Jerry Seinfeld brought to life one of the most popular sitcoms in the history of television.
But many fans thought the conclusion to the series was lacking.
And Jerry Seinfeld made one shocking confession about Seinfeld that left fans speechless.
Seinfeld ending divides fans
Coming up with a satisfying series finale is one of the hardest tasks to pull off in television.
Tying up the storyline and giving the characters a fitting sendoff is easier said than done.
Many shows have left fans disappointed at the finale, and Seinfeld was no exception.
The iconic NBC sitcom ran for nine seasons before it came to a controversial conclusion.
76 million people tuned in to the 1998 finale to laugh at Jerry, Kramer, Elaine, and George for one final time.
To wrap up the show, the two-part episode brought back many of the show’s famous guest stars from previous seasons in an attempt to tie everything together.
Seinfeld concludes with the four friends in a jail cell in a small town in Massachusetts for unwittingly violating a Good Samaritan law.
Jerry Seinfeld reveals his thoughts on his sitcom’s conclusion
Seinfeld was interviewed by GQ ahead of the release of his upcoming movie Unfrosted – a fictional account of the invention of the Pop-Tarts.
He was asked during the interview if the Seinfeld finale bothered him decades later.
“A little bit, yeah,” Seinfeld said. “I don’t believe in regret. I think it’s arrogant to think you could have done something different. You couldn’t. That’s why you did what you did.”
He admitted that the show’s producers Larry David and Jeff Schaffer were also disappointed with how the finale turned out.
“But me and Jeff Schaffer and Larry were standing around, talking about TV finales and which we thought were great,” Seinfeld continued. “I feel Mad Men was the greatest. A lot of people like the Bob Newhart one. Mary Tyler Moore was okay. I think Mad Men was the greatest final moment of a series I’ve ever seen. So satisfying. So funny. And they said that they had sat and watched the Seinfeld finale, trying to figure out what went wrong. And it was obviously about the final scene, leaving them in the jail cell…”
GQ’s interviewer claimed that he thought the finale ending in a jail cell was perfect for the characters because that’s where they belonged as selfish people.
“See, I don’t agree with any of that,” Seinfeld explained. “I think we were affected by some things that people had said, that they were selfish or whatever. And looking back on it, I think they were great! I love them. First of all, you’re not doing comedy without self-directed individuals. That’s an essential element of comedy, since Shakespeare and forever. You can’t do comedy without selfish people. That’s what people relate to.”
The highs of Seinfeld will outweigh the lows of the finale for most fans of the show.
