Co-created by Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, “Seinfeld” became one of the most beloved TV sitcoms in history. Producing 180 episodes over the course of its nine-season run from 1989 until 1998, the series flooded the pop-culture lexicon with phrases such as “yada yada yada,” “master of my domain” and “spongeworthy.”
Viewers were introduced to an array of quirky characters, ranging from restaurateurs Babu Bhatt and the Soup Nazi to the “Bubble Boy” and library cop Lt. Bookman.
Everyone has their favorite episodes — including Seinfeld himself, who revealed his top four episodes earlier this year, with resurfaced video appearing on NBC’s “Today.”
Seinfeld’s Top 4
It all began back in May when Seinfeld revealed that he’d actually thought it through, and listed his four favorite episodes, in chronological order.
Appearing alongside David at a panel discussion during the Netflix Is a Joke Festival, he stated, “’The Contest.’ ‘The Soup Nazi.’ ‘The Merv Griffin Show,’ because I love that premise. And the ‘Marine Biologist.'”
The clip was posted on social media in late October, and went viral, even appearing in a segment introduced by Carson Daly on NBC’s “Today.”
Explaining his rationale, Seinfeld added, “’The Contest’ doesn’t require an explanation. ‘The Soup Nazi’ doesn’t either. Just the idea of the word ‘Nazi’ in the episode, it’s a Jewish show. It was just such a great, fun thing to do. ‘The Marine Biologist,’ that was the best story tie-in finish to an episode we ever did. Jason’s speech at the end makes that,” he added, referencing George Costanza’s (Jason Alexander) epic diatribe about retrieving Kramer’s golf ball from a whale’s spout.
“Yeah, that’s true,” David agreed.
“And ‘The ‘Merv Griffin Show,’ because Kramer finds the ‘Merv Griffin’ set in a dumpster and sets it up in his apartment. So just based on that one sentence, enough said,” Seinfeld added.
Seinfeld also referenced a fifth episode that he admitted had nearly made the cut. “I kind of went back and forth because I really liked ‘The Boyfriend,’” he said, referencing the two-part episode in which Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) stars dating New York Yankees star Keith Hernandez in what becomes an epic spoof of Oliver Stone’s “JFK.”
Larry Weighs In
Meanwhile, David has also singled out his favorite episode from the series, and it is indeed one of Seinfeld’s top four: “The Contest.”
During that Netflix Is a Joke panel, David explained how he came up with the concept for the episode, which finds Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer (Michael Richards) making a bet to see who could remain “master of my domain” the longest. ‘
As David recalled, via The Hollywood Reporter, he’d been carrying around that idea in his notebook for two years before pitching it, convinced there was no way that NBC censors would allow it to air on network television.
When he related the idea to Seinfeld, however, David was “shocked” when he told him he loved the idea. As work on the episode progressed, David became so convinced that NBC would shut it down that he was ready to resign on the spot if there was any network interference.
He was surprised when there was no pushback, although he did recall that “after the table read, the ad sales [team] went nuts.”
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Jerry Seinfeld Reveals His Four Favorite ‘Seinfeld’ Episodes