Jerry Seinfeld Says He’s “A Little Bit” Bothered By The ‘Seinfeld’ Finale: “I Don’t Believe In Regret”

It’s been more than a quarter of a century since Seinfeld ended its nine-season run on NBC, and Jerry Seinfeld says he’s “a little bit” bothered by how the sitcom ended.

In a new interview, the stand-up comic talks about the TV show finales that he thought were great and discussed how he was not completely satisfied with how the characters ended up in a jail cell.

More from Deadline

“I don’t believe in regret. I think it’s arrogant to think you could have done something different. You couldn’t. That’s why you did what you did,” Seinfeld said in an interview with GQ Hype. “But me and Jeff Schaffer and Larry were standing around, talking about TV finales and which we thought were great. I feel Mad Men was the greatest. A lot of people like the Bob Newhart one. Mary Tyler Moore was okay.”

He continued, “I think Mad Men was the greatest final moment of a series I’ve ever seen. So satisfying. So funny. And they said that they had sat and watched the Seinfeld finale, trying to figure out what went wrong. And it was obviously about the final scene, leaving them in the jail cell…”

The Seinfeld series finale saw Jerry, Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), George (Jason Alexander) and Kramer (Michael Richards) end up in jail after violating a Good Samaritan law in a small town.

Seinfeld said that the people behind the series “were affected by some things that people had said,” calling the characters “selfish or whatever.”

“And looking back on it, I think they were great! I love them,” he added. “First of all, you’re not doing comedy without self-directed individuals. That’s an essential element of comedy, since Shakespeare and forever. You can’t do comedy without selfish people. That’s what people relate to.”

During the same interview, Seinfeld discussed the state of the Hollywood industry and said that “the movie business is over.”

Best of Deadline

Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.