The Conversion (Seinfeld)

"**The Conversion**"
"The Conversion"
Seinfeld episode
Episode no.	Season 5; Episode 11
Directed by	Tom Cherones
Written by	Bruce Kirschbaum
Production code	511
Original air date	December 16, 1993
Guest appearances
	Molly Hagan as Sister Roberta; Kay E. Kuter as Older Priest; Bill Rose as Younger Priest; Kimberly Campbell as Tawni; Jana Marie Hupp as Sasha; Randy Brenner as Waiter; Darlene Kardon as Mrs. Lupchek; Karen Rizzo as Woman Hailing Cab;
Episode chronology
← Previous; "The Cigar Store Indian"	Next →; "The Stall"
	List of episodes

Last updated April 06, 2024

"The Conversion" is the 75th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld . It is the 11th episode of the fifth season, and first aired on December 16, 1993.^[1] In this episode, George converts to Latvian Orthodox so that he can continue seeing his girlfriend, incidentally prompting a Latvian Orthodox novice to consider leaving the order when she becomes smitten with Kramer. Meanwhile, Jerry seeks the advice of Elaine's podiatrist boyfriend after he finds a tube of fungicide in his girlfriend's medicine cabinet.

Plot

George decides to convert to Latvian Orthodox after his girlfriend Sasha tells him that her parents will not allow her to date a man who is not a member of their religion. George visits the church and talks to the head priest about converting. When Kramer arrives to pick George up, a novice, Sister Roberta, becomes smitten with Kramer. The priests are worried over Sister Roberta's infatuation and tell Kramer that he has an ephemeral quality that makes him irresistible to women. Not wanting to be the cause of Sister Roberta leaving the order, he is instructed to buy various foul-smelling foods and wear them, which stinks up the apartment building.

Jerry is disgusted when he sees a tube of fungicide in the medicine cabinet of his girlfriend Tawni. He takes the tube home and asks Elaine to get her podiatrist boyfriend to identify what it is used for, but Elaine and her boyfriend bicker over whether he is "really a doctor". Jerry later finds out that her fungicide was only being used for her cat. At Elaine's apartment, she and her boyfriend are reconciled until he sees the tube of fungicide and is disgusted, thinking Elaine has a fungal infection.

George's parents discover that he is converting and are infuriated. George undergoes the conversion ceremony. Just before he is about to receive the final benediction from Sister Roberta, she reveals her attraction for Kramer. But when he arrives, smelling foul, she loses her attraction.

At Monk's, George tells Sasha that he has converted for her. She is charmed by the gesture but informs him she is moving to Latvia for a year.

Production

Bruce Kirschbaum revealed later that he was unaware that the Latvian Orthodox Church actually existed while writing the episode. His intention was to have a fictitious sect.^[2] Kirschbaum received many thank you letters from the church for bringing attention to the denomination.

The exterior shots of the church are of the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of the Transfiguration of Our Lord in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elaine Benes</span> Major character on the TV show Seinfeld

Elaine Marie Benes is a fictional character on the American television sitcom Seinfeld, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Elaine's best friend in the sitcom is her ex-boyfriend Jerry Seinfeld, and she is also good friends with George Costanza and Cosmo Kramer. Louis-Dreyfus received critical acclaim for her performance as Elaine, winning an Emmy, a Golden Globe and five SAG Awards. She reprised the role during season 41 of Saturday Night Live in 2016.

"The Junior Mint" is the 60th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. It is the 20th episode of the fourth season. It aired on March 18, 1993. In the episode, Jerry cannot remember the name of the woman he is dating, but knows it rhymes with a part of the female anatomy. Meanwhile, Elaine's artistic ex-boyfriend develops a lethal infection after Jerry and Kramer drop a Junior Mint into his body during a surgical operation. This episode won Michael Richards his first Emmy of the series.

"The Busboy" is the 17th episode of Seinfeld to air, despite being the eighth produced. The episode was the 12th and final episode of the show's second season. It aired on June 26, 1991.

"The Nose Job" is the 26th episode of Seinfeld. It is the ninth episode of the show's third season. It first aired on November 20, 1991. The episode was written by Peter Mehlman and was directed by Tom Cherones.

"The Pick" is the 53rd episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. It is the 13th episode of the fourth season, and first aired on December 16, 1992. In this episode, Elaine mistakenly mails out a Christmas card in which her nipple is exposed to all her friends and relatives, Jerry's girlfriend breaks up with him after she sees him seemingly pick his nose, and Kramer is angered when he learns Calvin Klein has put out a new perfume based on his idea for a perfume that smells like the beach.

"The Smelly Car" is the 61st episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. The episode is the 20th episode of the fourth season. It aired on April 15, 1993 on NBC. In this episode, the body odor left by a restaurant valet in Jerry's car further transfers itself to Jerry and Elaine, and seems to be irremovable. Meanwhile, George learns that his ex-girlfriend Susan has converted to lesbianism, and Kramer successfully seduces Susan's girlfriend.

"The Lip Reader" is the 70th episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. It is the sixth episode of the fifth season, and first aired on October 28, 1993. In this episode, George gets Jerry's deaf girlfriend to use her lip reading talent to eavesdrop on his own ex-girlfriend and find out the reason why she dumped him. The title character was played by Marlee Matlin.

"The Little Jerry" is the 145th episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. It was the 11th episode of the eighth season, originally airing on January 9, 1997. In this episode, Kramer buys a rooster and enters him into cock fights, George dates a prison inmate, and Elaine's boyfriend Kurt discovers he is going bald after he stops shaving his head.

"The Yada Yada" is the 153rd episode of the American NBC sitcom Seinfeld. The 19th episode of the eighth season, it aired on April 24, 1997. Peter Mehlman and Jill Franklyn were nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series in 1997.

"The Muffin Tops" is the 155th episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 21st episode of the eighth season. It aired on May 8, 1997, on NBC. In this episode, George dates a woman while pretending to be a tourist from Arkansas, Kramer starts running a "Peterman Reality Tour" after finding out he is the basis for most of the stories in J. Peterman's autobiography, and Elaine and Mr. Lippman run a business selling only the tops of muffins.

"The Strongbox" is the 170th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 14th episode for the ninth and final season. It aired on February 5, 1998. In this episode, George's girlfriend stubbornly refuses to accept his breaking up with her, Elaine dates a man who won't tell her his phone number or where he works, and Jerry develops an adversarial relationship with his neighbor Phil after he fails to recognize Phil when he asks to be let into their apartment building.

"The Burning" is the sixteenth episode of the ninth and final season of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld, and the 172nd episode overall. This episode first aired on March 19, 1998. It was written by Jennifer Crittenden and directed by Andy Ackerman.

"The Masseuse" is the 73rd episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. It is the ninth episode of the fifth season, and first aired on November 18, 1993. In this episode, Jerry struggles to get his masseuse girlfriend to give him a massage, while George is drawn to how much she dislikes him, and Elaine struggles with the embarrassment of dating a man with the same name as Joel Rifkin.

"The Stall" is the 76th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. It is the 12th episode of the fifth season, and first aired on January 6, 1994. In this episode, Jerry tries to keep Elaine from finding out that his girlfriend Jane is the same woman she had a bathroom altercation with over a lack of toilet paper, while Kramer suspects Jane is a worker on a phone sex line.

"The Switch" is the 97th episode of NBC sitcom Seinfeld, and the 11th episode of the show's sixth season. It aired on January 5, 1995. In this episode, Jerry wants to switch from dating a non-laughing woman to dating her roommate, Elaine has difficulty retrieving a tennis racket she loaned out, and George enlists Kramer's mother to spy on his seemingly bulimic girlfriend, leading to him learning Kramer's first name.

"The Label Maker" is the 98th episode of NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 12th episode for the sixth season. It aired on January 19, 1995. The episode follows a pair of Super Bowl tickets which are repeatedly gifted from one person to another, while Kramer and Newman take drastic steps to keep each other from cheating at Risk and George fears he is competing for his girlfriend's affections with her roommate. The episode popularized the term "regifting".

"The Highlights of 100" is an hour-long, two-part episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This is the 14th and 15th episodes for the sixth season, and the 100th and 101st overall episode. It aired on February 2, 1995. It is a clip show to celebrate the series' 100th episode with no new content apart from a 50 second long intro by Jerry Seinfeld. In syndication, it airs as two separate episodes of 30 minutes each, with a second intro at the beginning of the second episode. This is the first episode in the series not to open with a stand-up routine.

"The Postponement" is the 112th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld, and the second episode of the seventh season. It aired in the U.S. on September 28, 1995. The story picks up from the plot of the previous episode, as an increasingly agitated George tries to postpone his engagement to Susan Ross, and Elaine reacts to the news of the engagement with extreme bitterness and jealousy. "The Postponement" also initiated the plot thread of Kramer suing Java World for serving him an excessively hot cup of coffee.

"The Caddy" is the 122nd episode of NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 12th episode for the seventh season, originally airing on January 25, 1996. In this episode, George takes an unapproved vacation, leading to him being presumed dead, while Kramer, Jerry, and Jackie Chiles launch a lawsuit against Elaine's archenemy Sue Ellen Mischke because she was wearing a bra without a top in public.

References

↑ "Seinfeld Season 5 Episodes". TV Guide . Retrieved 2 December 2021.
↑ "Inside Looks" Seinfeld on DVD Volume 4 Disc 3

External links

"The Conversion" at IMDb

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[tvguide-1] "Seinfeld Season 5 Episodes". TV Guide . Retrieved 2 December 2021.

[2] "Inside Looks" Seinfeld on DVD Volume 4 Disc 3

[1]

[2]

v t e Seinfeld episodes
Season 1	"The Seinfeld Chronicles" "The Stake Out" "The Robbery" "Male Unbonding" "The Stock Tip"
Season 2	"The Ex-Girlfriend" "The Pony Remark" "The Jacket" "The Phone Message" "The Apartment" "The Statue" "The Revenge" "The Heart Attack" "The Deal" "The Baby Shower" "The Chinese Restaurant" "The Busboy"
Season 3	"The Note" "The Truth" "The Pen" "The Dog" "The Library" "The Parking Garage" "The Cafe" "The Tape" "The Nose Job" "The Stranded" "The Alternate Side" "The Red Dot" "The Subway" "The Pez Dispenser" "The Suicide" "The Fix-Up" "The Boyfriend"† "The Limo" "The Good Samaritan" "The Letter" "The Parking Space" "The Keys"
Season 4	"The Trip"† "The Pitch" "The Ticket" "The Wallet" "The Watch" "The Bubble Boy" "The Cheever Letters" "The Opera" "The Virgin" "The Contest" "The Airport" "The Pick" "The Movie" "The Visa" "The Shoes" "The Outing" "The Old Man" "The Implant" "The Junior Mint" "The Smelly Car" "The Handicap Spot" "The Pilot"†
Season 5	"The Mango" "The Puffy Shirt" "The Glasses" "The Sniffing Accountant" "The Bris" "The Lip Reader" "The Non-Fat Yogurt" "The Barber" "The Masseuse" "The Cigar Store Indian" "The Conversion" "The Stall" "The Dinner Party" "The Marine Biologist" "The Pie" "The Stand In" "The Wife" "The Raincoats"† "The Fire" "The Hamptons" "The Opposite"
Season 6	"The Chaperone" "The Big Salad" "The Pledge Drive" "The Chinese Woman" "The Couch" "The Gymnast" "The Soup" "The Mom & Pop Store" "The Secretary" "The Race" "The Switch" "The Label Maker" "The Scofflaw" "The Highlights of 100"† "The Beard" "The Kiss Hello" "The Doorman" "The Jimmy" "The Doodle" "The Fusilli Jerry" "The Diplomat's Club" "The Face Painter" "The Understudy"
Season 7	"The Engagement" "The Postponement" "The Maestro" "The Wink" "The Hot Tub" "The Soup Nazi" "The Secret Code" "The Pool Guy" "The Sponge" "The Gum" "The Rye" "The Caddy" "The Seven" "The Cadillac"† "The Shower Head" "The Doll" "The Friar's Club" "The Wig Master" "The Calzone" "The Bottle Deposit"† "The Wait Out" "The Invitations"
Season 8	"The Foundation" "The Soul Mate" "The Bizarro Jerry" "The Little Kicks" "The Package" "The Fatigues" "The Checks" "The Chicken Roaster" "The Abstinence" "The Andrea Doria" "The Little Jerry" "The Money" "The Comeback" "The Van Buren Boys" "The Susie" "The Pothole" "The English Patient" "The Nap" "The Yada Yada" "The Millennium" "The Muffin Tops" "The Summer of George"
Season 9	"The Butter Shave" "The Voice" "The Serenity Now" "The Blood" "The Junk Mail" "The Merv Griffin Show" "The Slicer" "The Betrayal" "The Apology" "The Strike" "The Dealership" "The Reverse Peephole" "The Cartoon" "The Strongbox" "The Wizard" "The Burning" "The Bookstore" "The Frogger" "The Maid" "The Puerto Rican Day" "The Chronicle"† "The Finale"†
† Indicates two-part episode