Why Seinfeld Cut The Real George Steinbrenner's Cameo
Here's why Seinfeld cut the real George Steinbrenner's cameo appearance. At the end of Seinfeld season 5, George's prolonged stint on the unemployment list finally came to an end when the New York Yankees hired him to be assistant to the traveling secretary. This allowed Seinfeld to make then Yankees owner George Steinbrenner a recurring character on the show. An obviously heightened and caricatured version of the real man, Seinfeld's Steinbrenner was voiced by Larry David. Actors Mitch Mitchell and Lee Bear played Steinbrenner, but their faces were never seen onscreen.
This was a formula that worked very well over the back half of Seinfeld's nine-season run, but at one point the creative team broke from the mold. For the Seinfeld season 7 finale, «The Invitations,» the real Steinbrenner actually shot a guest role, where he offered to be Elaine's date at George and Susan's wedding so she didn't have to sit at the singles table. The footage can be found online, but it was cut from the final episode. Leaving the real Steinbrenner on the cutting room floor seems incomprehensible, thought there's a good reason for it.
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In the book The Big 50: New York Yankees (via MLB.com), David explained why the real Steinbrenner was removed from «The Invitations.» According to the Seinfeld co-creator, he felt it wasn't as effective to see the real Steinbrenner when compared to the fictionalized one they had been using. David, a die-hard Yankees fan, was the one who had to break the news to The Boss. YouTube user Brett Cohen uploaded the Steinbrenner footage, which you can watch below:
“It was much funnier just to see him from the back with my voice than to see him act, but I had to
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