Transcripts For BLOOMBERG Charlie Rose 20140830

From our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. Who are on the show . I could be a character. You . Based the character on me. So on the show there is a character named George Costanza . Something wrong with that . I am quite a character. Who else is on the show . Elaine could be a character. Kramer, now he is a character. Everybody i know is a character on the show . Thats right. And it is about nothing . Absolutely nothing. So youre saying i go to nbc and tell them i have a idea have an idea for a show about nothing. We go. We, since when are you a writer . Rider . Were talking about a sitcom. Do you want to go with me to nbc . I think we have something. What do we have . An idea. What idea . An idea for the show. Its about nothing. Everyone is doing something. We will do nothing. We go to nbc until them with an idea for a show about nothing. They say what is is about . I say nothing. I think you may have something here. What can you say about Jerry Seinfeld . That he has not already been talked about . He is a standup comedian that skewers modern life and modern problems with the dead on accuracy of a swiss watch. He comes to us each week and the hit nbc series that examines his life and work. The Seinfeld Television show reveals seinfeld the comedian. He stumbles through friendships and bad career moves and love affairs and the annoying feeling adulthood itself is somewhat overrated. You like this so far . A superb ensemble cast. Why is the show so successful do you think . I think it is handmade. A sitcom that is not processed through a large studio system. It is a few people working on this and are doing what we think is funny, and they cast is amazing. An Amazing Group of people. Each one of the people could easily hold down their own show. What is the glue of the show . The egos are in check frankly. We are all happy to be doing good work and we all have a lot of respect for each other. The glue is larry david and myself working on every single line, every single week of every show. It is not delegated, and no one interferes. Do women know about shrinkage . You mean like laundry . No, like when a man does swimming, afterwards . It shrinks . [laughter] like a frightened turtle. The creation of seinfeld . How did it happen . Did larry go to you or did you go to larry . I did not go to him as much as i turned to him in the bar and said i had a meeting the other day with nbc, they are interested in me doing some kind of show. He said what kind of show . I said i dont know. I have no ideas. I never have any ideas. I dont know how i do these. Did you actually say that . I do the standard and they like me. An hour goes by, he says you want to get something to eat . I said yeah. We go across the street to the korean deli. We Wander Around. They have all kinds of stuff. We go to the cash register. This weird stuff. No labels, just fig newtons wrapped up with no identification. You go i will take a shot at that. We start making fun of the products. He said this is what the show should be. I go, what . Just two comedians talking because it is what they do. They Wander Around during the day with nothing to do and make fun of everything they say. We should do a show with two comedians walking down the street making fun of everything. That was the genesis. Was he going to be one of the comedians . No. He would always be the creator and writer. David would be him . I mean george would be him . No, george was originally a comedian in the beginning. Without if george is a comedian, then you have to see his act. Lets just make him a regular guy. He is not larry david. What we did, we came up with a story idea. Which character could do this idea. A lot of time larrys ideas fit george well. We never try to make him the alter ego. Some say this was the perfect marriage, you and larry david. A magical relationship. It was. Different sensibilities . But not different comedic sensibilities. Different kinds of guys. It was one of those perfect partnerships. He saw a lot of big picture stories. He knew what would be a great story for the show. He created tons of stories, and i had a great sense of mechanics of comedy and detail of lines, and we always give any idea if any idea could pass through both of our filters, it would work. If i thought it was funny and he thought it was funny, it was almost always funny. What if he thought it was funny and you did not . You didnt go with it . It would depend. In a partnership you give and take. We had a great filtering system. Thats what a sitcom is. You sit in an office and riders writers come in all day and pitch you stories. If you are there by yourself, one persons instinct is really not good enough to turn out that amount of material. The test was you would never put anything on that was not funny . As best you can. Comedy is like hitting a baseball. Youre just trying to improve your average. Nobody hits 1000. What do they hit, 300 . A good hitter can have 500. What did you hit on the show . The tv show . 700 . Maybe. Most of them good. Very few clinkers. There are very few people that say this is the best ever. I love those people. Where are those people . Are any here . Do you believe those people . Do you believe it . No, i dont think things like that. You dont ever want to see it in print, this is the greatest ever. No, that is absurd. Tommy one that is better. For me, the honeymooners makes me laugh. Does it really . I am sitting here watching you laugh out loud. Lets see if it is funny in 50 years, like the honeymooners. Tell me how you and larry are different in terms of writing . Is he more absurd or are you more absurd . I think we take different positions. Here is where we are the same, we both love to kill it. We will work any amount of hours. Our desire to avoid humiliation is so great in both of us. We so desperately did not want to be embarrassed by each episode coming out this week. As the show became more popular, the danger of that became greater and greater. We said oh my god, this is getting popular and now we have to maintain this ridiculous standard. So it became more and more terrorizing. But he has tremendous energy, tremendous comedic fertility. Tons of ideas. There are people in this world that funny things happen to. And he is one of them . He is one of them. Are you one of them . I am not. I am the kind of person when something funny happens to you, i know just how to tell it. Did you study comic . That is what i do. Formally . I dont mean you go to school. How to get a phd in comedy . But in a sense, you look at it from an analytical eye and say why did that work and what do i have to do and where is my timing and where do i need to take it . So a young comedian tells you, what do i need to do to be a comedian, what do you tell him . Just work. There is nothing about logic and the absurd and you have to figure out a precise way to prove something that is unprovable . To me, one thing a good comedian can do is take an absurd premise and prove it with rigorous logic. That sounds very logical. You Say Something completely fatuous to do learn that somewhere . I looked at a lot of good jokes and realize they have that in common. As a kid, i would write down jokes and would try to figure out why they were funny. I never get tired of why is that funny . I never get tired of talking about it or analyzing it. Im very scientific about that. To end you decide seinfeld, larry have left two years earlier. How was it different when he left . It was very different. I did not know if i could continue the show. I was scared about it. But i did not feel the timing was right for the show to end. I felt audience was not ready and i wasnt ready, so i just took over the script writing. Worked twice as hard. I would work, i would rotate with other writers. I would take three guys and they would be larry. We cannot imagine how hard it was for you to do that. It was fun. I was having fun, charlie. , ceo of general electric, told me a story. I think you wrote about this. He wanted you to continue for another season, and is a great fanfare about how much he offered few per episode, Something Like 5 million. I think you told me a story where he went to you and said you have to do this, we want you to do this and you said, i just cannot imagine myself on Christmas Eve writing. That is were i have been to many times. He called me as i was making the decision at some fabulous place. Playing golf or something. And it was a sunday, and i am in the office working. I said what are you doing right now, jack . He said i am at, you know, aspen. I said, you know where i am . I am in my office working. The work was never an issue with me. It was a lot of love and fun. My real reason for ending the show was i just felt the stage instinct of knowing when to say good night and have the audience go, oh, i wish there was just a little more and they leave the theater and say that was great but if you go 10 minutes too long, it is amazing how it depresses that good feeling. Even though we are talking about years, i could just feel that moment. If we leave now, the audience, there is the thing that makes audiences jump up. Thats what it is. Surprise them. A perfect instinct. I hope they are right. They are clearly right. Someone said it will serve him the rest of his life. He made the right choice. Johnny carson made the right choice. He left at just the right time. I did it for the audience. I thought if i leave this now, they will have this thing to say it was good but then started to kind of run out of gas. They coulde not create as well as they used to. I could feel i had gotten there. I knew if we tried to do a one more time, might not be as good. I felt that also. What did you think you would do when you left . I didnt care. Then i cant tell you the big news. [laughter] news, what news . Sorry. Why . This is beyond news. This is like pearl harbor, kennedy assassination. Not even news. Come on, please, please, please. George costanza is getting married. We initially were picturing a show about how a comedian gets material. We would follow a comedian around in his daily life. We would go from the Grocery Store to the dry cleaner, maybe go on a date, hang out with his friends. At the end of the show he would do a monologue and it would be some of the things we saw happen on the show. That is where the comedian got the material. That was the pitch. Nbc believed in the show. They said, we are committing to four episodes. Thats right. Normally it is 13 or eight or something. We didnt think they had too much confidence. Was it a hit . Did you feel good at the beginning . I felt good the fact that four episodes were produced because i have never produced four episodes before and did not know i was capable of doing that. Just the fact that i have four on the air made me very excited. I didnt think about the future. I thought, i got by. Ok, lets go back to new york. Lets get on with our lives. This is the reason i like you so much. The story goes you said when they wanted more, you said i can cant do more. I have given you everything i have had with these four episodes. I did not say it out loud but i said it to my close, personal friend like jerry. I said look, i gave you the four things that happened to me in my life. What else could i possibly do . Then i had to come up with ideas like a regular writer. Then we were doing 13 episodes. I almost started crying from the fear. The sequence we are going to see how dare you. Who do you think youre talking to . You know my parents are probably going to be watching this. They probably are. Did you create this . Is this your idea . Yes. It is based on it is based on something that happened to me, yes. You got caught . I did not get caught. I was in a contest. Emerged victorious i am proud to say. The famous episode in which you won an emmy. What is the matter . My mother caught me. Caught you doing what . You know. [laughter] i was alone. You mean she caught you where . I stopped by the house to drop the car off and i went inside for a few minutes. Nobody was there, they were supposed to be working. My mother had a glamour magazine. I started leafing through it. Glamour . One thing led to another. First she screamed george, what are you doing, my god . It looked like she was going to faint. She started clutching the wall to hang onto to it. I didnt know whether to try to keep her from falling or zip up. What did you do . I zipped up. Kind of a George Michael thing, isnt it . One of the most famous episodes of seinfeld ever. Definitely. It got tremendous wordofmouth i guess. I think it was one of the turning points in the history of the show. That and moving to thursday night. Why did you leave . I knew you were going to do that. Well, charlie, you see, i was feeling sad, i needed to i had been there for seven years. That is a long time to suffer the way i do in my daily life. Seven years is a long time for someone to executive produce a show like that. Did you burn out . I was not burned out. I have plenty of ideas, it was not that. Oh yeah . I was learning how to do it. It was not that, i just thought i just felt i had done that and wanted to try Something Else. That is pretty much it. Tell me about the jerry you know. At that you were wrapping up. [laughter] tell me about him. You know this guy as well as anyone. As you say, on the same wavelength. Do you watch the show . Yes, i do. There you go. Quick thats all i need to know . You watched george . There you go. That is all you need to know about me. Is that right . You are like a painter who says everything you need to know about me is right here in the painting . I have had composers say everything you need to know about me is in the music. I am very much like picasso in many ways. My proclivity for sex apparently. My outputs. We have a lot in common. You and pablo. For jerry thet show was fun. For you, doing the show was suffering. I also had a lot of fun, too. The most fun was the actual writing. Those were good times. Come on, george. Finish the story. The sea was angry that day, my friend. Like an old man trying to end back send back soup in a deli. [laughter] i got about 50 feet out and suddenly the gray beast appeared before me. I tell you he was 10 stories high if he was a foot. In sensing my presence he let out a great bellow. I said easy, big fella. And then, as i watched him struggling i realized something was obstructing its breathing. From where i was standing i could see directly into the eye of the great fish. Mammal. Whatever. What did you do next . Then, from out of nowhere and huge tidal wave lifted me, tossed me like a cork and i found myself right on top of him face to face with the blowhole. I could barely see from the waves crashing down upon me but i knew something was there so i reached my hand in and pulled out the obstruction. How do you explain it, that one show captured the ethos of its time . If we could explain it, we probably would have screwed it up. Money against bet it. We had a wager after the pilot. What do you think . No way. I said i love the show in the audience is me but i dont watch tv. This is slightly more sophisticated level of comedy, and it is not what television is used to and they do not think we will get anybody. It started by attracting college boys, young men, mid to late 20s. That was the key, core audience. Then all of a sudden children were watching, 8, 9 and 10 years old. And my mothers generation. And we started going international, and people from other countries. We said what are they getting . What were they getting . I imagine the children, i assume were laughing at michaels antics, falling down. Bumping into things. I guess our parents saw us in the characters. What they considered their crazy kids. And i guess to some degree in trying to examine the minutia of a very specific Human Experience of urban living at a certain age, somehow we tap into something universal. Somehow the little disturbances of daily life are more universal than we know. And because the show is dedicated entirely to the last the laugh and nothing else, there was no attempt at learning or growth or messages, we would do anything and everything and sacrifice anything to achieve the laugh. I guess what we built that if they turned it on whether it was good, bad, stupid, whatever it was going to be they were going , to laugh. Where is that larry davids vision, Jerry Seinfelds vision and Something Else . It is hard to say. I think it was a unanimous collaboration as far as the idea of doing a show about the daily life of a comedian, which was essentially very small things. I think that the cynicism of the show, the darkness of the show, particularly in the first four or five years let me guess. Was much more larry david than jerry. Larry is full of darkness and twists and turns. But it was a beautiful collaboration. There of the light is jerry, the dark is larry. Larry lived across the hall from kenny kramer. George has certainly become a model of larry david in many respects. Alain elaine was sort of model on an exgirlfriend of jerry. It is all kinds of there. But i think the stuff people remember us for, particularly early on, came out of the notebooks of larry david. When we did the show we showed the clip. I said, this is nuts. This is a real thing. [laughter] everything i thought, come on, this is pushing credibility, he went it happened to me. , i wrote this down because that happened to me. I think a lot of the specific inspiration, week to week what is the darkness of larry . Larry walks around with a cloud basically. The world is going to rain on him. It will rain on him and no one likes him and it is futile to get through the day because no good can come of it. And yet he is so filled with fear and phobia to kill himself. So he struggles on. After every episode he would say this is it. He did the pilot. Then, i cant do anymore. We got a first season order. So when 22 came up, he was like i cant do it. So he left. Did the show change when he left . How so . In some ways, a lot of things happened when he left. That sort of darker element having been established now , instead of being written by a staff of guys in 30s and 40s and have a little but it of that, the staff became younger. In their 20s. They were not particularly dark people. Instead of living it, they were writing a semblance of it. So the reality is one step removed. The other is jerry really spread his wings. One of jerrys Favorite Television shows was the old abbot and costello show and i think we started to go that way for the most part. We looked less and less at the small minutia of things. The intrinsic storylines got broader, more scope, a little wackier, a little more in a good sense juvenile. And another thing that larry tried to do is he started playing with instead of one story, he would have four distinct stories, one for each character that would brilliantly tail at the end. It seemed to stop. One or two would dovetail, but but not necessarily all four. but not storylines, necessarily with the same polish that makes it as if you have to have that in order to get that in order to get that. But just as much fun. Even though there were many critics that said it is not the same show, the audience for the most part seem to keep saying that they were laughing. When you heard the criticism over the last year, did you say they have a point, or the audience did you say the critics are out of touch with the audience . I think the critics had a point to a certain degree in that they noticed the change of the show. They were articulating the change in the show. What they went on to say, therefore it is a worse show, i dont know that i agree. I can tell you, there is not an episode, whether i thought it was great or not, where i dont think we had some tremendous funny moments. When people say favorite episode or season, i dont really know. Because in every one of them there was something really spectacular. What can you tell me about the final episode . Not much. It is 30 minutes. It is one hour. I think it is a brilliant idea in structure. It brought back a lot of folks that had really been part of our extended family for years. I thought it was wonderful. Your postmortem on it, without telling us, is it is a home run . I think it is as big of a home run as you can hit. Which is to say no one is going to be satisfied. [laughter] larry is right to be paranoid about this. There is such expectations about this thing that no one will feel satisfied but i think what they did, considering the options they had talked about, and one of the options was not doing a finale episode, just an episode, considering the scrutiny and the expectations, i think it is a brilliant job. Close to 80 million people. Are going to watch this, they think. Ok. [laughter] what is it going to do . Will you all say it has been one hell of a ride, i am off for the rest of my life, see you later . I hope not. We do have different lives. We are four very different people. It has been an amazing relationship between the four of us. I would say defining event in ones life. We have been through something amazing. Before we went on to tape the final stop in front of the audience for the last show, we got together back to age to have a little huddle. It is not a terribly sentimental group and we never took it very seriously, but we got into the huddle and jerry started to mist up and cry. Not that it is out of character, just unusual. He said the four of us are inexorably tied to each other. No one will think of one of us without thinking of the other three. He said, i cant think of three people i would rather be linked to for the rest of my life, and he is right. We will be the musketeers until end of our lives. It was an amazing relationship, and i cannot think of a working relationship with that much attention that could go for that long that could be that much fun. Even under the worst of circumstances when all the negotiations were happening and there was a lot of tension and pressure and really got hot under the collar for a while, we still laugh every day we went to work. I cannot imagine not having those people in my life. It may very well be seinfeld is as good as its ever going to get for you. And you have to come to the idea that i have enough out of it so if that is the price i paid, i am prepared to do that. I had a friend fascinating conversation with William Shatner a couple years ago an , idol of mine by the way. We were talking about after how star trek ended, he was very bitter that as a man in his early 30s it seemed like the thing that was going to have the greatest impact in his career was done and was bitter and tried to distance himself from it, and his career suffered for it and his reputation suffered a little for it until finally 20 years later he went, i have had the opportunity to create something that will live so far beyond me. How many actors have that . How many actors have that moment . Regardless of when it comes . He really embraced it. He said you might want to think about embracing that. Rather than making it your enemy. I have no illusions that anything i am involved with from have the day on will impact or mass acceptance or profitability or whatever the upside of a seinfeld. What seinfeld has given me is the ability to now do these things that move me that i care about. Even if they are just silly, funny things. Seinfeld is not my sense of humor necessarily. My sense of humor has more hugging and growing. I think humor is one of the great teachers. Seinfeld did teach you, but an abstract, bizarre way. It now gives me the ability to go, i do not care if it is not successful to a degree, or if they cant afford to pay me. What i care about now is do i want my name attached to it . That was the greatest gift that jerry could give you. Is there any downside to this, for you . Any . Not the ending, the doing. Did it have any downside . No, other than the fact that i am not the worldss most comfortable celebrity. It would be my choice to really not be able to be anonymous, and the four of us are intensely private. That has been seen over the years. You dont see us at the parties. But i have found people have been really wonderful and kind and respectful to me and my family. I go to the market, go to the movies. I live my life, but i get all the perks, all the wonderful treatment. Making good money. We made a wonderful living. My childrens lives are secure. The story is conventional wisdom is that it was you who said at the beginning, we ought to be getting more and made the argument for 1 million an episode. Which ended up as 600,000 an episode, give or take, whatever it is. Did you begin that . Was that your idea . I did not bring in the milliondollar idea. That figure first came out of julias mouth. But it was not a wild there have been Actual Research done. We knew that for the network alone, every episode generated 40 million of profit, sheer profit for the network alone. Let alone castle rock in syndication. We had argued that after five years of being at seinfeld, there was no upside in the long run for the three of us to continue doing the show. It has made us celebrity, made us some money, but if we were going to be actors with careers that extended, we needed to play different roles, and continuing to put up the image of george, elaine, and kramer was detrimental to our longterm careers. Why was there incentive for us to do this in the long run unless those shows were extremely profitable to us . So we argued we needed to be cut in on syndication. We needed syndication points. And we were told in no small terms to go take a hike. When we got into the bargaining share that nbc so desperately wanted, to have another season. We said again, syndication . Our salaries are fine, but you are making such massive profits on syndication, profits of 3 million per show. To infinity. And you dont want to give us any of that . In order for us to feel good about doing the show, i want to leave the most successful halfhour in the history of television knowing i never have to work again. That is what i require or you could not have my services. Knowing what all the revenues were, what everyone was making up front, we said we try to figure out what percentage of the success formula of the show were the three of us . We came up with jerry, larry, the writers, us, and everything else. The wonderful guest players all the other stuff. 1 5 of that formula we said here is the number, one million per episode. When he said that number, what did they say . They did what they should have done, which is laughed at us. I also knew it was detrimental to television if they made the deal with us. It has proven to be detrimental. It is outrageous upfront money. That for television. 13 million an episode for er . For a show that is number 25 in the ratings . These are bad prices. You ask for that kind of money when you are producing the kind profit revenue that we are producing, but we could not ask for it. They would not give it to us. We had to take it out of front. I personally feel we damaged the economics of television and nbc was foolish to give us what they gave us. But there was no way we were going to come back for anything less than the sixth. That was my bottom line. I guess im guilty of that. I knew a 600,000 an episode we would gross a certain amount and that would pay for the rest of my life. But i thought they were foolish to make the deal. I thought they were foolish in the way they handled us. I thought it would ruin relationships. It did. Between who . I thought we were part of the real family with nbc. I never had any problem if they did not want to make a deal with us. I thought that was a perfectly legitimate you just that they should not have done it. But we began in december, and they did not talk to us really until three weeks before it had to be a deadline. We went through the rest of the season with our crew, writers, everyone going are we coming back because our lives depend on this, and the three of us going we are serious and they are not dealing with us . We were the bad guys. These people cannot make decisions about their lives because the three of us were playing a game of chicken with nbc. Because nbc would not talk to us area they thought if they did not talk to us until may 1 that we would crumble, we would get scared. That we were actors, who may never work again, and they offered us 250. That is not the way you deal with people who are your family and had been working with you for nine years. Where was jerry in this . Between a rock and a hard place. As the producer of the show it is his mandate to bring the show in as inexpensively as possible. That is his job, to maximize profit and keeping the cost as low as he can. On the other side of the coin, he will be the first to say they deserved a million and then some. He is our collaborator, one of the ensemble. He believed in us and our request i really think. Because he was in a frock and a hard place, he really stayed out of it. I think we could have had a smoother ride had he not stayed out of it but he would have had to choose one had to wear, and i think that is a very difficult decision to make. I dont blame him for staying out of it, and ultimately he did jump in at the end and say finish this. That is the day we closed the deal. He said you guys better stop the shenanigans and give them what they want today or im going to pull. So that was the final incentive to at least get it done. I cant wear this on tv. It looks ridiculous. You have to wear it now. All the shows are stocking it based on the actual where it. Based on the condition you will wear it on the tv show. The factory is already making them. They are making these . Yes. This pirate trend is going to be the new look for the 90s. You are going to be the first pirate. I dont want to be a pirate. The interest came from where . This famous entrance . I cannot tell you what the episode was but i know i came to catch up with the scene. Something was happening and i come bolting in and they got a laugh. It felt right. It took a few shows to get to this point. I felt that represented kramer, that was the essence of the character because i felt that is how the character steps to life. He comes into things. Also, the pace of the show. Moving very fast. So i like to get in quick and get right to the scene. That is another way of looking at it. It really is a combination, the success of the sitcom and then the perfect combination of ensemble actors and good writing. Absolutely. It is my third television show, i know about that one. It is a chemistry. It is difficult to still tell you why it works. It is a mystery to me. No one thought the show would become the successful. It tested badly, it was picked up only for four shows the first year. The second show lets give them 13. What is next on the schedule . Will give them then it started 13. To catch on. We always had a decent following. In the second year we had a share of the audience that stayed consistent. Nbc started to take note of that. A typical reaction, interaction between jerry and kramer. You get the tickets . Who needs two . Special sneak preview. When someone tries to blow you up, not because of who you are but because of Different Reasons altogether. Jerry, you think you could get an extra ticket for my friend . You know what i had to go through to get these . I know but he is a big fan. I would consider it a personal favor to me. I guess i do owe you. Do i need to say more . If you look at that and dont see what a friendship they have that i can come in and take the whole carton of ice cream out the door. It says it all right there. There is the energy come at the energy, jerrys take on kramer. They were interesting. There was all of it. You just have to do that scene after scene. It is different. That is what makes it so inspiring. You have to deliver the same way . I can come in. I can be in a real funky mood, too. Jerry seinfelds biggest talent is what . Recognizing true genius in others . He is a heck of a writer. He writes a lot of the shows. With the writers, he knows his characters very well. They were conceived by he and larry david. I would say his biggest talent is he knows what is funny. I have never been held down by Jerry Seinfeld. I will go way over sometimes. I will look at them and say you want to put that in . He will go yeah. , do you think you are sponge worthy . Yes i think im sponge worthy. I think i am very sponge worthy. Run down your case for me again. We have gone out several times. We obviously have a good report. I own a very Popular Electronics distributing firm. I eat well. I exercise. Can speak frankly, i am quite good at it. Are you going to do something about your sideburns . I told you. Seems like only yesterday. That seinfeld left the day. Or not . Not to me. I guess we finished that about three and a half years ago. But it sure was a lot of fun to do. It made a huge difference in my life. A very happy difference. Because it was so satisfying creatively. What made it that satisfying . Let me offer possibilities. Choose one. Brilliantly written . Correct. B, a wonderful Ensemble Group of actors . Yes. Three, you just had the x factor, something makes it a magical show . Abc. I guess all three, but i think it was extraordinary we were all lucky enough to come together. Once we came together, it was sort of there. I do not think there was magic beyond that. Just a great group of people at the right place at the right time. And we had a lot of fun. The process, and that translated. Do you define yourself as a comedian or an actor . An actor. I have never done standup or anything like that. Why . Does it sent chills for you . Yes. It is a very different way of performing. Very different. And yet probably jerry today would define himself as a stand up comedian more than he would an actor or sitcom creator. I am sure of that. He always said on said he was not an actor. We always teased him, giving him tips on how to act. He is the first one to admit it. What is his genius do you think . I think it is standup comedy. I actually think he enjoys what he does and that comes through. Absolutely. You may have heard me say that in a conversation. Will smith talked to me about it, the idea you are having a wonderful time, it is infectious. It is. That is what was so great about doing seinfeld actually. We were having so much fun. Other people were digging it. We are like wow, this is cool. Was saturday night live like that . No. [laughter] in a word no. , why not . Well, many reasons. It was a big break for me. Definitely a great Training Ground for me. No doubt. In that it was extremely difficult to do. I was very young and unbelievably naive. And now that i am an old hag [laughter] i did not know how the business works, and i did not know how the show worked and theres a lot of politics about getting your material on air. I came from doing ensemble work and improv and we are a team. You were a graduate of northwestern . I attended northwestern. In any rate summit that was hard. It was hard to be a woman there. It means they were not writing material for women. They were much more inclined to write for the men. Why is that . I dont know. Today they have lots of female characters. They do today. This was 1983. Was that a good year . No. 1984 . 1985 . There were things on the show that were good. You do not have great memories . No, i dont really. Is that terrible to say . I dont really. It was fine. I really did learn a lot about how the business works that it was not creatively satisfying. I came out of that show and said to myself, i am not going to do anything again unless it is fun. When you got to seinfeld you said this is fun. What also was good i knew larry , david. He was a writer on snl and that is why he sent me the seinfeld scripts because he knew me. That is something good that came out of it. So he gets the credit for elaine . He wrote it. Not only that but thought you would be perfect . Yeah. You walked in and said bingo. There was not a maybe, maybe. Just walk in, we found our elaine. That was nice. It was great. When i got the scripts, i said will we be able to get away with this because that show was not written like most television shows. Has so . The conversations were not particularly meaningful. They were small conversations that were funny. That appealed to me tremendously. Live from pier three in san francisco, welcome to bloomberg west. Where we cover innovation, technology, and the future of business. Im emily chang. Google is hoping its latest shot moonshot takes flight. Testing delivery drones and taking aim at amazon. We look into the challenges of drone flight and how long it will be before a drone delivers packages to your door. Besides the big screen iphones, apples september 9 event is a mystery. We know apple will unveil a wearable device, but will it be a watch and can apple really have big success and watches,