Biographer Says Larry David Found Seinfeld Torturous

Larry David found producing Seinfeld so stressful that, before its fifth season, he reportedly would have preferred a year in prison to making another one, biographer Blake J. Harris said on Obsessed: The Podcast. Harris attributes the strain to David’s self-imposed pressure to keep generating strong ideas and his insistence that every moment meet an exceptionally high standard. The new biography, Emperor of Nothing: The Making of Larry David, portrays that perfectionism as making the work feel unsustainable, even though it stemmed from David’s commitment to the show and its quality. Harris said David questioned whether the book dwelled too much on his anxiety, but the biographer argued it was an important part of the story.