Jerry Seinfeld is still embarrassed by Seinfeld's botched finale
26 years later, the sitcom star admits the ending wasn't great. But…
Regrets ? No ! On the other hand, Jerry Seinfeld is perfectly lucid about the end of his sitcom. “The Finale” – which aired on May 14, 1998 – attracted 76 million viewers in the United States. More than Friends (52 million)! However, according to general opinion, Seinfeld missed its conclusion.
“I'm still a little embarrassed by this ending, it's true” confess Jerry Seinfeldwhen GQ asked him the question, 26 years later. “Now I don't believe in regret”, he clarifies immediately. “I think it's arrogant to think we could have done something different. We could not. That's why we did what we did…”
The actor still admits to having had difficulty coping with the bad reviews at the time: “We were affected by some of the things people said. That our characters were too selfish. But criticism is an essential part of comedy, since Shakespeare and always. You can't make comedy without selfish people. That’s what people identify with.”
Ultimately, Jerry Seinfeld would certainly have preferred to end on a note Mad Men – which ended in May 2015 – which he considers “Greatest series finale of all time.”
He details: “We were talking about it one day with Jeff Schaffer and Larry David. We were discussing which finales we thought were great and I think Mad Men was the best. A lot of people like Bob Newhart or The Mary Tyler Moore Show. I think that Mad Men was the best series finale I've ever seen. So satisfying.”
