Seinfeld To End Show This Spring
.c The Associated Press
By DAVID BAUDER
NEW YORK (AP) - Much ado about something: ``Seinfeld'' is calling it quits.
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld has decided to cease production of his hit Thursday night comedy at the end of the season, NBC said early Friday.
The self-described show about nothing, which featured the New York comedian and his three dysfunctional friends, became a cultural signpost of the 1990s and a major profit maker for the network.
Its ensemble cast portray four self-absorbed New Yorkers who stumble through life meeting such inane characters as the Soup Nazi, the bubble boy and a hateful mailman named Newman.
``I wanted to end the show on the same kind of peak we've been doing it on for years,'' Seinfeld said in an interview published Friday in The New York Times. ``I wanted the end to be from a point of strength. I wanted the end to be graceful.''
Although some critics thought the show was fading this season, its ninth, ``Seinfeld'' was still taking creative chances. Just recently, it tried to tell a story backwards.
The show's popularity certainly hasn't faded among viewers. It is ranked just below the NBC drama ``ER'' as the second-highest rated show on the air.
``To keep a show of this caliber at its peak is a great undertaking, and we respect Jerry's decision that at the end of this season, it's time to move on,'' NBC said in a statement.
``Seinfeld's'' absence will blow a hole in the center of NBC's Thursday night lineup, the most popular in television. The network also faces a difficult negotiation to keep ``ER,'' which airs a half hour after ``Seinfeld.''
NBC almost lost ``Seinfeld'' after last season. Seinfeld's supporting cast, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander and Michael Richards, demanded a lucrative contract and a deal wasn't struck until the eve of NBC's announcement of a fall season.
Seinfeld has been saying for the past few months that he would make a decision about whether to continue around the first of the year.
``We've all seen a million athletes where you say, `I wish they didn't do those last two years,' '' Seinfeld told the Times. ``For me, this is all about timing. My life is all about timing. As a comedian, my sense of timing is everything.''
AP-NY-12-26-97 0059EST