Maybe it’s not a great idea to dis your former coworker on a national radio show. Just ask Jason Alexander, aka George Costanza, who created a social media firestorm by saying he was happy that George’s fiancée was killed off (on screen, of course), and then tried to tweet his way out of the backlash.
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On Howard Stern’s Sirius XM radio show, Alexander was asked why the character of George’s fiancée Susan had been killed off on “Seinfeld” (she had licked their cheap wedding invitation envelopes and was poisoned by the toxic glue).
The show’s transcript and numerous media reports say Alexander and coworkers Jerry Seinfeld and Julia Louis-Dryfus, had difficulty when playing against Heidi Swenberg, the actress in the role, to get laughs from the dialogue.
On the Stern show, Alexander implied that everyone “wanted to kill her,” but did he mean Susan or Heidi? He said when Seinfeld producer, the infamous Larry David, heard these remarks, he said “Ka-bang,” and it was bye-bye to the Susan character.
Social media erupted with negative comments about Alexander’s remarks that so publicly disparaged a former colleague. Then Alexander did what most of us have done; he tried to explain his way out of the situation.
In an elaborate and apologetic tweet, calling Swenberg a “sweetheart,” he said he was actually trying to defend her and her departure by telling the story to Stern. “When the comment was made about ‘killing,’ no one was talking about the actress— they were talking about the character. And that made a creative light bulb go off apparently,” Alexander is quoted as saying by ABCNews.
He said his former cast mate is “a kind, lovely person who undoubtedly worked really hard to create [the role of] Susan.” According to ABCNews, after some post-Seinfeld success on other, (this time dramatic), series, Swenberg returned to her native Hawaii and is a music teacher.
Ironically, Alexander is taking over for Larry David, the inspiration for the self-absorbed George Constanza, in his autobiographical play on Broadway.
Hard to say which was more painful to listen to–the original interview or his later attempts to remedy the situation. Way to go, Can’t-stand-ya.
Why does everyone have to explain and apologize for everything they says these days. Come on world get over yourselves….