Jerry Seinfeld Came Up With One Iconic George Speech At The Last Minute

There are some shows that break into the cultural consciousness at the exact right time and "Seinfeld" is no doubt one of them. Creating a sitcom that serves as a pillar of television comedy whose fire can never be extinguished is a testament to the sharp writing of series co-creators Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. Over three decades on, "The Contest" is rightfully upheld as one of the funniest sitcom episodes ever produced. It's all thanks to the teamwork of the show's writers and the foursome ensemble, who were often a perfect storm of comedic genius. It's no accident that some of the funniest bits, however, emanate from Jason Alexander.

"Was that wrong; should I not have done that" is a great line to come out of George Costanza in defending his decision to have sex with the cleaning woman on his desk in "The Red Dot," but the two second pause before Alexander's earnest delivery makes it an all-timer gag. No wonder it's one of his favorite moments in the entire series. It's crazy to think that another one of George's finest hours could have been a disaster if not for Alexander's dedication to his craft.

In the season 5 episode "The Marine Biologist," the B-plot involves George getting roped into yet another lie he has to maintain in order to impress a woman, but this time, the inciting incident isn't entirely his fault. Jerry slips up and tells Diane (Rosalind Allen), George's college crush, that his best friend is a marine biologist. Of all the avenues this premise could go down, having George step up to save a beached whale is the perfect capper to the episode. The sight of him slowly walking into the ocean is very funny in its own right, but then Alexander delivers a monologue that doubles as a television miracle.

"The Marine Biologist" was written by Ron Hague and Charlie Rubin, but David and Seinfeld made an eleventh hour rewrite of the ending that gave the episode its famous punchline. They figured the monologue about George saving the whale would be the perfect opportunity to tie in the non-sequitur of Kramer (Michael Richards) hitting golf balls into the ocean. The only issue was that Alexander didn't have time to rehearse it, but according to Seinfeld, he pulled off the last minute addition like a pro (via The Hollywood Reporter):

"We show up the next day. We hand Jason, who's an effing genius, that speech. How long is that speech? It's a page, two pages. This is TV, OK? This is why film sucks. You go to a TV actor like Jason and you hand him two-and-a-half pages, and I go, 'We've got to shoot this in a half hour. Memorize it.' He goes, 'No problem.' That's TV. No preciousness."

George's monologue is one of those magic hour moments that only comes along once and if you miss it, you blow it. In that moment, Alexander has the room in his throes. The sincere wonderment on Seinfeld's face is all too real considering he was blown away that Alexander was delivering his last-minute addition as if he had the whole week to prepare. It all comes down to the reveal of the golf ball George removed from the beached whale's blowhole and Alexander's slow reveal of it in his hand is masterful comedic timing.

I'll be damned if that moment doesn't cement George as an honorary marine biologist.

You know it's a great demonstration of Alexander as an actor because someone on the internet rather amusingly removed the laugh track and replaced it with "Laura's Theme" from "Twin Peaks." The swelling of that Angelo Badalamenti track perfectly correlates with the golf ball in a fascinating example of a scene working under a whole other context. I've never been able to watch that scene in quite the same way.

Every episode of "Seinfeld" is currently streaming on Netflix.