Jerry Seinfeld's Two Favorite Seinfeld Episodes Are Perfect

The classic NBC sitcom "Seinfeld" has a lot of great episodes, and everyone has their favorites. Some appreciate the silly, crowd-pleasing chaos of something like the now-legendary "The Contest," while others like some of the more underrated episodes, like "The Opera" or "The Stall." But what about the folks behind "Seinfeld"? We already knew that Jason Alexander thought his best moment as his character, George Costanza, was in the Season 3 episode "The Red Dot." With that in mind, let's talk about the favorite episodes of the man behind Jerry Seinfeld himself — Jerry Seinfeld! 

In a Reddit AMA back in the mid-2010s, the stand-up comedian and actor — who played a fictionalized version of himself in the sitcom — was asked about his favorite episode of the series. In response, he shared two that he loved for very different reasons: the Season 7 episode "The Rye" and the Season 8 episode "The Pothole." While both episodes are pretty great and feature some hilarious moments with Jerry, George, Kramer (Michael Richardson), and Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), Seinfeld's reasons for loving these two were pretty personal, and it's kind of fun.

Seinfeld explained that "The Rye" was really important to himself and the rest of the cast because they filmed it at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles — something that made them all feel like they had really hit the big time. In his own words:

"We hadn't felt like a real TV show, the early years of the TV show were not successful. We had this idea of a Marble Rye and we had to shoot it in an outdoor set, and this was a very expensive thing to do, it's like a movie place there at Paramount in LA. Their standing set for New York looks exactly like it, and we thought '[T]his is where the ADULT shows are, the REAL shows like 'Murphy Brown.” We felt like we were a weird little orphan show. So that was a big deal for us. And that was very exciting, we were up all night shooting it on the set of [P]aramount and it was very exciting."

"Seinfeld" first started becoming a real hit around Season 4, but it's understandable that shows that have hit their stride still need a moment to catch on before they're granted bigger budgets. By Season 7, however, the folks at NBC were able to really give Jerry and the gang a chance to go big with their ideas. 

Seinfeld's joy on set was apparently rather contagious, and there are stories from the DVD extras for the series about him starting a snowball fight with the cast and crew using the fake snow. Though Seinfeld's character was inspired partially by series creator and perpetual curmudgeon Larry David, it sounds like the real Seinfeld was willing to let loose a little, leading to an episode that feels like something special. The other episode that Seinfeld loves, however, is a little more in line with the pettiness we know and love from his fictional counterpart. 

The other episode that really delighted Seinfeld was the Season 8 entry "The Pothole," which ends on one of the most chaotic scenes in the show's history. Namely, it concludes with Seinfeld's great nemesis, Newman (Wayne Knight), driving his mail truck (full of a shipment of fresh fish, no less) through spilled oil and a sewing machine left in the road by Kramer and Elaine, which leads to his vehicle being stranded in a ball of fire. "It was really fun to shoot, and it was fun to set Newman on fire," Seinfeld said in the AMA. "And he screamed 'oh the humanity' like from the Hindenberg disaster."

Newman screaming "Oh the humanity!" is honestly one of the great moments in "Seinfeld" history, and it makes sense that the real-life Seinfeld would have fun watching his fictional nemesis go through some trouble. Besides, Knight really sells it, and it's even funnier when Kramer offers him a ride and Newman declines because Kramer is responsible for so much of what happened to him. Of course, while "The Rye" and "The Pothole" are two of the man's favorites, there's at least one "Seinfeld" episode he's not so keen on ... but hey, they can't all be winners.