[I'm posting this for Tim Connors at his request... it seems his news service has been bugging out recently and he can't post it himself.]
On Sunday, March 7, 1993, The Cleveland Plain Dealer ran a profile on Michael Richards. When I see an article like this in the PD it's always off the wire from some other paper, so imagine my surprise to discover it was written by a PD reporter who apparently got to go to LA to interview him. There are two other related stories to give a Cleveland angle: one about native Steve Skrovan who writes for the show and one about other Cleveland native Marc Jaffe who also occasionally contributes. All three articles had some interesting tidbits.
_Kramer_ article:
Begins with observation that MR doesn't act like K-man
in person and waits almost an hour before pulling his hair
straight up in the air. MR: "I'm an actor. Is Ben Kingsley
gonna go around acting like Gandhi?" <Again with the Gandhi!>
Author Debbi Snook describes Kramer character as
"equal parts of Ed Norton's rubber-limbed sense of surprise,
Lucy Ricardo's bald-faced scheming, and Ralph Kramden's
fragile ego." <This seems fair. Say ... Ricardo: Isn't that name
Italian?>
MR is "known to shiver like a raw nerve on the set."
This great story is told: MR is in NYC with
"girlfriend actress Ann Talman" and they're scrambling for a
cab. MR: "I'd be standing on a corner and people would be
looking out of their windows, pointing to us from their cars
and waving. So I'd size them up -- get a sense of who looked
safe -- and I'd go, 'Listen can you give us a ride down to ...,'
and they'd go, 'Yeah, sure.' So for two days, I never took a cab.
And these people were completely blown. They'd say, 'Oh my
God! Oh my God! I've got Kramer in my car!"
MR says K is based on a fella Larry David knew "in New
York named Kramer who lived across the hall and was a jack
of all trades, the kind of guy who can live in a $2000 a month
apartment for only $450 a month. But for the most part,
there was no background on Kramer. George goes to a
therapist, has a mother, did real estate for awhile and now
he's trying to get a job.... Elaine works for a publishing company.
Her father's a well known writer and she went to Bennington
College. We know that at one time she was going with Jerry.
But with Kramer, you don't know who his parents are or what
his apartment looks like.... There's a mystery, an unpredict-
ability about him." MR says "he's tried to fill the void with a
'knowingness' and 'a presence based in truth.'" <Huh?>
That's one thread addressed; here's another:
Co-workers compare MR's careful reworking of bits to
the craftsmanship of Chaplin. MR: "Next to him, I'm an ant."
MR "has given Kramer a scent -- Calvin Klein's
"Eternity" cologne, a gift from the designer after an episode in
which Kramer posed in his underwear for the fashion firm.
'I saturate myself so the other actors know when I'm coming
in.'"
MR's dad died when MR was young. He was raised in
Culver City by his mom, Phyllis Richards, a hospital
administrator. He won statewide drama competitions in
high school, and "especially admired Red Skelton."
In college MR did improv in a tattered tux with Ed
Begley, Jr. MR was drafted, "but talked his way into
directing the army's Frankfurt -based theater program of
educational plays on race and drug issues. 'I directed and
wrote the scripts all over Europe.'"
He graduated from California Institute of the Arts,
performed repertory in San Diego, went to LA, did the Improv,
which led to the gig on "Fridays."
MR reminisces about the time he and Andy Kaufman
conspired to stage a fight in the middle of a sketch, with
MR yelling "Go to commercial!" "His genius was to fool us,"
says MR about Kaufman. <Andy, did you hear about this one?>
Here's a doozy: "Like Seinfeld, [MR] is wedded to yoga."
With the success of Seinfeld, MR swapped his
4 wheel drive for a Lexis <but can it do that ball bearing
thing> and bought a new house in Studio City.
He would like to do a serious part a la Gleason as
Minnesota Fats but reckons that "with the popularity of
Kramer it would probably be difficult for me to be in a
picture with Al Pacino right now."_Jaffe_ article:
<Disclaimer: I know MJ slightly; he's very funny. So
I'm biased.> MJ came up with the idea of taking a limo
intended for someone else. He also came up with the
premise of "The Nip." "Jaffe got the idea from his brother-
in-law in South Carolina who sent out a photo of himself,
his wife and 18-month old child without realizing that the
robe was wide open. 'We didn't notice,' Jaffe says of
himself and other Cleveland relatives. 'But one sister
looked at it and said, "Oh my God!' The joke had a third life
when Jaffe brought the original photo to the set in LA and
showed it to Larry David. 'He lost it,' Jaffe says with a smile.
Jaffe graduated from Emory, got an MBA from
Michigan, started working standup, and has written for
Garry Shandling, Wayne Cotter, Paul Provenza and Paul Reiser.
For most of the first season "Jaffe helped write the standup
segments of the show."
Jaffe lives in Cleveland Heights with his wife, a
doctor, and their two kids. He has cut back on standup but
continues to write for Reiser and sitcom scripts on spec. He
has no plans to move to LA. "Everything I want, except for
work, is here."_Skrovan_ article:
Chardon Ohio native Steve Skrovan is part of the regular
weekly writing team for the show. He describes himself as
"bottom feeder inthe 'Seinfeld' food chain." Most sitcoms are
written by committee, but Seinfeld employs pitchmen like
Skrovan to develop ideas for JS, L. David, producer Larry
Charles, and story editor Peter Mehlman. David ("the big
Kahuna") has final word. "We essentially feed the Larry
David machine," says Skrovan. The other pitchmen are
Bob Shaw, Bill Masters, and Bob Hayman -- all from standup.
Skrovan mentions that "About 50% of the scripts handed
to agents now are 'Seinfelds', and most of them are really not
that good because they misunderstand what the show is about.
We've tried to perpetuate the myth that the show is about
nothing. On the contrary, it's really about small stories, a
small story for each of the four characters that must
intersect. <Another myth shattered...> People relate to this
show because it has real, full characters who consistently
sound like themselves."
Skrovan and the pitchmen wrote "The Movie" which
David rewrote heavily <so maybe it's his fault...> so "maybe
there's one literal line of mine that survived." Skrovan is
the guy in the white hat next to Elaine in that episode.
Skrovan went to Yale where he played football. He did
standup, landed an MTV talk show gig, hosted the first
season of "Totally Hidden Videos," and now hosts "That's My
Dog," a canine game show on the Family Channel.That's all there is. All three articles are by Debbi Snook of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.