'Seinfeld': what its cast has been up to

"Seinfeld" was often an indisputably great situation comedy and, as the years wore on, continued to wear well.

Here's what has happened to our four heroes over the years — with a quick assessment on just how well they've used their precious time.

Jerry Seinfeld

Yeah, he's done pretty much next to nothing. Oh, there was some movie about bees, and he got married and fathered three children. Some stand-up here and there. But it's been so nothing that he worked the joke into his routine. ("Everybody says to me, 'Hey, you don't do the show anymore. What do you do?' I'll tell you what do I do: nothing. . . . Well, let me tell you, doing nothing is not as easy as it looks . . . because the idea of doing anything, which could easily lead to doing something, would cut into your nothing, and that would force me to have to drop everything.")

So, nothing. At 54, his rep remains mostly intact. Rumors of another show on NBC seem to go down in flames reliably every year.

The lowdown: One of the most skillful "retirements" in show business history — Carsonesque, almost. The chances of producing another show as good as "Seinfeld" are (about) one in 1.987 billion, so why bother? He continues to do what he loves (stand-up) and he does a good bee, too.

Grade: A.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus

Go ahead — you create one of the most memorable characters in TV history (Elaine Benes) and then step away from it.

Louis-Dreyfus has done more of what she does best — TV comedy. Over the past 10 years, Louis-Dreyfus has had three sitcom roles — Ellie Riggs, in the short-lived "Watching Ellie"; Maggie Lizer (briefly), in "Arrested Development"; and the spunky single mother in "The New Adventures of Old Christine," which may or may not get picked up by CBS for next season.

Otherwise, she's doing the hardest job of all — raising two sons, 16 and 11. (She's married to TV writer Brad Hall.)

The lowdown: Louis-Dreyfus was stuck with the tired old label/cliche "The Seinfeld Curse" by the press for most of the decade until she scored an Emmy in 2006 for "Christine."

Grade: B-plus.

Jason Alexander

In some ways, this has been the most fascinating post-"Seinfeld" life. It's a spin-the-dial career, and where you stop, who knows? He's guest-judging on Bravo's dance show "Step It Up" — bizarre — and there have been a few dozen cameos, starring roles and other assorted turns on the tube.

His two TV sitcoms both flopped — ABC's 2001 "Bob Patterson" and CBS' 2004-05 "Listen Up." He's started a stand-up career, and the Tony Award winner has also returned to the stage: He's artistic director of the Los Angeles-based Reprise Theater Company.

The lowdown: A career track suggesting both an adventurous spirit and an insecure one. The job at Reprise may well be the best move of all.

Grade: C

Michael Richards

Richards was first out with a major sitcom — "The Michael Richards Show" — in 2000. It was burdened by expectations and the inevitable critical blow-back that "it'll never be as good." And it hardly was. The show was canceled after six episodes.

He also worked on the comedy circuit, but the Nov. 20, 2006, Laugh Factory tirade ended it. That performance — a blowtorch of rage and racial epithets — was captured on a cell phone, and Richards' career seemed over. He disappeared into the Far East, where a reporter for the Los Angeles Times caught up with him: "That night, when I was insulted and disrupted, I lost my heart; I lost my sense of humor. I've retired from that." He's back and in production on a major studio animated release, "Cat Tale."

The lowdown: Richards stared down the biggest challenge of any actor — how to get beyond the character that made you — then seemed to back off. After the Laugh Factory incident, he tried the recovery program (hired a big-league P.R. firm, etc.) but remains somewhat radioactive.

Grade: D

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