What Is the 'Seinfeld' Curse?

Richards was the first Seinfeld cast member to move on to his own sitcom, debuting The Michael Richards Show (pictured) in October 2000 on NBC. The sitcom about an eccentric private detective relied heavily on Richards’ Seinfeld fame, with several former Seinfeld writer-producers behind the scenes and a network-mandated Kramer-style goofiness to the lead character. It was poorly reviewed and canceled after nine episodes. Richards never attempted another lead role on TV, and largely retired from acting. More notoriously, in 2006 Richards was captured on video yelling racial epithets at hecklers during a stand-up comedy performance, and the ensuing controversy led to his retirement from stand-up as well.

Curse Level: 85 percent

Alexander had two failed sitcoms after his Seinfeld stint: Bob Patterson, about an egotistical self-help guru, lasted just five episodes in 2001 on ABC; Listen Up!, loosely based on the life of sports writer and broadcaster Tony Kornheiser, ran for one season on CBS in 2004-2005 (pictured: Alexander with Listen Up! co-stars). Despite the dual failure, though, Alexander has gone on to make steady guest appearances on a variety of TV shows and to enjoy a thriving stage career, including one-man show The Donny Clay Experience, a reworking of his character from Bob Patterson.

Curse Level: 60 percent

Although Louis-Dreyfus’ immediate post-Seinfeld sitcom, Watching Ellie, was canceled after two truncated seasons (with a complete overhaul of its concept in between), she went on to have the most successful subsequent series of any of the Seinfeld alums, The New Adventures of Old Christine. New Adventures (pictured) aired for five seasons on CBS starting in 2006, and Louis-Dreyfus won an Emmy that year for her portrayal of a woman trying to move on after a divorce, exclaiming, “Curse this!” as she accepted the trophy. She’s now set to play the first female vice president of the United States in the upcoming HBO comedy series Veep, and her image is tied nearly as much to her later work as it is to Seinfeld.

Curse Level: 10 percent

It’s certainly a stretch to label Jerry Seinfeld “cursed,” since his eponymous sitcom has made him wealthy beyond most people’s imaginations. And unlike his co-stars, Seinfeld never tried to launch another sitcom after Seinfeld. But his few later projects have been generally received with indifference, including the animated movie Bee Movie (which he co-wrote, co-produced and starred in) and the reality series The Marriage Ref (which he created). Both of those have been moderate successes, and Seinfeld still packs in audiences for his stand-up comedy. But all of those projects remain mere afterthoughts compared to the show that bore his name.

Curse Level: 45 percent

Technically, Larry David doesn’t count among the people affected by the curse; the co-creator of Seinfeld wasn’t a star of the show and wasn’t widely known when the show went off the air. But he’s had more success than all of the Seinfeld cast members with his acclaimed, long-running HBO comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm, which he created and stars in. Both Jason Alexander and Julia Louis-Dreyfus guest-starred in early Curb episodes about efforts to create post-Seinfeld shows for them, and the entire Seinfeld cast reunited during a stretch of episodes in Curb’s seventh season (pictured). It says a lot about David’s success that he could have the entire Seinfeld cast on his show and still be the center of attention.

Curse Level: 0 percent