A ‘Seinfeld’ Writer Revealed A Life-Changing Experience He Had That Involved Both Arsenio Hall And Jack Nicholson

Jack Nicholson played a small part in the creation of some of the best Seinfeld episodes ever.

Before getting hired on Seinfeld, where he wrote “The Library” and “The Outing,” Larry Charles worked on The Arsenio Hall Show. He told the Hollywood Reporter that his time on the late-night talk show was “rock bottom for me. Arsenio was a great guy, and he loved my jokes. But, being a Black man on TV, people do not realize the pressure he was under. The death threats! No one was online yet, so it was stacks and stacks of violent hate mail. My jokes were hard-edged — and, after a while, he retreated to safer material.”

Months would go by without any of Charles’ jokes making it to air, and he was convinced he was “about to get fired and would never work again, so I went outside at Paramount and looked up at the sky.” That’s when Jack Nicholson “drove by very slowly in his Mercedes convertible, wearing the Lakers hat and the sunglasses, and we look at each other and just start laughing,” the Dicks: The Musical director recalled. Charles remembers thinking, “[Jack] knows this is all just a game. Don’t take it so seriously.” The next day, Charles was fired.

The day after “I got offered the job on Seinfeld.” So the next time you need spiritual guidance, step outside and hope Jack Nicholson drives by. But only if he’s wearing a Lakers cap. If he’s hat-less, it’s bad luck.

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