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“Seinfeld” is a unique sitcom in a variety of ways. It upended the genre’s storytelling formula by zeroing in on the petty exploits of four self-absorbed characters who reliably make their lives and/or the lives of others a living nightmare by prioritizing their own concerns. It eschewed the obligatory will-they-or-won’t-they tension between the two characters (Jerry and Elaine) most likely to hook up by revealing early on that they’d already hooked up (and, aside from one brief, disastrous friends-with-benefits arrangement, had no interest in hooking up again).
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Another near-singular quirk of “Seinfeld,” at least at the time, is that the four main characters were based on very real people. Aside from “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet” (which starred the actual Nelson family), it’s hard to think of a sitcom that drew so heavily from the lives of its creators. But Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, two comedians who emerged from the talent-packed 1970s stand-up club scene (which gave us such legends as Robin Williams, Garry Shandling, and George Wallace), knew their encounters with all manner of eccentrics were ripe with sitcom potential. So they plowed forward with “Seinfeld,” and, after a few seasons where NBC couldn’t quite figure out how to market the series, wound up with the most popular show on television.
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Showbiz success on the magnitude of “Seinfeld,” particularly when you’re profitably borrowing from the lives of others for big laughs, will always elicit scrutiny from people who’ve had a similar idea or traveled in the same circles as the creators. Sometimes, people become certain their work or lives have been illegally mined for someone else’s profit (and sometimes they’re right). That’s when lawsuits get filed. And that’s what happened to Jerry Seinfeld when someone he knew in college claimed the comic based one of the sitcom’s core four characters on his life.
The not-so-real George Costanza sued Jerry Seinfeld for $100 million
In 1999, Michael Costanza sued Jerry Seinfeld, Larry David, NBC and “production companies” for using his likeness without his permission in the creation of George Costanza. As the non-fictional Costanza said, “George is bald. I am bald. George is stocky. I am stocky. George and I both went to Queens College with Jerry. George’s high-school teacher nicknamed him ‘Can’t stand ya.’ So did mine. George had a thing about bathrooms and parking spaces. So do I.”
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Costanza claimed this was a violation of New York’s Civil Rights law, while also being an invasion of privacy, defamation and false light, and sought $100 million in compensation. This lawsuit must’ve come as a surprise to Seinfeld given that he’d brought Michael on the show for a cameo in the Season 3 episode “The Parking Space.” When the suit finally got in front of a judge, it was received as an annoying waste of time.
Costanza never had a chance in court because the statute of limitations on his grievance expired one year after the sitcom’s 1989 debut. Moreover, in dismissing Costanza’s case, the New York Supreme Court ruled that his claims were not supported by the state’s law and were sanction-worthy.
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Amazingly, Costanza appealed this ruling only to get smacked down, again, in 2001. Most likely, all of these judges were well aware that the character of George was based in large part on Larry David. It also probably didn’t help that Costanza had already sought to profit from his tangential connection to “Seinfeld” by writing a biography titled “The Real Seinfeld: As Told by the Real Costanza.” In any event, Costanza never saw a cent from his oddball legal challenges.
