Surprising facts about the TV show Seinfeld

Seinfeld was famously pitched to NBC as a show about nothing, focusing on the mundane details of daily life rather than the traditional plot-driven sitcom structures that dominated television during the early nineties.

The iconic Seinfeld theme was created by composer Jonathan Wolff, who used synthesizers and samplers — not a real bass guitar — to craft the quirky sounds, and he customized the music to match each episode's unique pacing.

The show's famous "no hugging, no learning" rule was a strict mandate from the creators. They wanted to avoid the sentimental resolutions common in other sitcoms, keeping the characters consistently self-centered and unchanged.

The character of George Costanza was based on co-creator Larry David. Many of the show's most absurd storylines, including George quitting his job and then showing up the next day as if nothing happened, were based on his life.

The character Cosmo Kramer was based on Kenny Kramer, a real neighbor of Larry David. The real Kramer often entered Larry's apartment without knocking and had many of the eccentric habits seen on the show.

The show's famous "Soup Nazi" character was based on a real person named Ali Yeganeh, who owned a soup shop in New York. He was reportedly offended by the episode and banned Jerry Seinfeld from his store after it aired.

The "Puffy Shirt" Jerry wore in the 1993 episode became so iconic that the actual shirt now lives in the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, donated by Jerry Seinfeld himself.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who played Elaine, was pregnant during the show's third season. Producers cleverly hid her pregnancy by having her wear large coats and carrying oversized boxes or laundry baskets in her scenes.

The show's famous "festivus" holiday, featuring an aluminum pole and the airing of grievances, was based on a real family tradition practiced by the father of one of the show's writers, Dan O'Keefe.

The show's finale was so highly anticipated that NBC charged advertisers $1 million for a 30-second commercial spot, a record-breaking price that cemented the show's massive cultural impact on television history.