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Whoever has watched Seinfeld till the end knows it very well that the Seinfeld finale was quite a surprise. It did receive quite polarized reviews from the viewers. Heck, even after watching the show's reruns even today I am not sure how I feel about the finale.

Did the show's creators/writers ever have an alternate finale(s) in mind? Was it ever discussed by them? Did they ever comment on that?

Did anyone from the show ever comment about how they wished the show should have ended alternatively?

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Yes

According to Wikipedia:

An alternate ending was also filmed. The jury re-enters the courtroom. When Kramer claims that a woman on the jury is smiling at them, Jerry tells him that she's smiling at them because they might go to prison. When it comes to the verdict, the forewoman of the jury states that the jury finds Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer not guilty of criminal indifference which disappoints the testifiers and leaves Judge Vandelay speechless.

This ending can be found as an Easter egg on the "Seinfeld" season 9 DVD set.

The ending has been discussed in some places. From the same Wikipedia page:

Although Larry David has stated he has no regrets about how the show ended, a 2010 Time article noted that the Seinfeld reunion during the seventh season of Curb Your Enthusiasm "was viewed by many as his attempt at a do-over."

This was also referenced by Jerry in the seventh season finale of Curb Your Enthusiasm, saying "We already screwed up one finale" with David responding "we didn't screw up a finale, that was a good finale!"

Having said that, during a Seinfeld roundtable reunion discussion, Larry admitted to understanding the disappointment and said if he were to redo it he would have kept the plot of the finale less of a secret, which only heightened expectations.

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  • I'm pretty sure that short 'alternate verdict' scene was only shot so the real one won't be leaked, though, and was never really considered an alternative. It's common practice.
    – Walt
    Nov 10, 2016 at 7:12
  • @Walt - I don't know enough about to say. It's entirely possible. If you can find something confirming that, I'll update my answer.
    – Tim
    Nov 10, 2016 at 19:15
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    By alternative ending I meant whether there was an entire plot of the finale which was different than the court case and the main characters going to prison and everything.
    – Ravindra S
    May 19, 2017 at 4:55
  • @PaleBlueDot - so not an alternate ending, but an alternate final episode.
    – Tim
    May 19, 2017 at 5:45

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