Friends and Seinfeld, two major sitcoms from the 90s and early 2000s defined humour for generations. The shows have progressed very differently over the years and also have their own set of fandoms. Friends followed the lives of six twenty-something friends navigating love, careers, and friendships in New York City. On the other hand, Seinfeld created by Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, followed the everyday absurd adventures of Jerry and his friends George, Elaine, and Kramer in New York City. The biggest thing that set them apart was how the main characters Joey, Chandler, Rachel, Ross, Monica and Pheobe talked about themes of family, support, and the challenges of adulthood. While Seinfeld was mainly about exploring the “show about nothing” concept.
Larry Hankins – The common ground
However, there is something common between the two and was actor Larry Hankin. Larry was seen playing the killjoy Mr Heckles, the downstairs neighbour to Monica and Rachel. He would show up to complain about noise and demand the group keep it down. He appeared in Seinfeld as Tom Pepper. He was cast to play the actor who was cast as Kramer on the pilot-within-a-TV-show Jerry.
Friends – Mr Heckles
Mr Heckles did not appear in all episodes, he remained a recurring character until he died in The One Where Heckles Dies. He did have a major impact on the show as his character ended up leaving his apartment and belongings to Monica and Rachel. According to reports, he appeared only in five episodes before being unceremoniously killed off via a heart attack. However, Mr Heckles has remained a popular character over the years and was also invited for the reunion of the show in 2021.
In an interview, the 86-year-old actor claimed that he was treated poorly by the producers at HBO who asked him to be a part of the show until the last moment. Meanwhile, on the day of filming Hankin revealed that he was kept apart from the rest of the cast and didn’t want him to interact with others.
Seinfeld – Tom Pepper
On the other hand, Hankin’s Tom Pepper was the only role he auditioned to play on Seinfeld. Larry had reportedly auditioned to play Kramer but landed the part of Pepper. Talking about the difference in working between the two shows and the two characters Larry said, “There are at least three major differences” one being the different sense of humour of the directors.
Recalling ‘The One Where Monkey Got Away’ Larry explained, “Peter Bonerz was a friend of mine and knew each other, years before we worked together. So, I understood his sense of humour. On Seinfield, there were two directors, one was Tom who was a Traffic manager and decided who stood where but I never met him. But the actors’ director was Larry David, and he would direct me based on my acting. He was a bit broad in hiring his actors. Peter’s direction was more real for his characters.”
“It also shows in the writing. For Friends, they were writing for six people as compared to Seinfeld which had only more. Now this is a guess, but I think writing for more characters makes the interaction more real. You can’t keep the ridiculousness together with more characters,” he added.
Fame On Sets Of Friends
Coming back to Mr Heckles, Hankin talked about the changes he saw on Friends during his spaced-out appearances. Larry said that he had been on the show once in the first season, and a couple more times in season two. “In the first year, they were almost cancelled a couple of times, I didn’t know when I was going to go on air. But the second year I came in, they were already established and had few fans. In the third show, I did two episodes and then one in the fourth show. I saw the fandom grow slowly.”
“In the early days everyone was new and didn’t know each other but when the rehearsal clothes started to get more expensive, is when I noticed. Then they were talking about getting houses with driveways. Eventually, then they had bodyguards and you couldn’t get close to them. So, I wanted these actors to go from poor to getting houses and expensive cars.”
Friends Reunion
Coming back to the reunion, Larry added that the show wasn’t made by the original producers but by someone who just wanted to make money. He added, “They probably got calls asking about Mr Heckles’ appearance at the reunion which is why they called me only weeks before they shot for it. But I refused as it was not enough money, but they did call me back probably due to pressure.”
Larry went on to make an appearance during the reunion, once again complaining about how the noise was disturbing his cats.
