Official word on whether all Seinfeld episodes have reference to Superman?

There are quite a few web pages on the Internet that discuss whether or not a Superman reference can be found in every single episode of Seinfeld.

Has anyone affiliated with the show ever made a statement on whether or not every episode contains a Superman reference? Apparently the extras on some of the Seinfeld DVDs mention this topic, but I found a couple of conflicting comments from people regarding the DVDs:

One person says:

If you purchase the DVD they actually say in the extras that there is in fact a Visible reference to superman or they discuss superman but yes it is in every episode and sometimes it is a reach.

Another person says:

It is said a few times on some of the DVDs that not every episode contains a Superman reference.

Do some of the DVDs really say one thing while other DVDs say the opposite?

reference seinfeld

Best Answer

I don't know about anyone affiliated with the show, but Barry Freiman (d. 2012) has discussed this. He was a freelance writer who, among other things, was a Superman guru, reporting and contributing to many of the Superman fan sites, e.g. Superman Homepage and Superboy Homepage.

He wrote an article on the Superman Homepage where he stated:

Almost everyone knows that comedian Jerry Seinfeld is a big Superman fan. But an urban legend has sprung up that Jerry snuck a reference to the Man of Steel in every episode of NBC's Must-See comedy juggernaut, "Seinfeld", which aired from 1989 to 1998. Not true.

Thanks to my TIVO, I've taken a ride around the syndication wheel of "Seinfeld" repeats on TBS over the past few months, screening the episodes for Superman references. As it turns out...[despite many appearances] it's still far from something super snuck into every episode.

On the article, he does include a link to every episode which contains a Superman reference.

Now, whilst this isn't the completely conclusive answer you were after, given Freiman's prominence in the Superman world, I think his opinion on the subject does carry substantial weight and thus I would say: no, not every Seinfeld episode contains Superman references.

Edit:

Okay, some definitive proof. Interview with Jerry Seinfeld, in July 2014, conducted on Reddit:

[Question] There is a rumor that there is a Superman reference in every episode of Seinfeld. Can you confirm or deny this and who's idea was it to put the references in the show?

[Jerry] I can deny it categorically. You can't count seeing the little Superman model on the bookshelf as a Superman reference. I would say there are maybe 10 Superman references out of a whole 180 or so episodes, so that's a long way from all of them.

Peter Mehlman, a writer for Seinfeld, also comments:

Contrary to rumor, it was never planned to make the Man of Steel a recurring theme, and the writing staff, on which I worked for six seasons, never got an edict dictating regular mentions of him.

Whilst this certainly isn't as categorical a denial as Jerry Seinfeld provides, it does show that the writers were certainly not instructed or primarily interested in dropping these references - rather it was just an entertaining side project that happened occasionally, with the fans taking it to whole new levels (e.g. if Jerry wears red and blue, fans of the theory consider that a link).