Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David famously named a number of Seinfeld characters after real people, such as Larry’s neighbor Kenny Kramer, Jerry’s college friend Michael Costanza (who sued the show for $100 million) and producer Joe Davola who, as far as we know, never stalked women while dressed as a clown.
While these characters were never played by their real-life counterparts, in the fourth season of the show, one of the fictional NBC executives who works on Jerry was very nearly played by one of the real NBC executives who worked on Seinfeld.
As recounted in Seinfeldia by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong, Seinfeld’s “first NBC liaison” Jeremiah Bosgang was instrumental in the development of the show. He ultimately left the executive game to become a comedy writer, and ended up getting a job at In Living Color. But when Seinfeld began its fourth season, which introduced the meta arc involving Jerry and George’s NBC pilot, the show held auditions of a character named “Jeremiah Bosgang,” a “young network executive.”
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Bosgang only found out about this thanks to an actor friend who had tried out for the part. So Bosgang contacted the show and suggested that he could play the role, pointing out that he had studied acting and toured with Second CIty. Seinfeld and David said that they were open to the idea, but said that Bosgang would have to audition for the role of Bosgang.
While he seemed a little shocked that he’d have to try out to play himself, he was told that it was mandated by the network. So Bosgang hurried over to the audition, which was happening that day, using his old Seinfeld pass to get on the lot. When he provided his name to the receptionist, she instructed him to give his real name, not the one belonging to the character. “Actually, I am Jeremieh Bosgang,” he proclaimed. As Bosgang told This Podcast Is Making Me Thirsty, she seemed to assume that he was some kind of method actor, and the other actors waiting to read for the part clearly thought he was a real “douchebag.”
After performing one line for Seinfeld and David “20 different ways,” Bosgang figured that he had the part. But he was eventually informed that the producers “decided to go in a different direction with the Jeremiah Bosgang character.” Kind of like how Kramer didn’t land the part of Kramer.
It wasn’t his performance, Seinfeld and David decided to change the names of all the executive characters, that way they could write more “offbeat” plotlines without the risk of slandering their real life counterparts. For example, NBC President Russell Dalrymple was clearly inspired by Warren Littlefield, but as far as we know, Littlefield didn’t quit the industry after becoming obsessed with a woman’s cleavage, then join Greenpeace to impress the object of his affections, ultimately dying at sea as a result.
So the Bosgang character eventually became “Jay Crespi.” But when the real Bosgang ran into Jerry Seinfeld years later, the comedian told him, “You just weren’t Jeremiah Bosgang enough.”
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