The One Time Jerry Seinfeld Threatened To Quit His Hit NBC Sitcom

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As far as the NBC executives in the early '90s were concerned, Larry David was the troublemaker behind the scenes at "Seinfeld." From the early days of the project, it was David who'd quickly put his foot down whenever someone up the ladder insisted on changing his show. Co-creator Jerry Seinfeld, meanwhile, was known as the affable peacemaker, which meant that whenever he did cause a fuss, it held a lot more weight. 

Such was the case in the gap between Seasons 2 and 3, when NBC executives sat David and Seinfeld down and insisted on some changes to the series. As revealed in the new, authorized biography of Larry David, "Emperor of Nothing," by Blake J. Harris, NBC wanted Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Jerry to start a serious relationship, one that resulted in them getting married and even having a few kids as the series went on. 

David, who'd been asked by Seinfeld ahead of time to stay quiet and polite during the meeting, recalled thinking, "BUT THAT'S NOT THE SHOW! THAT'S NOT THE SHOW!" He stayed polite, but told Seinfeld afterward with restrained anger, "Look, I'm not gonna do the show if they insist on [those changes]." If it was only David who felt like this, it's possible NBC could've forced their changes anyway, but Seinfeld — who was not just a creator but the face of the series — couldn't be overridden so easily.

As Blake J. Harris revealed in "Emperor of Nothing," Seinfeld responded to David's outburst by joining him. "If Larry was out," Harris reported, "then [Seinfeld] was out, too." 

George Shapiro, Seinfeld's personal manager and a producer for the show, explained to Harris, "They both felt very strongly about not going with NBC's suggestion. It felt completely wrong to them. ... They quit as a team." Part of why Seinfeld's stand was so important, Shapiro explained, is that unlike David, he had plenty to fall back on if the show failed. "[David] had no other job. He had no other income," Shapiro said. Seinfeld, meanwhile, was doing well as a stand-up comedian, so his threat to leave not only would've killed the show but was far more credible to NBC. 

Thankfully, by the end of Season 2, NBC had started to pick up on the sheer potential that "Seinfeld" had as a sitcom. Rather than lose both David and Seinfeld, NBC ended up conceding to them entirely. "The next thing I know, everything was fine," David recalled. "... I never had any trouble [with NBC] again after that."

Things were smooth sailing for "Seinfeld" after Season 3, its first season to have a regular 22-episode count. By Season 4, a season with an impressive number of the best "Seinfeld" episodes, the series had established itself as a clear-cut ratings hit, and by Season 6, it hit the No. 1 ranking overall in the U.S. Not bad for a show that was famously hated by the test audience for its pilot episode, and which frequently found itself on the verge of cancellation in its first two seasons. 

Much like other shows that recovered from bad seasons, "Seinfeld" started off on the wrong foot yet was given the chance to build an audience anyway; it's a privilege rarely afforded to modern sitcoms in the streaming age. Seinfeld himself remarked in 1998 on what a miracle his TV show was. Explaining why he didn't want to star in another sitcom, Seinfeld told the Orlando Sentinel, "Only an idiot would think that they could be that lucky again."

Seinfeld jokingly addressed his luck years later in the "Saturday Night Live" 40th anniversary special, saying to Larry David about their "Seinfeld" experience, "It's like we had the last two tickets before Disneyland burned down." Their nine-season show turned all four of its main cast members into major stars — an impressive feat for a show about nothing.