Since I'm relatively new to this newsgroup, please excuse if this question was asked previously.
Some time ago, Jerry Stiller and Estelle Harris appeared in a TV commercial for a long-distance telephone company (AT&T, I believe). In the commercial, he answers a phone solicitation to change his long-distance service. He becomes hyper because his "wife" (Harris) keeps shouting in the background something about "no circles" (a reference to another carrier's "Calling Circles"). All the time, she's standing in the kitchen mashing potatoes.
Question: Where did they appear as a couple first: the TV commercial or "Seinfeld"? If it was the TV commercial, the "Seinfeld" casting director might have gotten the idea to use them from the commercial.
I don't recall seeing Jerry Stiller and Estelle Harris performing together prior to "Seinfeld" or the TV commercial. Usually, Jerry Stiller appeared with his wife, Anne Meara. At one time they were promoted as the comedy team "Stiller and Meara".
---Alvin H. Nichter