Not many will make it to this page so here's some inside info for those of you who do.
From the episode "The Pilot"
Look closely, the guy to the left of NBC President Russell D.
Why it's none other than...
Larry David
Episode # 114 THE GUM
Although Mr. Seinfeld came up two years behind Mr. David in the club
scene, he quickly leapfrogged over his elder, winning gigs in Vegas and
on The Tonight Show, and suddenly found himself making about $15.000 a performance.
While Mr. David was toughing out the comedy clubs and Jersey dives to make
his meager living as he lived in the Federally subsidized Manhattan Plaza
building for performing artists on West 43rd Street, Mr. Seinfeld was making
the audience into an instant ally and living in plush rooms on the road.
When NBC asked Mr. Seinfeld to do a sitcom pilot, he decided to turn to
the madman he knew from the clubs. It was the new odd couple: the confident
professional and the insecure artists, and it took NBC a while to believe
in this comedy team.
"After the first shows were tested," said Mr. Kramer, who acts
as Mr. David's very own Boswell, "there was this big meeting, with
[NBC executive] Warren Littlefield and the Castle Rock team, with Rob Reiner
and Glenn Padnick. The show didn't test well, and they had suggestions.
After the meeting, out in the parking lot, Larry said, 'That's shit, that
not the show I came out here to make. This is not for me. Goodbye.' To his
everlasting credit, Jerry said, 'I'm sticking with Larry. If Larry said
he doesn't like those notes, I'm backing him.' Any other comic would have
said, 'Don't worry about Larry, let's get this done.' So Jerry gets Larry
back and they didn't accede to NBC's demands. NBC wanted to have Jerry get
engaged to Elaine, you know, make it the nice sappy bullshit that a sitcom
is supposed to be. And to Larry's credit, he fights like a maniac for what
he believes in."
For once, the maniac won out. Mr. David's private fantasy world, forged
over long years of bombing in clubs and as a sketch writer, finally connected
with the audience it never could find. Credit Mr. Seinfeld for making Mr.
David's dark musings palatable and presentable, but Mr. David was the man
behind the Seinfeld curtain. Larry David's version of Seinfeld, now available
only as a rerun at 11 P.M. in New York and no longer as a first-run show
on NBC, is news that stays news, showing what lengths an alienated city
dweller will go to for good soup, good sex and a good scam.
