Season 1, Episode 5: The Stock Tip

My Rating of this episode: 6/10 stars
IMDB Rating of this episode: 7.7/10 stars http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0697788/?ref_=ttep_ep5

This episode aired June 21, 1990. The dvd's are finally back in the air date order. This is the final episode of the very brief first season.

Jerry's storyline: Jerry takes his girlfriend on a weekend getaway despite George's warnings of it being a "dating decathlon" and a bad idea.

Favorite Jerry part: Jerry's girlfriend asks him why he didn't do anything about the loud people sitting behind them at the movies. Jerry says, "I gave them the half turn. Then I gave them the full turn with the eye roll. Anything beyond that I'm risking a punch in the mouth."

George's storyline: George gets a stock tip from a friend and gets Jerry to invest as well.

Favorite George part: Jerry orders a tuna salad but changes his order after Elaine persuades him not to because of the dolphins. George then immediately and without conscience orders the tuna.

Kramer's storyline: Kramer takes an odd pleasure in the fact that Jerry's stock keeps dropping.

Favorite Kramer part: Kramer does a subtle yet funny flinch when Jerry's speaker buzzes while Kramer is leaning next to the wall right by the buzzer.

Elaine's storyline: Elaine is allergic to her boyfriends two cats.

Favorite Elaine part: One of the great things about Seinfeld is how easily it can be referenced in everyday life. In this episode, Elaine talks about how she was late because she spent ten minutes looking for a grape. She dropped a grape and could not find it. Yes, I have referenced this in my life, and have done so more than once as a matter of fact. You see, I eat a lot of grapes. And grapes fall on the ground all the time. And they can be difficult to find. Thus, the opportunity to reference this comes easily.

Supporting characters in this episode: Jerry's girlfriend from a previous episode, The Stake Out.

Favorite character in this episode: No one really stands out again. I suppose I would go with Jerry by default.

This episode has Elaine raising the question to Jerry about what a hit man would charge to rub out a couple of cats. A future episode involves Elaine getting Kramer and Newman to get rid of a noisy dog.

Season 1, overall, was not that stellar. The Pilot and The Stake Out were both pretty good. The other three episodes were not very funny. Watching these episodes, you can definitely see the potential is there for some good comedy, but I would have never guessed that it would turn into the series that it eventually became.

Season 1, Episode 4: Male-Unbonding

My Rating of this episode: 6/10 stars
IMDB Rating of this episode: 7.6/10 stars http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0697645/?ref_=ttep_ep4

This episode aired June 14, 1990. Again, the Seinfeld dvd's have this episode out of order from the original air date. The dvd has this as episode 2 even though it was the fourth episode to air.

Jerry's storyline: Jerry has an annoying childhood friend that always wants to spend time with Jerry. Jerry decides to break up with him.

Favorite Jerry part: "He had a ping-pong table, we were friends. Should I suffer the rest of my life because I like to play ping-pong? I was ten. I would have been friends with Stalin if he had a ping-pong table."

George is going to cash in a big jar of change and tells Jerry that he knows a guy who took a vacation on his change. Jerry says, "Yeah, where did he go, to an arcade?"

George's storyline: George was going to go to a Knick game with Jerry with seats behind the bench but gets bumped when Jerry offers the tickets to his friend after the break-up attempt goes poorly.

Favorite George part: The bank tells him that they can't take his change but offers him the coin sleeve things. George exclaims: "You want me to roll 6,000 of these?! What, should I quit my job?!"

Kramer's storyline: Kramer makes a few appearances and talks about his pizza place where you make your own pie. This idea resurfaces in future episodes.

Favorite Kramer part: None. Kramer doesn't really do anything this episode. His huge cell phone with an antenna was pretty funny I suppose.

Elaine's storyline: Elaine makes one appearance at the very end of the episode. She discovers Jerry's list of excuses he made to use on his friend.

Favorite Elaine part: None really. She comes up with some good lies on the spot when she and Jerry are invited to a Knick game by Jerry's friend, including one about how she and Jerry have choir practice where they will be going over Eastern European national anthems.

Supporting characters in this episode: No recurring characters. Jerry's friend, Joel, does a good job playing his part in this episode.

Favorite character in this episode: No one really stands out. To be honest, Jerry's friend Joel was probably the best character. His little bit at the end where he gets out the Knicks schedule and starts to go over the 41 home games is pretty good.


Besides Kramer's pizza place idea already mentioned, this episode also introduces two other things that resurface in future episodes. (1) Kramer answers the phone "Kramerica Industries." (2) Jerry explains to his friend "It's not you, it's me" after trying to break up with him.

Despite not really having any laugh out loud moments, I still give this episode 6 stars because a 5-star rating would mean that I disliked it more than I liked it and that wouldn't be true. I don't think any episode will ever reach those depths. But this one may come as close as any.

Season 1, Episode 3: The Robbery

My Rating of this episode: 7/10 stars
IMDB Rating of this episode: 7.7/10 stars http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0697768/?ref_=ttep_ep3

This episode aired May 7, 1990. Again, the Seinfeld dvd's have this episode out of order from the original air date. The dvd has this as episode 4 even though it was the third episode to air.

Jerry's storyline: Jerry gets robbed while out of town. He considers moving to a nicer place that George found for him.

Favorite Jerry part: Jerry exhaustedly walks into his apartment, having just gotten back in town. He sits on the couch and picks up the remote to turn on the tv. He points it at an empty tv stand and realizes it is missing. He then aimlessly starts pointing the remote in several different directions seeing if a tv will magically turn on.

We also see Jerry's first funny scream that he does throughout the series. He tells Kramer that he doesn't have insurance because he spent his money on the most impenetrable lock on the market today. But there is one design flaw, in order for it to work "the door MUST BE CLOSED!"

There's also the part where the cop is recording what was stolen and one item is an answering machine. Jerry says "I hate the idea of somebody out there returning my calls." And the cop just stares at him. Jerry's delivery of this line is flawless.

Another funny part: Elaine is going nuts over the new apartment during the initial visit. She walks in the closet all excited and asks Jerry if he likes the walk-in closet. He slowly closes the closet while she is still inside and stands silently for a good three seconds and says, "I like that." Again, flawlessly done by Jerry.

George's storyline: George finds a nice apartment for Jerry. After showing the new apartment to Jerry, George realizes he wants the apartment.

Favorite George part: Once Jerry learns that George also wants the apartment, they flip a coin for it. Jerry wins the coin toss. George immediately declares, "No, it hit the table, it hit the table. Interference! You can't count that!" Then he does a mini-George freak out. Then they do the classic Choose, best of five. George quickly loses the first two and has to back away to regain his composure. George eventually loses and calmly concedes defeat, goes to the bathroom, and shouts, "Why did I put out two! Why did I put out two!" It's a funny scene.

Kramer's storyline: Kramer had left Jerry's door wide open which resulted in the robbery. He came to get Jerry's spatula and thought he would be right back but got distracted watching an episode of The Bold and the Beautiful. Kramer tries to track down Jerry's stolen items.

Favorite Kramer part: Kramer doesn't do much this episode. The best moment was probably when he tells Jerry that he thinks the Englishman down the hall stole the stuff. He says he is going over there and to call the police if he doesn't come back in five minutes. Jerry says ok and holds out his watch and says, "Starting NOW!" Kramer does a Kramer flinch, slides out the door, but reaches back in to make sure he closes the door this time.

Elaine's storyline: Elaine was in charge of Jerry's apartment while he was out of town. She wants to move in to his place once he moves. She constantly tells Jerry his place is no good, yet still wants to move in herself. She heavily sells the new apartment to Jerry in an attempt to sway him to take it.

Favorite Elaine part: Elaine's pretty funny throughout with her pressuring of Jerry. My favorite is how she pulls out the measuring tape the moment George loses the last Choose in order to measure Jerry's couch that she will be taking.

Supporting characters in this episode: None.

Favorite character in this episode: Jerry, easily. He has some good lines and has a funny attitude and demeanor throughout the episode.

There is also a great final scene where the three attend a house warming party (Jerry turned down the place when he realized George could still not get over losing the Choose match. George also won't take it under the circumstances. Elaine is denied moving in to either Jerry's or George's place). They are all pretty bummed. There is much humorous bickering and regret.

Also, at the start of the episode, after packing his suitcase, Jerry proudly declares, "I am the master packer." I used this line when entering the MTC. A lady at the front doors was impressed that I was only bringing one suitcase on my mission. That is when I made the bold claim, "I am the master packer." She thought I was a weirdo.

All in all, this is a fine episode. Jerry carries most of it. There just was not enough from Kramer, and even George for the most part, even though he does have the great scene with Jerry with the coin toss and Choose match. Slightly more consistency from George or Kramer would raise this episode to an 8. Instead, it gets 7 stars.

Season 1, Episode 2: The Stake Out

My Rating of this episode: 7/10 stars
IMDB Rating of this episode: 7.8/10 stars http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0697784/?ref_=ttep_ep2

I was torn on which episode to consider as episode 2. IMDB has this episode listed as the second episode, but the Seinfeld dvd has this episode listed as episode 3. I was tempted to follow the Seinfeld dvd order, but decided to follow the IMDB order when I noticed that the IMDB order was based on actual air dates of the episodes. This episode aired May 31, 1990, almost 11 whole months after the Pilot episode aired.

Jerry's storyline: Jerry agrees to go to a birthday party for Elaine's friend if Elaine will go to a wedding with Jerry later that week. Jerry meets a girl at the party. He did not get her name at the party and only knows where she works. Therefore, at the suggestion of his father, and with the aid of George, he stakes out her work in order to bump into her. Also, tension with Elaine arises as we are introduced to their past relationship.

Favorite Jerry part: Jerry plays a great role with George as they perform the actual stake out and he has a few good lines. I liked his line to Elaine at the end about whether during a stake out if she prefers to stand up tall against a wall or crouch down behind a big plant. But my favorite is probably when the girl at the party tells Jerry to relax and take his jacket off, Jerry says he can't because he has the "tendency to get chilly." The girl quips, "How masculine..." Jerry recovers by saying, "Plus I'm wearing short sleeves, I don't want to expose my tattoos."

George's storyline: George helps Jerry with the stake out. Jerry and George have the classic conversation where they make George's pretend identity as well as the identity of the friend they are pretending to meet at the building.

Favorite George part: I love how serious and detailed George gets with Jerry when they come up with their false backstorys. George coming up with fake names for a friend, a detail that shouldn't matter much, becomes something of great thought. "Burt Harr.....binson, Burt Harbinson." That name "sounds made up" and so he moves to "Art Core.....[long pause].....velay." He eventually, in classic George fashion, goes from confidence to panic once the girl comes off the elevator: "I forgot who I am, who am I?!"

Kramer's storyline: Kramer shows up once very late in this episode while Jerry is at his apartment with his parents, playing scrabble with his Mom.

Favorite Kramer part: Kramer of course has to lend a hand to Jerry's Mom during the scrabble game. He confidently comes up with the word "quone" and says "to quone something" when using it in a sentence. Kramer protests that "we need a medical dictionary!" when the word is not found when Jerry looks it up. "When a patient gets difficult, you quone 'em."

Elaine's storyline: Elaine brings Jerry to her friend's birthday party. Elaine is bothered by Jerry's flirting with the girl at the party and the fact that Jerry only gave Elaine courtesy responses as though she were "trying to sale you aluminum siding."

Favorite Elaine part: Elaine is at her funniest when she gets annoyed over little things. She does this perfectly in the cab ride with Jerry as they are leaving the party. Jerry claims he was listening to Elaine by bringing up her dream she shared and remembering that she had wooden teeth in the dream. Elaine freaks out and says, "No! No! You had wooden teeth! You had wooden teeth! I didn't have wooden teeth, you did!"

Supporting characters in this episode: One of my favorite things about Seinfeld is the many great supporting characters throughout the episodes. This episode introduces us to Jerry's parents. Although his Dad changes later on in future episodes. This version of Jerry's Dad is the one who does the "huge sweep across" to cover his baldness because, as Jerry says, "he doesn't think anyone can notice." A good one is when the parents are telling Jerry that he shouldn't be so picky with girls and the Dad says, "You know Jerry, it's a good thing I wasn't so particular." The Mom elbows him and says, "Idiot!"

Favorite character in this episode: George. The episode didn't have a good flow until George's appearance half way through. I love when he begs Jerry, "Let me be the architect! I can do it!" George, of course, out of nowhere has to inform the girl that he's an architect. Ha ha. He of course gets stumped when asked about what he designs. He says railroads. The girl says, "I thought engineers do that." George says, "They can..."

Since Elaine was not in the Pilot episode, this is our first introduction to her character. The episode begins with her and Jerry riffing inside a video rental store. Elaine also makes comments about how her and Jerry used to go out. Jerry also has a fairly lengthy conversation with his parents about Elaine. Jerry and Elaine establish at the end of the episode that if they are going to be friends then they have to feel comfortable talking about other people. So we are introduced nicely to their past as well as current relationship. It was a smart intro to the Elaine character to show that there was an initial awkwardness, but that they moved past it and can now have a normal friend relationship even though they used to date.

This episode has George wanting to pretend to be an architect, but Jerry is skeptical that he could pass as a fake architect. The fake name of "Art Vandelay" is introduced when George impulsively switches it to "Vandelay" from "Corvelay" at the last second for no apparent reason. This fake name along with the fake jobs of an importer/exporter and architecture all resurface in several future episodes. The scene with George, his only scene, really saved the episode. It was a 10-star scene in a 6-star episode. Thus, the episode as a whole gets 7-stars. One more George scene likely would have bumped my rating from a 7 to an 8.