When the producers of Seinfeld approached Jerry Stiller about playing a recurring role on their show, they had to overcome an initial problem: Stiller had never heard of it.
“They said they want you to play the father of George Costanza on Seinfeld, and I said, ‘Who’s Seinfeld?’” Stiller told Pioneers of Television, per The Hollywood Reporter.
Stiller’s reps assured him the sitcom was very funny and not only that, very popular as well. “And I said, ‘Well, I am in a Broadway show. I am about to rehearse. I pass.”
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What?
Stiller repeated himself. “I pass. I don’t want to do it.”
And that’s how actor John Randolph ended up as George Costanza’s first TV father. Randolph knew something about being a comedy dad — he was also Clark Griswold’s pop in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.
Everyone thought Randolph was a swell guy, but something felt off. Jason Alexander noted that George’s initial TV dad was too “WASPy” and even worse, “he didn’t look like a Costanza,” according to ScreenRant. Randolph’s take on the role was almost the complete opposite of Stiller’s, a mild-mannered, passive personality to contrast with his domineering wife, Estelle.
Larry David and company decided Randolph’s version of the character wasn’t Seinfeldian enough and returned to Stiller six months after his Broadway show had closed. This time, Stiller accepted, even though he wasn’t nuts about David’s suggestion that he wear a bald cap to match George’s receding hairline.
“We started rehearsing the first show, and (Estelle) is screaming at me all the time, and I am taking it,” Stiller remembered. The interaction didn’t feel true, and worse, it didn’t feel funny. “I said to myself, ‘I am going to get fired the same way as the other guy because nothing is happening on stage.’”
So Stiller improvised once Frank and Estelle got in front of a live audience. “She started screaming at me, and I out of instinct, instead of just saying my lines, I (screamed back),” he said.
“You’re the one who slept in bed with him!” Stiller as Frank Costanza ranted. “You made sandwiches for him every day and night! You cuddled him! You turned him into a dependent!”
The audience roared, and David realized he had the character all wrong. He told Seinfeld they needed to keep Stiller’s aggro approach to the role.
Alexander got in on the act, telling Stiller to give him a whack on the forehead when George asks to borrow his car. When that got a big laugh, Estelle Harris asked, “Can I hit him too?” David laid down a rule — only one parent at a time could smack George.
“And that was the beginning of Frank Costanza,” Stiller remembered. “We established the character.”
David gave in to one more suggested Costanza change from Stiller, too: “Of course, get rid of the wig, just leave your hair.”
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