Funding for charlie rose was provided by the following theres a saying around here you stand behind what you say. Around here, we dont make excuses, we make commitments. And when you cant live up to them, you own up and make it right. Some people think the kind of accountability that thrives on so many streets in this country has gone missing in the places where its needed most. But i know youll still find it, when you know where to look. Rose additional funding provided by and by bloomberg. A provider of multimedia news and Information Services worldwide. Captioning sponsored by Rose Communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Whos on the show, who are the characters . I could be a character. You . Yeah, your basic character of me. So on the show there is a character named george costanza. Is something wrong with that, im a character. People are always saying to me, you know youre quite a character. And who else is on the show. Elaine could be a character, cramer. Now hes a character. So everybody i know is a character on the show. Right. And its about nothing. Absolutely nothing. So youre saying i go into nbc and tell them i got this idea for a show about nothing. We go into nbc. We . Since when are you a writer. Writer, were talking about a sitcom. laughter you want to go with me to nbc. Yeah, i think we really got something here opinions what have we got. An idea. What idea. An idea for the show. I still dont know what the idea is. Its about nothing. Right. Everybodys doing something. Well do nothing. So we go in to nbc, we tell them we have an idea for a show about nothing. Exactly. They say whats your show about. I say nothing. There you go. I think you may have something here. What can you say about Jerry Seinfeld that hasnt already poked fun at that he hasnt been talked about. He is a standup comedian that skewers modern life and modern problems with the deadon accuracy of a swiss watch. It comes each week with a hit nbc series that exams his work an life like the classic jack benny an persons and allen program. Seinfeld the Television Show reveals seinfeld the comedian as he starts and stumbles through friendships an bad career moves an love affairs an annoying feeling that adulthood itself is somewhat overrated. It gives a superb, you like this so far, a superb ensemble of cast, welcome. Why is the show so successful, do you think . I think its handmade. Its a sitcom that is not processed through a network, through a large studio system. Its a few people working on this thing. And were just doing what we think is funny. And the cast is amazing. Its an Amazing Group of talent. I mean each one of the people in our cast is could easily, easily hold down their own show. What holds it together . Whats the glue of this show . We, theres, the egos are in check, frankly. And i think were all happy to be doing good work. And we all have a lot of respect for each other. But the glue is larry david and myself working on every single line, every week of every show and its not delegated, and no one interferes. laughter do women know about shrinkage. What dow mean, like laundry . No. Like when a man goes swimming, afterwards. laughter it schridges . Shrinks . Like a frightened turtle. The creation of seinfeld. The creation of it. Yeah reasons how did it happen. Is that a question . Rose thats a question. Did larry come to you or did you go to larry. I didnt go to him as much as i kind of turned in the bar in catch a rising star an said hey, i had a meeting the other day with nbc. Theyre interested in me doing some kind of show. He said what kind of show. I go i dont know. I dont know. I have no ideas. I never have any ideas. I done know how i do these things, i have no ideas. Rose did you deally actually say that, i do standup and they like me. An hour goes by. He says you waj to get something to eat. I go yeah. So we go across the street to the korean deli on first avenue an 78th and wandering around those delies, they got all kinds of stuff in there. Rose and a lot of stuff on the street. A lot of stuff on the street. Sometimes theres weird stuff, like no labels just figure newtons wrap up in sell o feign with nothing, no identification. Rose you done know where it came from. You just go yeah,itys take a shot on that. So we start making fun on the product,. And he said this is what the show should be. I go what, just two comedians talking, because this is what comedians do, they Wander Around during the day with nothing to do and make fun of everything that they see. We should do a show about just two comedians walking down the street and making fun of everything. That was the genesis. Rose was he going to be one of the comedians. No. Rose he was always going to be the creator an writer along with you. Yeah. Rose an dave would be him. I mean george would be him. No. Rose no . Well, George George was originally a comedian in the beginning. And then we thought go george is a comedian then you have to see his act or you will want to see it, lets just make him a regular guy. Ill be a comediannd and hell be a regular guy. Rose but hes not david. We come up with story idea, which character could do this idea. And a lot of times larrys ideas fit gorge well. We never tried to make george into an alter ego of larry. Rose some say this was the perfect marriage, you and larry david. A magical relationship. Uhhuh. It was. Rose different sensibility. Uhhuh. But not different comedic sensibility. Different kind of guys. But he, it was one of those perfect partnerships where he saw a lot of big picture stories, he knew exactly what would be a great story for the show. He created tons of stories for the show and i had a great sense of mechanics of comedy and detail of lines and, you know, you know so we and we always, if any idea could pass through both of our filters, it would work. If i thought it was funny and he thought it was funny, it almost always was funny. And what if he thought it was funny and you didnt, you didnt go with it . It would depend, you know, in a partnership you giveandtake. But we had a great some kind of filtering system. Because thats what a sitcom is you sit in the office and writers come in all day and pitch you stories. And you have to say lets do that, lets not do that. And you were there by yourself, one persons instinct is really not good enough to churn out that amount of material. Rose but the test was you will never put anything on thats not funny. Well, as best you can. Theres no comedy is like hitting a baseball, you know. Youre just trying to improve your average, nobody hits a thousand. Rose what do they hit,. 300 . A good hitter can hit. 500,. 700. Rose what did you hit on this show. On this show, the tv show. Rose . 700. Maybe. Most of them were good. Theres very few clinkers out of the 180 shows. Rose there are people they say this is the best they have come ever. I love those people, where are those people r there any of them here. Are you one of those people . Rose do you believe it . No, i dont think things like that. My favorite. Rose you dont ever want to see it in print that you said this is the greatest. No, thats absurd sudden. Rose tell me one that is bigger than this, better. For me the honeymooners makes me laugh more. Rose really . I am im sitting here watch at you laugh out loud. Lets see if its funny in 50 years like the honeymooners, lets see. Rose thats true. Tell me how you and larry are different, are you more absurd or he more absurd. We take different position. Heres where were the same. We both love to kill it. We will work any amount of hours, our desire to avoid humiliation is so great in both of us, so desperately did not want to be embarrassed by each episode coming out this week and as the show became more popular, the danger of that became greater and greater. We kept saying oh my god this thing is getting popular. Now we have to maintain this ridiculous standard. So it became more and more terrorizing to run in front of this train. And but he has tremendous energy, tremendous fertility, comedic fertility. Tons of ideas, there are people in this world that funny things happen to. Rose and hes one of them. Hes one of them. Are you one of them . No, im not. I am the kind of person who when something funny happens to you, i know just how to tell it. Rose did you study comedy . I thats what i do. I mean no, you cant study you mean formally. I dont mean you go to school and say i want to be a comedian and how do i get a ph. D in comedy. But you looked at it in analytical eye and said why does that work and what do i have to do and where is my timing and where do i need to take it. Yes. Rose a young comedian comes to you and says tell me what do i need to do to be a comedian. Just work. Rose theres nothing you have a theory about logic and all of that and the absurd and you got to figure out a precise way to prove something thats unprovable . Orbltion, yeah, well, comedic, one of the things that a good comedian can do is take an absurd premise an prove it with rig lus logic, that sounds very logical and you take something completely factuous. Rose did you learn that somewhere or did it just sort of i kind of observed it. You know, i look at a lot of good jokes and realize that they have that in common. But as a kid i would write down jokes i would see on tv and try and figure out why they were funny. I never get tired of why is that funny. I never get tired of talking about it, or analyzing it. I am very scientific about it. Rose when you decided to end seinfeld. Yes. Rose you decided because larry had already left two years earlier. How is it different when he left . It was very different. I mean i didnt know if i could continue the show. I really was pretty scared about it. But i didnt feel the timing was right for the show to end. I felt the audience, you know, wasnt ready and i wasnt ready. So i just kind of took over the script writing. Rose an worked twice as hard. I worked twice as hard. And i would work with i would rotate groups with other writers am i would take three guys and they would be larry. Rose we cant imagine how hard it was for to you do this. It was fun. I was having fun, charlie, it wasnt you foe. Rose but jack welch toll me a story once, who was the c. E. O. Of general electric. Uhhuh. Rose i think he wrote about this too but im not sure. That he wanted you to continue tore another season. Yes. Rose and there was great fanfare about how much he offered you per episode, i saw a figure like 5 million. And i think he told me a story where he said he went to you and said you got to do this. We want to you do this. And you said look, i just cant imagine myself on Christmas Eve writing. And thats where i have been too many times. I think he had called me one time to talk about it as i was making the decision. And he was in some fabulous ski resort. Rose playing golf or tennis. And it was a sunday. And im in the office working, you know. And i said what are you doing right now, jack. He says well im at, you know, mount snow, in aspen. I said you know where i am, im in the office working, you know. But the work was never an issue with me. The work was all out of love and fun. My real reason for ending the show was i just felt that kind of a stage instinct of knowing when to say good night. And have the audience go oh, i wish it was just a little more. And then they leave the theatre and they go that was great. But if you go ten minutes too long, its amazing how it depresses that good feeling. And that was and even though were talking about years, i could just feel that moment. And gi you know what, if we leave now, the audience is going to be, you know, theres a thing that makes audiences jump up. And thats what it is, surprise them a little bit. Rose people have said it was a perfect instinct by you. Really . Rose they have. I hope theyre right. Rose theyre clearly right. Some said it will serve him the rest of his life. Johnny carson made the right choice. Uhhuh. Rose he left at just the right time. I did i did it for the audience. I thought if i leave now, theyll have this thing that they will never have to say it was good but then it started to kind of run out of gas. Rose toll me they stopped after like two years, he said he couldnt create as well as i used to. And before i got there, i could feel it but i hadnt gotten there. But i knew if we tried to do it one more time it might not be as good. I felt that. Rose it was time to go. I felt that also. Rose so what did you think you would do when you left. Oh, i didnt care. I dont care what i do. Then i cant tell you the big news. News . What news . Sorry. What . What . All right. But this is beyond news this is like pearl her per or the kennedy assassination, its like not even news, its total shock. Come on jerry, please, please, please, please. George costanza. Yeah . Is getting married we initially were pitching a show about how a comedian gets his material. So we would follow a comedian around in his daily life. We would go from the Grocery Store to the dry cleaner, maybe he would go on a datement we hang out with his friends and then at the end of the show he would do a monologue. Incorporate it into the monologue would be some of the things that we saw happen on the show. That, and thats ostensibly where the comedian got the material. And that was what we pitched to nbc. And nbc believed in the show so they said were committing to four episodes. Yeah, right, four episodes. Rose normally 13 or 8 or something. Yes, at least, yeah. So we didnt really think that they had too much confidence in the show. Rose was it a hit . Did you feel good about it from the beginning . I felt good just the fact that the four episodes were produced. Because i had never produced four episodes before. And frankly, i didnt know that i was capable of doing that. So just the fact that we had four shows on the air made me very excited. I didnt think about the future. I thought phew, i got by, i did the four. Okay. Lets go back to new york. Lets get on with our lives. Rose this is a reason i like you so much. Now you, the story goes that you said when they wanted more, you said more . I cant do more . Ive given you everything i have in these four episodes. Well, you know, i say it out loud. But i said it to my close personal friend. Rose jerry. Like jerry, yeah. Yeah. You know, i ran, i said look, i gave you the four things that happened to me in my life. What else can i possibly do. So then i had to actually come up with ideas like a regular writer. And i yeah, that we did 13 episodes, i had to do 13 episode 13 episodes. I almost started crying from the fear. Rose the masturbation sequence that were going to see. How dare you. You know my parents are probably going to be watching this. Rose i certainly hope so. They probably are, did you create this, was this your idea. Yeah. Rose from where . Well, its actually based on, you know, all right, i might as well say it, is based on something that happened to me. Rose you got caught, didnt you. I didnt get caught, no, i was in a i was in fact in a contest. Rose all right. Emerged victorious im proud to say, yes. Rose all right this is a famous episode in which you won an emmy. Thank you very much. Role tape. Whats the matter . My mother caught me. Caught you, doing what . You know. I was alone. You mean uhhuh. She caught you . Where . I stopped by the house to drop the car off and i went inside for a few minutes. Nobody was there, theyre supposed to be working. My mother had a glamor magazine. I started leafing through. Glamor . So one thing lead to another so what did she do. First she screamed george, what are you doing my god and then it looked like she was going to faints. She started clutching the wool, trying to hang on to it, i didnt know whether to try and keep her from falling or zip up. What did you do . I zipped up. Youre a good audience. Rose i know, i loved it. Kind of a George Michael thing, isnt it . Uhhuh, yeah, i suppose. Rose this one of the most famous episodes of seinfeld ever. Yeah, definitely. It got tremendous word of mouth, i guess. And i think it was one of the turning points in the history of the show. That and moving to thursday night. Thats what really got us over the top. Rose why did you leave . Well, charlie,. Rose i knew you were going to you see, i was feeling that i needed to no, you know, i had been there for seven years. And thats a long time to suffer the way i do in my daily life. And seven years is a long time for somebody to executive produce a show like that. Rose did you burn out. No, it wasnt burn out, i had plenty of ideas, it wasnt that. Rose oh yeah . I was learning how to do it. It wasnt that, i just thought that i felt like i was ready to do i felt hi done that and now i wanted to try Something Else. And thats pretty much it. Tell me about jerry the jerry that you know. No, tell me about it, you know this guy as well as anybody, you worked with him, you created with him, as you say you were on the same wavelength. Yeah. You watched the show seinfeld. Rose yes, i did. There you go. Rose thats it, thats all i need to know. Do you watch the show seinfeld. You watched gorge. Rose yes. There you go, thats all you need to know about me. Rose is that right . Yeah. Rose so youre like a painter who says, picasso used to say everything you need to foe about me is right here in this painting. I have had composers come here, everything you need to know about me is in that music. Im very much like picasso, in many ways. My proclivity for sex, certainly. My output. We have a lot in common, me and piccy picasso. Rose you and pablo. Yeah. No, jerry is a tremendous i will give you i will give you the quintessential seinfeld story, okay. Rose now were going somewhere. When i was, it was about our third or Fourth Season in a show i was in a room talking to a few of the writerses. And i looked at one of the writers shirts and there was something a little off about the shirt. It was sort of, it was a bit of a diagonal going down and i said has jerry seen that shirt, you know . And he said no. And i said ill bet you he comments on that shirt within ten seconds after he sees you, you know. And he said you got a bet. We bet 10 dollars. Maybe even 20 dollars. I said okay, all right. And im just about to leave the room and here he comes. He comes walking in. And i hang out at the doorway and he didnt even make eye contact with the guy and hes talking to somebody else and all of a sudden he turns and he said something to me and he goes wass the story with that shirt. Rose you know your guy. Yeah. Rose you think alike. And he knows the same thing about you. Yeah. Rose have you two ever talked about this motion of it is said that for jerry the show was fun. Uhhuh. Rose for you doing the show was suffering. You know, i also have a lot of fun too. The most fun hi was the actual writing that we did together. Those were great times. Come on, george, finish the story. The sea was angry that day, my friend. laughter like an old man trying to send back soup in a deli. laughter i got about 50 feet out and suddenly the great beast appeared before me. I tell you, he was ten st