The Cast of ‘Seinfeld’ Reunites for the Super Bowl: Watch

For a few weeks now, Jerry Seinfeld has been dropping hints — in a Reddit AMA chat and an interview on WFAN radio — that he and Larry David would be reuniting on a new project. It would be something scripted, something filmed, and we would be seeing it very soon.

Hmmm — if only there were a major TV event coming up soon that might be a high-profile launch pad! I’d like to say that I put two and two together, but Seinfeld’s appearance around halftime with old pal Jason Alexander threw me for a loop.

Seinfeld’s project (with David behind the camera) was in fact a Seinfeld reunion — a mini-reunion, that is, in the form of an installment of his web series, Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee. Ordinarily, each episode features Seinfeld tooling around and stopping for java with a real-life comic; this time, it was a fictionalized trip to Tom’s with George Costanza.

I won’t spoil too much about the six-minutes-plus lagniappe (which you can watch in full on Crackle), titled “The Over-Cheer,” except that it was a perfect little alternative to the Fox halftime show. (In fact, Broncos fans may have preferred a longer version to replace the entire evening’s blow-out.) Its Jerry and George were a little older, Jerry looking more well-heeled than in the old days, and their notes of familiar-crankiness have aged well.

It’s admirable that Seinfeld, David, and company quit while they were ahead and moved on, but the rapport between the old colleagues here (plus Wayne Knight as Newman) suggest a version of the show that could have gone on and on and on. For this special episode of Cars, auto buff Seinfeld chose not a knockout sports car but a vintage AMC Pacer — “I love this car for three reasons: it doesn’t work, looks ridiculous, and falls apart.” But Seinfeld, at least the six-minute taste we got here, still purrs like a kitten.