Jason Alexander pens a tribute to Seinfeld dad Jerry Stiller

The New York Times

"There is a cautionary adage that suggests you should never work with people you really admire for fear they will disappoint you," Alexander writes in The New York Times. "Even before I met Jerry, I admired him; it was hard not to feel affection for him even without knowing him. There was something about him that was relatable and lovable and it shone in everything he had ever done." Alexander recalled Stiller joining Seinfeld in Season 4. "I remember sitting a few seats from him for the table reading, unabashedly thrilled he was there," Alexander wrote. "From that first reading, it was clear that he and Estelle Harris, who played his wife, were magic. It was equally clear that working with them without constantly dissolving into laughter was going to be challenging. The internet is filled with blooper after blooper of all of us doing scenes with Jerry Stiller, unable to hold it together — mostly due to that glorious, hang-dog, put-upon face that would contort in frustration and madness and the spontaneous, unexpected line readings that would come from him. But he didn’t even have to speak — all he had to do was look or gesture at us, and we’d come apart. And every time he’d apologize for it. As if he had done something wrong. As if he had somehow interfered with our work. Which only made us love him more." ALSO: Larry David says he was "blessed" to work with Stiller on Seinfeld, while The King of Queens co creator Michael J. Weithorn remembered his work ethic.