Nine seasons of Seinfeld is already a testament to the sitcom’s success, and the most evident reason why fans loved it is because of the story’s relatable scenarios. This is why Larry David was so furious when NBC decided to cut off one iconic episode—but this did not happen as he threatened to leave the show if they wouldn’t release it.
Season 2 gave us The Chinese Restaurant episode, the story that the network found too boring and plotless. The viewers’ reaction towards it said otherwise, and we’re just so glad David and his team fought to keep it.
Larry David looks back on the Seinfeld episode that almost didn’t make it
The Chinese Restaurant was a special episode of Seinfeld as it brought changes to the show’s direction and established why it’s “a show about nothing.” In this bottle episode, we see Jerry, Elaine, and George going to a Chinese restaurant and waiting to get a table. Over the course of their stay inside the premises, so many things were happening all at once, and yet, they weren’t exactly grand ones.
The host told them to wait for five to ten minutes, and within that period, Elaine tried to convince her pals to look for another place. George, on the other hand, wanted to use the telephone booth to settle things with his girlfriend, and then there’s Jerry trying to recall the name of a woman he thought was familiar.
Nothing spectacular happened in this episode, hence NBC’s argument not to release it. But, what’s special about this whole scenario is that every single person who has watched it could definitely relate to it. We’ve all experienced waiting at a restaurant and trying to do something else to kill time. We’ve seen other people who just arrived secure immediate seats, stirring our annoyance on top of our hunger.
Larry David looked back on this episode of Seinfeld in his interview for Rolling Stone and revealed the network’s disapproval of it. “NBC didn’t want to run that show, and they changed the order that it was written in. I think it was supposed to go much earlier, but they delayed it. They didn’t like it,” he stated.
Surprisingly, it was well-received by fans, and even though NBC told them never to repeat the same kind of story, they were stubborn enough to create The Parking Garage, another bottle episode from Season 3.
NBC made the right choice to air The Chinese Restaurant
Show co-creator Jerry Seinfeld remarked on the rigorous process they went through to get the episode out. The Chinese Restaurant became a pivotal point for the series as it was for the network to believe they didn’t understand what David and Seinfeld were trying to do, but they worked so hard they just had to trust them.
NBC aired the episode without any alterations. It also took less time to film as compared with other regular episodes, therefore saving them a lot of money.
Seinfeld is currently available to watch on Netflix.
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