Jerry
Seinfeld,
straight
from graduation at Queens College, tried
out at an open mic night at New York's
Catch A Rising Star in 1976. Soon after,
he was appearing in a Rodney Dangerfield
HBO special.
Seinfeld had a small recurring role as
"Frankie" on the Benson sitcom in 1979,
but was abruptly fired from the show.
A few years later, in May of 1981,
Seinfeld made a highly successful
appearance on Johnny Carson's Tonight
Show. Seinfeld then became a regular on
similar shows, including Late Night with
David Letterman and the Merv Griffin
Show.
Seinfeld
created The Seinfeld Chronicles with
Larry David in 1989 for NBC. The show
was later renamed simply Seinfeld and
became one of the most popular and
successful sitcoms on American
television. The show left the air in
1998. As of 2004, the show was still
receiving heavy airplay in syndication.
The show also starred Saturday Night
Live veteran Julia Louis-Dreyfus, as
well as Michael Richards and Jason
Alexander.
In 1998, Seinfeld went on tour and
recorded a comedy special entitled "I'm
Telling You for the Last Time". An album
of the same name was also released that
year, and it featured samples of his
stand-up performance.
After his sitcom went off the air,
Seinfeld returned to stand-up comedy.
The process of developing new material
was chronicled in a 2002 documentary,
Comedian, directed by Christian Charles.
Jerry Seinfeld has written a few books,
mostly archives of past routines. Though
he has never admitted it, Seinfeld is
also widely believed to be the
ghostwriter of the popular Ted L. Nancy
book series. |
