| "The Couch" | |
|---|---|
| Seinfeld episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 6 Episode 5 |
| Directed by | Andy Ackerman |
| Written by | Larry David |
| Production code | 605 |
| Original air date | October 27, 1994 |
| Guest appearances | |
| |
"The Couch" is the 91st episode of NBC sitcom Seinfeld . This was the fifth episode for the sixth season. [1] It aired on October 27, 1994. [1] In this episode, George joins a book club, Jerry buys a new couch which acquires an unsanitary stain, Poppie and Kramer collaborate on a pizza-making business, and Jerry puts Elaine's stance on abortion to the test in social situations.
Jerry buys a new couch, giving his old one to Elaine. Elaine falls for Carl, the man who delivers Jerry's couch.
Kramer plans to start a "pizza business where you make your own pie". He starts the business with Poppie, who has bounced back from his troubles with the Board of Health in the season five episode "The Pie". Jerry and Elaine go to Poppie's restaurant for a dinner of duck, but when Elaine vows to boycott anyone who is pro-life, Jerry asks Poppie what his stance is, revealing him to be anti-abortion. Elaine walks out in protest, and other diners overhear the discussion, causing numerous arguments to break out. Hoping to cause further trouble for his amusement, Jerry asks Elaine what Carl's stance is on abortion. She breaks up with him after finding out that he is anti-abortion, despite being madly in love.
Poppie ends up in the hospital as a result of the disruption Jerry and Elaine caused in the restaurant. Kramer rebukes them, and they send Poppie wine and five-alarm chili as an apology. Poppie is offended by the gift since he has a gastrointestinal disorder. After his release from the hospital, he comes to Jerry's apartment to get payment for the duck dinner and his incontinence causes him to unconsciously urinate on Jerry's new couch. Jerry gives the couch to George, who is unconcerned about the stain as he can turn the cushion over. Jerry takes his old couch back from Elaine. While in her apartment to move the couch, Elaine offers Carl something to drink. She throws him a bottle of grape juice, but it breaks and spills on the couch.
Kramer's pizza business with Poppie ends because Poppie objects to Kramer putting cucumbers on his pizza. Poppie and Kramer get into an argument that alludes to the theme of abortion.
George's girlfriend gets him to join her book club, which is assigned to read Breakfast at Tiffany's . George struggles to focus on the book and visits video stores in an unsuccessful attempt to rent the movie instead. After a video store clerk declines George's request to call the customer who has rented the movie, George surreptitiously peeks at the computer screen to see who has the rental copy. He heads to the renter's apartment and asks if he can watch the movie with the renter and his daughter. Before he can see the movie's ending, George accidentally spills grape juice on the family's couch and is kicked out of their apartment. When the book club meets, he remarks that Holly Golightly got together with her neighbor Paul "Fred" Varjak. Since this did not happen in the book, only the movie, George's girlfriend realizes that he did not read it.
The opening scene at the furniture store was significantly abridged after filming. Among the cuts was George professing his enthusiasm for velvet; despite being cut before broadcast, this speech is referred back to several times during season six. [2]
The episode is the television debut of Patton Oswalt, who played the video rental clerk. [3]
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.
Cosmo Kramer, usually referred to simply by his surname, is a fictional character in the American television sitcom Seinfeld (1989–1998) played by Michael Richards.
Jerome "Jerry" Seinfeld is the title character and the main protagonist of the American television sitcom Seinfeld (1989–1998). The straight man among his group of friends, this semi-fictionalized version of comedian Jerry Seinfeld was named after, co-created by, and played by Seinfeld himself. The series revolves around Jerry's misadventures with his best friend George Costanza, neighbor Cosmo Kramer, and ex-girlfriend Elaine Benes. He is usually the voice of reason amid his friends' antics and the focal point of the relationship.
"The Robbery" is the third episode of the first season of the American sitcom Seinfeld, originally airing on NBC on June 7, 1990. It was written by Matt Goldman, making this the first Seinfeld episode not written by the show's creators, Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David.
"The Apartment" is the fifth episode of the second season of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld and the show's tenth episode overall. In the episode, protagonist Jerry Seinfeld gets his ex-girlfriend Elaine Benes an apartment above his, but regrets this after realizing it might be uncomfortable living so close together. Meanwhile, Jerry's friend George Costanza wears a wedding ring to a party to see what effect it will have on women.
"The Statue" is the sixth episode of the second season of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld, and the show's 11th episode overall. In the episode, protagonist Jerry Seinfeld inherits some of his grandfather's old possessions. One of these is a statue, resembling one that his friend George Costanza broke when he was ten years old. When Jerry sees the statue in the house of Ray, the man who cleaned his apartment, he believes Ray stole the statue. Jerry struggles to get back at Ray, as his friend Elaine Benes is editing a book written by Ray's girlfriend.
"The Truth" is the 19th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. It is the second episode of the show's third season, first airing on September 25, 1991. Directed by David Steinberg, this is the first episode not directed by Tom Cherones. Steinberg would later direct three others. The episode is the first written by Elaine Pope. She later co-wrote a Seinfeld episode with Larry Charles, "The Fix-Up", that won an Emmy Award in 1992 for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Writing in a Comedy Series. She also is credited for the story of one other episode, "The Cheever Letters". Both Steinberg as a guest star and Pope as a writer worked on Fridays, a show that included Larry David and Michael Richards as cast members.
"The Old Man" is the 58th episode of the American television sitcom Seinfeld. It was the 18th episode of the 4th season. It aired on February 18, 1993. The episode follows Jerry, Elaine, and George as they visit elderly people through a volunteer program.
"The Merv Griffin Show" is the 162nd episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the sixth episode of the ninth and final season. It aired on November 6, 1997, and appeared on DVD ten years later. In this episode, Kramer finds the original set for The Merv Griffin Show and uses it to revive the show in his apartment, Elaine contends with a new co-worker who stealthily sidles behind her, and Jerry drugs his girlfriend so that he can play with her collection of toys.
"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 Puerto Rican Day" is the 176th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. It aired on May 7, 1998, and was the 20th episode of the ninth and final season. It was the show's second-highest-rated episode of all time, with 38.8 million viewers, only behind the series finale. The episode aired one week before the two-part clip show and the two-part series finale aired. It was a rare late-series return to a "plot about nothing" style and filmed in real-time, a format more often seen in early seasons. The episode follows the cast's misadventures as they try to escape from the traffic surrounding the Puerto Rican Day Parade.
"The Pie" is the 79th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 15th episode for the fifth season. It aired on February 17, 1994. The episode's main running theme is characters adamantly refusing to eat certain foods served to them without giving an explanation. A store mannequin that looks just like Elaine is also a focus in multiple plot threads of the episode.
"The Opposite" is the 22nd and final episode of the fifth season of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. It aired on May 19, 1994. This is the last episode Tom Cherones directed. Andy Ackerman took over as the primary director the following season and held that role until the end of the show's run.
"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 the 14th and 15th episode of the sixth season of the American sitcom Seinfeld, and the 100th and 101st episode overall. Written by Peter Mehlman and directed by Andy Ackerman, the episode originally aired on NBC on February 2, 1995. The episode 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 Doorman" is the 104th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This is the 18th episode for the sixth season. It aired on February 23, 1995. In this episode, Jerry and Elaine contend with a creepy doorman, George fears he is developing male breasts, and Kramer and Frank Costanza try to go into business with a bra for men.
"The Maestro" is an episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. It first aired on October 5, 1995. It was the series' 113th episode and third episode for the seventh season. The episode debuted recurring character Jackie Chiles, a lawyer who represents Kramer in the hot coffee case introduced in the previous episode. The title character is played by Mark Metcalf. Elaine dates him while Jerry tries to disprove his claim that there are no houses available to rent in all of Tuscany.
"Male Unbonding" is the fourth episode of the first season of the American sitcom Seinfeld and aired on NBC on June 14, 1990. Despite airing fourth, it was the second episode produced.
