would have lasted in the role very long and it would have been a shame to have to recast in the middle of the series.