The third season of Seinfeld, an American television series created by Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, began airing on September 18, 1991, on NBC, a U.S. broadcasttelevision network.[1] It comprises 23 episodes and concluded its initial airing on May 6, 1992.[2] "The Tape", "The Pen", and "The Letter" are some of the season's episodes that were inspired by the writers' own experiences.[3][4][5] Co-creator Larry David admits that season three was a big turning point for the series in terms of how the show was made; it's where the writers started doing nonlinear story lines with episodes containing multiple stories.[6] George was becoming a bigger liar, Elaine was becoming more quirky, and Kramer was becoming surer of himself throughout his crazy antics.[6] This season received eight Emmy nominations and one Directors Guild of America Award.
The DVD boxset for season three was released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment in Region 1 on November 23, 2004, twelve years after it had completed broadcast on television. It was also released in Region 2 on November 1, 2004, and on October 18, 2004, in Region 4.[7][8][9] As well as every episode from the season (minus "The Stranded" which was produced for the second season), the DVD release features bonus material including deleted scenes, exclusive stand-up material, and commentaries.[10]
A number of the season's episodes were inspired by the writers' own experiences. "The Pen" was partly inspired by a sofa bed owned by Jerry Seinfeld's mother Betty. During stays, Seinfeld would put the couch cushions on the floor and sleep on them there to avoid the uncomfortable mattress.[3] The Chinese baldness cure that George tries in "The Tape" is based on something Larry David tried while living in New York. Also, the shots Kramer takes of George's scalp in this episode are identical to those the real Kenny Kramer took of Larry David.[4] Elaine's story in "The Letter" was inspired by Larry David's experience attending an Angels – Yankees game in Anaheim, California. While seated as a guest in Gene Autry's box, David was asked to remove the hat. David could be seen wearing the hat on the front page of the Los Angeles Times sports section the following day. Mr. West is also named after Howard West, one of the show's executive producers, who provided Larry David with a connection to the seats in the owners' box.[5]
Theme song
The season premiere, "The Note", is the only episode (other than the original pilot) with a different version of the theme song, which included female back-up singers harmonizing over the iconic slap-bass tune. The singers were added by composer Jonathan Wolff at the request of Jerry Seinfeld, who wanted to add "a little sparkle" to the music, suggesting the addition of some scat lyrics. Seinfeld and executive producer Larry David both liked Wolff's additions, and three episodes were produced with the new style music. However, they had neglected to inform NBC and Castle Rock of the change, and when the season premiere aired, they were surprised and unimpressed, and requested that they return to the original style. The subsequent two episodes were redone, leaving "The Note" as the only episode with the additional music elements.[18]
Reception
Critical response
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 100% approval rating with an average rating of 8.9/10, based on 14 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "Seinfeld comes fully into its own as a divine comedy of petty grievances in a third season that mines wicked wit from the painfully awkward."[19]
Season three received eight Emmy nominations, two of which were won. Elaine Pope and Larry Charles won "Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series" for "The Fix-Up". Janet Ashikaga also won for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Editing for a Series", for the episode "The Subway." Jerry Seinfeld was nominated for "Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series" for the special one-hour episode "The Boyfriend/New Friend," losing to Craig T. Nelson for his portrayal of Hayden Fox on the ABC sitcom Coach and Jason Alexander was nominated for "Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series", losing to Michael Jeter in the CBS comedy Evening Shade. The series was also nominated for "Outstanding Comedy Series" for this season, which was won by Murphy Brown, then in its fourth season. The series would be nominated in that category for the remaining six seasons, winning only once, in the next season. There were also two other Emmy nominations for the "Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series" category, with Larry David, Bob Shaw, and Don McEnery for "The Tape", and Larry David for "The Parking Garage".[20] David Steinberg was nominated for a Directors Guild of America Award for "Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series" for "The Tape".[21]
Jerry tells George and Elaine that insurance would cover his physical therapist massages if he got a fraudulent doctor's note from his dentist, Roy. George gets a massage from a handsome male masseur, but is paranoid that he may have felt sexual pleasure, and questions his own sexuality. Roy (Ralph Bruneau) writes fraudulent notes for all three of them, and ends up investigated for insurance fraud. The group doubts Kramer when he vividly describes a sighting of Joe DiMaggio dunking a donut.
George breaks up with his accountant girlfriend Patrice (Valerie Mahaffey) over her highbrow artistic whims. Patrice demands the truth from him, and his brutal honesty drives her to check into a depression clinic. Having forgotten that Jerry was relying him to secure Patrice's help with a tax audit, George leaves Jerry's tax records with Patrice and must grudgingly reconcile with her to recover the papers. Kramer, dating Elaine's roommate, Tina (Siobhan Fallon), creates many unwelcome impositions at Elaine's apartment.
Jerry and Elaine visit Jerry's parents in Florida, where Morty is being honored by his condo association. Jerry meets the emcee, Jack Klompus, and admires his astronaut pen. Jerry relents to Jack's pressure to accept the pen, but is obliged to return it when scandalous gossip spreads. Elaine suffers from the stifling heat, and excruciating back pain caused by an uncomfortable sofa bed, leaving Jerry to go scuba diving alone and receive barotrauma. All this, and Morty's confrontation with Jack over his history of penny-pinching, results in a fiasco at the ceremony.
Jerry is unwillingly recruited to care for a fellow plane passenger's beloved dog, which turns out to be unruly and noisy. Jerry's cleanliness complex compels him to scrupulously poop bag rather than let the dog defecate in his apartment, repeatedly foiling his group movie plans as either Jerry or Elaine drops out to attend to the dog. Elaine's insistence on saving the movie to watch with Jerry forces George to struggle to make conversation with her instead. Kramer's eagerness to break up with his girlfriend causes Jerry and Elaine to prematurely reveal their criticism of her.
Jerry receives a 20-year library fine for failing to return Tropic of Cancer in 1971. Adamant that he returned the book with then-classmate Sherry Becker, he fails to plead his case when the hard-nosed "library investigation officer", Lt. Bookman, pegs him as a miscreant. George recognizes a homeless man as his bullying high school physical education teacher, Mr. Heyman, and wonders if he ruined Heyman's life by getting him fired. Kramer strikes up a romance with a librarian, while Elaine, fearing for her job at Pendant Publishing, tries to placate her boss with literary finds.
The group is stranded in a shopping mall parking garage as they search for Kramer's car. Fearing for her new goldfish's welfare, Elaine pleads to hitch rides with bystanders to search for the car, but their apathy drives her to aggravation. George fears the consequences of failing to return in time to chaperone his parents for their wedding anniversary, but their search is further hindered when Jerry is caught peeing by a security guard, and Kramer loses track of his new air conditioner after hiding it.
In 1997, TV Guide ranked this episode #33 on its list of the 100 Greatest Episodes.[30]
George agrees to take an IQ test for his girlfriend's research, but, insecure about his intelligence, cheats by having Elaine—who boasts of a high IQ—take the test for him. Jerry becomes patronizingly concerned for the hapless proprietor of a new restaurant across the street. Jerry ego-trips off being lavished with praise for visiting the empty restaurant, while Elaine, visiting to take the test in peace, suffers many distractions that result in humiliation for both George and herself. Kramer is hounded by his mother's ex-boyfriend as he refuses to give up a jacket the ex-boyfriend left two years ago.
Jerry is surprised and titillated by an unidentified woman's voice sexually propositioning into a tape recorder he set up at his comedy act, unaware that Elaine recorded the voice to prank him into believing someone in the audience was lusting after him. Elaine confides in George, but this secret knowledge of Elaine's lascivious side leaves George uncontrollably sexually excited. After jumping through hoops to order a Chinese baldness cure, George is torn between putting on the foul-smelling cream for his sake, and taking it off for Elaine's. Kramer indulgently films everyone after getting a free camcorder.
George thinks his girlfriend (Susan Diol) is perfect, except for one flaw: she has a large nose, so Kramer encourages her to get rhinoplasty. Jerry is unsure about his relationship with an actress (Tawny Kitaen) whom he finds beautiful but with whom he has nothing in common. George's girlfriend gets the rhinoplasty, but it is botched and George breaks up with her. However once it is fixed she is beautiful, and she starts dating Kramer, leaving George to regret breaking up with her.
When a co-worker starts coming on to George, he strands Jerry and Elaine at a party, leaving them to wait for Kramer. As a sign of gratitude for allowing him and Elaine to wait at his home, Jerry suggests the hosts stop by his apartment if they are ever in New York City. Weeks later, the male host takes him up on his offer just as Jerry is heading out the door. Jerry allows him to wait in the apartment until his return. However, Kramer stops by and he and the host have some drinks and laughs. Eventually they hire a prostitute to come over to Jerry's apartment. Later, the host checks out of the apartment without paying just as Jerry returns. As Jerry tries to pay the girl so she will leave, police arrive and he is "busted" for fomenting prostitution.
Jerry's car is stolen and he has a conversation with the car-jacker on the car phone. George takes a job moving cars from one side of the street to the other, to comply with alternate side parking regulations, and does a very careless job by crashing cars and causing traffic jams. Elaine cares for her 66-year-old boyfriend who has had a stroke just before she was about to break up with him. Kramer gets a line in a Woody Allen film, popularizing the expression, "These pretzels are making me thirsty!" He accidentally injures Woody Allen during the shooting and gets fired from the set.
Elaine gets George a job at a publishing company; to repay her, he buys her an ostensibly expensive cashmere sweater, that has a minor flaw, a red dot, for which it was marked down considerably. Elaine spots it and becomes furious at George. Elaine immediately returns the cashmere sweater to George. Later, while George is working at his new job, he becomes sexually attracted to a cleaning lady and has sex with her after they both drink Hennigan's Scotch. The next day, the cleaning lady gets upset over what happened the previous night and threatens to report what happened to the boss of the company. George tries to compensate with her by offering the flawed cashmere sweater. The cleaning lady identifies the red spot and George is fired after she reports their affair.
Each of the four principal characters has a unique experience during a subway ride. Jerry befriends an overweight nudist (Ernie Sabella) on his ride to Coney Island. George meets an enchanting woman (Barbara Stock), who seduces him, then robs him and handcuffs him to her bed, so he misses his job interview in the process. Kramer gets a horse racing tip and wins big, helping to pay for his car fines. But on his way back, Kramer is about to be menaced by another bidder, only to be saved by a cop posing as a blind violinist. Elaine misses a lesbian wedding, where she was to attend due to train delays, which make her very nervous along with her apparent claustrophobia.
Jerry's dispenser of Pez candy causes Elaine to laugh loudly at a piano recital given by George's girlfriend. Kramer creates a cologne that smells of the beach. Jerry hosts an intervention for an old friend with a drug problem. George's girlfriend hears Elaine laughing, realizes that it was Elaine who ruined her concert, and walks out on George. Jerry's friend kicks his drug habit, but becomes addicted to Pez.
Elaine needs to fast before an x-ray, so she tries stuffing herself three days before the test. After his neighbor Martin tries to commit suicide, Jerry is hit on by his girlfriend, Gina, while at the hospital. A psychic warns George to cancel his vacation to the Cayman Islands. However, Elaine offends her, and the psychic kicks them out before she can tell George why he should cancel his vacation. In fear, George sells his ticket to Kramer. Jerry becomes worried when Martin's friend, Newman sees him with Gina. Elaine starts hallucinating from hunger. Newman tells everything to the just-waking Martin. Then, in a fit of jealousy Martin tries to strangle Jerry.
George says that he would never sink to fix-ups, saying that a fix-up is one step away from prostitution or personal ads (However, in The Race he replies to a personal ad in the Daily Worker). Jerry and Elaine set George up with Elaine's friend Cynthia. They hit it off but George is horrified to discover that Kramer has given him a defective condom. Cynthia tells Elaine she missed her period.
Jerry meets Keith Hernandez and wants to make a good impression. Meanwhile, George is out of time on his unemployment and he works harder than ever on his scheme to get a 13-week extension. He tells the unemployment office he was close to a job with Vandelay Industries, a company that makes latex products and whose main office is Jerry's apartment. Kramer and Newman take Hernandez back to a time when they were allegedly spit on by him; however, Jerry supports the "second-spitter theory" that Hernandez was not involved. Keith asks Jerry about Elaine's status. Keith makes a date with her and breaks a date with Jerry. George tries two more approaches with the unemployment officer. Kramer gets Jerry to accompany him to see a former neighbor's new baby, "you got to see the baby." Though he's gone out with Keith once, does that mean he must help him move? Elaine and Keith are hitting it off until he pulls out a cigarette. George wants to sleep with a really tall woman. Keith supports the "second spitter theory." Jerry and Elaine both break up with Keith and George might get his wish.
In 1997, TV Guide ranked this episode #4 on its list of the 100 Greatest Episodes.[30]
Jerry and George board a limousine intended for a passenger named O'Brien. George pretends to be O'Brien. They invite Kramer and Elaine to join them. George learns that O'Brien is making a speech that night, and as he reads the speech, the group learns that the intended riders were neo-Nazis, for whom they have been mistaken. The car pulls up to the Paramount and the protesters begin rocking it. George is ushered onto a podium for his speech, and the protesters horde around him as he frantically denies being O'Brien and shouts for Jerry.
Jerry witnesses a hit-and-run driver hitting another car. He goes after the driver, but when the driver steps out he realizes that she is a beautiful woman and decides to date her. After dating Angela, the hit-and-run driver, Jerry finds out she also hit Becky, another woman he has always wanted to date. He tells Becky that he will do something about the damage. Meanwhile, Kramer has convulsions from Mary Hart's voice. Jerry goes to Becky's house to write out a check for her damage and then ask her out, but Becky falsely accuses him of hitting her car. Kramer uses the accident as an excuse to talk to Becky and ends up getting a date with her. But when he rings the bell at her apartment and she opens the door, Mary Hart is on the TV and Kramer has another convulsion.
Kramer poses for a portrait by Jerry's girlfriend Nina (Catherine Keener), which an elderly couple admires. George feels obligated to buy something when he accompanies Jerry to his new girlfriend's art studio, and purchases a $500 painting, which he tries to sell to Jerry for $10 shortly thereafter. Elaine wears a Baltimore Orioles baseball cap in the owner's box at Yankee Stadium, and refuses to remove it. Jerry finds out his new girlfriend is a plagiarist after he hears the words she wrote in a letter on television (specifically, the film Chapter Two). The elderly couple buy "The Kramer" for $5000 and invite Kramer himself over to their house for dinner.
George drives with Elaine to Jerry's to watch a big televised fight with him. He finds a parking space, and decides to back into it. He spends a good deal of time positioning himself perfectly. When he starts backing into the space, Mike, also there for the fight at Jerry's, enters the same space, front first. The two argue over who is entitled to the space, all the while blocking traffic. Mike argues that he entered the space first, while George argues that he saw it first and was simply positioning himself, entitling him to the space. Jerry and Kramer also come down to try to settle the problem. Near the end of the episode, two police officers finally arrive to supposedly resolve the situation. However, when one tells Mike to move his car, the other argues against him, and by now, it is night time.
Kramer invades Jerry's life too much, so Jerry revokes his spare key privileges. Realizing that he has broken the "covenant of the keys" gives Kramer the realization he is now free to come out of the shadows. Kramer takes off for California to follow his dream of becoming an actor. Jerry gave his spare keys to Elaine, then when he needs them, he goes to Elaine's home with George, who has spare keys to her place, to search for his spare set. They end up finding Elaine's writing project for an episode of Murphy Brown. Kramer finds adventure as he journeys across the country to Los Angeles where he gets a famous bit part on Murphy Brown.
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