Jerry Seinfeld Once Shared He Found Rewatching ‘Seinfeld’ Episodes Painful
Jerry Seinfeld rose to stardom after doing the hit sitcom titled after him. But although the show brought him incredible fortune, he had a difficult time re-watching the series.
Jerry Seinfeld didn’t make another sitcom because he couldn’t top ‘Seinfeld’
Seinfeld didn’t plan for the success that the sitcom granted him at his peak. Before creating and starring in the hit TV series, Seinfeld was simply trying to make a name for himself on the comedy scene. But his TV series ended up being an unexpected gift that turned his world upside down.
“I was a successful stand-up comedian for many years before I got the show. I knew that was going to be my life. The show came along, and it was quite a detour. I went from being relatively unknown to getting the greatest ride you could possibly get in entertainment and feeling a certain amount of cultural relevance,” Seinfeld said in a 2017 interview with Harvard Business Law.
Despite the amount of success and fame he’d experienced after his historic run on television, Seinfeld didn’t see himself as a big star. This was partially why he didn’t try to pursue more film or television projects after Seinfeld ended. He also didn’t believe he could top Seinfeld, which further discouraged him from doing another sitcom.
“We killed ourselves to make those shows as good as they were. We weren’t just hanging around,” he once told Pioneers of Television. “People always say, ‘Why don’t you do another sitcom?’ I think, ‘If I could do another sitcom that good, yeah, sure I’d do it.’ You can’t. I can’t.”
Jerry Seinfeld once shared he found re-watching ‘Seinfeld’ painful
Even years after the show’s finale, the world of television continues to keep the show fresh in audience’s minds. The show has enjoyed several years being in syndication, which has proven to be financially lucrative for the show’s cast.
But even though Seinfeld reruns still attract a certain number of fans, Seinfeld himself isn’t one of them. Ironically, the show that’s brought laughter to many brings up some painful memories that the comedian once had trouble dealing with.
“I think because as much as I enjoy the humor of it, it kind of reminds me of how hard it was to do,” Seinfeld once told Popeater (via Vulture). “I can’t seem to get that part out of my head and just enjoy the show but I’m working on it because I would like to watch them more. When I watch them I see my face and I see how I was struggling.”
Why Jerry Seinfeld decided to end ‘Seinfeld’
Seinfeld ran for a whopping nine seasons before the plug was pulled on the sitcom. But because of the show’s seemingly undying popularity, the series could’ve theoretically lasted even longer than that. The Seinfeld star himself was concerned that the show might experience a sharp decline in quality if it continued. So he thought the wisest choice was to end the series when it was still in top form.
“You’re making this TV show, and it gets really popular, and you have to stop at a certain point or it loses the magic. I’m not comparing myself in any way, shape, or form to the Beatles, but they ended after nine years when I was a kid, and there was something about that single-digit number. Once a TV series is in double digits, it’s like, ‘God, is this thing ever going to end?’ Ten seasons seemed so much longer than nine,” he said.
