Seinfeld Producer Says The Last Two Years Created An Exhausting Work Environment
The 1990s sitcom "Seinfeld" was known as a "show about nothing," but putting the final two seasons together was really something for producers. The NBC comedy starred comedian Jerry Seinfeld, but the show itself was his and Larry David's brainchild. Over nine seasons, "Seinfeld" aired 180 episodes, including that polarizing finale that reminded us once and for all that its main characters were pretty much all horrible people.
When David was the showrunner, he churned out two dozen episodes per season, so when he left "Seinfeld" at the end of Season 7 in 1996, his peers were left in a quandary. In an interview with Variety, executive producer Alec Berg revealed that producers were overwhelmed as they tried to keep up with David's pace—and perfectionism. "We were so exhausted. The last two years, Larry had left. And so a bunch of us were trying to do what Larry did, 24 episodes a year," he said.
But it wasn't just 24 episodes of ordinary television. "Seinfeld" was such a ratings giant that every episode had to be perfect. Berg said his team literally lived at the office. "At that point, having a day off was worthless, because you would just sit at home and twitch," he explained. "It was a totally unsustainable level of work."
Larry David was so busy working that it took him a while to realize how big Seinfeld was
While Jerry Seinfeld was the main star in his left-titled sitcom, co-creator Larry David was busy doing a ton of work behind the scenes. As the showrunner of "Seinfeld," he was known as a hands-on workaholic who was heavily involved in all aspects of production. He also wrote a third of the show's episodes himself and tweaked plenty of others, according to The New York Times.
David was so immersed in his work that he once admitted that he was a little bit in the dark about the show's success. In a 2014 interview with Rolling Stone, David revealed that he knew people enjoyed the show from the beginning because they would tell him, but he didn't think of it as a real hit until four seasons in. "I was in a bit of a bubble because I was working," he explained. "I was just going to the office all the time." He said it was Seinfeld who told him how huge the show was. "I didn't quite get it," David admitted. "I didn't go anywhere. I was working."