Yesterday in Los Angeles, a critic asked Jason Alexander to explain the Seinfeld phenomenon.

"If I knew why that comedy worked," said Alexander, "boy, I could make a fortune."

Actually, nine seasons as George Costanza on the hit NBC series made Alexander a fortune. Now, after teaming with Martin Short on stage in L.A. in The Producers, and with a family at home, he's looking for a cushy sitcom gig to balance out his daddy time.

It's not that easy, as Alexander found two years ago with the short-lived -- and hated -- Bob Patterson. The Seinfeld Curse, like the Soup Nazi, waits for no man or woman (just ask Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Michael Richards). Best just to accept that Seinfeld was a once-in-a-lifetime thing and move on, said Alexander, who's moving on to Listen Up, a family comedy based on the writings of real-life sports columnist Tony Kornheiser.

Alexander stars as a cheeky sports talk-show host Tony Klineman, who banters on air with ex-jock Bernie Widmer (The Cosby Show's Malcolm-Jamal Warner). At home are his wife and two sassy kids, all unwitting fodder for his columns.

It's not rocket science, but it's not about nothing, either. Alexander said there's just no way to create a phenomenon, but he's grateful that being on one before gives him another shot at it.

He hopes this one clicks, knowing that, with each failure, the "golden touch" perception diminishes.

Besides, "I'm not a nice person when I'm unemployed," he told critics. "I like to work. My wife will tell you I'm a miserable guy to be around if I don't have work."

He added that the one lesson he learned from Bob Patterson was "I don't know that much." He does know that he's done with playing "screaming maniacs" on TV. This time, instead of trying to micro-manage, he let CBS chief Les Moonves pick a script that he thought best suited his talents.

Kornheiser, who appeared via satellite, told critics he was flattered that somebody thought there was a series based on his books (Bald As I Wanna Be, I'm Back For More Cash) and Washington Post columns. He said he was "thrilled that they got a young, hunky guy like Jason" to play him, and not some "washed-up retread like Robert Redford."

There was much talk at the session that the sports-talk element of this series in not really based on Kornheiser's ESPN U.S. cable show Pardon the Interruption (PTI), but nobody was buying it.

Sitting together at the session, Warner seemed an odd match with Alexander -- but that's part of the fun. One's bald, the other has dreds down to his knees.

And forget Seinfeld, what about The Cosby curse? This is Warner's fifth series post-Cosby, which wrapped in 1992.

"Hell, Mr. Cosby can't even repeat himself," observed the artist once known as "Theo."

Vaudeville, it can really kill or die

Why didn't The Producers catch on in Toronto?

Jason Alexander, who played opposite Martin Short in the L.A. production of the Broadway hit, said it is a tough show to pull off.

"It has no soul, that show," he said Sunday at the CBS party. "It is vaudeville -- old jokes, 'Hutcha-hutchahutcha' songs. In order to make that fly, you need an extraordinary amount of energy and you need guys across the board that know how to do vaudeville, and you have to leave them alone.

"They don't as a rule hire people who know how to do vaudeville and they certainly don't leave them alone."

Alexander said he honed his vaudeville chops as a "theatre geek and classic movie geek" growing up in New York. -- Bill Brioux

Forget about reunion show

A DVD about nothing? It's finally here this fall.

Jason Alexander said he had a blast taping supplementary material and commentary for the first volume of Seinfeld shows on DVD, coming this November.

There were only four episodes the first short season of Seinfeld (originally called The Seinfeld Chronicles) and just 13 more in Season 2.

Alexander said he mainly did his commentary with Julia Louis-Dreyfus while Jerry Seinfeld taped his with co-creator Larry David. Michael "Kramer" Richards also chimed in.

Alexander doubts there will ever be a Seinfeld reunion. "What would we do? It would be like the last episode. I never met anybody who liked it because the expectation was we were going to be the second coming of Christ." -- Bill Brioux


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