For a show as widely acclaimed and heavily watched as Seinfeld was, its fortunes with the Emmy Awards were fairly mixed. The series as a whole only won Outstanding Comedy Series once, as did Julia Louis-Dreyfus, but Michael Richards won a whopping three times. The one performer (besides Seinfeld himself, who won for producing) who went home empty-handed every time was Jason Alexander, who gave what was arguably the series’ best performance as George. Seven nominations, seven losses, including the aforementioned three to his co-star.

How to explain this? Surely, on a cumulative level, Alexander’s work on Seinfeld would be award-worthy by any measure. But on a year-by-year basis, the Emmys can be quite fickle. One crackerjack episode submitted by a competitor and it’s time to wait for next year. But did the actual Emmy winners really deserve to beat Alexander all seven times? Let’s take a look.

Year: 1992

Emmy Winner: Michael Jeter, Evening Shade

Submitted Episode: “Herman in Charge”

Unfortunately, Evening Shade isn’t available beyond its first season, and Jeter won for a second-season episode, but given the title, and the fact that Jeter played Herman, I think we can infer that the episode was the kind of rare showcase for a supporting performer that Supporting Actor Emmys are made of. By contrast, Alexander submitted the season three premiere episode “The Note,” wherein George undergoes some over-the-top gay panic after getting a massage from a male massage therapist. It’s a good showcase for Alexander going big, but kind of a puzzling choice in a season that also featured “The Tape,” “The Red Dot,” and “The Fix-Up,” the latter of which had this classic George scene:

Year: 1993

Emmy Winner: Michael Richards, Seinfeld

Submitted Episode: “The Junior Mint”

Well, I already declared this episode as a classic in the Jerry column, but Richards evidently was impressive enough in his minty-confection persistence to take the trophy. Alexander submitted “The Outing,” making it two years in a row that he went with a gay-panic storyline as George’s finest half-hour. Perhaps a change in strategy was in order.

Year: 1994

Emmy Winner: Michael Richards, Seinfeld

Submitted Episode: “The Sniffing Accountant”

Okay, this one was the real highway robbery of Alexander’s even snubs. Richards won his second-consecutive Emmy almost entirely on this scene in “The Sniffing Accountant”:

Physical comedy par excellence! But Alexander’s submitted episode was “The Opposite,” perhaps the greatest single George episode of all time, and a 30-minute encapsulation of the greatness and tragedy that was George Costanza. A criminal oversight.

Year: 1995

Emmy Winner: David Hyde Pierce, Frasier

Submitted Episode: “Flour Child”

This one probably worked out the way it should have. Pierce submitted an excellent episode, where Niles decides to test his fitness for becoming a father one day by “adopting” a sack of flour. He’s terrifically funny, as you can see…

… but he probably won the trophy for a bit of melancholy at the end that’s just wonderful. Alexander, by contract, submitted “The Gymnast,” wherein George tries to cheat a book club he’s in by watching the Breakfast at Tiffany‘s movie instead, and shenanigans ensue. Pierce deserved it.

Year: 1996

Emmy Winner: Rip Torn, The Larry Sanders Show

Submitted Episode: “Arthur After Hours”

Here’s an instance where breaking down the competition into one episode really worked against Costanza. Torn, a reliably terrific and award-worthy part of the Larry Sanders ensemble, submitted an episode that put his character, show producer Artie, front and center and gave him a LOT to work with. Alexander’s submitted episode, “The Invitations,” was George-centric too, but the true ensemble nature of Seinfeld kept one character from dominating any one episode.

Year: 1997

Emmy Winner: Michael Richards, Seinfeld

Submitted Episode: “The Chicken Roaster”

Again, Michael Richards wins for an episode that we have already declared a Jerry classic. But Kramer’s half of his and Jerry’s personality swap was still incredibly solid. That said, if Alexander had submitted “The Comeback” as his episode, it’s safe to say the jerk store was running out of Emmy voters in 1997.

Year: 1998

Emmy Winner: David Hyde Pierce, Frasier

Submitted Episode: “The Maris Counselor” and “First Date”

Pierce’s win this year was likely more a result of submitting crucial storyline episodes for Niles — his divorce from Maris; his attempt to finally ask Daphne out on a date — but if this revisitation of Emmy-winning episodes has made anything clear, it’s that David Hyde Pierce was quite wonderful on Frasier and that the Emmy’s over-the-top love for him was well justified. Still, STILL, this was the season of the Festivus episode of Seinfeld, and if Alexander couldn’t get a farewell Emmy for that work, not to mention an entire series worth of what are the Emmys even for?

Like what you see? Follow Decider on Facebook and Twitter to join the conversation, and sign up for our email newsletters to be the first to know about streaming movies and TV news!