Seinfeld 10 years later

Jerry Seinfeld

Yeah, he's done pretty much next to nothing. Oh, sure -- there was some movie about bees, and he got married and fathered three children. Some stand-up here and some stand-up there. But it's been so nothing that he worked the joke into his routine. ("Everybody says to me, 'Hey, you don't do the show anymore. What do you do?' I'll tell you what do I do: nothing. ... Well, let me tell you, doing nothing is not as easy as it looks ... because the idea of doing anything, which could easily lead to doing something, would cut into your nothing, and that would force me to have to drop everything.")

"Bee Movie" (which he co-wrote) was a hit. His first love, the club circuit, has been good to him as well. Rumors of another show on NBC seem to go down in flames reliably every year (he made a funny cameo on "30 Rock's" season opener this year).

The lowdown: One of the most skillful "retirements" in show business history -- Carsonesque, almost. The chances of producing another show as good as "Seinfeld" are (about) 1 in 1.987 billion. He can afford to be picky-choosy: The vast residual windfall was largely denied his three co-stars.

Grade: A