Jason Alexander Didn't Use A Stunt Double For A Death-Defying Seinfeld Stunt

"Seinfeld" is widely recognized as one of the greatest sitcoms of all time because it was truly unlike any other show on television. Series co-creators Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld built the show from the ground up as a show about how a comedian gets their material, and fostered it to the point that their writing staff were even able to throw their experiential hats in the ring. With each passing season, the NBC phenomenon kept getting more and more confident when it came to its characters and their stories. "Seinfeld" was keen on taking those kinds of risks, and their status in the pop culture zeitgeist proves that it paid off tremendously. Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), George (Jason Alexander), Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), and Kramer (Michael Richards) became some of the most memorable characters in sitcom history, with each of them getting their own share of standout episodes based on their idiosyncratic personalities.

You almost never knew what the crew would get up to in the next episode other than wreaking havoc wherever they found themselves. By the time "Seinfeld" was in its last few seasons, the idea that it was beholden to any sort of reality was out the window. But then there would be episodes like "The Frogger" that start out relatively normal before getting really playful in their execution. 

George's plot in the season 9 episode sees him and Jerry make one last pilgrimage to Mario's Pizza Parlor before it closes for good. Their local high school hangout proves to be a blast from the past in more ways than one as they encounter the same Frogger arcade machine they used to play all the time. George becomes ecstatic when he realizes he still lays claim to the high score after all these years, and ends up buying the machine. He runs into a snag, however, when Jerry bursts his bubble by telling him all of the scores will reset once it's unplugged.

Needless to say, George concocts a plan to hook the famous Sega/Gremlin game up to a battery in order to get it transported without losing any memory. But the people he consulted to get it done end up wearing out the battery, with only a few minutes left to get it to an outlet. In doing so, George ends up playing the game of Frogger he's been training for his entire life. In addition to the character taking the chance of a lifetime crossing a very busy street, so was Alexander.

It may seem like a simple joke, but there was surprisingly a lot of effort put into recreating a live-action game of Frogger. The arcade game requires the player to make it across a busy street and not go ker-splat on the way over. Over 30 different stunt drivers in brightly colored cars were utilized to simulate the big shot. There was also a last-minute effort involving yellow tape to cover up the white lines on the road in order to match how they look in the game. While George doesn't get flattened, the machine sure does.

In a DVD featurette, series writer Gregg Kavet talks about how Alexander actually stood in front of a massive Freightliner semi-truck instead of getting a stuntman:

"There's a final shot where a truck is bearing down on him and basically that stunt is totally real. The truck was going quite fast and he waited until a very late moment and dove out of the way onto a mattress."

When you watch the episode, the potential collision between Alexander and the truck isn't as close as you would expect. But with that said, it's still within a range that one misstep could have had the entire shoot turn out a lot differently. "The truck hit that frog machine, and several large pieces of wood were like [cups hands near ears] right here and right here in my head [laughs]. It was a little scary," says Alexander.

"Seinfeld" basically had carte blanche to do whatever they wanted to in their ninth and final season. Series director Andy Ackerman pitched getting an actual elephant for an expensive gag lasting about less than five seconds, and NBC gave him the funds to get it. Orchestrating a potentially deadly game of Frogger with one of the show's main actors may have been a risk, but it was definitely one worth taking.

Every episode of "Seinfeld" is currently streaming on Netflix.