Faloonery

Seinfeld's reruns have made Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David hundreds of millions of dollars. Jason Alexander, who played George, says he has made less than $200,000 from them. That gap is part of why the show ended. In the video below, Alexander explains why George, Elaine and Kramer stopped wanting more seasons. In 1997, Seinfeld was the biggest comedy on TV. NBC offered Jerry $5 million an episode, about $110 million, for a tenth season. He said no. Every year before the Christmas break, Jerry asked his three co-stars if they wanted to keep going. In season 9, they all said it was done. Alexander, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Michael Richards were not partners in syndication. The reruns would pay Jerry and Larry for life. Not them. "Seinfeld wasn't going to be the annuity for us that it was going to be for Jerry and Larry," Alexander says. Every new season tied them tighter to one character. "We were going to contribute to our own eventual demise as actors." The case for Jerry: he and Larry created the show and owned it. The cast signed their deals and were paid well, reportedly $600,000 an episode by the end. Before the final taping, the four of them held hands backstage like every week. They called it the circle of power. Jerry said: "For the rest of our lives, when anyone thinks of one of us, they will think of all four of us." Alexander says they walked out looking like they'd been hit by a truck. So should Jerry have shared the reruns with George, Elaine and Kramer?