‘Seinfeld’ star John O’Hurley talks about his friendship with real-life J. Peterman (Exclusive)

Life sometimes imitates art. That’s something John O’Hurley learned while combining his acting career with his business endeavors.

The National Dog Show host is best known for playing Elaine Benes’ eccentric boss J. Peterman, owner of the clothing catalog of the same name, on Seinfeld from 1995 to 1998.

“A lot of people don’t know that the Peterman Company is a real catalog. As a result, we parodied it without permission and were always apologizing afterwards,” O’Hurley, 71, tells PEOPLE.

Over the years, O’Hurley and the real Jon Peterman “developed a close relationship,” and soon after, the real Jon Peterman approached the “fake” Jon Peterman with a business proposal.

In early 1999, J. Peterman Company filed for bankruptcy and was acquired by another company, which went bankrupt the following year. When Mr. Peterman had the opportunity to purchase the company’s intellectual property in 2001, he approached Mr. O’Hurley for investment.

“He called me and said, ‘I can buy the company and turn it around, and if you want to join, we can work on our strengths in parallel,'” O’Hurley recalls. “I wrote him a big check. I liked the role so much that I bought the company.”

O’Hurley has been part of the company ever since. In fact, he and Peterman once fought over whether to make Seinfeld’s fictional “urban sombrero” a reality. The concept was born when Elaine, who plays Julia Louis-Dreyfus, suggested creating an oversized hat that would combine “the spirit of old Mexico with a bit of urban dignity” and put it on the cover of the catalogue.

Inspired by the events of this episode, O’Hurley and Peterman ultimately decided to produce this large brown hat in limited quantities and number it to prove its authenticity.

“It sold out in two seconds,” O’Hurley tells PEOPLE.

According to O’Hurley, one of the most notable aspects of his character was his monologues, many of which had to be cut because they were “always too long.”

One of the things fans always say back to him, he says, “always includes the word ‘Elaine.'” ”

“At the end of the wedding cake episode, when I finally learned that she was the culprit and the one responsible for eating up my precious wedding cake, I turned to her. I said to Elaine, ‘Do you know what happens to butter-based frosting after 60 years in a poorly ventilated English basement? I had a hunch that what you were about to experience would be punishment enough,” he recalls.

However, he credits his iconic and quotable character to the show’s “great writing”.

“Shakespeare once said, ‘The play is the point.’ He never said it was the actors that mattered. It’s the play, it’s the words, and we’re blessed with great writers,” he tells PEOPLE.