The Drake & Josh Star You Likely Forgot Appeared On Seinfeld

It is often the case that after an actor appears on "Seinfeld," they become known for their character on the show for the rest of their careers. The late Philip Baker Hall, for instance, was followed by the shadow of Detective Bookman no matter where he showed up next, and it's hard to see Steve Hytner without thinking of his enthusiastic proclamations of "gold, Jerry, gold!" in the role of hacky standup Kenny Bania. Meanwhile, good luck trying to accept Patrick Warburton in any character who's not the on-again, off-again boyfriend to Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) once you've become ensconced in the universe of "Seinfeld."

Still, there are a few performers who managed to enter that universe with their anonymity intact — going on to TV stardom elsewhere — without too much "Seinfeld" stigma attached to their on-screen personae. Courteney Cox is better known for her roles on "Friends" and the "Scream" movies than she ever was for playing Jerry Seinfeld's pretend dry-cleaning wife, and Lori Loughlin's role in Season 9, Episode 3, "The Serenity Now" is more of a TV trivia footnote on her more famous work in the Tanner family tree as Aunt Becky on "Full House." That's not even getting into the fact that Bryan Cranston is way more remembered for a certain dramatic show about drugs and death — or his sitcom turn in "Malcolm in the Middle" — than he ever was for playing his dentist character on "Seinfeld."

One of those performers later turned up in the cast for the Nickelodeon sitcom "Drake & Josh," and it's possible many viewers don't realize that he had any involvement in "Seinfeld" at all.

Drake Bell, the former teen idol who formed one half of "Drake & Josh" with Josh Peck in the mid-2000s, did indeed have a role on "Seinfeld," albeit a small one. His IMDb credits confirm that he appeared in Season 9, Episode 18, "The Frogger," in which George Costanza (Jason Alexander) discovers that his high school high score on the titular video game cabinet at Mario's Pizza Parlor has survived the ensuing years — arguably the greatest accomplishment of this man's entire life. You can see a young Bell in the episode as Kenny, a boy who's seen playing the "Frogger" arcade game, only to lose after following George's advice. 

A decade later, he would become a household name among the younger set, many of whom were probably too young to have watched "Seinfeld," while the people who watched "Seinfeld" during its NBC run were as a group too old to watch "Drake & Josh" – so outside of a slender Venn diagram overlap, this connection becomes an esoteric piece of TV lore that many fans forget about.

In 2018, Bell appeared on Butch Hartman's "Speech Bubble" (on YouTube) and he spoke a bit about his experience as a "Seinfeld" character. He didn't go into too much detail, but he did remember his single line on the show: "Thanks a lot, Mister," which he managed to deliver again with aplomb. Bell is not the only connection between "Drake & Josh" and "Seinfeld," however. Larry Thomas, best known as the infamous Soup Nazi, also appeared on "Drake & Josh" Season 1, Episode 4, "Two Idiots and a Baby," in the role of Mr. Galloway (via IMDb).