Television shows end. It’s the natural life cycle of entertainment and while most series meet their end due to cancellation and don’t necessarily get to end things on their own terms, some series do get the rare luxury choosing their own end. Usually, that’s a good thing. Knowing the end is coming and by choice allows the writers and creators a chance to craft a finale that wraps things up and closes the book as it were. However, sometimes even series that choose their own endings leave things in a place that divides fans — and one such show that was pretty much perfect for the duration of its run announced its ending 28 years ago today.
On December 26, 1997, Jerry Seinfeld announced that the series he created and stared in, Seinfeld, would be ending its legendary run at the end of its then-current ninth season. At the time, Seinfeld was the most popular shows on television and a major component of NBC’s Thursday night “Must See TV” block. With that block of television being so profitable for the network, NBC didn’t exactly want Seinfeld to end, but Jerry Seinfeld was ready to go out on top, but the finale would ultimately be controversial for decades.
The “Show About Nothing” Ended in Jail Time (Yes, Really)
In the series finale, “The Finale,” which would ultimately air on May 14, 1998, Jerry (Seinfeld), George (Jason Alexander), Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), and Kramer (Michael Richards) end up arrested having violated a Good Samaritan law when, after an emergency plane landing in Massachusetts, witness a carjacking but don’t do anything to help. Instead, they make jokes about the victim and Kramer even films the theft on his camcorder. The group ends up going to trial and just about everyone they’ve met over the previous nine years arrive to testify about how they’re bad people. The end up convicted of criminal indifference and sentenced to a year in prison. The series ends with them in jail, awaiting transport, with Elaine considering making a phone call and Jerry and George discussing a button on his shirt — a conversation they’ve had before. A closing scene saw Jerry performing a prison stand-up comedy show.
The episode was controversial even at the time of its broadcast. First, it was a much longer episode than normal, with a total runtime of around 56 minutes (roughly two episodes long) so that they could fit in all of the cameo appearances. The larger issue, however, is that many found the episode to not be very funny, with very limited jokes and, the few jokes that were in the episode weren’t necessarily very good. There was also concern that having the characters end up punished for their bad behavior undermined the suffering and penalties they’d already paid in various previous episodes.
But not everyone felt the same way. While many felt the finale was bad and didn’t really “stick the landing” as it were for the long-running show, series writer Larry David has always stood buy it as a solid ending and some fans do feel the same way. There are those that feel like “The Finale” is actually a fitting way for things to go out, highlighting that the primary characters in Seinfeld are fundamentally flawed and not very good people, even if they are ultimately entertaining.
The Seinfeld Finale Was So Divisive, Another Show “Fixed” It Years Later
What’s especially interesting about the Seinfeld finale is that it’s divisiveness actually led to it being “fixed” years later — on a different series. The final episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Seinfeld co-creator Larry David’s series. That finale saw David’s on-screen persona tried for breaking an election law and being sent to prison, but instead of staying behind bars like the Seinfeld crew, it’s Jerry Seinfeld himself that arrives and lets Larry out, telling him that there was actually a mistrial and he can go. When Jerry tells Larry that “you don’t want to end up like this, nobody wants to see it. Trust me,” Larry replies, “This is how we should have ended the finale.”
The ending makes for a tidy way to close out Curb Your Enthusiasm while offering a nod to the controversial nature of Seinfeld’s finale decades earlier. It also offers up a nice bit of closure for Seinfeld fans as well and while it will never undo the disappointing end to one of television’s greatest series, it works and more than that, it serves as a bit of redemption. The Curb Your Enthusiasm finale was met with great critical acclaim. It wasn’t lost on viewers or critics that the finale serves as a final word on Seinfeld’s ending — and this time around, many felt that they got it exactly right.
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