10 Things You Didn't Know About Seinfeld

[TMC]

[Yong Fang]

11. Neither actor （the second actor who played the father）were Jewish.

[kartguy]

Nothing new here, except the bit about the network favoring the Ann Jillian show over Seinfeld.

[icecream]

Originally Posted by kartguy

Nothing new here, except the bit about the network favoring the Ann Jillian show over Seinfeld.

Disaster avoided! NBC's comedy decline would have started a lot sooner if they had chosen Ann Jillian instead of Seinfeld.

[DJM77]

Originally Posted by kartguy

Nothing new here, except the bit about the network favoring the Ann Jillian show over Seinfeld.

At what point in the video does it talk about that? I'm only asking because I don't feel like watching the whole video.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by kartguy

Nothing new here, except the bit about the network favoring the Ann Jillian show over Seinfeld.

NBC Stuck By Seinfeld After Its Disastrous Test Screenings

NBC execs had to pull some strings to get Seinfeld going

"Seinfeld" eventually became one of NBC's greatest successes, but when it was first developed in 1989, it was titled "The Seinfeld Chronicles." Its future was also uncertain.

During Jerry Seinfeld's 1998 profile on "60 Minutes," the comedian revealed NBC had originally hired him so he wouldn't get his own late-night show and compete against "The Tonight Show." In short, they just wanted to keep him busy.

"The Seinfeld Chronicles" originally aired in July 1989. It was certainly different from the rest of the series, featuring a more confident George (Jason Alexander), Kramer being named "Kessler" (Michael Richards), and Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) hadn't been cast yet.

The pilot was given "weak" scores by audiences, and Business Insider says NBC execs had to "pull some financial strings to give it a series order." Former NBC entertainment president Warren Littlefield told the outlet, "We loved it. We picked up all this other crap and finally we were running out of options and time and there was a late-night meeting with finance and [then-NBC scheduling executive Preston Beckman]." They ultimately settled on ordering four more episodes, and those didn't air for another year.

Ultimately, it built a cult audience over several years until the ratings soared part of the way through Season 4. The rest is comedy history.