Jerry Seinfeld was originally on the path to be an unmemorable character actor, got fired from "Benson"
Jerry Seinfeld is one of the best known names in American comedy, but his career was originally on a different path, which would have deprived the world of his award winning '90s TV show.
Seinfeld originally wanted to be an actor, and was attending New York's Queens College, studying theater and communications. While in college, he started to develop a moderate interest in stand up comedy, and started appearing at local open mic nights. While enjoying some local success in New York, his stand up career seemed to be going nowhere, and the 26-year-old Seinfeld put his focus back upon acting.
In 1980, he landed a part-time role on the second season of political comedy Benson, which starred Robert Guillame. Seinfeld played a character named Frankie, which was somewhat based on his real self. Frankie was a mail room delivery boy who thought he was a stand up comedian, and tried out his routine on others in the governor's mansion, much to their chagrin. He appeared in just 3 episodes, for about a minute each, but he was originally told the character would be a recurring one for a long time. You can see the entirety of his performances on the show below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMcyDSLoIvU
If you noticed Seinfeld was a stilted, jerky actor, you're not alone. That's also what producers noticed, and they weren't happy with his performance. They attempted to give Seinfeld guidance, asking him to somewhat tone down the character and his handsy movements. Seinfeld preferred his own interpretation of the character, and was resistant to change, believing audiences would enjoy his take on Frankie.
Finally, after these three episodes, producers had enough. Seinfeld showed up on the set for an episode he was originally told he'd be in, only to find he had been written out. Strangely he was not told at first that he was fired, but rather that there was nothing for him to do in that particular episode anymore. When Seinfeld pressed and asked producers when he would be appearing next, he was finally told that they had completely written him out of the series, making him realize he had been fired.
Seinfeld left the set very bitter. He felt it was unfair that they abruptly fired him without any final warning regarding changing his portrayal of the character, and even more miffed that they did not notify him of the firing. It was his opinion that the lack of notification was a passive-aggressive move by producers, who had come to resent him for not listening to their interpretation of the Frankie character.
This soured Seinfeld on acting, and he threw himself back into stand up comedy. He was determined to develop a better and more refined routine, and hit it big in that realm. This ended up becoming increasingly successful, as Seinfeld appeared in An Evening at the Improv in 1981, and then started increasingly appearing on television comedy specials. This got him enough attetion to where he had enough clout to develop his own sitcom along with Larry David, which began airing in 1989.
If you notice that Seinfeld's acting was far better on his own TV show than on Benson nearly a decade earlier, that's also no coincidence. After he had enough time to come down from his resentment toward the Benson producers, Seinfeld came to accept the fact that he simply wasn't a very good actor. He worked with acting coaches to improve. If we are being honest here, Seinfeld was never a great actor, and his talent in that realm paled in comparison to the other actors on his show. His mediocre acting was less noticeable because he was playing somewhat a version of himself, and also was backed by excellent writing and a fine supporting cast.
In interviews, Seinfeld has occasionally acknowledged that his ill-fated appearances on Benson were actually a good thing for his career, as he would have otherwise plodded along as a minor character actor for his career, had he enjoyed enough success on that show to avoid getting fired early on. It was the firing which motivated him to reinvent himself as a stand up comedian first and an actor second.
I will reveal a few other things about Benson, unrealted to Seinfeld, in the next post.
