Watch the Tonight Show Sketch that Birthed Seinfeld’s Kramer

Sitcom history could have looked a lot different if it hadn’t been for a 1989 episode of The Tonight Show.

If just one or two things had gone even slightly differently, Michael Richards might never have been cast as Cosmo Kramer on Seinfeld. A different Kramer would be a worse Kramer—Richards’ performance is manifestly an all-timer—and the series itself might not have become the runaway success it was, propelling its four stars into the stratosphere and reshaping the comedy landscape entirely.

At the time of his Tonight Show bit, Richards wasn’t a total unknown. He was one of the cast members of the ABC sketch show Fridays (along with a young Larry David) and had popped up in bit parts on various hit ’80s shows, from Cheers to Miami Vice.

Jerry Seinfeld had witnessed some of the tapings of Fridays and had been impressed by Richards. But it was the March 2, 1989 episode of The Tonight Show, with guest host Jay Leno filling in for Johnny Carson, that cemented it in Seinfeld’s head that there was only one possible actor to play the role of Kramer (then named “Kessler” in the script) in his upcoming pilot, The Seinfeld Chronicles.

Richards had performed as “Dick Williams”—a clumsy ladies’ man character that perfectly showcased the actor’s physical comedy skills—on Fridays. For The Tonight Show, he turned Dick into a Hollywood fitness guru with all the jerkiness, full-body slapstick, and physics-defying movements that would make Richards a superstar. (The actor was even sporting the same necklace on The Tonight Show that he would wear for 178 episodes of Seinfeld.)

It’s not quite Kramer—but, damn, it’s nearly Kramer. 

“It was definitely when I saw Michael do Dick Williams, a Hollywood fitness guru, on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno that I fell hopelessly, forever in love with him,” Seinfeld wrote in his foreword to Richards’ autobiography, Entrances and Exits. “The furrowed ‘trying to seem handsome’ brow; the tension through the neck, arms, and shoulders to appear muscular; the black shoes and socks; the smooth, playboy style of walking. It was over for me.”

The Seinfeld Chronicles pilot filmed less than two months later, and during that time, Seinfeld danced the dance of keeping his options open. “I went through the multi-layered network audition process so that Larry [David], Castle Rock, and NBC could imagine I would even consider another actor,” Seinfeld wrote. “Not for an instant. It was all a charade as far as I was concerned.”

If Richards hadn’t been on that episode of The Tonight Show, would Seinfeld have been so steadfastly convinced? Could another actor in the role have meant a Kramer who walked through doors in a normal manner? And how different might TV history have turned out without Richards’ incredible decision to appear on The Tonight Show, playing a fitness guru, wearing dress shoes and smoking a cigarette? 

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