'Seinfeld' Reunion May Never Happen, Says Series Regular Patrick Warburton

It seems like we can’t go more than a week without some popular old TV show or movie being resurrected. Just this week, Sony announced a new Ghostbusters sequel and Netflix released an animated series based on the video game-turned-game show Carmen Sandiego. So what about Seinfeld? Will the beloved ‘90s sitcom ever return? According to series regular Patrick Warburton (David Puddy), the answer is probably no, and for a very good reason.

“I sort of feel like that ship may have sailed,” Warburton tells Inverse, adding that the show’s unique brand of humor has since gone out of style.

“That would be hard to do because it’s in a time capsule right now,” he says. “There’s even this talk now about it being politically incorrect or whatever, offensive and whatnot, which part of the show was, and I think intentionally so.”

Certain episodes of Seinfeld have been criticized for being racially insensitive. In 1998, NBC apologized for “The Puerto Rican Day” episode shortly after it debuted, and banned from re-airing on NBC. Other episodes like “The Cigar Store Indian,” “The Chinese Woman,” and “The Outing” (among others) have all been criticized since.

“Things become generational,” Warburton says. “What’s funny in one generation might not be funny in another generation. You can’t really go back and say, “Hmm, how did they get away with this?” I mean, look at All In The Family and look at Family Guy. I guess that’s a cartoon and satire so you get away with more, but it’s a little absurd to look at Seinfeld. We have to keep our sense of humor about, I think, most everything.”

Perhaps most important of all, Warburton notes that the characters on Seinfeld were never supposed to be role models in the first place.

“The show is about four very selfish people who did and said a lot of horrible things,” he says. “I mean, that’s the essence of the show.”

Of course, fans already got a Seinfeld reunion of sorts thanks to Curb Your Enthusiasm, which made a reunion special the central plot of Season 7. That doesn’t mean an official return is totally impossible, but as Warburton notes, it would have to be for a very good reason.

“Knowing Jerry and the level, he’d want it to be at a certain level,” he says. “Not just to do it to exploit it, but to do it because it would actually be as good or better.”

Disappointed? Thankfully, you can always go back and watch old Seinfeld episodes. Here are two recommendations from Patrick Warburton himself:

“I always liked that second spitter episode when they went to the baseball game and Kramer and Newman, the spit ricocheted. You know, they do this whole thing. Jerry does this whole thing where it’s all like JFK movie. The show was really clever like that. Oh, I also loved the Merv Griffin episode, when they get the Merv Griffin set and Kramer brings people to his house and he’s interviewing them. Those are my favorite episodes.”

Related video: Patrick Warburton pitches a Family Guy spinoff all about Joe.