Notice and Accolades
It is fair to say that season four is when everything came together for Seinfeld. Although the show did not reach the top of the charts—or even the top ten—vis-à-vis the viewing audience, it was making serious inroads as increasing numbers of people watched the show and, more importantly, talked incessantly about its characters, the dialogue, and the episodes’ innumerable plot twists and turns.
Seinfeld was nominated for eleven Emmy Awards for season four and came away the winner of three, including one for “Outstanding Comedy Series,” which was the only time in its nine-year run that the show snared the top honor. For his work on season four, Michael Richards took home an Emmy for “Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series”—the first of three that he would win for his role as Kramer. And Larry David was recognized as “Outstanding Writer in a Comedy Series” for the episode “The Contest,” a Seinfeld classic.
Tom Cherones directed all twenty-three episodes of season four, which TV Guide recently ranked the greatest single season of any sitcom, before or after. In its parcel of memorable episodes are multiple story arcs, too, which wend their way through them, including the trials and tribulations of Jerry and George developing a sitcom idea and writing a pilot episode for NBC. The season culminates with “The Pilot,” an hour-long episode with a storyline revolving around the pilot show in its filming stage. Additional story arcs in season four include George in his on-again, off-again relationship with NBC executive Susan Ross and “Crazy” Joe Davola intent on doing Jerry physical harm or something a little more final.
Episodes 40/41: “The Trip” (original air dates: August 12/August 19, 1992)
The first episodes of season four—aired in two parts and written by Larry Charles—follow in linear progression season three’s finale, “The Keys,” which placed Kramer in Hollywood pursuing his dual dreams of forging a successful acting career and seeing his movie script treatment made into a blockbuster film.
Season four gets rolling with Jerry accepting a request to appear on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. He is furnished two round-trip plane tickets to Los Angeles, and George accompanies him on the flight to the West Coast. Both Jerry and George reason, too, that they can hook up with Kramer while there and get the lowdown on how things are going with him.
When they touch down in the City of Angels, the headline news story reports that a serial killer, known as the “Smog Strangler,” is on the loose. Puzzlingly, Kramer’s movie script is found at the scene of the most recent “Smog Strangler” murder and the police figure they’ve got their man. They pick Kramer up for questioning and he does not take to being accused of multiple homicides very well. In fact, he becomes hysterical during an interrogation.
Meanwhile, in another room—the green room of The Tonight Show—George casually chats with guests Corbin Bernsen and George Wendt, who subsequently impart to Jay Leno their experiences in meeting some wacky guy backstage. George, a member of the studio audience, is visibly embarrassed upon hearing their unflattering descriptions of him, because he thought he had made a good impression on them. After the show, Jerry and George see a newscast with a picture of the suspected serial killer, Kramer, in custody. They promptly contact the police in hopes of saving their old friend from a serious miscarriage of justice.
A police vehicle arrives soon after to escort them down to the station with whatever information they have. En route, they encounter a man breaking into a car, and the police arrest him. Jerry and George are thus compelled to ride in the backseat with an unsavory character. Clint Howard, Ron Howard’s younger brother and an actor who has a penchant for playing deranged-looking and objectionable sorts, is the lawbreaker. Later, when the police officers chauffeuring Jerry, George, and the car thief hear that the killer—not Kramer—may be in the very area through which they are passing, they leave their vehicle unattended to have a look around. Jerry and George take the opportunity to go to the police station unescorted, but inadvertently leave the back door open, which enables the handcuffed car thief to escape.
Kramer is exonerated when word comes down that another “Smog Strangler” murder has been committed—one that he couldn’t have possibly done while he was in police custody. Jerry and George fly back home, but Kramer stays put in L.A. However, he soon turns up in New York with no explanation as to why he returned. A postscript to this story is that the car thief Jerry and George unintentionally let slip away was actually the “Smog Strangler.” Their negligence in permitting him to escape enabled him to kill once more before being apprehended.
Episode 42: “The Pitch” (original air date: September 16, 1992)
Written by Larry David, this episode establishes the story arc for season four, wherein Jerry is asked to develop a sitcom concept for NBC. He takes on George as his collaborator and the fledgling comedy writing pair ultimately pitch an idea about a “show about nothing” to the NBC brass, who are not quite won over.
Interestingly, the mere notion of launching and then developing a storyline based on the experiences of Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David pitching their sitcom pilot to NBC did not go over well with a lot of people, including Jason Alexander, who thought it was “insane.” Certain critics felt that a show that was not yet a big audience grabber—it finished number twenty-five in the Nielsen ratings for season three—had no business being that self-indulgent.
Nevertheless, Seinfeld being Seinfeld defied the conventional wisdom once again and allowed the storyline to unfurl throughout the season. Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David were right to believe in this plotline, too. The “show about nothing” pitch in this very episode is considered a memorable moment in the series. With him vowing not to compromise his artistic integrity or alter the show’s concept one iota, George almost blows the deal with the NBC executives. Two recurring characters also debuted in this episode: Susan Ross, an NBC executive, and “Crazy” Joe Davola, a writer with considerable psychological baggage. Susan would become romantically involved with George—on and off—as well as enter into a lesbian relationship in season four, and then come back in season seven to both get engaged to George and die. In “The Pitch,” Susan gets introduced to and vomited on by Kramer at Jerry’s apartment—an inauspicious first encounter, to say the least. “Crazy” Joe Davola initiates his vendetta here against Jerry as well as Kramer, because of a verbal faux pas. Jerry had casually mentioned that he would see “Crazy” Joe at a party being thrown by Kramer—one for which he had received no invitation.
This episode introduces Heidi Swedberg as Susan Ross, Peter Crombie as “Crazy” Joe Davola, and Bob Balaban as Russell Dalrymple.
The following episode, “The Ticket,” originally aired as part of a one-hour episode with “The Pitch” as its first half. In syndication, however, the hour show was separated into individual half-hour episodes, with two separate titles. Hence, for the purposes of episode counting, it is counted as two distinct shows.
Episode 43: “The Ticket” (original air date: September 16, 1992)
This continuation of “The Pitch” finds Jerry and George with a second chance to win over unconvinced NBC executives with their sitcom pilot idea. They accomplish their mission by promising to add a little something to the “show about nothing” concept, but are offered a meager thirteen thousand dollars up front to develop the show, which particularly displeases George, who was expecting a great deal more.
Meanwhile, “Crazy” Joe Davola is on the warpath and kicks Kramer in the head, which adds another layer to his already eccentric behavior and causes him to spew nonsensical sentences. On the other side of the world, Elaine is on holiday in Europe with her psychiatrist-boyfriend, Dr. Reston, who also happens to be Davola’s shrink. Dr. Reston, played by Stephen McHattie, realizes from across the ocean that he neglected to supply his unstable patient with a needed prescription before he left town, which would explain the man’s psychotic actions.
Intertwined storylines in this episode include Jerry tossing a watch given to him by his parents into a garbage can—because it never kept the right time—only to have it plucked out of the trash by his Uncle Leo, who believed that he got short shrift from Jerry when they encountered one another on the street.
Newman is simultaneously fighting a speeding ticket and enlists Kramer as his alibi. The story concocted by him has Newman in a mad dash to the suicidal Kramer’s side, which would explain the excessive speeding. In defense of Newman, Kramer is coached to say on the witness stand that he wanted to take his own life because his lifelong dream of becoming a banker was unrealized. However, a short-term memory loss from the earlier blow to his head torpedoes Newman’s entire defense.
“Crazy” Joe Davola is a recurring character in season four. The name is an homage to producer Joe Davola, Larry David’s longtime friend in the industry. The real-life Davola’s television credits include Smallville (2001–2011), One Tree Hill (2003–2012), What I Like About You (2002–2006), and The Bronx Is Burning (2007).
Episode 44: “The Wallet” (original air date: September 23, 1992)
Larry David wrote this episode that finds Jerry’s parents coming to town for a visit; George tying to negotiate a better deal with NBC for their sitcom pilot; and Elaine plotting to break up with Dr. Reston, her psychiatrist boyfriend.
Predictably, George’s negotiating tactics backfire and the sitcom deal is lost. He does, though, receive a box of Cuban cigars from Susan’s father, which he passes on to Kramer. Meanwhile, Jerry’s folks wonder how he likes the watch they had given him. Later, while being examined in a doctor’s office, Morty Seinfeld believes that his wallet has been purloined.
Julia Louis-Dreyfus is back in the saddle in this episode and appears in a considerable role for the very first time since season three. A pregnancy necessitated her entirely missing the two episodes of “The Trip” that inaugurated the fourth season, and she appeared only in cameo roles in “The Pitch” and “The Ticket.”
Episode 45: “The Watch” (original air date: September 30, 1992)
Larry David again wrote this teleplay, a sequel to “The Wallet,” in which Jerry attempts to get the watch his parents gave him back from Uncle Leo, who had found it in a trashcan. In a separate plot turn, Kramer agrees to help Elaine end her romantic relationship with Dr. Reston by assuming the role of her new boyfriend
Meanwhile, George attempts to resuscitate the previous deal with NBC by tracking down the president of the network, Russell Dalrymple, at his home. He proves successful in getting the green light once more, but is compelled to accept eighty-eight hundred dollars instead of the original thirteen thousand dollars to make it a reality. By the episode’s end, Elaine’s got a new boyfriend, “Crazy” Joe Davola, whom she bumps into outside of Dr. Reston’s office. She is unaware, though, that he is the same man with a vendetta against Jerry.
Episode 46: “The Bubble Boy” (original air date: October 7, 1992)
The “Larry” team of David and Charles collaborated in writing this episode, which revolves around a young man named Donald Sanger who lives in a germ-free plastic tent—a bubble, as it were—due to a life-threatening immune deficiency.
The episode opens with Jerry and Elaine agreeing to join George and Susan Ross at her family’s lakeside cabin in upstate New York. Before making the trip, a man named Mel (played by Brian Doyle-Murray) drops by Jerry and Elaine’s table at Monk’s Café and tells them about his son, who both calls home a plastic bubble and is a big fan of Jerry Seinfeld. He politely asks if Jerry would visit him in person because it would be a real morale booster. As the Sanger family lives in the same direction of the Ross family cabin, Elaine convinces a reluctant Jerry to grant this heartfelt request. Following behind George and Susan, who have the directions to the Sangers’ house, Jerry and Elaine get hopelessly lost due to George’s aggressive driving maneuvers: speeding, with perpetual lane changes.
George and Susan thus arrive at the Sanger residence first and impatiently wait for Jerry and Elaine to turn up. In the interim, George engages Donald, who is a very unpleasant and difficult person to be around notwithstanding his condition, in a game of Trivial Pursuit. A dispute over an answer to a question—“Who invaded Spain in the eighth century?”—quickly turns the game on its head. Donald correctly replies, “The Moors,” but the card, with an obvious misprint, reads “The Moops.” George refuses to accept Donald’s answer as the right one and the latter becomes unglued. He reaches out from within his bubble and physically attacks George. In the mêlée, Susan unintentionally punctures the tent’s plastic, which necessitates a call to the paramedics.
Meanwhile, Jerry and Elaine are eating in a nearby diner when angry locals enter the place and relay the story of Donald, the “bubble boy,” being attacked. Jerry and Elaine put two and two together and reach George and Susan before the rabble does. They drive off to the Ross family cabin and find it in flames. Kramer and Naomi (Jerry’s girlfriend), who were not expected, had arrived earlier. The former had carelessly left a lit Cuban cigar unattended, which caused the blaze. The cabin that had been in the Ross family for generations is now a charred memory courtesy of Cuban cigars given to George by Mr. Ross, who in turn gave them to Kramer. It is the irony of ironies.
Jon Hayman supplied the voice of Donald Sanger, who is never fully seen. Jessica Lundy played Jerry’s girlfriend, Naomi, who George says laughs like “Elmer Fudd sitting on a juicer.”
Episode 47: “The Cheever Letters” (original air date: October 28, 1992)
With story help from Elaine Pope and Tom Leopold, the prolific Larry David penned the teleplay of this episode in the grand tradition of the fourth season, which further develops the story arcs. For starters, George is fretting about how to inform Susan’s father that his beloved family cabin has burned to the ground. Both Jerry and George are attempting, too—without much success—to write their sitcom script for NBC.
Meanwhile, Jerry tells Elaine that her secretary, Sandra, talks to him too much before putting him through to her. When Elaine reports what Jerry said, Sandra quits her job and storms out of the office. In hopes that she will return to work, Elaine wants Jerry to patch things up with her. He agrees and makes a date with her, which is going very well until he crosses some invisible line during their “dirty talk” with the strangest of queries, “You mean the panties your mother laid out for you?”
In Kramer’s world, he is apparently unmoved that his negligence caused the fire that turned the Ross family cabin into a heap of ashes. He asks George for more Cuban cigars because they make for very potent bribes in getting him into a prestigious golf course. When George breaks the bad news that he has no more, Kramer visits the Cuban Diplomatic Mission near the United Nations and swaps his jacket for some premium cigars.
Later, Jerry and George are at the Ross apartment when the only item that didn’t get burned in the fire is delivered—a box that contains love letters exchanged between novelist John Cheever and Susan’s father, who proclaims his undying love for his past lover.
Warren Frost and Grace Zabriskie are introduced here for the first time as Mr. and Mrs. Ross. They would return in future seasons’ episodes: “The Rye,” “The Foundation,” “The Wizard,” and “The Finale.” The Ross family cabin is rebuilt, we learn, in season seven.
Episode 48: “The Opera” (original air date: November 4, 1992)
Larry Charles wrote this episode in his inimitable style, with “Crazy” Joe Davola up to his old tricks—first leaving a threatening message on Jerry’s answering machine and then trapping Elaine in his apartment after she discovers a wall full of photographs of her taken with a telephoto lens.
Fortuitously, Elaine escapes from Davola’s clutches with the help of cherry-scented breath spray. He has accused her of unfaithfulness now and she, too, must worry about the man’s next move. Although, at this juncture, she still does not realize that her “Crazy” Joe is the “Crazy” Joe Davola.
Kramer, meanwhile, gets six tickets to I Pagliacci, an opera at Town Hall. He attends with Jerry, George, and Elaine. George says that Susan can’t make it—she’s picking up a friend at the airport—and Elaine’s Joe obviously isn’t coming either, so this leaves two extra tickets. Kramer and George scalp them.
Back at his apartment, “Crazy” Joe Davola dresses up like Canio from I Pagliacci, in full clown regalia. On his way to the theater, hoodlums accost him in Central Park but he turns the tables on the would-be muggers with fluent karate moves.
Comparing notes at the theater, Jerry and Elaine realize now that their “Crazy” Joe person and problems are one and the same. They justifiably fear that he’ll be out to get both of them now. When Susan turns up unexpectedly, George is compelled to give her his ticket. She ends up sitting beside a heavyset Asian man who paid George’s asking price for the scalped ticket. Kramer informs the gang that he sold his extra ticket to “some nut in a clown suit”—none other than “Crazy” Joe Davola.
Episode 49: “The Virgin” (original air date: November 11, 1992)
With story assistance from brothers Peter Farrelly and Bob Farrelly, Peter Mehlman wrote this episode, wherein Jerry discovers that his girlfriend, Marla (played by Jane Leeves), is a virgin, and George initiates a relationship that he knows is doomed from the start because he already has a girlfriend, Susan.
George is positively giddy, though, that he can now tell women—with some pride—his occupation: television writer. Nevertheless, he realizes that he’s caught between a rock and a hard place with regards to Susan. Her support as an NBC executive is crucial to the success of the pilot that he and Jerry are developing. Breaking up with her could very well sound the death knell for the entire project.
Both Jerry and George continue to brainstorm but are finding it exceptionally difficult with all the interruptions from Kramer. With a meeting on the horizon with the NBC big shots, Jerry is concerned that they won’t have anything to show them. George comes up with an idea for the sitcom that involves a man guilty of insurance fraud being sentenced by the court to serve as Jerry’s butler. Surprisingly, the NBC honchos like it. Overly excited when they are given the thumbs up, George leaps to his feet and plants a wet one on Susan, which both leads to her getting axed from her job and the end of her relationship with the co-creator of Jerry.
Meanwhile, Elaine speaks very intimately in front of Jerry’s girlfriend—before learning that Marla is a virgin—about how she always has a diaphragm on her person. Upon discovering the virgin truth, as it were, a chagrined Elaine races after her to apologize for her inappropriate words. In such a big hurry, she crosses the street against the light and is responsible for Chinese food delivery boy Ping (played by Ping Wu), crashing his bicycle.
Episode 50: “The Contest” (original air date: November 18, 1992)
In 2009, TV Guide ranked this episode number one in its “Top 100 Episodes of All Time” list, which included all sitcoms pre- and post-Seinfeld. Larry David, who wrote the script for “The Contest,” won both a primetime Emmy Award and Writers Guild of America Award for his efforts. Tom Cherones was recognized with a Directors Guild of America Award for this episode.
“The Contest” gets rolling with George informing the gang at Monk’s Café that his mother caught him in the act of masturbating, although that M-word is never uttered. In fact, it so shocked her that she ended up in the hospital. George thusly proclaims that he will never, ever do it again. Jerry, Elaine, and Kramer don’t believe him for a second and the foursome enter into a contest as to who can go the longest without self-pleasuring. The boys pony up one hundred dollars each, but Elaine is required to cough up one-hundred-fifty dollars because it is so much a part of a man’s lifestyle that they will have a much harder road to travel down, vis-à-vis the contest.
After spying a very nubile naked woman in a nearby apartment visible from Jerry’s window, Kramer is the first to admit defeat. (“I’m out!” he yells, slapping a hundred-dollar bill on Jerry’s table.) Meanwhile, Jerry is sorely tempted by watching the very same woman and further bedeviled in his relationship with Marla, a virgin hesitant about having sex with him. George is turned on, too, watching silhouettes, through a curtain in his mother’s hospital room, of a nurse giving a shapely young woman a sponge bath. After encountering him at the health club, Elaine now has a major crush on John F. Kennedy Jr. With the exception of Kramer, who is now free from the contest constrictions and sleeping like a baby, Jerry, George, and Elaine experience fitful nights.
Courtesy of JFK Jr.’s intoxicating sex appeal, Elaine is the second person to cash in her chips. She also discovers that he is interested in her and planning to stop by Jerry’s apartment to pick her up for a date. Things go awry for Jerry, however, when he tells Marla about the contest, which she finds quite repellent and leaves before they can consummate their relationship. Elaine then wonders why John F. Kennedy Jr. didn’t turn up as promised, but George tells her that he did indeed. He drove off with Marla, the virgin, whom we see in the show’s waning moments in bed with him. Like JFK Jr., Kramer is also a happy camper and in bed with the naked woman from across the way. It is not settled here who won the contest—Jerry or George—although the latter admits in “The Finale” that he cheated. He had taken credit in a subsequent episode (“The Puffy Shirt”) as the contest winner.
This is the first episode that Estelle Harris appears as Estelle Costanza. John F. Kennedy Jr., like Joe DiMaggio before him, only appears in our imaginations. Jerry Seinfeld has cited “The Contest,” along with “The Marine Biologist” and “The Invitations,” as his three favorite episodes in the series.
Seeing is believing: Estelle Costanza (Estelle Harris) hospitalized from shock in “The Contest.”
Wren Maloney/NBC/Photofest
Episode 51: “The Airport” (original air date: November 25, 1992)
Written by Larry Charles, this episode contains not a single scene in any of the characters’ apartments or in Monk’s Café, which didn’t happen very often during the show’s nine seasons. Rather, we find Jerry and Elaine on their way home from St. Louis—he had a gig there, and she was visiting her sister—and George and Kramer on their way to John F. Kennedy International Airport to pick them up.
When their flight to JFK is canceled, Jerry and Elaine are compelled to catch another one to LaGuardia Airport. One of their two tickets, however, is in coach, while the other is in first class. Jerry insists that Elaine ride in the former, because he is so accustomed to the latter that he couldn’t possibly go back. The end result: he parties during the entire flight with a model named Tia Van Camp, played by Jennifer Campbell, while Elaine has a miserably uncomfortable experience in the recesses of the plane.
Meanwhile, George and Kramer find themselves running back and forth between airports. George’s perfect airport pick-up plan is a distant memory. And while he is purchasing the last available copy of Time magazine in an airport gift shop, he encounters a convict in shackles who wants the magazine for himself because his picture, along with the blaring headline “Caught,” is on the cover. George refuses to turn it over, all the while taking pleasure in the convict’s predicament.
While this is transpiring, Kramer sees a man he believes to be John Grossbard, boarding a plane. Grossbard, a former roommate of his from twenty years ago, owes him two-hundred-forty dollars. He asks George to purchase a ticket for him so that he can get on the plane and confront Grossbard. George agrees to the plan only when Kramer reassures him that he will exit the plane before takeoff and get a refund. In fact, George sees the whole thing as a win-win situation for him because he will not only get his money back, but frequent flier miles for the purchase. Why not then purchase two tickets? he reasons. Kramer, though, procures non-refundable tickets because the counterperson informs him that they are the best deal.
On the plane, Kramer confronts Grossbard (played by Alan Wasserman), who claims not to know him. Ultimately, Kramer is arrested after a contentious scene and ushered off the plane. Waiting to use the bathroom on the same plane, George is surprised when the door opens to see the convict in shackles—the very same man who wanted his Time magazine. He is pulled inside by him and pummeled. Wily Kramer somehow eludes the security people and winds up coming down a baggage chute, where Jerry and Elaine are there to greet him. George, though, is not so lucky and seen on a plane taking off to someplace unknown—bruised and battered, in despair, and plaintively mouthing the word Kramer! through a window.
Episode 52: “The Pick” (original air date: December 16, 1992)
Larry David originally wanted to call this episode “The Nipple,” but decided against it because of likely network censor objections. He wrote the teleplay with story help from Marc Jaffe. The central plotline of “The Pick” revolves around a Christmas card photograph taken of Elaine by Kramer that inadvertently exposes her nipple. Another plot twist finds George obsessing on getting back together with Susan, and even seeing a therapist about it. Then there’s Jerry dating Tia Van Kamp, a Calvin Klein model, whom he met on the plane trip home in the previous episode. Exactly where George’s unplanned plane ride took him is never addressed in this episode. Finally, when Kramer turns up in Jerry’s apartment to borrow his friend’s Dustbuster, he meets Tia, who is wearing a familiar fragrance that he cannot, at first, readily identify.
Kramer, though, quickly realizes that she’s wearing Calvin Klein’s “The Ocean” perfume, a knockoff of “The Beach” that he had unsuccessfully pitched to them in the episode “The Pez Dispenser.” Spitting mad at this injustice, he visits the offices of Calvin Klein to set them straight. He gets no redress with regard to the perfume piracy, but does land a job as an underwear model.
Meanwhile, Jerry’s relationship with Tia comes to an abrupt end when she catches him—from her perspective, at least—picking his nose. Jerry explains that he was merely scratching it and that there was no “nostril penetration,” but she doesn’t buy his explanation. George gets his wish and is back together with Susan, but he fast concludes that it was a mistake. He decides to let her catch him picking his nose, which ends the relationship once more.
Nicholas Hormann played Calvin Klein, who is bowled over by Kramer’s physique, masculinity, and charm.
Episode 53: “The Movie” (original air date: January 6, 1993)
Written by the troika of Steve Skrovan, Bill Masters, and Jon Hayman, “The Movie” is another Seinfeld episode about nothing much, this one containing a series of miscommunications in the age before cell phones. We find the gang planning to see the movie Checkmate together. George and Elaine are at the theater awaiting the arrival of both Jerry and Kramer.
Before meeting his friends, Jerry is slated to perform in two comedy clubs and has everything perfectly timed out. But when the first of his two gigs runs late, his best laid plans have indeed gone agley. He decides not to skip the first show and arrives at the second one too late. On top of that, he shares a cab with Buckles (played by Barry Diamond), a wannabe comedian who is forever annoying him.
At the theater, George stands in the wrong line to buy tickets, which—with all the waiting around—makes it almost certain that they’ll get a poor choice of seating by the time they get into the movie. Kramer arrives, but insists on leaving to visit nearby Papaya King for a hot dog. A movie theater frankfurter is, to him, a repulsive notion. Kramer’s entrance and then exit merely continues the waiting and miscommunication game. Finally, George and Elaine decide to go to a theater around the corner, where they purchase tickets to see Rochelle, Rochelle, a movie that George will subsequently rent from the video store and that, in its Broadway adaptation, will star Bette Midler.
When all is said and done, only Kramer sees the movie that the foursome had originally planned on viewing together.
Episode 54: “The Visa” (original air date: January 27, 1993)
Written by Peter Mehlman, this episode finds George winning over an attractive Asian lawyer named Cheryl with his delicious sense of humor. Coincidentally, she is also the cousin of Ping, the Chinese delivery boy who was injured by Elaine’s mad dash in “The Virgin.” He is suing her and being represented by Cheryl.
George takes Cheryl out to dinner and, to his utter dismay, Jerry and Elaine turn up in the same restaurant. George fears that Jerry will outshine him in the humor department. When Cheryl excuses herself to make a phone call, George implores Jerry not to be funny around her. Jerry then assumes an ultra-serious demeanor, which—to George’s great displeasure—appeals to Cheryl.
Meanwhile, Elaine’s been holding Jerry’s mail that she picked up for him when he was out of town. It’s been weeks and she still hasn’t brought it over. Also, Babu Bhatt is now living in Jerry’s apartment building and working in Monk’s Café. He is grateful that Jerry both got him a job and found him a nice place to live. When they learn that immigration officials have taken Babu away, Jerry visits him in jail. Babu tells him that the immigration bureaucrats never received his visa-renewal application, which he himself hadn’t received. Jerry then breaks the news to Babu that the application had been delivered to his mailbox by mistake, and that Elaine had possession of his mail for weeks. Babu is very upset upon hearing this, but Jerry promises to get him legal help. He asks Cheryl to take on Babu’s case.
However, when George learns that Cheryl has taken quite a shine to Jerry and his dark, brooding personality, he comes clean and tells her that it was all an act, and that he, George, is really the unfunny, depressed, deeply troubled guy. Highly insulted at this duplicity, Cheryl storms off.
While all this is going on, Kramer returns from a New York Yankees baseball fantasy camp with big news: he accidentally punched out Mickey Mantle and sent him to the hospital. Kramer then visits the baseball legend’s Manhattan restaurant to apologize, but gets unceremoniously tossed out.
The episode closes with Babu Bhatt back in Pakistan and ruing the day he ever met that “very, very bad man” Jerry Seinfeld. He vows revenge. Apparently, after George made his revelation, Cheryl didn’t lift a finger for Babu. The Ping lawsuit against Elaine, which she had previously convinced her client to drop, is also back on the docket.
Maggie Han played Cheryl. Prior to appearing on Seinfeld, Han had a recurring role on Murphy’s Law as Kimiko Funnuchi.
Episode 55: “The Shoes” (original air date: February 4, 1993)
Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David collaborated on the writing of this episode that continues the story arc of Jerry and George laboring on their sitcom pilot. While in Monk’s Café, Gail Cunningham, a former girlfriend of Jerry’s who never allowed him to kiss her on their three dates, complains that she was just snubbed by Kramer. She believes, therefore, that Jerry must have spread lies about their relationship to him, which would explain the snub. Gail also comments on Elaine’s Botticelli shoes, implying that the latter is hoity-toity for wearing them.
Embarrassed by Gail’s discourteous behavior toward her, Elaine calls on the restaurant where she is employed as a chef to let her have it. While there, she accidentally sneezes on a plate of pasta primavera that had been ordered by the president of NBC, Russell Dalrymple. Afterwards, when Jerry and George visit Russell with their newly completed script, they find him suffering from a stomach ailment—presumably the result of eating a sneezed-upon dinner—and running back and forth to the bathroom. After George is caught red-handed staring at his fifteen-year-old daughter’s cleavage, they are abruptly kicked out of the NBC honcho’s office.
Jerry and George realize now that they desperately need to see Russell, who refuses to return their calls. They devise a plan that involves accidentally bumping into him in his favorite restaurant, which is also where Gail is employed. They ask Gail to call them when he shows up. She agrees to help out but only on the condition that she gets Elaine’s shoes in return for the favor.
In Kramer’s world, he succeeds where Jerry failed. He kisses Gail and claims that women are attracted to a good snub. Kramer believes that the snubbing affair turned her on to him. George, though, disagrees that snubbing a woman would make him more attractive to her.
The episode ends with Elaine asking that the character based on her be given more lines in the Jerry sitcom script. Jerry and George had earlier realized that they hadn’t given her character a single line, owning up to the fact that they had no idea how to write dialogue for women.
“The Shoes” marked an important milestone in Seinfeld history, as the show moved from Wednesday night to Thursday night at 9:30 p.m., following the highly rated Cheers. This move brought the show an ever-increasing audience for the remainder of season four. Anita Barone portrayed Gail in this episode. Among her multiple television credits are The Jeff Foxworthy Show (1995–1997), as Karen Foxworthy; The War at Home (2005–2007), as Vicky Gold; and Shake It Up! (2010–2013), as Georgia Jones.
Episode 56: “The Outing” (original air date: February 11, 1993)
This episode delivered one of the most popular catchphrases in the entire series: “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.” Written by Larry Charles, the central storyline revolves around Jerry and George being presumed gay.
A writer named Sharon, a graduate student at New York University, is doing a feature article on Jerry for the school newspaper. While in Monk’s Café, Elaine notices a woman eavesdropping on their conversation and, as a gag, addresses Jerry and George as if they were a closeted gay couple.
The woman turns out to be Sharon of NYU, who now believes that the subject of her interview is gay, especially after she calls on Jerry at his apartment and finds George there. Despite their unequivocal denials, Sharon publishes an article underscoring the gay angle. The Associated Press picks up the story and so does the New York Post, which prompts Jerry to say: “I’ve been outed. I wasn’t even in.”
Largely as an attempt to prove that he is indeed heterosexual, Jerry subsequently dates Sharon. In an effort to break up with his girlfriend, Allison, George hopes to use the story for his benefit. In the final analysis, though, she is not convinced that George is gay, and Sharon is not convinced that Jerry is straight.
Busy character actress Paula Marshall played Sharon, and the equally industrious Kari Coleman was Allison.
Episode 57: “The Old Man” (original air date: February 18, 1993)
It’s unusual to find Jerry, George, and Elaine involved in volunteer work, but that’s the case in this episode written by Larry Charles, with the story by Bruce Kirschbaum. They are working with the elderly. Jerry is entrusted with Sid Fields, an irascible old coot with a Senegalese housekeeper that George ultimately falls for because she can’t speak a word of English.
George, meanwhile, is assisting Ben Cantwell, who quickly tires of the behavior of his more youthful companion. He informs George in no uncertain language: “Life’s too short to waste on you.” Elaine, too, is having problems with the woman she visits, nauseated by the sight of her goiter. However, she discovers that she was once Mahatma Gandhi’s lover, which intrigues her.
In a completely unrelated storyline, Kramer and Newman attempt to make a killing selling old LPs to a music store. They first attempt to peddle Jerry’s old records, but come away disgusted with the lowball price offered for them. Later, they take some of Sid Fields’s records to the same place. Again, Kramer and Newman are dissatisfied with what they are offered and a fight ensues, with all of the records and potential profits lost.
In the big picture, the gang does a lousy job in bringing companionship to their elderly charges, with Jerry responsible for both losing Sid Fields’s dentures and the man himself.
Veteran character actor Bill Erwin played Sid Fields in this episode and was nominated for an Emmy Award. He passed away in 2010 at the age of ninety-six. The character name of Sid Fields pays tribute to the actor and writer best known for his recurring role on The Abbott and Costello Show (1952–1953). Robert Donley played Ben. Most people are unaware that he was the original Joseph “Rocky” Rockford—Jim Rockford’s dad—in The Rockford Files’s pilot episode (1974), starring James Garner.
Veteran character Bill Erwin as Sid Fields with his LP collection and less-than-enthusiastic caretaker Jerry.
NBC/Photofest
Episode 58: “The Implant” (original air date: February 25, 1993)
Peter Mehlman wrote this episode where Jerry dumps yet another girlfriend, Sidra, this time because he’s convinced she’s had breast implants. Kramer has a Salman Rushdie sighting at the health club and claims he’s living under the assumed name of “Sal Bass.” An unhappy camper, George is flying to Detroit to attend a wake and funeral service.
As things turn out, Jerry is completely wrong about Sidra’s breasts. Elaine, who was chiefly responsible for planting the seed of doubt in Jerry’s head—she said that “this chick’s playing with Confederate money”—is the one who breaks the news that they are the genuine articles. Slipping in a health club sauna room, and grabbing hold of Sidra’s breasts to keep from falling down, removed any and all doubt.
Meanwhile, George is with his girlfriend, Betsy (played by Megan Mullally), at her aunt’s wake. He’s endeavoring, too, to secure a death certificate, which will enable him to get a discount on the airfare. Also, George quarrels with Betsy’s brother, Timmy, over the former’s penchant for double-dipping chips.
The episode climaxes with Sidra, played by Teri Hatcher, offering Jerry a well-deserved parting salvo: “Oh, by the way, they’re real . . . and they’re spectacular.” Hatcher, who went on to play Lois Lane in Lois and Clark (1993–1997) and Susan Mayer in Desperate Housewives (2004–2012), was long credited with ad-libbing the “and they’re spectacular” tag to the line. Recently, she revealed that Larry David fed her the unscripted line at the last moment. Actor and writer Kieran Mulroney portrayed Timmy, who took George to task for his boorishness.
Episode 59: “The Junior Mint” (original air date: March 18, 1993)
Physician and writer Andy Robin penned this teleplay, which fittingly has scenes in a hospital milieu. One storyline involves Jerry, with George’s assistance, vainly attempting to guess the first name of his girlfriend (played by Susan Walters), which he doesn’t know. She, though, has supplied him with a key clue: her name rhymes with a part of the female anatomy. This leads the boys to conjure up various possibilities, including Aretha, Bovary, Celeste, and Mulva.
In another plot thread, Elaine calls on her ex-boyfriend Roy (played by Sherman Howard), who is in the hospital and awaiting the removal of his spleen. Roy is an artist who was dumped by Elaine because of his excessive girth. When she sees him in his hospital bed, however, she is duly impressed with his weight loss and is interested in dating him again. He attributes the shedding of pounds to the depression he suffered in the aftermath of their breakup.
During Roy’s operation, Jerry and Kramer, who are on the premises, opt to watch the whole thing from a viewer’s gallery. The latter offers the former a Junior Mint candy during the spectacle and one accidentally lands in Roy’s open body cavity. When word gets out that Roy has developed a post-operative infection, George opts to purchase some of his paintings. Figuring that Roy’s death is imminent, he anticipates the paintings will fast appreciate in value. Roy lives to paint another day, though, and credits George’s munificent support for his turnaround. In “The Junior Mint,” George is caught weepy-eyed while watching Home Alone, the 1990 movie starring Macaulay Culkin.
Finally, when Jerry is put on the firing line at last to guess his girlfriend’s first name, he selects “Mulva,” which causes her to storm away in disgust. In one last attempt to make amends, Jerry hollers out the window to her: “Dolores.” Her name is never revealed, although it is presumed that Jerry got it right in the end. Lastly, Elaine spies the post-surgery Roy pigging out in his room and decides not to pursue getting back together.
Episode 60: “The Smelly Car” (original air date: April 15, 1993)
This Larry David and Peter Mehlman collaboration finds Jerry and Elaine returning to his pricey BMW after dining out and encountering horrendous body odor therein, presumably from a restaurant valet parking attendant. Elaine subsequently has problems with her boyfriend, Carl (played by Nick Bakay), who is not too happy with the scent of her hair—because of riding in the malodorous car—and informs her that he’s got to get up early the next morning. Translation: Elaine is not welcome to stay the night.
Meanwhile, George and Kramer encounter Susan Ross holding hands with another woman in their favorite video store. George learns that Susan began dating Mona (played by Viveka Davis) just as soon as she and George broke up. Kramer is getting on well with Mona, too, which displeases Susan, who—with sufficient reason—loathes the sight of him. After all, he vomited on her and his carelessness led to the total destruction of her family’s beloved country cabin. Ultimately, Mona samples a man for the first time—a man named Kramer. George, on the other hand, can’t help but feel attracted to Susan again because of her lesbianism and his belief that he drove her to it.
Meeting with little success in ridding the body odor trapped in his vehicle, Jerry intends on getting the responsible party to pony up for at least half the cleaning bill. When the restaurant maître d’ refuses to share the cost, Jerry locks him in the smelly car until he relents. After a thorough cleaning, though, Jerry discovers that the stink endures. He can’t even sell the vehicle.
The smelly car factor continues to impact the lives of all who ride in it and even—in Kramer’s case—of those who borrow clothing from one of its passengers. He has borrowed the jacket Jerry had worn on the night in question and Mona ends their relationship because of the nasty scent. With seemingly no other option at his disposal, Jerry abandons his very expensive but incredibly stinky set of wheels. But even on the street, it’s hard to find takers for a car in the grips of this mysterious and seemingly indestructible body odor.
Episode 61: “The Handicap Spot” (original air date: May 13, 1993)
Larry David wrote this episode—one that, in many respects, underscored what separated Seinfeld from its sitcom competitors. The show’s willingness in primetime to poke fun at people who were not normally the objects of ridicule—in situations, too, that were not normally considered funny—defined the show. It’s also what added fuel to the ratings, which would continue to grow until it reached number one in season six.
For openers, Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer find themselves at a shopping mall in Lynbrook, New Jersey, where they are looking for an engagement present for a mutual friend, “The Drake.” Upon their arrival in the mall’s overly crowded parking lot, Kramer convinces George to park in a handicap reserve spot, which he agrees to do. His rationale for taking the spot is that they won’t be very long anyway. They are pressed for time, too, with an engagement party later that day. Nonetheless, Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer take their sweet time and, upon their return to the vehicle, encounter an angry mob. It seems that a legitimately disabled woman in a wheelchair, who couldn’t access the handicap spot, suffered an accident as a result of parking a fair distance from the store entrance. For their own health and welfare, the foursome pretend not to know whose car it is and continue on their merry way. After the riled crowd dissipates, they return to the car, which George had borrowed from his father, and find it pulverized beyond recognition.
George hurriedly concocts a phony story to tell his father, but his lie doesn’t hold up when Frank Costanza is arrested, ironically, while being feted for his charitable works with the handicapped. He, as the car’s legal owner, was traced. Meanwhile, Kramer visits the accident victim, a woman named Lola, in the hospital and falls head over heels in love with her. His love, though, is unrequited in the end because he is not good-looking enough for her.
As punishment for destroying his car, Frank Costanza enlists George as his butler, which is akin to George’s sitcom idea that so impressed NBC executives. In the episode’s waning moments, Lola is seen losing control of her wheelchair. George and Kramer had purchased her a replacement one on the cheap that, from the looks of things, had faulty brakes.
Veteran television and stage actor John Randolph played Frank Costanza in the first appearance in the series of George’s father. The character that Jerry Stiller infused with such hysteria and rage was not yet born. The fact that Frank Costanza is being given an award for helping others in need is just not something that would have happened to the Frank Costanza of later episodes. John Randolph’s scenes, in fact, were re-shot with Stiller for the show’s syndication because of the comedian’s strong identification with the character. It is nonetheless very strange seeing Stiller in this episode, which clearly was not written for him and the character that he single-handedly established.
Episode 62: “The Pilot” (original air date: May 20, 1993)
The last episode of the fourth season, written by Larry David, aired in a one-hour format. It also was the lead-in for the final episode of Cheers, at 9:00. Moving up a half hour on the Thursday-night schedule, Seinfeld would assume that premium time slot at the start of its fifth season.
“The Pilot” revolves around Jerry and George at long last getting the go-ahead to produce their sitcom pilot, Jerry. Actors are cast to play the various parts based on George, Elaine, and Kramer. Meanwhile, NBC president Russell Dalrymple becomes fixated on Elaine, who is not interested in pursuing a relationship with him. George suffers from a fixation of his own, fearing that a white spot on his lip is cancer and that he won’t live long enough to see the almost certain monetary windfall that a future Jerry series will generate.
Elaine has other things on her mind and is concerned with matters beyond Russell’s obsession with her. She doesn’t like the fact that only ample-breasted women comprise the entire wait staff at Monk’s Café. When she herself gets turned down for a waitress job, she files a discrimination lawsuit against her preferred eatery. She later learns that the buxom waitresses are the owner’s daughters.
To try to let Russell down easily, Elaine says that she could never, ever be in a relationship with a corporate executive in the dog-eat-dog business world, preferring instead men who contribute to the betterment of the planet, like those who work with Greenpeace. To prove his fealty to her, Russell ultimately joins the organization, but gets lost at sea. The Jerry pilot script is, in fact, seen floating away in what apparently is a shipwreck.
The Jerry pilot is filmed and aired, but the new NBC president, unlike her predecessor, is not a fan and cancels it forthwith, without even waiting to see the ratings. Jerry and George blame Elaine for driving Russell Dalrymple away, along with their chances of getting the show picked up for a full season. The actors cast in Jerry were Michael Barth as George, played by Jeremy Piven; Tom Pepper as Kramer, played by Larry Hankin; and Sandi Robbins as Elaine, played by Elena Wohl. Ironically, the six-foot-four-inch Hankin auditioned for the Kramer role in Seinfeld, and ended up playing the fictional Kramer—a fictional character to begin with—in a fictional TV show.