Striving Towards Excellence

-Karthik Gurumurthy

So I was reading about how Seinfeld got started, and it’s such a cool origin story! Apparently back in November 1988, Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David were just hanging out at this Korean deli after doing their comedy sets in New York. Jerry had just gotten interest from NBC for a TV show but had no real concept yet, so he’s bouncing ideas off Larry.

They’re walking around this deli, cracking jokes about all the weird stuff they’re seeing – like Korean jelly in bizarre shapes and mystery foods nobody could identify. That’s when Larry said something like “This is exactly the kind of conversation you never see on TV.” And boom – that was their lightbulb moment. Why not just make a show about real conversations and everyday life?

The next night they went to some diner and hammered out the whole concept. Jerry would basically play himself, they’d film all the mundane daily stuff, and the comedy would come from life’s tiny frustrations. Jerry’s famous quote about it was just “Two guys talking.”

And get this – Larry David wanted to add a neighbor character based on his actual friend Kenny Kramer, who was apparently this loud, scheming guy who was always borrowing stuff and coming up with crazy ideas. That real person became Cosmo Kramer!

What started as just late-night deli banter turned into a 30-minute script by early 1989, and instead of some variety special NBC originally wanted, they ended up creating what became one of the most successful sitcoms ever. Pretty amazing how something so simple – just two comedians joking around – changed television forever!