Casting Without A Couch

The accepted formula is to take the dramatis personae of a proven property such as Goodfellas and cast the bit players as your central characters as the Sopranos did to co-op the magic. Casting director Ming is not so subtle. He hopes to exploit the major, very bankable cast members of Seinfeld for the Dendreon story and shop it around to the major networks. Obviously, the hapless, much abused Jerry will play Mitch while Michael Richard's bumbling and inept Kramer is a perfect von Eschenbach. Julia Louis-Dreyfus will shine as the zany and erratic Maha while Wayne Knight's odious and conniving Newman is the perfect Scher. Ming endured much opposition casting Jason Alexander's George as the scurrilous Goldberg but assured the actor that as the series developed his character will become central to the plot. The lesser known Larry Thomas will once again reprise his role as the Soup Nazi when playing "No Provenge for you" Pazdur. Ming is artistically conflicted whether to cast the durable and versatile Jerry Stiler as Aschoff or go with Phil Morris who played the venal lawyer Jackie Chiles. While we're still in script development, the potential for plot turns and surprising denouements is so pronounced that the episodes will virtually write themselves.