Very Strange Facts About ‘Seinfeld’: From 'Nothing' to One of TV's Biggest Success Stories

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Seinfeld debuted on NBC on July 5, 1989. And then? Nothing. The next episode didn’t air for another 330 days. Three more episodes followed. And then? Next to nothing. Another six months passed between the end of Season 1 and the start of Season 2. And then? Not nothing, exactly, but not fireworks, either. Another four years passed before Seinfeld reached No. 1 in the TV ratings. 

Arguably no other show that would be labeled iconic, that would dominate the pop-culture discussion, and that would end its run before a Super Bowl-sized audience, took a stranger, more meandering path to success. And that’s hardly the only weird thing about how Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), George (Jason Alexander), Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Kramer (Michael Richards) came to be something special.

Here’s the weird story of Seinfeld. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.