Why The Frogger Episode Of Seinfeld Was So Difficult To Film
From the doll that resembles his mother to his determination to explain "shrinkage" to the new woman in his life, George Costanza (Jason Alexander) tends to get obsessive over little things that upset him. A prime example of this is in Season 9, Episode 18 ("The Frogger"), which sees this "Seinfeld" character attempt to save his decade-long high score on the arcade game.
When George and Jerry Seinfeld learn that Mario's Pizza –- a less-than-hospitable joint they frequented in their adolescent years –- is closing, George is excited to see that Frogger is still in the restaurant. He becomes so enthralled watching a young Drake Bell, of Nickelodeon's "Drake & Josh" fame, play that he starts yelling directions at the boy, forcing him to leave. George then sees that the top score he achieved long ago is still reigning supreme.
In true George fashion, he can't let this go. Instead, he hires Slippery Pete (Peter Stormare), an acquaintance of Kramer (Michael Richards), to move Frogger to his place so that he can preserve his score forever. But once the game is unplugged, it runs on limited battery power. If this is drained, all scores are wiped. Instead of moving the game as promised, Slippery Pete decides to play Frogger until it has three minutes of power left. Panicked, George feverishly attempts to wheel it to the pharmacy across the street, where it can be plugged back in. However, it gets caught on the curb, and a truck rams into Frogger, destroying it.
This final scene is mere minutes long, but it was actually one of the most difficult "Seinfeld" moments to film in its nine-season history.
George's dangerous adventure across the street took much coordination
Jerry Seinfeld didn't want the scene of George navigating Frogger across the street to be average. Instead, he wanted it to look as though George was in a real-life game of Frogger. However, this took much time, effort, and creative thinking that went beyond the typical filming process for "Seinfeld."
"It was obviously a really hard production thing to do, but it was also one of those ones where you know you can't compromise at all because not getting it 100% right, it's just not gonna really look like anything," said writer Gregg Kavet in a behind-the-scenes interview.
Yellow tape was placed over the white lines on the street to make it look more authentic to the game. Next, rehearsal was held with 30 stunt drivers, all traveling at the same speed. A camera was then placed on a track above the street to follow Jason Alexander as he veered left, right, back, and front through the vehicles. As for the truck at the end, the crash was very much real.
"That truck was going quite fast, and he [Alexander] waited until a very late moment and dove out of the way onto a mattress," said Kavet.
In fact, Alexander said a few pieces of wood flew very close to his head. Still, there are no hard feelings toward the episode. On Twitter, he even applauded a clever Lego recreation of "The Frogger."