Kramer sought to manage Bill Beason, a New York point
karate champion, with the hopes that the karate tournament scene would develop along the same lines as
wrestling had, since corporate sponsors such as
Budweiser and
Paul Mitchell were emerging.
Seinfeld co-creator
Larry David lived across the hall from Kenny for six years, just as the character of
Jerry Seinfeld did from Cosmo Kramer in the show. The two lived in
Manhattan Plaza, a federally assisted apartment complex for performing artists in
Hell's Kitchen, New York City. David said that Kramer was a little bit
eccentric and would be a good character to have on the show. Many of the traits of Kenny Kramer, such as the obsessions with golf, fruit,
hot tubs, taking things out of the refrigerator and coming up with strange ideas and inventions, were featured in the show.
Seinfeld Michael Richards did not want to meet with Kenny Kramer to study the character, preferring to create the character himself. This situation was later parodied in the
Seinfeld fourth season episode "
The Pilot". The character was originally named "Kessler", due to Larry David's fear that using the name would spur the real Kramer to exploit his association with the character. However, Jerry Seinfeld thought that the name was too good not to use. Kenny Kramer then contacted
Castle Rock Entertainment with a list of demands, many of which were financial, for the use of his name. One demand not met was that Kramer himself would get to play the character, which is also parodied in "The Pilot". A later episode, "
The Betrayal", provided a tongue-in-cheek explanation for the name change. Kenny Kramer has been the host of ''Kramer's Reality Tour
and Kramer's Reality Road Show
since Seinfeld
was on the air. He tells behind-the-scenes stories to his audience and gives a bus tour of sites made famous by the show. A DVD version of his reality tour has also been produced. The "Reality Tours" were later parodied on Seinfeld'' in the episode "
The Muffin Tops", when catalog sales company owner
J. Peterman uses Kramer's various stories in Peterman's autobiography. Kramer develops a reality bus tour and touts himself as "The Real J. Peterman." The relationship between Cosmo Kramer and Kenny Kramer is explored in the featurette
Kramer vs. Kramer: Kenny to Cosmo, on the 3rd season
Seinfeld DVD.
Later career After achieving some attention as the inspiration for the character Kramer from
Seinfeld, Kramer worked as a correspondent for
Hard Copy, created and hosted "Kramer's New York" segments for the
Fox New York City affiliate
WNYW's
Good Day New York, and appeared in the original New York company of ''
Tony n' Tina's Wedding, playing himself. He has made appearances on the bonus features of the Seinfeld'' DVD series. In 1997, Kramer attempted to gain the
Democratic Party nomination for
New York mayor; he claimed that his candidacy was "quite serious," saying that he wanted to represent "a lot of disfranchised Democrats out there." He did not get the nomination. In 2001, Kramer was asked by a television reporter about running again, and he replied that "if
Jesse Ventura can be
governor, why can't I be mayor?" The next day, the
Libertarian Party contacted him to run on its ticket, and he accepted. He cited his agreement with the Libertarian Party on, among other issues, the
decriminalization of marijuana. During his run, he claimed that the previous run was "a publicity stunt"; his campaign slogan was "Kramer for mayor... this time I'm not kidding!" == Personal life ==