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Did Jerry Stiller's seatbelt PSAs predict Frank Costanza's 'stop short' scenes on Seinfeld?
Published May 12, 2020
The late actor Jerry Stiller, who died Tuesday at 92, was best-known in his later years for his role as Frank Costanza on “Seinfeld.”
One of Stiller's more memorable bits, which has a theme that comes across as very dated today, was about a shady move he used to hit on women while he was driving that involved stopping short and grabbing them, as if to keep them from slamming into the dashboard.
But it turns out, Stiller had a history with in-car safety. Automotive website Motor1 dug up a couple of public service announcements Stiller filmed in the 1960s with wife Anne Meara promoting seatbelt use.
The spots, which don’t hold up much better than the “Seinfeld” scenes, were produced for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and depict Stiller teaching Meara to buckle up with some humor and innuendo.
Interestingly, one of the spots was filmed at the couple’s apartment at 110 Riverside Drive in New York City where Stiller still lived up until his death. Meara died in 2015.
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