If all TV production stopped today and no new TV shows were ever created, then every TV lover in the world were asked to name the greatest show in the history of television, there’s a damn decent chance that “Seinfeld” would come out on top. Rewatchable, hilarious, and totally singular, it remains a miracle more than 25 years after it went off the air. So much of that is attributed to the core ensemble cast made up of Jerry Seinfeld (Jerry), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Elaine), Jason Alexander (George), and Michael Richards (Kramer). For nearly all of the show’s 180 episodes, this group anchored the classic sitcom. We say almost because there was one episode that Alexander sat out.
Like many great shows, “Seinfeld” took a couple of seasons to find its footing. By season 3, though, it was fully off to the races. That season contains several classic episodes, including the third episode, the 20th of the show overall, titled “The Pen.” While fans have come to adore the episode in the years since it first aired, it’s the only episode of the entire nine-season run to not feature Alexander’s George Costanza.
“The Pen” is considered to be one of the show’s most underrated episodes. In it, Jerry and Elaine visit Jerry’s parents in Florida, where Jerry’s father is being honored by his condo association. During dinner, Jerry becomes enchanted by a special astronaut’s pen owned by one of the association members. Jerry later accepts it as a gift, which sets off a great deal of tension with his parents, who believe he should have refused. Hilarity ensues, with George sitting on the sidelines.
Jason Alexander wasn’t happy about being written out of The Pen
As mentioned, this is the only episode out of 180 that George doesn’t appear in. Richards’ Kramer also sat this one out, with the actor only missing out on two during the show’s historic run overall. (Kramer was also absent from the season 2 episode “The Chinese Restaurant.”) Fans will care to note that the absences of those characters occurred relatively early on in the show’s run. There’s a good reason for that.
Larry David, of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” fame, was the creative driving force behind “Seinfeld” alongside the titular comedian. It turns out that Alexander wasn’t particularly happy about being written out of “The Pen” and, as the story goes, the actor let David know just how unhappy he was. In a 2016 interview, Alexander explained that he told David in no uncertain terms that this would be the last time he was written out of the show, or he wouldn’t be part of it in the future.
“You wrote me out of the show. I only want to be here if I’m indispensable […] If you do it again, do it permanently,” Alexander told him. That was that. George was in every episode from then on out. “Seinfeld” remained a massive hit, with the cast earning huge paydays over the rest of the show’s run. They’re still benefiting to this day, with the streaming rights selling to Netflix several years back, and the cable rights going to Comedy Central in 2023. Fortunately for all involved, the episode turned out great, David and Seinfeld never wrote out any of the main characters again, and the show sailed smoothly from then on out … save for the finale, but that’s another story entirely.
“Seinfeld” is currently streaming on Netflix.