Movies - TV
Seinfeld's Elaine Almost Didn't Exist According To Jason Alexander
By TRAVIS YATES
“Seinfeld” finished its 2nd season as NBC's 46th-rated show, but a few seasons later it was the top show on television and a pop-culture giant. Its success was due to the show’s clever writing and chemistry between the main characters, Jerry Seinfeld, George Costanza, Cosmo Kramer, and Elaine Benes, but one of those characters was never supposed to be on the show.
Jason Alexander, who played George, revealed, “There was no Elaine in the pilot. It was Kramer, George, Jerry, and a waitress [...] at the coffee shop. A very fine actress [Lee Garlington] who made the critical error of suggesting to Larry [David] that she, she'd looked at the scenes overnight and made a few tweaks that she wanted to share with him.”
When the show's 2nd episode aired as part of a four-episode NBC late-season replacement, Claire was replaced with Jerry's ex-girlfriend-turned-friend, Elaine. With all due respect to Garlington, Julia Louis-Dreyfus' Elaine is a big reason “Seinfeld” is one of the greatest shows in history, and the actress was nominated for an Emmy seven consecutive times, winning in 1996.