Nostalgia mongering is a scary, scary thing, and Seinfeld might just become its latest victim.
We’ve got a remake of Mean Girls in theaters at the moment, Disney is obsessed with making live-action versions of all its classics, Warner Bros. is remaking Harry Potter, Frasier got a revival, and soon Seinfeld might get a final chance at Goodbye.
The word comes from Jerry Seinfeld himself, the lead actor and co-creator of the sitcom, who revealed back in October that he and other co-creator Larry David “have been thinking” about revisiting the American television phenomenon and doing “something” about that ending. The clip has now resurfaced online, as fans speculate what shape Seinfeld’s “secret” could take.
Comedy’s most ambiguous conclusion
Seinfeld revolutionized its genre, but the show’s finale left many dissatisfied. Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer end the show in a prison cell after being convicted of violating a “Duty to Rescue” law when they witness and fail to help a man being carjacked.
The point of the episode was to subvert the typical tropes of sitcom endings such as a group getaway, a big move, or an intense romantic conclusion. It flirts with those concepts throughout its 60-minute runtime, only to throw everything out the window with a lengthy trial featuring fan-favorite series guests as character witnesses, and a perplexing final scene where the gang hangs around a prison cell talking, in true Seinfeld fashion, about nothing.
While the idea was bold and admirable, its execution left a sour taste in the mouths of those who had been following the lives of those characters for nine years. The episode was far from the sentimental farewells that defined the format, choosing to instead highlight its core four’s selfishness and detachment throughout the series’ run.
Could Seinfeld get a new ending?
Seinfeld’s exact words were, “I have a little secret for you about the ending. But I can’t really tell it, because it’s a secret. Here’s what I’ll tell you… something is going to happen that has to do with that ending. (It) hasn’t happened yet. Just what you are thinking about, Larry [David] and I have also been thinking about.”
The leading theory is that it might all just be for a Super Bowl ad. The final game of the NFL season, which has turned into a major television event in the past few decades, is coming up in February, and it always features at least a couple of major pop culture reunions.
Fans are also theorizing it could be related to the final season of Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm, which is signing off for good in less than a month. The biggest dent to this theory is the finale of the show’s seventh season which already delivered on the Seinfeld reunion front.
Most of the season, which uses a meta approach to storytelling by fictionalizing the life of its creator, was dedicated to Larry finally agreeing to do a reunion of what is still his most successful creation to date. Would it really make sense to rehash that storyline?
It’s been nearly three months since Seinfeld teased this mysterious venture and the only word we’ve had since came from Elaine actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who told the Guardian, also back in October, she had no idea “what the hell [her cast mate was] talking about.” Is it time we curb our enthusiasm?
