'Seinfeld' Fans Will Have to Wait a Bit Longer for Netflix Streaming Premiere
Seinfeld fans will have to be patient when to their next binge session. As previously announced in [...]
Seinfeld fans will have to be patient when to their next binge session. As previously announced in 2019, the classic sitcom will be leaving Hulu, which it has called home for five years, at midnight on June 23, leaving the streaming service for rival Netflix. However, Vulture's Buffering reported Thursday that it won't be an immediate turnover, citing industry insiders who said Netflix won't be rolling out Seinfeld on its platform until closer to the fall — September at the earliest — leaving the show without a streaming home for months.
While Buffering didn't have a concrete reason for the delay, there's speculation that the few months will allow Netflix to build a new marketing campaign for its global streaming rights of the show. With things beginning to open back up for summer, it's also possible that the streamer is waiting until people are ready to settle back into their couches for a binge session rather than getting back out into the world as the coronavirus pandemic begins to wind down in the U.S.
During the pandemic, two of the sitcom's biggest stars, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Jason Alexander, reunited for an Instagram Live session as part of the Veep actress' fundraising efforts for COVID relief. Before the reunion, Louis-Dreyfus and Alexander prepared by watching two classic episodes, "The Contest" and "The Chinese Restaurant," the latter of which featured all four main characters waiting in the lobby for the entire episode.
"It was really like doing an unrehearsed play," Alexander recalled of filming the beloved and unique episode. "You had a couple of moments that made me laugh out loud," he added, saying it was the most memorable episode of the series he ever filmed. "I remember feeling like it was like the inmates running the asylum," Louis-Dreyfus added of embracing such an odd format for the sitcom. "It was a real feeling of 'f— it, we're just gonna do this.'"
When it comes to iconic moments, Louis-Dreyfus said the most common fan interaction she gets is when people walk up to her in public and ask, "Can you spare a square?" in reference to the classic episode "The Stall," in which her character Elaine discusses public bathroom etiquette at length. Another popular request is Elaine's painfully awkward dance, she added.