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Jason Alexander Reveals (Again) the Uncomfortable Reason That Susan — George’s Fiancee on ‘Seinfeld’ — Had to Be Killed Off … and Why Alexander Is Now Apologizing; In Case You Missed It the First Time, Here’s the Video

Jun 4, 2015  •  Post A Comment

One “Seinfeld” storyline that left a bad taste in many viewers’ mouths involved the death of the character Susan, who was engaged to George Costanza until she died from licking poisonous envelopes.

Jason Alexander, who played George on the show, has just revealed why Susan had to go. While he has talked about this before, this time around he got so much attention for it that he wound up apologizing.

Entertainment Weekly reports: “On Wednesday’s ‘Howard Stern Show,’ Jason Alexander addressed the rumor that George Costanza’s fiancee was killed off because he couldn’t stand the woman playing her. ‘She’s a terrific girl,’ Alexander insisted about actress Heidi Swedberg. ‘I couldn’t figure out how to play off of her.’”

While Alexander’s castmates were initially supportive of the character Susan, Alexander said he and Swedberg struggled with their comedic timing.

CNN quotes Alexander saying: “Her instincts for doing a scene, where the comedy was, and mine were always misfiring. And she would do something, and I would go, ‘OK, I see what she’s going to do; I’m going to adjust to her,’ and then I’d adjust, and it would change.”

The tide reportedly began to turn against Susan — and Swedberg — after an episode in which Jerry Seinfeld and Julia Louis-Dreyfus had a chance to work on more scenes with the character.

Alexander is quoted by CNN saying that after the episode, “Julia actually said, ‘I know it’s, just, don’t you just want to kill her?’ And Larry went, ‘Kabang! Now we’ve got to kill her.’ ”

Alexander apparently had some regrets after dishing about the incident on the Stern show. CNN notes that the actor followed up with an apology to Swedberg on Twitter. Alexander wrote: “She was generous and gracious, and I am so mad at myself for retelling this story in any way that would diminish her.”

Swedberg, who appeared in 29 episodes of “Seinfeld,” went on to a string of guest appearances on TV shows including “ER,” “Gilmore Girls,” “Bones” and “Without a Trace.”

This isn’t the first time Alexander has described his problems working with Swedberg. The actor gave pretty much the same account in an interview for the Archive of American Television — here it is:

4 Comments

  1. Why is this at all uncomfortable?

    Characters get killed off and actors let go from shows all the time simply because of chemistry mismatches between the actor and other performers on the show.

    What happened here is nothing new at all; are casting decisions now somehow supposed to be PC, where there has to be some at-fault reason for a character/actor to be killed off a show?

  2. Eliminating SUSAN from Seinfeld is identical as in director Robert Aldrige’s “THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE”

  3. Doesnt it seem a cliché that such a dull and disinteresting story should even make it to (e)print? Its true. Character kill offs happen daily in sitcom television. So why are we spotlighting this one from a decade ago ?

  4. I think George should’ve been the one to go and haunt Susan like Topper.

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