A lot of the Seinfeld props were recently donated to the Smithsonian. Was Kramer's Merv Griffin set included?
You know what went that was mine? The puffy shirt — that's it. But I would have gladly given them my shoes.

You used the same pair of shoes in every episode, right?
That's right. I actually had two pair. One was a "slider" that gave me a little torque off the floor, and the other had a little bit of a sole for when we were working outside.  We actually introduced the idea of doing a lot of exterior shoots. We could afford to do it because the show was so successful, so we had a bigger budget. I had to have a special shoe when I was out on the streets, but it was the same kind of shoe.

I know Jerry kept a lot of stuff from the set. Did you take anything other than the puffy shirt and the shoes?
No. I wish I'd taken the Klein bike in the hall. But you already have everything when you have that kind of a success. I was so fulfilled creatively that I wasn't thinking of stuff like that. I was carrying the whole show in my heart, so I just took the shoes because they were the basis of the character.

Seinfeld was the DVD set to have for the holidays — 
Hey, it's what I wanted. I haven't seen the whole thing put together, but I know how much work we all put into it.

When you watched the shows to do the commentary, did anything jump out at you?
Actually, I started watching the episodes and forgot that I was supposed to be doing a commentary. It was the first chance I had to be outside of the Kramer character and see the show objectively. When I was doing the show, I didn't watch it too much.

Why?
Because I was always tortured, feeling that I could do more. And we had to work fast. We only got two passes in front of the camera, and then we had to move on.

A lot of the Seinfeld episodes were filmed in front of an audience. Did you feed off that? 
I did. When you perform in front of an audience after only two days of rehearsal, you're flying by the seat of your pants — particularly when they're rewriting the show right up to the moment the camera goes on.

The DVD set has the first three seasons. Do you have a favorite episode?
I love all the episodes where Kramer went undercover and became other characters. And I loved it when he was involved in a business venture, a big job, like when he worked for Calvin Klein or when he was the Marlboro Man. Or when he took on the persona of a wealthy industrialist or something like that.

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