Jerry Seinfeld Considered Making 'Seinfeld' Sequel ‘Mrs. Seinfeld’

Once Jerry Seinfeld decided to sit on his billion bucks, riding around in cars with comedians drinking coffee, he left the sitcom world behind for good. But that doesn’t mean he wasn’t tempted to try his luck again. When he got together with Larry David and the Seinfeld cast to record DVD commentary for that show’s final season, the gang had so much fun that “we thought, ‘We should do some more shows,’” he told Empire in 2008. 

It was a more than idle speculation. The comedian revealed he had a specific idea in mind for his Seinfeld follow-up. “The show that should follow my show should be an examination of having a wife. And it should be called Mrs. Seinfeld,” he said. “Because I know a lot of married guys, you know, and there’s so much material about being married and I’d love to do a show like that. It would be set in the same universe as Seinfeld, but ten years later.”

Mrs. Seinfeld! That sure as heck would have been a departure from the original sitcom, in which serial dater Jerry went through an amazing 73 romantic interests. (Thankfully, he never picked up any of his fictional girlfriends from high school.) He never got close to a serious relationship with any of them — only five showed up in more than one episode. The closest any gal got to tying Jerry down was probably Meryl (Courtney Cox), who pretended to be Mrs. Seinfeld to get a discount on dry cleaning. Ah, romance. 

Maybe he could have married Elaine Benes, Jerry’s one-time girlfriend with whom he occasionally engaged in just-friends hanky-panky. Considering the show’s premise that all four of the main cast members were unlikable jerks at heart, a Jerry/Elaine pairing would likely have been miserable. 

Seinfeld himself must have known that Mrs. Seinfeld would have been doomed. “We won’t,” he confessed to Empire. “I’ll never do it.”

But the comic wasn’t done with the idea that marriage had a lot of comedy potential. Less than two years after telling Empire about Mrs. Seinfeld, he launched The Marriage Ref, a reality series in which a panel of celebrities — sometimes including Seinfeld himself — helped squabbling couples resolve their marital troubles. 

It’s hard to say who hated The Marriage Ref more, critics or viewers. Derided as “painful and pointless,” The Guardian noted that the show “has been so thoroughly panned by critics its future looks in doubt even before it begins.” AV Club gave the show an F grade, while NPR called it “painfully bad.”

Fourteen million Seinfeld fans showed up for the first episode, but that number was down to 6.5 million by its fourth installment. The show got its butt kicked regularly by mediocre dramas The Mentalist and Private Practice. 

To make matters worse, one Marriage Ref contestant went on Good Morning America to complain that Jerry Seinfeld ruined his marriage, issuing “a warning to other people out there that reality shows have consequences.”

Juicy! Sounds like appearing on The Marriage Ref could have made a hilarious episode of Mrs. Seinfeld.