Here in the UK there was a Newspaper article a couple of days ago that Jerry S. is giving himself 30 days to decide whether to do another series. Is this true? Any further information would be appreciated.
As you may know, we're more than 3 years behind the US when it comes to Seinfeld. Last week's episode was The Marine Biologist and IMHO it was one of the best ever. When George flourishes the golf ball at the end, I nearly died laughing! Classic line:
George: "The sea was angry that day my friends, like an old man trying to return soap at a deli..."
That's more or less the case. Ever since the original
7-season commitment entered its last year in the fall of
1995, it's been a year-to-year thing for Jerry, who is co-
creator, co-owner and executive producer in charge
of the show.
He gets together with the cast and writers every
December and they decide whether or not they have
enough creative ideas for plot and character development
to keep the show fresh for another season beyond the
one they're doing. If they have enough in the hopper for
another 24 episode season, they go ahead. So far that's
what has happened. That meeting will occur again next
month. Jerry says he honestly doesn't know what he
and the gang will decide to do at this point. He's probably
telling the truth. Last year he was leaning toward going
off the air for good in May 1997 as he was heading into
November ratings sweeps, but he'd clearly changed
his mind a month later.
All the regulars will be making enough money
this year to be set for life, at a time when they're all
still young enough to explore a lot of other directions
to their careers as well (and none of them is older than
Michael Richards, who's 47). So it won't be the money
that pushes them to make another round of shows.
It may matter that Jerry wants to have time to go back to
the North American standup comedy circuit, where he
first made his name...and that the other 3 regulars have
all branched out to other projects in recent years.
Some have also speculated that since David Letterman
is thinking about wrapping up his nightly late-night
show on CBS in 2 or 3 years when his contract runs out,
Jerry might have more than a passing interest in taking
that show on a few years down the road when Letter-
man leaves. He'd pretty much have to wrap up his work
for NBC, and re-establish himself as a standup, pretty
soon if that's what he has in mind.
Jerry also says he wants to go out "in a blaze of color"
rather than putting out a disappointing final season.
That may indicate that he's leaning toward calling it
quits next May.
On the other hand, the whole cast did commit to
up to two seasons when they renegotiated their con-
tracts with NBC last spring...so that at least left open the
door for a full set of new episodes for 1998-99. It's
certain that no one is committed to anything beyond
May 1999....and if this isn't the last season of Seinfeld
it's certainly the next-to-last.
With about 180 episodes already filmed and most of
them in syndication now in North America (and a lot of
them still unseen and fresh to other nations), they'll gen-
erate millions for all the principal players for years to
come even if nobody ever shoots another foot of film.
They're doing it now more for fun than for money,
and when it stops being fun, they'll say farewell.