The Pledge Drive

"**The Pledge Drive**"
"The Pledge Drive"
Seinfeld episode
Episode no.	Season 6; Episode 3
Directed by	Andy Ackerman
Written by	Tom Gammill and Max Pross
Production code	603
Original air date	October 6, 1994
Guest appearances
	Len Lesser as Uncle Leo ; Ian Abercrombie as Justin Pitt; Kelly Coffield as Noreen; Billye Ree Wallace as Nana; Brian Reddy as Dan; Rebecca Staab as Kristen; Danny Tartabull as Himself; Tom Wright as Executive; James Reynolds as Banker; Lauren Bowles as Waitress; F.J. Rio as Street Tough;
Episode chronology
← Previous; "The Big Salad"	Next →; "The Chinese Woman"
	List of episodes

Last updated April 06, 2024

"The Pledge Drive" is the 89th episode of NBC sitcom Seinfeld . This was the third episode of the sixth season.^[1] It aired on October 6, 1994.^[1] The episode revolves around Jerry, George, and Kramer's volunteer efforts with a PBS pledge drive. Subplots include Jerry's grandmother going on a perilous adventure through the city to deal with bounced birthday checks, Elaine committing a series of misunderstandings stemming from the high-pitched voice of her friend Noreen's boyfriend, and the start of a new trend in eating finger foods with utensils.

Plot

Jerry tells Elaine that her friend Noreen was hitting on him. Elaine is skeptical, since Noreen has a boyfriend. She calls and asks about this, but the person on the end of the line identifies himself as Noreen's boyfriend Dan, who Elaine mistook for Noreen because he is a "high-talker" (i.e. his voice is high-pitched). This angers Dan and Noreen, particularly since Jerry's allegation is untrue. When Elaine explains her mistake to Noreen, she is dismayed that her boyfriend's voice can be so easily mistaken for a woman's, and turns her romantic interest towards Jerry.

Jerry agrees to help a public television fundraiser for New York PBS member station WNET and Kramer volunteers with answering phones. The PBS representative, Kristen, sends Jerry a thank you card. While going over the fundraiser script with him, she notices the card in the trash and is offended. He tries to prove his sentimentality by showing her cards from his grandmother "Nana" that he has saved for years. This only offends her further, and Kramer is outraged when he sees Jerry never cashed the checks inside the cards.

At Monk's, Jerry asks George to bring a Yankee to the pledge drive. Elaine tells them how she witnessed her boss Mr. Pitt eat a Snickers bar with a knife and fork. George sees this as a classy way of eating. When he asks the waitress about the bill, she points to it with her middle finger, leading George to think she is surreptitiously giving him the finger.

When the rest of Yankee management opposes the idea of supporting the pledge drive on the grounds that they already give to channel 11 (WPIX-TV, the real-life over-the-air broadcaster for Yankee games at the time of this episode's airing), George changes their minds by insinuating that PBS is classier than channel 11 while eating a Snickers bar with knife and fork. This starts a trend that sweeps the city and evolves to include other finger foods such as cookies and donuts.

Jerry cashes Nana's checks to appease Kramer; since they were written on an account that was abandoned, the account becomes overdrawn. Nana leaves home for the first time in years to go to the branch and settle matters, causing her to be presumed missing. When she calls Jerry from the bank, Elaine answers the phone and assumes it's Dan, since he has been harassing her over Noreen's obsession with Jerry. She tells Nana to drop dead and hangs up. When Dan attempts to confront Jerry about Noreen, Kramer thinks Dan is in love with Jerry. While driving Yankee Danny Tartabull, George sees a driver supposedly give him the middle finger and insists on pursuing him. Catching up with him at a gas station, he finds the driver actually has his hand in a cast and splint that forces his middle finger to be extended. The delay causes Tartabull to miss the pledge drive. Nana calls the drive and Kramer persuades her to donate $1,500. Uncle Leo panics since Nana is on a fixed income and can't afford such a large gift, and runs onto the set yelling "Stop the show!" In light of the disasters of Tartabull's no-show and the disturbance caused by Leo, Kristen sends Jerry another greeting card, this one of a bunny giving him the finger.

Production

The episode's writers Tom Gammill and Max Pross were talking one day about someone they knew in college who ate his Snickers bars with a knife and fork; Larry David encouraged them to include this in the episode.^[2] Because Ian Abercrombie could not chew fast enough to finish a bite of Snickers bar between his lines of dialogue, David told him to swallow each bite whole. Abercrombie recalled that over the course of rehearsals and multiple takes, he consumed the equivalent of about four Snickers bars in this manner, an experience so unpleasant that he has not eaten a Snickers bar since.^[2] The day after the episode first aired, Abercrombie was having lunch in a restaurant; while he was waiting for his coffee, the waiter put a plate with a Snickers bar on his table. Apparently, the whole restaurant was in on the joke.^[2]

After filming was completed, the producers decided that Brian Reddy's high voice was not high enough, and hired a voice actress to dub over all his lines.^[3] The banker's line "Wait, we can do this over the phone" was also added in post by a different actor, since the show's producers realized that the episode made it look like the banker was to blame for Nana's dangerous adventure, which was not the intent.^[3]

A number of sequences were filmed but deleted before broadcast, including George demonstrating high-pitched talking and Kramer finding his own greeting card for Jerry in the trash. Due to their inordinate number some of them, such as scenes showing Nana riding a dangerous-looking subway and talking to a postal worker,^[3] were not even included on the Seinfeld DVD releases.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerry Seinfeld (character)</span> Main character on the TV show Seinfeld

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 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 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 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 Voice" is the 158th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the second episode for the ninth and final season. It aired on October 2, 1997. The episode's title refers to a joke Jerry and his friends share about his girlfriend's stomach having a voice, which ends up coming between Jerry and his girlfriend. Meanwhile, a chance encounter with David Puddy leads to Elaine renewing their relationship, George sticks with a job where his co-workers all hate him because he has a one-year contract with the company, and Kramer hires an intern and works with him on creating an oil bladder system.

"The Dealership" is the 167th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 11th episode of the ninth and final season. It aired on January 8, 1998. This episode follows the characters' escapades at a car dealership, which Jerry is visiting in hopes of getting an insider deal on a new car through his friendship with David Puddy.

"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 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 Chinese Woman" is the 90th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the fourth episode for the sixth season. It aired on October 13, 1994. In this episode Jerry dates a woman who he believes is Chinese due to her name, Donna Chang, Frank Costanza retains a caped lawyer for divorce proceedings, Kramer switches to boxer shorts in hopes of impregnating a woman, and Elaine finds herself continuing to cause boyfriend trouble for her friend Noreen.

"The Soup" is the 93rd episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the seventh episode of the sixth season. It aired on November 10, 1994. The character Kenny Bania made his first appearance in the episode, in which he tries to cultivate friendship with Jerry by giving him an Armani suit. Meanwhile, George becomes uncomfortable at Monk's Café after he has an awkward first date with a waitress there, leading him and his circle of friends to try eating at one of their competitors.

"The Scofflaw" is the 99th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. It was the 13th episode for the sixth season. It aired on January 26, 1995. In this episode, George and Jerry both pretend to not know their friend Gary Fogel never had cancer, Elaine takes revenge on her ex-boyfriend by acquiring a pair of glasses identical to his, and Kramer teams up with a police officer to catch a repeat parking violator.

"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 Kiss Hello" is the 103rd episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This is the 17th episode for the sixth season. It aired on February 16, 1995. Although this was the 102nd episode to air, the cast and crew of the series credit this as the 100th episode because it is the 100th episode created. In this episode, Kramer posts the names and photos of all the tenants in his apartment building on a board in the lobby so that everyone will know each other. Jerry is uncomfortable with such pervasive socialization, bringing him to conflict with his neighbors at the same time as he investigates his Nana's story that his Uncle Leo owes his mother Helen $50.

"The Doodle" is the 106th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This is the 20th episode for the sixth season and aired on April 6, 1995. In this episode, Jerry's apartment is infested with fleas, George struggles over his girlfriend's opinion of his physical appearance, Kramer indulges his love for Mackinaw peaches, and Elaine loses a literary manuscript that she is expected to review for a job interview.

"The Diplomat's Club" is the 108th episode of NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This is the 22nd episode for the sixth season. It aired on May 4, 1995. The episode was the final appearance of Mr. Pitt as a recurring character, as he comes to suspect Elaine of plotting to kill him in order to receive the benefits from his will. In the episode's other plotlines, Jerry takes an ill-fated trip to Ithaca with an overly pampering assistant, Kramer returns to his gambling habit by betting on flight arrivals, and George tries to prove he is not racist by getting a black friend.

"The Wink" is the 114th episode of NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the fourth episode in the seventh season. It first aired on October 12, 1995. In this episode, George's compulsive winking after grapefruit is squirted into his eye is subject to a variety of misinterpretations, Elaine dates her wake-up service caller and feuds with her cousin Holly over their grandmother's old possessions, and Jerry tries to conceal his healthy eating habits from Holly while dating her.

"The Gum" is the 120th episode of NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the tenth episode for the seventh season. It aired on December 14, 1995. The episode follows Kramer and Lloyd Braun's efforts to reopen the Alex Theatre, while an overprotective Kramer tries to keep Lloyd, recently recovered from a mental breakdown, from doubting his own sanity. Wardrobe mishaps make it seem like Lloyd's ex-girlfriend Elaine is coming on to him, Kramer forces Jerry to wear glasses for Lloyd's sake, and an old friend suspects George is going through a mental breakdown himself when she witnesses his apparent obsession with Lloyd and a cashier he claims shortchanged him.

"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

1 2 "Seinfeld Season 6 Episodes". TV Guide . Retrieved 2 December 2021.
1 2 3 Seinfeld Season 6: Inside Look - "The Pledge Drive" (DVD). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. 2005.
1 2 3 Seinfeld Season 6: Notes about Nothing - "The Pledge Drive" (DVD). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. 2005.

External links

"The Pledge Drive" 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] 1 2 "Seinfeld Season 6 Episodes". TV Guide . Retrieved 2 December 2021.

[InsLook-2] 1 2 3 Seinfeld Season 6: Inside Look - "The Pledge Drive" (DVD). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. 2005.

[NaN-3] 1 2 3 Seinfeld Season 6: Notes about Nothing - "The Pledge Drive" (DVD). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. 2005.

[1]

[2]

[3]

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