Analytical Episode Guide-Seinfeld (Season 7, Part 3)

 

An Analytical Episode Guide to :

Season  7, Part 3

Episode 13, Season 7

The Seven

 

Plot Summary-George fears losing the creative name he made up for his future son. Elaine buys a bike, and after she hurts her neck Kramer helps her and lays claim to the bike. Jerry dates a woman who wears the same dress every day.

Best Quote-“Yeah I guess I could see it. Seven. Seven periods of school, seven beatings a day. Roughly seven stitches a beating and eventually seven years to life. Yeah your doing that child quite a service”….Jerry

Nitpick of the episode-Seven is such an absurd name. By the way have I ever mentioned my favorite character on Star Trek-Voyager was Seven of Nine?  Wait……could it be George was actually on to something?

Seinfeldism of the episode-Georges not only creates the name Seven, but Soda as well

Deleted Scenes-A cut ending where George has to accept his name has been stolen, and Jerry sees the woman wearing the dress again

Episode Fun Fact-There is a blooper in this episode, during the scene with Newman an engagement ring appears and disappears from his finger.

Final Thoughts- The Jerry story is classic, Jerry obsessing about why the girl keeps wearing that same dress over and over. And much like the episode about the pie, he never does find out why. George’s story is pretty good to, and he obsesses about this silly name to the total disregard of the circumstances around him. Typical George. The weak parts of the story are Kramer and the dumb thing with the mooching inventory. We’re supposed to believe that Kramer suddenly feels bad he has been taking food without paying? After all these years? Why not care more about why Jerry was so cranky that day, since that’s really all it was. In the end he has no money to pay even though we see in previous episodes that Kramer usually has cash to spare. And if he didn’t have any money, why do it at all since running a tab was all his idea! Then it gets even worst. The fact that Kramer expects to get the bike is hard to swallow, I just don’t buy that “verbal contract” crap especially since a verbal contract is more than just spouting something off randomly. A verbal contract has to be implicitly agreed to just like a written contract (what happens in this episode is more of an implied contract than a verbal one). And then after he gets the bike he ends up selling it to Newman when he needs cash?? If he cared that little for it then why did he make a big deal about keeping it? Finally, what exactly is keeping Elaine from seeing a real doctor about her back? Bottom line, the whole Elaine/Kramer story here is dumb. By the way, Newman is actually good in this episode he may be the only thing good in that whole bike story.

Grade=B-, Tough to grade because the good stuff is great, but the bad stuff is really dumb.

Episode 14 & 15, Season 7

The Cadillac

 

Plot Summary-Jerry buys a Cadillac for his father. Elaine sets up George with Marisa Tomei. Kramer has some fun making a cable man wait. Elaine is smitten with Jerry when she discovers how much money he has.

Best Quote-“What about Marisa Tomei?”…George after Elaine informs him that her friend is in the hospital, one of his most callous moments.

Nitpick of the episode-This is George at his most selfish, Marisa Tomei is all he can focus on even after Elaine her reveals her friend is in the hospital with a heart condition. The idea of Jerry being able to buy that car is so incredible that it makes it into the script.

Seinfeldism of the episode-Lot of callbacks here. Jerry pays for his actions with the marble rye, the fold-out couch at Jerry’s parent’s causes problems again, George tries out his manure line on Marisa Tomei (this time it gets a laugh), art vandelay and the whole importer/exporter stuff, and of course the pact is brought up again.

Deleted Scenes-None for this episode

Episode Fun Fact-It’s around this episode that the triangles George bought in “The Junior Mint”  appear in his apartment and remain for the rest of the series.

Final Thoughts-This show was extended to make it fit an hour, and man does it show! While not quite as bad as the next one hour episode, this one feels forced. Every story kind of starts strong but by the end we don’t care about any of them. The best example is Kramer’s story. Yeah the idea of making the cable guy wait for a change is funny, but really by that last scene are we even interested anymore? We finally see Jerry pay for his action with the marble rye, as it causes his father to be impeached. The spoof at the end of Richard Nixon leaving office was kind of funny. However they had to add scenes to stretch the show into an hour and the padding is obvious; take that whole thinh about skipping the early bird. You could lose that all thing and the episode would be the same. Then of course we have George and the whole Marisa Tomei story. Not sure what to say about this one, kind of funny to get an inside look at how George’s mind works, at least that’s how it comes off in this episode. George and Elaine tend to have great moments on this show, and this episode is a great example of that. However at the same time Elaine really doesn’t have anything to do but be involved in Jerry and George’s stories, which is a shame.

Grade=C-, runs out of steam very fast!

Episode 16, Season 7

The Shower Head

 

Plot Summary-Jerry, Newman, and Kramer complain about the new low flow shower heads. Elaine loses her job after testing positive for opium. George tries to convince his parents to move to Florida while Jerry tries to figure out how to make his folks move back to Florida.

Best Quote-“You’re the only one I know who’s got the good stuff and I really need it bad baby because I feel like I’ve got bugs crawling on my skin”….Kramer

Nitpick of the episode-How can eating poppy seeds make you test positive for opium?

Seinfeldism of the episode-Jerry complains he has lost his “buffer zone” with his parents

Deleted Scenes-None for this episode

Episode Fun Fact-The scene with Frank and Estelle at Jerry’s dressing room took many takes to get right

Final Thoughts-An improvement over the last episode, but even so there is something about this episode that just never sat right with me. Not sure what it is because this episode isn’t really that bad. Maybe it’s because its more about Jerry and George’s parents than it is Jerry and George. This is a stuffed show. We have Newman, Jerry’s parents, George’s parents, Uncle Leo, J Peterman, and even a Jay Leno cameo. Then we get Elaine’s story which has a premise centered on something which makes no sense. Granted the scene between Elaine and Mrs.Seinfeld is pretty funny. The way Jerry manipulates Uncle Leo is pretty selfish, but that makes sense in this show. George’s work trying to get his parents to move has an abrupt ending, it’s no wonder that plot will come up again. The stuff with the low flow shower heads is cute, but doesn’t really add up to much. It’s really leading to that one joke at the end of the episode.

Grade=C+, to many guest stars spoil the broth

Episode 17, Season 7

The Doll

 

Plot Summary-Susan has a doll which looks remarkably like George’s mother. Susan’s old college roommate messes up the bit Jerry had prepared for a talk show. Elaine tried to get a new poster for the Maestro and Kramer enjoys the new billiard room Frank built in George’s old room.

Best Quote-“Well maybe if I didn’t have so many people in my apartment all the time, I’d be able to get some work done”….Jerry

Nitpick of the episode-This episode loses me in the scene where Susan has her dolls in bed with her. That’s just nuts.

Seinfeldism of the episode-Hanging your pants up rather than sitting in them to keep a crease

Deleted Scenes-George and his mother

Episode Fun Fact-The title was originally “The Doormat” because at first the story was supposed to revolve around that item, Kathy Griffin had lots to say about her time on Seinfeld and shared with her audience. This leads to another episode, we’ll talk about that when we get there.

Final Thoughts-It is kind of funny to watch George come very close to slipping off the deep end. I have to say, I am on his side in this episode. The doll was very well made, and Jason Alexander plays the scenes really funny. Sally Weaver is really annoying but thankfully Kathy Griffin knows how to be annoying and funny at the same time. We get the maestro back, and really doesn’t add anything to the episode. The bit with the pool table in the room which is too small to fit it gets old real quick, and the stuff about the pants isn’t that strong either. There is a scene where Estelle walks in and sees the men wearing just underwear, but unlike a similar scene in “The Doorman” this scene isn’t that funny. The final gag with the baton is as predictable as it gets.

Grade=B, good but predictable

Episode 18, Season 7

The Friars Club

 

Plot Summary-Jerry tries to join the friars club. George sets up Jerry with a friend of Susan’s. Elaine wonders if a deaf co-worker is really hard of hearing. Kramer uses Leonardo Da Vinci’s sleep habits but bad things happen as a result.

Best Quote-“I want to get it back to when we were the Gatsby’s”….George

Nitpick of the episode-Been waiting to go on this rant, so here we go. First the idea that Jerry forgot to return the jacket is hard to believe, no one noticed him walking out with it? Then the Flying Sandos Bros take Jerry’s jacket as part of the act. Ok, no problem with that. Then when Jerry tries to get the jacket back, the Sandos Bros have no memory of taking the jacket, leading Jerry to believe it was stolen. Long story short, it turns out they wanted to clean the jacket before returning it to Jerry. Here is my question, WHY DIDN’T THEY TELL HIM THAT IN THE FIRST PLACE????  It just seems so dumb to me, they technically stole his jacket! Not saying it was right for Jerry and George to steal the other one, but I can’t blame them for wondering if they would ever see the thing again. And Jerry’s girlfriend comes off as a bitch in the end, good riddance. Ok, rant over.

Seinfeldism of the episode-George wants Jerry to date Susan’s friend so they can be “like the Gatsby’s”. Later Jerry has “soured” on her when she doesn’t seem to care about the jacket but promises he will try to “desour” and “sweeten”

Deleted Scenes-The scene at the dinner with Jerry, George, Susan and her friend was originally longer and included our first appearance of Pat Cooper, which makes his later appearance a bit more effective. We see Susan telling George that the wedding has been postponed in the original opening. Also an alternate ending where we see Elaine can’t hear thanks to the hearing aid.

Episode Fun Fact-The Flying Sandos Brothers are played by The Flying Karamazov Brothers, filmed at the Orpheum Theatre in LA. Filming Kramer being thrown off the bridge involved a huge water tank.

Final Thoughts-Silliness aside, this wasn’t that bad an episode. Kramer’s story is definitely unique, as we see him pass out on his girlfriend and get thrown over a bridge as if he were dead! I get the feeling the writers just weren’t sure what to do with that story since it doesn’t end anywhere near where it starts. We do get a Jackie Chiles cameo though. I can relate to Elaine’s story, being hard of hearing myself. The last scene of the episode is a funny moment, Julia did that scene well. I already tore into the whole Jerry story in this episode, which isn’t bad but definitely forced! I love George in this episode, he knows if Jerry and Susan’s friend get together he will have an ally which makes a lot of sense. Of course it doesn’t work out that way.

Grade=B, episodes tries too hard and crosses the line into silliness