Behind the Scenes Stories from ‘Seinfeld’

4. The Writers Would Play In the Gilligan’s Island Set During Breaks

According to Jeff Schafer, break time sounded pretty entertaining. “So we’re all sitting around, and we decided to get like a Cushman [utility vehicle] like what traffic cops have, and we ended up buying it and getting it painted with like a big mouth and evil grin. The Radford lot used to have the old set of where ‘Gilligan’s Island’ was, so we would drive it into Gilligan’s lagoon.”

5. Elaine’s Dance Moves Were a Majorly Doubted Move

Elaine’s crazy dancing is one of the most memorable moments of her character, but initially not everyone thought it was a good idea. In fact some people thought it was a terrible idea…including Larry David. Says Spike Feresten: “I remember walking through at rehearsal. Jennifer Crittenden pulled me aside after Julia [Louis-Dreyfus] did the dance for the first time and said, ‘Are you sure about this? Are you sure you’re not ruining Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ career?’ ‘No, I’m not.’ That’s the year she won an Emmy.”

6. Audience Participation

Generally the audience doesn’t get an input in writing the show, but one person did. During “The Junior Mint” episode Jerry can’t recall the name of a woman he dated but knew it rhymed with a body part. Originally there were going to keep the name a mystery until an audience member shouted out “Dolores” which made everyone laugh, so they went with it.