Prognosis Negative

The book "Top of the Rock", about the glory days of NBC ('80's & '90's) came out on Monday. I didn't realize it when I bought it, but it's an oral history! And you know how big of a fan I am of that format.

I've been plowing through it and it is very enjoyable, which isn't surprising since I grew up during the time it covers and watched every single one of NBC's shows back then.

I've seen a lot of excerpts from the book in magazines and various websites. Well, I just got through the Seinfeld portion, and there's some good stuff that I haven't seen reported on. Here's one:

Jason Alexander hated acting with "Susan". He said their styles were a bad match and he couldn't stand doing scenes with her. He was pissed that the other cast members didn't understand what he was talking about because George and Susan's scenes were almost always just between the two of them. 

Then one episode Susan had scenes with Jerry and Elaine. Afterwards, the three of them (Jason, Julia, and Jerry), and Larry went to eat together. Jerry brought up that Susan was kinda hard to act with. Alexander got upset, that's what I've been telling you!

Julia agreed, and said "I just want to kill her".

And that's when Larry got the idea to kill her off before she and George could get married, which they did with the shitty envelopes.

I was surprised at how candid Alexander was about the whole thing. It can't be good form to talk shit about people you work with, though he was clearly trying to be as nice as he could be. But still, pretty interesting.

Anyway, I recommend the book.