Jerry Seinfeld jokes about rebooting Seinfeld just to remake a popular episode. It was called “a show about nothing” by its own creators, but Seinfeld was very much something throughout its run on NBC in the 1990s, dominating the Nielsen ratings and taking on iconic sitcom status.
Innumerable moments from the show’s run have now become firmly entrenched parts of the popular culture, and over 20 years after it aired its highly controversial final episode, Seinfeld continues to enjoy huge popularity. Indeed, so profitable is the show to this day that Netflix recently shelled out over $500 million just for the privilege of streaming Seinfeld reruns beginning in 2021. Given the show’s enduring appeal, it’s no surprise that creators Seinfeld and Larry David are often questioned about the possibility of a reunion, but thus far there has been no serious indication from anyone involved in the show that a Seinfeld reboot will ever come to pass.
Though a Seinfeld revival is unlikely to ever happen, Seinfeld himself is not above teasing fans by joking about the possibility of bringing the sitcom back. Indeed, that’s exactly what the comedian recently did on Twitter when he made a crack about rebooting the show just to revisit one of its most popular episodes. The tweet from Seinfeld claimed he was thinking about a reboot in order to continue the two-part episode "The Boyfriend," which famously featured one-time New York Mets first baseman and current Mets announcer Keith Hernandez. But Seinfeld wants to include a different Mets player, Pete Alonso, in the new episode – a prospect Alonso himself and the Mets seem totally down for. See the relevant tweets in the space below:
Airing during Seinfeld’s third season, "The Boyfriend" revolved largely around an incident in which Newman (Wayne Knight) and Kramer (Michael Richards) accused Hernandez (playing himself) of spitting on them after a Mets game, which among other things sparked a hilarious parody of the Oliver Stone movie JFK, as the victims attempted to get to the bottom of the mysterious spitting incident. The title “The Boyfriend” however actually referred to Hernandez dating Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), which of course caused Jerry to become jealous – because he himself wanted to be friends with Hernandez and didn't want Elaine hogging him. Co-written by David and Larry Levin, and directed by Tom Cherones, "The Boyfriend" was a typically high-rated episode for the series, pulling in a 17.0 rating overall.
Sadly for fans of Seinfeld, even though Seinfeld himself seems smitten with Mets first baseman Alonso much the same way his character was smitten with Hernandez on the show, it is again unlikely that any Seinfeld reboot is in the offing. Seinfeld seems to have firmly moved on from his time as a sitcom star, and is now content to do stand-up while producing his popular Netflix interview show Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. But thankfully, Seinfeld fans can still stream all the old episodes on Hulu, and beginning in 2021 will be able to get their fix via Netflix.
Source: Jerry Seinfeld/Twitter, Pete Alonso/Twitter, New York Mets/Twitter