Editing Cosmo Kramer (section)

==Development==
[[File:Michael Richards (1993).jpg|thumb|upright|Michael Richards, who played Cosmo Kramer, in 1993]]

===Inspiration===
The character of Kramer was originally based on the real-life [[Kenny Kramer]], a neighbor of co-creator [[Larry David]] from [[New York City|New York]]. However, Michael Richards did not in any way base his performance on the real Kramer, to the point of refusing to meet him. This was later parodied in "[[The Pilot (Seinfeld)|The Pilot]]" when the actor that is cast to play him in Jerry and George's sitcom refuses to base the character on the real Cosmo Kramer. At the time of the shooting of the original ''Seinfeld'' [[television pilot|pilot]], "[[The Seinfeld Chronicles]]", Kenny Kramer had not yet given consent to use his name, and so Kramer's character was originally known as "Kessler".

Larry David was hesitant to use Kenny Kramer's real name because he suspected that Kramer would take advantage of this. David's suspicion turned out to be correct; Kenny Kramer created the "Kramer Reality Tour", a [[New York City]] bus tour that points out actual locations of events or places featured in ''Seinfeld''. The "Kramer Reality Tour" is itself spoofed on ''Seinfeld'' in "[[The Muffin Tops]]". In the episode, when Kramer's real-life stories are used by Elaine to pad the biography of J. Peterman she was ghostwriting, Kramer develops a reality bus tour called "The Peterman Reality Tour" and touts himself as "The Real J. Peterman".

===Given and surnames===
Kramer was known only as "Kramer" during the show's first five seasons (from 1990 to 1994). In "[[The Seinfeld Chronicles]]", Jerry referred to him as "Kessler", which was his original name for the show, until it was changed to "Kramer". However, in the first draft of the script, he was named "Hoffman". In a flashback in "[[The Betrayal]]", Kramer says that his name is incorrectly listed as "Kessler" in the apartment building. This [[retcon]]s the pilot's use of "Kessler" as the character's name.

[[George Costanza|George]] finds out his first name of "Cosmo" through an encounter with Kramer's long estranged mom, Babs, in "[[The Switch (Seinfeld)|The Switch]]". For the most part, characters continued to call him Kramer for the remainder of the show's run. The name "Cosmo" was suggested by Larry David; he took the name from a boy who lived in the same apartment building as him and [[Kenny Kramer]].<ref>{{cite video |title=Seinfeld Season 6: Inside Look - "The Switch"|medium=DVD |publisher=[[Sony Pictures Home Entertainment]] |date=2005}}</ref>

The episode titled "[[The Bet (Seinfeld)|The Bet]]" would have revealed Kramer's first name as "Conrad", not "Cosmo", but it was never filmed.