While conceiving a plotline for the third-season episode "The Suicide", the writing staff decided to create a friend for Kramer. Though they never had the intention of having the Newman character return on the show, they felt it was easy to use him again, as he had already been introduced. Newman was initially envisioned as the son of the landlord who owned Jerry and Kramer's building, making him able to snitch about the building's inhabitants without being punished for it. However, in between drafts the writing staff decided to make Newman an inhabitant of the building and more of a nemesis to Jerry.