On May 23, 1991, Seinfeld aired one of the most beloved episodes of its nine-season run. In Season 2’s “The Chinese Restaurant,” Jerry, George, and Elaine attempt to grab themselves a quick Chinese dinner, but can’t seem to get a table in a reasonable amount of time. They even try to bribe the maître d’ at one point, only to have the idea completely backfire. When the trio decides to cancel their plans and go their separate ways, Jerry’s name is finally called and, as fate would have it, they’re nowhere to be found.
Series co-creator Larry David conceived the idea for the show himself while waiting for a table with Jerry Seinfeld at the Genghis Cohen Chinese restaurant in Los Angeles. David remembered thinking that the characters having to wait in real time was a funny concept and wrote it down right then and there. Seinfeld and the other cast members loved the script, but the same cannot be said of the network heads. NBC executive Warren Littlefield, in particular, found the episode confusing and thought that the script he’d gotten was missing pages.
Larry David Threatened to Quit Over a ‘Seinfeld’ Episode NBC Thought Was About Nothing
“Nothing happens!” Littlefield recalled saying at the time. “Literally, they go to the restaurant, they stand around, they can’t get a table. Nothing happens.” Apparently, the rest of the executives felt the same way and refused to air the episode. According to Jason Alexander, they viewed the storyline as a betrayal, given that the show was still struggling in its early days. Certain that “The Chinese Restaurant” was destined to bomb, NBC didn’t end up running it until the end of the season.
David was so passionate about the episode that he reportedly threatened to quit the show in response to the pushback. Evidently, that was what eventually convinced the NBC execs to give it a shot, despite their clear disagreement with the idea. The Plan 9 from Outer Space stuff was added to the story after the fact to pad things out a bit, however. Of course, “The Chinese Restaurant” was very well received when it aired and has since been considered one of the quintessential episodes of the series.
The post 35 Years Ago, Larry David Threatened to Quit Over a ‘Seinfeld’ Episode NBC Thought Was Too Crazy to Air appeared first on VICE.
