Seinfeld: Larry David's Farewell

I think I did 134 episodes at the end of season 96. I may be a little off, but it's seven years in total, that's when he said, like he always said, sometime around the 13th or 14th episode of each year, um , I don't think so. You know I want to come back next year and usually I would say well you'll see how you feel about it while you think I'll convince him? He should actually have a job convincing people not to commit suicide when they're on a ledge because he's very good at it, he's very calm, he knows exactly what to say oh no, your life will get better, just get off the ledge, everything will be fine, but now I just didn't want to physically. do it anymore I just felt like I just can't uh I can't I just couldn't do another one I don't know I just had reached the end um so I was hoping everyone felt the same but I was the only one it was about time for him to do what he wanted to do , whatever it was, whether it was just not doing the show or doing something else, and God knows he had invested his entire life in it and, honestly, I don't know. and I wouldn't even ask him how much I know what he would say, I would say, I would ask him what part of the show you really wanted to do and he would probably say the pilot, but I'm sure I'm glad he overlooked that Jerry was the one.

He made the announcement that Larry wouldn't be coming back and I think it was at the same time he said we would be coming back, however I was very worried. about not having Larry there, I knew we were losing a great writer, a visionary. I was worried about what would happen to the show in general, um, what would certainly happen to George specifically. You know, Larry was George. George was Larry and without him there. To guide George's stories and George's reactions, I anticipated that he wouldn't be exactly the same character and I think he wasn't exactly the same character, but I had every faith in Jerry.

I knew Jerry wouldn't go through with it. If he didn't think we could make it, I have really funny feelings about that because through all of this, I felt a little hurt and upset because I loved working with him and felt like we had great chemistry. Uh, so magical, it was probably the best thing that ever happened to me. I was surprised that Jerry had decided to continue, but I also felt like everyone had a personal problem they needed to solve, like if I had to go to work. Solve my problem and find myself in a way that Larry finally had to leave and face the world without the structure of the show to blame for all the problems in his life and Jerry, to some extent, I think he also needed something like uh uh.

He knows firsthand the role he played creatively on the show and I think he needed to explore and express that. It was also incredibly challenging those last two years, it was very exciting and because he was really undertaking a crazy thing of writing and starring in 22 episodes of a show that people, you know, look forward to every week. It would have been quite a fall from grace if he had let it fall apart, so he really gave me the opportunity to do it. What I'm most proud of is that I learned to really do it with him over all those years.

Larry taught us everything, I mean, because season six and season seven, when he was your script, you have to keep going. on the track with Larry, you had to sit in the editing room with Larry, you had to go to the sound mix with Larry, so we learned to edit and we learned to mix the sound, we were casting and you were on the track. and blocking and stuff, so we got an experience that most Toom writers on most sitcoms don't get at all, so when Larry left, you just go to the same thing, you know you're going to the same places your father used to use. to take you to him he's just not there anymore.

I remember now, it's the greatest gift among many gifts he gave me, was that he pushed me out of the nest at the end to do what you can do on your own. Although I don't know if he thought that was what he was going to do, but that's how it turned out and, you know, I'll always be grateful to him for that, that he gave me that last bit. growth step and then when the program ended, I really felt like, well, you know, I went from nothing to something. The strangest feeling I had was when it was in August, it was the day they were filming the first episode. the first show without me that day and I had an office in Castle Rock.

I'm sitting there alone in my office and I'm trying to write this movie and there's no one to talk to and I'm sitting there alone and I'm going, geez, they're doing the first show. Oh right, boy, everyone's getting ready now and oh my God, look at me, what have I done? I'm sitting here alone. I should be with my friends there. What am I doing? here I am, I'm crazy, what did you do you stupid idiot, how could you leave that show to sit here alone and write this, what are you crazy? I kept berating myself and then I got really depressed that night, you know then? then they were filming and a few hours later they started filming and I'm thinking they're filming right now.

I'm here, how could they do that? How dare they do that? You know and then I started getting angry because they were doing it and it was hard, um, but I got over it and periodically I would go there that year to do steinbrener. I heard what happened at the meeting this morning, oh yeah, I'm already packed. my desk sir I can leave here in an hour and I have to tell you that this is exactly what this organization needed we want to look to the future we have to tear down the past Babe Ruth was just a fat old man with the legs of a little girl and here is something which I just discovered recently, he wasn't really a sulan, what do you think of that?

Look at this, Garrick's blue pants don't look bad on him. Hey, you don't think his nervous illness was contagious. You better take it off. I'm too important for this team. The big Stein camp slumps and writhes and it was strange because I didn't do it. I didn't write the lines, so he was doing like Stein Brener. The lines I didn't write. and um, and I felt like, wow, I don't belong here anymore, I'm not part of this, I have to get out of here, this is all wrong, it was such a strange feeling that even you know how to drive by there. the door um, Larry David, you know, oh wait, you know they're knocking to see if I can get into the studio, you don't understand, you watch that show, I created that thing.