Jerry Seinfeld Reflects on Rob Reiner’s Crucial Role in Saving Seinfeld from Cancellation

Rob Reiner and Jerry Seinfeld.
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NEED TO KNOW

• Jerry Seinfeld paid tribute to Rob Reiner after the acclaimed director’s shocking death in an Instagram post shared on December 15.
• Seinfeld revealed that Reiner “saved” Seinfeld from cancellation in the late 1980s and also honored Reiner’s wife, Michele Singer Reiner.
• Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner were found dead in their Brentwood, California home in an apparent homicide on December 14.

Jerry Seinfeld recently honored Rob Reiner following the director’s unexpected death, reflecting on how Reiner played a crucial role in saving his sitcom from cancellation. Seinfeld shared a photo featuring himself alongside Reiner and Reiner’s father, the late Carl Reiner, on Instagram on December 15.

In his heartfelt tribute, Seinfeld, 71, stated that Reiner had the “biggest influence on my career,” second only to Larry David, who co-created Seinfeld, and George Shapiro, Seinfeld’s manager and producer. “Our show would have never happened without him. He saw something no one else could. When nobody at the network liked the early episodes, he saved us from cancellation,” wrote Seinfeld.

Seinfeld originally aired from 1989 to 1998, featuring an ensemble cast that included Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander, Jerry Stiller, and Wayne Knight. The series was produced by Reiner’s Castle Rock Entertainment.

Rob Reiner in March 2025.

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Seinfeld also reflected on his deep admiration for Reiner, noting, “That I was working with Carl Reiner’s son, who happened to be one of the kindest people in show business, seemed unreal. I was naive at the time to how much his passion for us meant. Rob and Michele married right as our show was starting, and they became an imprint for me of how it’s supposed to work, each one broadening the other. Their death, together, is impossibly sad.”

Jerry Seinfeld in April 2024.

Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty

In a 2016 appearance on The Howard Stern Show, Reiner recalled how Castle Rock recognized they had a “great show” despite Seinfeld’s slow ratings at the start. He revealed that NBC was on the brink of canceling the show, but he passionately advocated for it.

“They said, ‘We can’t have this show. What is this show? It’s just people sitting around talking,’” Reiner said, describing his intense conversation with NBC executive Brandon Tartikoff, during which he “begged” him to keep Seinfeld on air. “I said, ‘Please, I promise you there’ll be stories. You can’t take this show off the air. It’s going to be one of the great shows you’ve ever had,’” he recalled.

Rob Reiner, 78, and Michele Singer Reiner, 68, were found deceased in their Brentwood, California home on December 14, in what has been labeled an apparent homicide. Sources say their son, Nick Reiner, has been arrested in connection with their deaths and is being held on no bail.