If you think "Seinfeld" was about his fabulous foursome of Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander and Michael Richards, I envy you. This means you have nine unwatched seasons genius sitcom waiting for you to stream (or you can just buy the complete series on Blu-ray and own every episode probably for the rest of your life, provided you store the discs properly). If there's a Seinfeld fanatic in your life, you probably know about recurring characters like Newman the Weasel (Wayne Knight), George's eccentric parents (Jerry Stiller and Estelle Harris), and standouts like the Soup Nazi (Larry Thomas), but do you know about the dead majesty of david pudi?

Portrayed by Patrick Warburton (to his father's amazement), David Pudi first appeared in the classic Season 6 episode "The Fusilli Jerry". Pudi is Jerry's friend and mechanic who breaks the boy's unwritten rule when he steals Jerry's coital "move" while having sex with Elaine. This starts a series of hilariously minor complications, so no one is upset to see Paddy back in the next episode where he dons the face of the New Jersey Devils. At this point, the quirky but seemingly decent Pudi seemed destined for recurring status. He was the perfect straight-faced foil to Elaine and possessed quirks that could be used for huge laughs below.

So why did Paddy suddenly leave and not return until the show's final season?

In a 2013 interview with The AV ClubWarburton revealed that his long absence from Seinfeld was due to his joining the cast of the sitcom Dave's World in 1995. Based on writer Dave Barry's nationally syndicated humor columns, the series ran until 1997, effectively keeping Warburton out of circulation for two years. As he told AV Club:

"I made a few phone calls to do more 'Seinfeld,' but I just couldn't do it." on "Seinfeld."

And this only happened because Warburton shot a commercial for American Express with Seinfeld, where he voiced the sitcom star's favorite superhero, Superman. According to Warburton:

“I wasn't on that set that he just threw out there. He says, “Do you want to come back to the show this next season? To which I replied, "Let me check my schedule." Yes. ""

Warburton appeared in eight episodes that season (including the controversial finale), which raised his profile and allowed him to star as the mayhem-causing superhero The Tick on Fox's tragically short-lived superhero sitcom in 2001. To date, Warburton's finest hour is probably his voice portrayal of Cronk in the Disney's animated classic The Emperor's New Groove. And none of this would have ever happened if he hadn't stolen Jerry's move on "Seinfeld."