Seinfeld is a series that has so many quotes and one-liners, it's almost impossible to say any which one tops the list. While that may be true, I don't think there's any denying that the episode "The Soup Nazi" ranks among the best not just in episode premise, but with it's "No soup for you," line as well. As crazy as that episode was, former writers David Mandel and Jeff Schaffer say "The Soup Nazi" episode could've been a lot crazier:
We joked a whole bunch about an end scene that would take place in the jungles of Brazil, à la The Boys From Brazil, where the Soup Nazi [Larry Thomas] would return to the other Nazis --- the actual former Nazi war criminals --- with his soup recipes. It was sort of half-serious, half 'Should we do this?,' half 'We're never going to do it.' But it was much discussed. Going down a river and seeing lots of young boys with blue eyes from experimentation with the soups --- it was a full coming together of soup and Nazi. Probably just as well that we didn't do that one.
Man, I'm not quite sure how the audience of the '90s would've reacted to the idea that Soup Nazi would actually turn out to be a real Nazi! The world never found out, as David Mandel and Jeff Schaffer tell EW that the idea was eventually scrapped, although talked about a great deal. In case you're not familiar with the film mentioned, The Boys From Brazil is a work of fiction about Third Reich war criminals living in seclusion in Paraguay. The film was well liked in its time, and ended up getting nominated for three Academy Awards. While worth mentioning, I'm not sure the writers were concerned their taste in films would be the issue people found in their Soup Nazi bit.
Of course, the joke of the aired Seinfeld episode is not that Soup Nazi is a literal Nazi, but just incredibly strict in his rules for ordering. In actuality, his Nazism is more like when you call someone a grammar Nazi. The character is rooted in reality, as the episode was written around actual New York soup shop owner Ali "Al" Yeganeh. Writer Spike Feresten says he was encouraged by both Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David to write his first episode for the series about Yeganeh after describing his erratic nature to them in passing. Yeganeh, who did not like the episode despite his growth in business, would later get his revenge on Seinfeld in real life when the crew attempted to order from his shop and he ejected him with the catchphrase Seinfeld made iconic.
I'd like to think Seinfeld wouldn't have shocked too many viewers with their end scene shenanigans, but controversy has been sparked over less scandalous things. It's not like they tried to make out during Schindler's List again! All this Seinfeld talk has me excited for the return of Curb Your Enthusiasm. The series is set to return sometime in 2017 so keep an eye on our midseason premiere guide and summer premiere schedule to make sure you see if HBO drops a release date in the near future.
