Seinfeld co-creator and writer Larry David has revealed his all-time favourite episode of the legendary sitcom which played a huge part in sparking his career.
David, who is best known as the star of Curb Your Enthusiasm, was a key ingredient of Seinfeld and notably wrote a large bulk of the show. Now, however, he has made the revelation that he nearly decided to “pack the whole thing in” over one episode. The beloved comedian maid the claim during a virtual fundraiser for the Democratic Party of Texas where David opened up about making Seinfeld season four episode ‘The Contest’, an effort which sees the main characters hold a contest to see who can manage to last the longest without masturbating.
He shouldn’t have worried, however, as the show quickly became an iconic episode and is widely regarded as one of the best Seinfeld offerings of all time. The episode he revealed is now his personal favourite and the idea for the programme was one that he kept to himself before having the courage to take it forward to NBC executives who he assumed would never approve it in a million years.
“This one, I didn’t even put on the board because I didn’t want them asking,” David said. “I just wanted them to come and see the read-through. [When they did] I had worked myself up into a lather because the read-through really went great.
“I was watching [the network executives] and I couldn’t tell how much they liked it. But I was ready to pack the whole thing in if they didn’t let us do this show: ‘I’m quitting. I’m quitting. I’m gonna quit’.
“Fortunately, they didn’t say a word,” he admitted. “I was shocked. That show changed something about how we were perceived in television land. It really catapulted us to another place. It moved us to another level, I think. And the show got much more popular after that episode.”
Watch Seinfeld on Netflix now.
