JERRY SAYS ‘FRIENDS’ IS ‘SEINFELD’ RIP-OFF
Five years after his own legendary sitcom had its historic finale on NBC, Jerry Seinfeld is still competitive when it comes to today’s hit sitcoms.
In separate TV interviews this week, he expressed amazement about Ray Romano’s new contract and implied that the creators of “Friends” stole their concept of a group of friends in New York City from his old show.
He raised the subject of Romano’s new deal during a chat with Jay Leno Wednesday night on “The Tonight Show.”
The “Everybody Loves Raymond” star just reupped with CBS for $1.8 million per episode. Seinfeld earned $1 million an episode in his sitcom’s final season (although he’s earned tens of millions since then from the sale of “Seinfeld” reruns).
“I heard in your monologue – it was very interesting – you were talking about Ray Romano setting a world record, the highest-paid actor . . .” Seinfeld said to Leno. “I thought that was very interesting, very interesting, very, very interesting,” Seinfeld said wonderingly.
He takes a shot at “Friends” on tonight’s edition of HBO’s “On the Record with Bob Costas.”
In a rare and illuminating interview airing at 11:30 p.m., Costas asks Seinfeld if he thinks his show would have been given time to succeed if it was to premiere today instead of in 1990.
“Has ‘Friends’ been on too?” Seinfeld asks.
“Yeah, ‘Friends’ has been on,” Costas replies.
“Really,” answers Seinfeld, “so they managed to steal it without seeing it!”
On HBO, Seinfeld, 49, told Costas he has no plans to return to TV. He said he’s enjoying his new life as husband, father and, occasionally, standup comedian.
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