Comedian Jerry Seinfeld at the White House in Washington October 18, 2016. © REUTERS/James Lawler Duggan
(New York, NY) – One of the most legendary sitcoms of all time almost wasn’t — but Hollywood icon Rob Reiner helped save it. Jerry Seinfeld honored the late director and actor this week following Reiner’s murder. It was during the early hours of Sunday, December 14 when Reiner and his longtime wife Michele were killed at their home in Brentwood. Their son Nick Reiner has been charged with the crime.
Seinfeld, who’s 71 and knew Reiner for decades, posted a picture to his Instagram — it shows the comedian, Reiner, and the late Carl Reiner (Rob’s dad). The photo’s caption reads, “Next to Larry David and George Shapiro, Rob Reiner had the biggest influence on my career.” Larry David is of course the co-creator of “Seinfeld” — the legendary sitcom that ran from 1989-1998. Shapiro is Seinfeld’s longtime manager and a producer on the sitcom.
Despite its massive success and status as one of history’s great TV shows, “Seinfeld” came close to being canceled early on — according to Jerry. But Reiner used his influence in show business to make sure it stayed on the air. “He saw something no one else could. When nobody at the network liked the early episodes, he saved us from cancellation,” Seinfeld explained.
Founded in the late 1980s by Martin Shafer, Andrew Scheinman, Glenn Padnick, Alan Horn, and Rob Reiner — Castle Rock Entertainment produced “Seinfeld.” For Jerry, it was a surreal thing. “That I was working with Carl Reiner’s son, who happened to be one of the kindest people in show business, seemed unreal. I was naive at the time to how much his passion for us meant.”
What’s more, there was a special connection between Reiner, the show, and his personal life. “Rob and Michele married right as our show was starting and they became an imprint for me of how it’s supposed to work, each one broadening the other,” Seinfeld explained. “Their death, together, is impossibly sad.”
For his part, Reiner was proud to tell Howard Stern how he fought to keep the show going. It was in 2016 when he told “The Hoard Stern Show” that Castle Rock knew they had a “great show,” despite less-than-stellar ratings during the show’s earliest days. NBC was considering canceling “Seinfeld,” but Reiner persisted. “They said, ‘We can’t have this show. What is this show? It’s just people sitting around talking,'” — NBC executives mused, according to Reiner’s recollection. The director-actor got into a “screaming, crazy thing” in which he begged NBC executive Brandon Tartikoff to keep the show. “I said, ‘Please, I promise you there’ll be stories. You can’t take this show off the air. It’s going to be one of the great shows you’ve ever had,’” Reiner insisted. And, he was right.
