Sarah Silverman Hated Her Seinfeld Episode Because Of One Actor

In the "Seinfeld" episode "The Money" (January 16, 1997), Kramer (Michael Richards, of the flop "The Michael Richards Show") has trouble spending the night with his girlfriend Emily (Sarah Silverman, who also guest-starred on "Star Trek") because she has what he calls "Jimmy legs." That is, she wiggles her legs in bed. She also rolls around, swings her arms into his face, and generally keeps him awake. Kramer asks that, after they have sex, he be allowed to return to his own apartment for a peaceful night's sleep. Emily is a little insulted, but agrees to it. 

This ends up backfiring a little. Kramer eventually asks that he stay the whole night, but Emily reveals that she also sleeps better alone in her own bed. It seems that Kramer screams in his sleep. Silverman doesn't have a lot of time onscreen in "The Money," but she plays a significant role. She only ever appeared in the one episode. 

Which, it seems, Silverman was fine with. The comedienne and "Saturday Night Live" alumna revealed in a 2021 interview with IndieWire that Richards was extremely difficult to work with. Most reports from the set describe Richards as a wholly devoted comedian, eager to stay in character at every moment. When his co-stars flubbed lines or busted out laughing on set, he would grow impatient and sometimes even get angry. That was what happened when Silverman accidentally blew a line during one of her scenes. She recalls being in bed with Richards and talking about the weather that was keeping him awake. Her line was "It was probably the wind," but Silverman accidentally said, "It was probably the rain." 

As Silverman recalls, Richards completely flew off the handle when she did this. He was very unprofessional. This caused Silverman to confront him on set the following day. And rightfully so. It sounds like he needed to be called out.

When Silverman flubbed her line — a very common occurrence on any TV set — Richards got so mad he broke character. In her words:

"This guy, Michael Richards, breaks character and just starts ripping me a new a**hole. [...] He points to the window and he goes, 'Do you see rain in that window? Do you see rain in that window?' and I go, 'No,' and he says, 'Then why did you say rain?' It's not rain. There's no rain in that window! The line is 'wind!'"

The explosion startled Silverman, and she remembers feeling ashamed. It wasn't until later in the day that she realized she had been treated unjustly. She figured that Richards was allowed to yell at his co-star because he was incredibly famous and fetched a high salary. "He even gets a standing ovation when he enters the room," she recalled. "No one calls him on his s***." Silverman had another scene with Richards the following day. When she arrived on set, Silverman was startled to find that Richards was in a jaunty, upbeat mood and didn't mention his explosion from the previous day. In the middle of their conversation, though, Silverman recalls interrupting him, unable to let his blow-up go unmentioned: 

"I just cut him off and I say, 'I don't give a f***!' [...] And he's kind of stunned, and it's like he snapped out of it a little. He understand what I was saying was, 'You don't talk like that and act like nothing happened. I'm not going to be one of those people that joins in and acts like nothing happened. That was s***ty behavior.'"

Richards, to his credit, was humbled by Silverman's confrontation. She said that they parted on the set on well-enough terms, and they even talked over the phone a few times, always friendly. Richards clearly felt guilty about his explosion, and Silverman was right to call him out.