With their choice of Hollywood players to pick from, the casting department turned to a most unlikely candidate. "They cast our writer, Jon Hayman, a 50-year-old guy," Jason Alexander said in the interview he gave during the "Seinfeld: Inside Look" episode. Hayman is best known as a writer and producer for "The Chris Rock Show" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm," but he just happened to be at the right place at the right time.
Hayman is never seen on-screen, except for his arms, but it's hard to deny the impact of his unforgettable, raspy voice when he verbally spars with George over the historical significance of the Moors versus the Moops. "Jon Hayman was a comedian who was working on the show that year, who was a very sarcastic fellow," Larry David explained during the same interview. Seinfeld himself said the episode was never about making fun of the boy's condition, and the writers went out of their way to make Donald an unlikeable character, so the audience wouldn't sympathize with his bad behavior.
"When someone says it's a bubble boy, you think about, you know, John Travolta [starring in "The Boy In The Plastic Bubble"] being helpless and soft and sweet," guest star Heidi Swedberg said during the interview. "Jon Hayman is none of those things." Hayman has only six acting credits to his name, but he reprised the role of Donald on two more occasions: Season 4, Episode 23 ("The Pilot") and Season 9, Episode 22 ("The Finale").
