If there's ever a "Seinfeld" reboot, count Larry David out.
"Seinfeld" launched the comedian's career in the '90s, earned him two Emmy Awards and cemented his status as a Hollywood mainstay, but he'd rather go to prison than do another season.
The classic sitcom became complete agony for the "Curb Your Enthusiasm" star, 79, who co-created "Seinfeld" with Jerry Seinfeld. In "Emperor of Nothing: The Making of Larry David," biographer Blake J. Harris explains how pressure and tension on the set made the show unbearable.
In an Oct. 23 episode of "Obsessed: The Podcast," Harris said that ahead of the show's fifth season, which started airing in 1993, David would "rather spend a year in prison than do another season of Seinfeld." Harris said running
the show was "torturous" for the comedian.
"That torture largely came from the pressure he put on himself to come up with good ideas, which is a constant theme in the book," Harris said.
USA TODAY has reached out to David's representative for comment.
Larry David biographer says running 'Seinfeld' was 'torture' for comedian
According to Harris, David's stress came from his "affection" for the show and his desire for it to remain excellent.
"To him, every second of every episode needed to hit a certain caliber of quality and trying to clear that bar – day after day after day – seemed unsustainable," he added. "Or put more succinctly, as one of Larry’s future 'Seinfeld' colleagues would later tell The Hollywood Reporter, ‘[Larry’s] so consumed with perfection that doing episodes is as painful for him as passing kidney stones."
Harris also recounted David reading a draft of the biography and saying, "I think we’ve done too much of this – of me being anxious and worried about coming up with ideas."
"No, we haven’t, ’cause that’s all anyone talks about," the writer replied.
In the biography, Harris chronicles David's comedy career and the internal and external factors that shaped his success.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus says there was 'tons' of tension on 'Seinfeld' set
David is not the only "Seinfeld" alum to open up about the pressure to keep the sitcom successful.
In a Sept. 1 episode of the "Friends Keep Secrets" podcast, Julia Louis-Dreyfus confirmed that there were "of course" tons of tension on the NBC series.
"Yeah. I mean, it's hard to do anything really well, and it takes a lot of work, and you're going to butt heads," she said.
The "Veep" star said that even though everyone on set was working toward a shared goal, the team often had creative differences and "sometimes there was an argument."
"We had our own idea and [the creators] had their own idea of exactly what they wanted to do, which was not the norm at the time in terms of structured television. So I think there was an air of freedom because of that. We had a lot of fun making it," she added.
The series stars Jerry Seinfeld as the neurotic comedian, alongside Kramer (Michael Richards), his insecure best friend, George (Jason Alexander), and Elaine (Louis-Dreyfus), his ex-girlfriend. The show ran for nine seasons from 1989 to 1998 and racked up 10 Emmy Awards.
Contributing: Paris Close, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Larry David found 'Seinfeld' to be 'torture,' biographer says
