The English Patient (Seinfeld)

Last updated
"The English Patient"
Seinfeld episode
Episode no.Season 8
Episode 17
Directed by Andy Ackerman
Written by Steve Koren
Production code817
Original air dateMarch 13, 1997 (1997-03-13)
Guest appearances
Episode chronology
← Previous
"The Pothole"		Next →
"The Nap"
Seinfeld season 8
List of episodes

"The English Patient" is the 151st episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld . It was the 17th episode for the eighth season and aired on March 13, 1997. [1] The English Patient , central to Elaine's storyline in this episode, won Best Picture at the 69th Academy Awards, eleven days after this episode aired.

Contents

Plot

At Monk's Café, a beautiful woman, Danielle, mistakes George for her boyfriend Neil. George becomes obsessed with the notion that he is so similar to Neil that, with only one minor change, he too could be dating women like Danielle. He repeatedly goes out with Danielle so he can press her for more information about Neil.

Elaine and her date, Blaine, go to the movies. She wants to see the comedy Sack Lunch but Blaine prefers The English Patient. When Sack Lunch gets sold out, they go see The English Patient. After the movie, Elaine finds it boring and stupid. Her dislike for The English Patient alienates her from everyone and Blaine subsequently dumps her. Not wishing to upset J. Peterman, when he asks if she likes the movie, she claims not to have seen it. He has Elaine drop everything so he can take her to see it. She endures an hour or so before exclaiming her distaste for the movie. Peterman responds by firing her, but she convinces him to let her keep her job by agreeing to take a trip to Tunisia (the filming location of The English Patient) and living in a cave.

Jerry is going to Florida to help his parents move out. Kramer asks him to pick up some Cubans for him and gives him a T-shirt that says "#1 Dad". Thinking he means Cuban cigars, Jerry agrees. Jerry's father, Morty, finds the "#1 Dad" T-shirt and proudly wears it. [2]

Kramer's "Cubans" are human cigar rollers he is trafficking to the United States in an attempt to skirt America's laws prohibiting Cuban imports. His attempt to start a business in Cuban-quality made-in-America cigars fails when investors recognize they are from the Dominican Republic. Kramer fears the unemployed Dominicans, whom he educated about communism, plan to revolt since they have nothing to do. At the Del Boca Vista exercise room, Jerry meets 80-year-old Izzy Mandelbaum. Izzy challenges Jerry to a weightlifting competition, but throws out his back. Jerry and Morty visit his bedside to apologize. However, Izzy wants to compete with Morty over being the best dad after seeing the "#1 Dad" shirt and throws his back out again. Jerry returns to New York, where Izzy has come to see a back specialist. Izzy's son and father show up –both men injure their backs while trying to lift the hospital's TV. The Mandelbaums complain that their Magic Pan restaurant franchise will fail since they cannot roll the crêpes while laid up. Jerry suggests they employ Kramer's "Cubans". The Dominicans, however, roll the crêpes too tightly, causing the filling to spray out and burn customers.

When George tells Jerry about the situation with Danielle, Jerry points out that he has no more need to find out about Neil, since he has replaced him as Danielle's boyfriend. George meets Neil in a hospital, after Neil was burned by a crêpe. Neil's face is bandaged, so that George never sees what he looks like. Even though she agreed to move in with George, Danielle changes plans, taking Neil to an overseas clinic similar to The English Patient. [2] Neil declares that he "won" Danielle and George vindictively pulls out his intravenous line as he leaves.

Elaine's plane to Tunisia is about to show Sack Lunch, but is hijacked by the angry Dominicans, who are all wearing "#1 Dad" T-shirts. They demand the movie be shut off, much to Elaine's dismay.

Production

The table read for "The English Patient" took place on February 7, 1997. The scenes outside the theatre were filmed on February 9, and the majority of scenes were filmed live in front of a studio audience on February 11. [3]

The people who appear on the theatrical poster for Sack Lunch are Seinfeld producer Tim Kaiser and his family. [3]

A scene in which Elaine and Peterman finish watching The English Patient, and Peterman proposes they watch it again and take notes on the clothing so that they can add it to the J. Peterman catalog, was deleted before broadcast. As a result, the finished episode implies that Elaine's outburst occurred during her second viewing of The English Patient rather than her third, and leaves Peterman's remark "I hope you're watching the clothes, Elaine, because I can't take my eyes off the passion" unexplained. [3]

Neil was played by Jeff Miller, who also served as George actor Jason Alexander's stand-in. [3] The IV pull at the end of the scene was ad-libbed by Alexander during filming. [3]

Critical response

Dr. Michael Dunne writes in his essay "Seinfeld as Intertextual Comedy" (his episode-numbering system appears in parentheses):

In "The English Patient" (8017) Elaine is one of the few Americans who will admit in 1997 that she finds the 1996 Academy Award movie The English Patient boring. In this respect The English Patient serves as Schindler's List does in "The Raincoats" (5019), as the movie that everyone is supposed to admire. "The English Patient" surpasses "The Raincoats" in terms of intertextual organicism, however, since the comic plot of the former also requires a character named Neil to be so badly burned by a crêpe that his gorgeous girlfriend will take him to England for burn treatment. All parallels to the plot of The English Patient are surely deliberate. [4]

Noel Murray of The A.V. Club wrote, "Who bears more responsibility for the declining reputation of The English Patient: Elaine Benes, or Harvey Weinstein?" [5] David Sims, at the same website, reviewed the episode with a certainty that Elaine is its "real hero": "Her finest moment is when Peterman, having gone on about loving the movie, asks her if she's seen it, and she just can't bring herself to lie and say she liked it, instead telling the fatal, but nobler white lie that she hasn't seen it yet. That means Peterman drags her to it again, of course, but then we're treated to the sight of Elaine sprawled in her seat, bored to the point of death, so we the audience are the real winners." Sims called the episode "classic Seinfeld, as well, in that it's a plot where very little happens but it's nonetheless very funny." [6] David L. Coddon of U-T San Diego remarked in 2008, "For some of us, the 1997 Seinfeld episode titled 'The English Patient' is infinitely more entertaining than the 1996 film of the same name – the length of which seemed infinite – that inspired it. We who found the Oscar-winning (repeat, Oscar-winning!) movie lumbering and muddled can watch over and over again in reruns Elaine Benes' (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) derisive dismissals of and active assaults on The English Patient." [7]

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 former SNL cast member 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cosmo Kramer</span> Fictional character in the American television sitcom "Seinfeld"

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.

"The Stake Out" is the second episode of the first season of the American sitcom Seinfeld.

"The Raincoats" is a two-part episode of the American sitcom Seinfeld. It is the 82nd and 83rd episode of the show, and the 18th and 19th episodes of the fifth season. The episode was first shown on NBC on April 28, 1994, and garnered an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for Judge Reinhold.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Puffy Shirt</span> 2nd episode of the 5th season of Seinfeld

"The Puffy Shirt" is the second episode of the fifth season of the American NBC sitcom Seinfeld. It was the 66th episode and originally aired on September 23, 1993. The episode centers on Jerry having to wear an ostentatious "puffy" shirt on The Today Show after he unwittingly agreed to promote it for Kramer's girlfriend because she spoke too quietly for him to understand what she was asking.

"The Wallet" is the 45th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. It is the fifth episode of the fourth season of the series, and first aired on September 23, 1992. In this episode Morty's wallet goes missing from his trousers while at a back specialist's office, Jerry tries to conceal his having thrown away the watch Morty gave him, and George turns down his and Jerry's deal for a television pilot.

"The Gymnast" is the 92nd episode of Seinfeld. This was the sixth episode for the sixth season. It aired on November 3, 1994, during a special "Blackout Thursday" night on NBC, in which all shows in the Must See TV line-up, except this one, featured a fictional New York City blackout. The episode instead deals with Jerry's sexual relationship with an Olympic gymnast, Mr. Pitt's fixation on an autostereogram painting, Kramer’s reaction to pain caused by a kidney stone, and George's repeatedly being caught in vagrant-like behavior by his girlfriend's mother.

"The Chicken Roaster" is the 142nd episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. This was the eighth episode for the eighth season, originally airing on NBC on November 14, 1996. The episode's story follows the mishaps which follow when Kenny Rogers Roasters opens a branch in the characters' neighborhood. The restaurant's neon sign shines into Kramer's apartment, disturbing first him and then Jerry after they switch apartments, but Jerry opposes Kramer's efforts to shut the restaurant down since a college friend of his is assistant manager at the branch. Meanwhile, Elaine is in danger of being fired from J. Peterman after she misuses the company account for personal purchases.

"The Money" is the 146th episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 12th episode for the eighth season, originally airing on NBC on January 16, 1997. In a follow-up to the episode "The Cadillac", the story has Jerry traveling to Florida to buy his parents' Cadillac back from Jack Klompus. Meanwhile, Jerry's father Morty Seinfeld gets a job at The J. Peterman Company and Kramer and his girlfriend have problems sleeping together.

"The Van Buren Boys" is the 148th episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 14th episode for the 8th season, originally airing on February 6, 1997. In this episode, everyone is convinced Jerry's new girlfriend is a loser, Elaine ghostwrites Peterman's autobiography, and Kramer and George have separate run-ins with a New York street gang whose sign is holding up eight fingers, because the gang is named for the eighth President of the United States, Martin Van Buren.

"The Susie" is the 149th episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 15th episode for the eighth season, originally airing on February 13, 1997. In this episode, Jerry unintentionally terrorizes a bookie, George avoids all contact with his girlfriend so that she cannot break up with him, and Elaine ends up leading a double life at the office after a co-worker starts mistakenly calling her "Susie".

"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 Wizard" is the 171st episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 15th episode for the ninth and final season. It aired on February 26, 1998. In this episode, Kramer retires and moves into the same condo as Morty and Helen Seinfeld, Elaine tries to find out if her pale-skinned boyfriend is actually black, and George gets upset that the Rosses will not call him a liar after they catch him lying about buying a house in the Hamptons.

"The Secret Code" is the 117th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the seventh episode of the seventh season. It aired on November 9, 1995. In this episode, George is unwilling to share his ATM code with his fiancée Susan, and finds himself entrapped in awkward social situations after he loses his talent for lying. Meanwhile, Elaine finds herself infatuated with a man because he cannot recall their first meeting, Jerry's plans to appear in a television commercial are repeatedly frustrated by his foot falling asleep, and Kramer tries to help out the local fire department.

"The Cadillac" is an hour-long, two-part episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. It was the 124th and 125th episode and 14th and 15th episode for the seventh season. It aired on February 8, 1996. This was the last episode to be co-written by Jerry Seinfeld.

"The Shower Head" is the 126th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This is the sixteenth episode for the seventh season. It aired on February 15, 1996. It had 32.3 million US viewers. This episode focuses on Jerry and George's struggles to get their respective parents to move out of New York. Meanwhile, the tenants of Jerry's apartment building are made miserable by the new low-flow showerheads, and Elaine takes a drug test for work which comes back positive for opium.

"The Friar's Club" is the 128th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This is the 18th episode for the seventh season, originally airing on March 7, 1996. In this episode, Jerry jeopardizes his chances of becoming a member of the New York Friars' Club when he accidentally takes a club jacket home with him, George hopes to spend more time with Jerry by fixing him up with his fiancé Susan's best friend, and J. Peterman saddles Elaine with the workload of her hard-of-hearing co-worker.

"The Understudy" is the 110th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This is the 24th and final episode for the sixth season. It aired on May 18, 1995. This is the second episode in the series not to open with a stand-up routine.

"The Cartoon" is the 169th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 13th episode for the ninth and final season. It aired on January 29, 1998. In this episode, aspiring actress Sally Weaver becomes a success with a show where she vilifies Jerry, Elaine struggles to see the humor in a cartoon that appears in The New Yorker, and George is disconcerted when Elaine and Kramer point out that the woman he is dating looks a lot like Jerry.

References

  1. ↑ "Seinfeld Season 8 Episodes". TV Guide . Retrieved December 10, 2021.
  2. 1 2 Koren, Steve (March 13, 1997). "The English Patient". Seinfeld. Season 8. Episode 17. NBC. Retrieved September 20, 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Seinfeld Season 8: Inside Look - "The English Patient" (DVD). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. 2007.
  4. ↑ Dunne, Michael (2006). "Seinfeld as Intertextual Comedy". In David Lavery; Sara Lewis Dunne (eds.). Seinfeld, Master of its Domain: Revisiting Television's Greatest Sitcom. New York: Continuum. p. 54.
  5. ↑ Murray, Noel (February 22, 2012). "The English Patient / Cold Mountain". The A.V. Club . Retrieved September 20, 2012.
  6. ↑ Sims, David (January 12, 2012). "The English Patient / The Nap". The A.V. Club . Archived from the original on January 15, 2012. Retrieved September 20, 2012.
  7. ↑ Coddon, David L. (March 28, 2008). "'English Patient' like slow death to some; others see a masterpiece". U-T San Diego . Archived from the original on May 27, 2015. Retrieved September 20, 2012.
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.