Jerry Seinfeld Says ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ Finale Cameo Elevated ‘Seinfeld’ Conclusion: “We’re in the Conversation Now”

Jerry Seinfeld was delighted to join his friend Larry David for Curb Your Enthusiasm‘s finale, the comedian said this week, adding that the series’ Seinfeld tie-in helped elevate his own show’s conclusion.

“I think connecting the two finales [was the way to go],” Seinfeld told Vanity Fair. When Curb Your Enthusiasm concluded earlier this month, its series finale mirrored many of the details from Seinfeld‘s 1998 finale, with both shows featuring their main characters on trial for breaking a recondite local law. Seinfeld‘s final episode was written by David, and Seinfeld returned to play himself for the final installment of Curb.

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Seinfeld said this week he told David yes right away upon being approached with the idea. “That just seemed like nothing but fun,” he said. “And I just love hanging out with Larry. We always just laugh all day long.”

Plus, Seinfeld said he felt the connection between their two shows strengthened the finale of Seinfeld, which landed controversially upon its release 25 years ago and had divided audiences ever since.

“We were talking that day a lot about who has the best series finale episode,” Seinfeld said. “I personally favor the Mad Men one. I thought The Sopranos was great. Bob Newhart was great. And ours was not thought of as great. But I think now we’re in the conversation because we connected the two TV series 25 years apart. And to do that, you have to have two people playing themselves. I played myself in my show and he played himself in his show. And then you need 25 years separation. I think we’re in the conversation now for one of the better ones, when we used to be for one of the not-so-good ones.”

Executive producer Jeff Schaffer also previously told The Hollywood Reporter that Seinfeld was “so excited” when filming the Curb finale and reuniting with David. “When we finished shooting that jail scene [with Seinfeld and David], he was so jazzed about it and he said, ‘This is amazing. This is a joke that is 26 years in the making.’ I’m just glad we all stayed in showbiz long enough to actually pull this off.”

Schaffer also shared that Mad Men‘s finale served as inspiration for Curb‘s creative team.

“We made sure when we were doing this that it didn’t end in the jail. It didn’t end with Larry and Jerry tying up the career stuff. We wanted to end with all of our cast,” Schaffer said of ending the show on a scene with the ensemble. “I remember when Jackie [Schaffer, his wife] and I were in the final season of The League, we were talking to Matthew Weiner about the finale of Mad Men and he said one of his big regrets was that the final shooting scene of Mad Men didn’t have all the cast together. Jon [Hamm] was in California and this and that. So we we really remembered that. It was very important here that the final day, whatever it was, had all of our cast together to celebrate an amazing accomplishment.”

Previously, Seinfeld told GQ that he thought the finale “was just the coolest, wildest, most remarkable thing,” adding, “What you have there is a joke that was set up 25 years ago and then paid off 25 years later! How do you even describe something like that?”

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