Seinfeld's Dad

In one of the first episodes the character of Seinfeld's Dad is played by an other actor than in every episode after.

What happened ?

Lots of times, the part of a secondary, but recurring character gets recast in the course of a series. In this case, they started out with Phil Bruns (who once co-starred in "Mary Hartman") playing Morty Seinfeld, Jerry's TV dad. While his performance was OK, Jerry and Larry thought they could get better chemistry between Jerry and his TV parents by changing the casting...so early on, they recast and hired Barney Martin to play Morty Seinfeld the rest of the way. Watch the reruns..the change improved the show.

     Same thing happened in an even more dramatic way with the casting of Frank
Costanza, George's father. I forget who the originally cast actor was, but it
was also decided before that character ever appeared again, to recast the role,
in this case with Jerry Stiller. The rest is history.
     Evidently they felt the change to Stiller improved the show SO much that
they did something that was NOT done in the recasting of Jerry Seinfeld's TV
dad...they went back and reshot scenes in "The Handicapped Spot" that had used
the other actor, and used Jerry Stiller instead, before the series was released
for syndication. That's unique. Usually they don't mess with an episode once it
has had its network run just for the good of the syndicated reruns...it only
gets some minor editing to allow an additional commercial unit. On RARE
occasions, a few alternate takes that are already in the vault but didn't make
it to air initially, might be edited back into a show to improve it (although I
can't think of any series recently that did that). I know of no series that has
reshot key scenes of an episode a year or more after its original network run,
just to improve the show in syndication. But it was done in this case. So the
original Frank Costanza was seen only in the original NBC run of the first
episode for his character...and won't ever be seen again, at least in the US
and Canada. (It's possible the original edit continues to run elsewhere in the
world, but I have seen that episode rerun in Britain and they are also using
the Jerry Stiller version now.)

     And that raises another question. I'll admit I missed that episode's
original airing and don't recall seeing George's original father. Was his
performance poor enough that it needed to be reshot just to assure quality for
the syndicated run...or did they do it in this case because they knew they now
had an established hit and could afford to come back and do it, while for some
reason they just didn't get around to reshooting the early episode (I think it
was The Stakeout, from the first season) with the original Seinfeld TV dad?
Seems to me it would have been easier to reshoot the scenes from "The Stakeout"
with Barney Martin, since there were fewer of them and they were simpler
scenes...while almost half of "The Handicapped Spot" had to be reshot over a
year after the original airing just to get Jerry Stiller into it for
syndication.
     Maybe someone can answer why they reshot the debut of the Frank Costanza
character but not that of Morty Seinfeld.

Bob Smith, afternoons WXXI-AM 1370, Rochester NY

About recasting and reshooting (just my uneducated hunches and observations on the subject):

The two actors who played Morty Seinfeld were not famous when they were cast in the part. They were each TV character actors who may have been considered interchangable. Jerry Stiller, on the other hand, was an established star when he joined the cast (not a superstar, but very recognizable nonetheless). Perhaps it was in Stiller's contract that he would be the only Frank Costanza, or, more plausably, once he became Frank, he stamped the part with his unique style. the producers then engaged in some revisionist history.

To reshoot the scenes in which the original Morty appeared, the production team would have had to undo the renovatios that had been made to Jerry's apartment (in The Stakeout, he had no bedroom, and the area behid his desk was a large, floor-to-ceiling window). My guess is they didn't want to go to that expense or trouble.

On a related sidenote: Saturday Night Live will often substitute the version of a sketch that was shot during their early evening dress rehearsal when that same episode is rereun on NBC or sold into syndication (like on Comedy Central).

*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*      Avoid cliches like the
plague.

art vandelay wrote:

It's not the only instance in which the Seinfeld team did something like that. In "The Revenge", Larry David provided the voice for the off-camera Newman. A season later, in "The Suicide", Wayne Knight assumed the on-camera role. When Seinfeld went into syndication, the Newman lines in "The Revenge" were rerecorded using Knight's voice. However, unlike the Bruns situation, this was quite a simple procedure to do; it only involved a little sound editing.

I think you've nailed it. I'm pretty sure that has to be the reason.

One example: Norm MacDonald once flubbed a line during an OJ trial sketch. When NBC later reran that show, a new version of the sketch was substituted in which MacDonald got the line right.

That is George's Dad. Not Jerry's dad. You can see a different actor play George's dad in the episode the Handicap Spot. I glad they replaced him with Jerry Stiller. He is fantastic and superior to the other man.

wild_1 wrote in article ...

an

In article , "Hayden White" wrote:

eps. this guy is talking about was a different actor who played jerrys dad in the stakeout ep.

In article ,

He was recast, that's what happened. Great move too.

Hello,

Just stumbling through the usenet an clicked on in. This note caught my eye.

Art Vandelay raises an interesting point about how a contract could play into this. Jerry Stiller was a recognized talent, where the actor playing George's dad in the prior episodes appears to be an unknown. I think I saw this episode, but can't really remember.

Often times, as with any start up, who knows how things will turn out. It could be that the original actor playing George's dad was working under union/scale, without a contract, or under an exclusive with another company. When the show went into syndication, the production company may not have had the necessary legal clearance to use him in syndication or, since the show had done so well, he was asking for an outrageous sum. So much so that it was cheaper to reshoot with Jerry Stiller. And since he was the better role, so much the better. Or maybe the couldn't locate the guy.

The actor playing Jerry's first father I recognize from prior work as a character actor/ advertsing etc... so he may have more experience or sophistication in dealing with residuals for broadcasts.

C. Parker