How Long Did Jerry, Elaine, George And Kramer Go To Jail For On Seinfeld?

Decades after it aired, the series finale of "Seinfeld" remains one of the most controversial endings in TV history. The plot of the episode, fittingly titled "The Finale," finds Jerry Seinfeld (Jerry Seinfeld), Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), George Costanza (Jason Alexander), and Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards) traveling out of town. Away from the mean streets of New York City, their typical misanthropy is catastrophically misplaced when they watch a man being carjacked. Instead of stepping in to help, they videotape the crime and make fat-phobic jokes at the victim's expense. This leads to their arrest, as local law requires that witnesses to such a crime offer aid.

As the episode closes out, the four friends are locked in a holding cell after being found guilty, but even prison can't faze them. As the credits begin to roll, they're too busy nitpicking the details of George's shirt to care about the prison sentence awaiting them. After nine seasons, it's a fitting end for a show that was always a few shades darker than most gave it credit for, but it leaves behind a burning question: just how long did the main characters of "Seinfeld" spend behind bars?

What we know for sure is that Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer were sentenced to a year in prison. The judge (Stanley Anderson) in that episode said as much. But since "The Finale" was, in fact, the finale, there's no way of knowing whether they served out their time.

While many fans despise the "Seinfeld" finale, and while even Jerry Seinfeld understands why "The Finale" didn't land with them, it was still a fitting end for a group of characters who, let's be honest, had gotten away with far too much over the years. But the open-endedness of those final moments left fans questioning where Jerry and his pals ended up.

Unfortunately, no answers have been provided in the many years since "The Finale" aired. Even the "Curb Your Enthusiasm" episode "Seinfeld," in which Larry David reunites the cast of the sitcom for a reboot, avoids the subject entirely, though it does feature a new, non-canonical "Seinfeld" scene in which Kramer notes that George can't "make it on the outside" of prison.

With no additional information, it seems that the core quartet of "Seinfeld" most likely served out their entire year of prison time, no doubt instigating just as much shenanigans behind bars as they're wont to do on the streets of Manhattan.