Jerry Stiller As Frank Costanza

There were 180 episodes of Seinfeld. Jerry Stiller appeared in thirty of them, as Frank Costanza, the dyspeptic father of George Costanza. I'm not sure if there was any other semi-regular of a sit-com that made more of an impact than Stiller, as his death this week has everyone who ever watched the show fondly recalling his performances.

Stiller was not the original Frank. As die-hard fans know, the first appearance of George's father was by John Randolph, in the episode where George gets a ticket for parking in a handicapped spot (in his father's car) and Frank is taken away by police while he is getting an award from a disabled advocate group. Stiller became so identified with the character that they reshot those scenes for syndication, and thus Randolph is now only a faint memory.

Stiller couldn't be more different than the dignified Randolph. By all accounts a very nice man, Stiller invested Frank with a deep-seated rage. As Jerry Seinfeld stated, by seeing Frank one could understand how George turned out the way he did. Larry David had in mind a sober, controlled Frank, in contrast to Mrs. Costanza (Estelle Roberts) who was given to screaming. But Stiller screamed right back, and David admitted that it was perfect.

Jerry Stiller had been a presence in show business long before Seinfeld. He was best known as half of a comic duo with his wife, Anne Meara (I remember them most for making radio commercials for Blue Nun wine). I also saw him on Broadway in David Rabe's Hurlyburly. But his legacy will be Frank.

Every one of his thirty episodes stuck the landing. I think of the one where he is shown to be a collector of TV Guide, and is enraged to find that Elaine has taken one, or his tutoring George on the cup sizes of bras. When Mrs. Costanza is asked to retrieve a bra and takes some time, Frank says, "You ask me to get a bra and I'm back in two seconds." Speaking of bras, he and Kramer hatched together the concept of the "mansierre," a bra for men. The look on Roberts' face when she walks in on Stiller wearing one can not be forgotten.

Of course he is known mostly, I think, for the catch phrase "Serenity now!" in the episode where he is selling computers. This was supposed to calm him down, but did anything but. Surely his most famous episode was the one concerning Festivus. That was a holiday created by one of Seinfeld's writer's father, but it seemed perfectly appropriate to give it to Frank. The feats of strengths, the airing of grievances. The speech he gives on how he invented Festivus--he was fighting another man over a doll while Christmas shopping, "and as I rained blows down upon him I thought there must be another way."

Stiller's interpretation of Frank, which apparently entirely his own, was comedic genius. The man lived a nice long life, and left us a lot of laughs.