The Van Buren Boys

"**The Van Buren Boys**"
"The Van Buren Boys"
Seinfeld episode
Episode no.	Season 8; Episode 14
Directed by	Andy Ackerman
Written by	Darin Henry
Production code	814
Original air date	February 6, 1997
Guest appearances
	Barney Martin as Morty Seinfeld ; Liz Sheridan as Helen Seinfeld ; Christine Taylor as Ellen; John O'Hurley as J. Peterman; Bruce Davison as Wyck; Jed Rhein as Steven Koren; Tony Colitti as Leader; David Moscow as Lomez Jr.; Yunoka Doyle as Lydia; Dublin James as Maurice; Justine Slater as Melissa; Michele Maika as Kim; Steve Hofvendahl as Man;
Episode chronology
← Previous; "The Comeback"	Next →; "The Susie"
	Seinfeld season 8
	List of episodes

Last updated April 06, 2024

"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.^[1] 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.

Plot

At Lorenzo's Pizzeria, Kramer has an encounter with "The Van Buren Boys", a street gang. Because he is holding a garlic shaker, he unknowingly flashes their gang sign (eight fingers, as Martin Van Buren was the eighth president) and saves himself.

George interviews candidates for The Susan Ross Foundation's scholarship. He dismisses several well-qualified candidates, instead favoring an underachiever named Steven because he wants to be an architect. George envisions Steven as fulfilling his own dreams. However, emboldened by getting the scholarship, Steven raises his aspirations from architect to city planner. George responds by taking the scholarship away from Steven. Embittered by George's betrayal, Steven joins the Van Buren boys, who pressure George to give the scholarship back.

Elaine is assigned to ghostwrite Peterman's autobiography. Since his exotic adventures have already been extensively covered in the company catalog, Peterman wants the book to deal with his day-to-day life, which dismays Elaine when she learns he spends his time reclining in his surprisingly generic apartment. She tells Peterman about Kramer's encounter with the Van Buren gang. He suggests paying off Kramer so he can use the story in his autobiography. Kramer sells Peterman all his stories, but most of them turn out to be dull.

George asks Kramer how he escaped the Van Buren Boys. Elaine told Kramer that he can no longer tell his stories, since they now belong to Peterman, so Kramer tells him only that the Van Buren Boys never bother their own kind. George bluffs to the Van Buren Boys that he is a former member, but as he does not know their sign, they demand he prove membership by mugging the next passers-by. He implores Jerry's parents to pretend he is mugging them; oblivious to his situation, they walk off. George runs away from the gang.

Elaine embellishes Kramer's stories, but Peterman finds the rewrites clichéd. She tells him a real Kramer story that he finds much more interesting. No longer able to keep his friends entertained, Kramer asks for his stories back; thinking Elaine came up with the story herself, Peterman says Kramer can have them.

Jerry's girlfriend, Ellen, seems perfect in every way, but her friends thank him for dating her as if it were a charity case, and George and Kramer perform an intervention, telling Jerry she is a loser. Jerry flies his parents in to get their impression. Once he sees that his parents like Ellen, he loses his enthusiasm for her.

Production

The table read for the episode was held on January 9, 1997.^[2] All of the episode's scenes which were filmed before a live studio audience were done on January 14, except for the cold open, which was filmed for "The Comeback".^[2]

The kid who gets the scholarship is named after Steve Koren, a Seinfeld writer.^[2]

Cultural references

Jerry refers to The Twilight Zone .

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">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 Bottle Deposit" is a two-part episode, the 131st and 132nd episodes, and 21st and 22nd episodes of the seventh season, of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld, first aired on May 2, 1996. It was originally an hour-long episode, but was split into two parts for syndication.

"The Chicken Roaster" is the 142nd episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. This was the eighth episode for the eighth season, originally airing 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 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 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. 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.

"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 Junk Mail" is the 161st episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. It was the fifth episode of the ninth and final season. The episode aired on October 30, 1997. In this episode, Jerry is gifted a van by a childhood friend and cannot turn it down for fear of hurting his feelings, Elaine mistakenly thinks she has fallen in love when the sight of a man triggers memories of an old commercial he appeared in, and Kramer, tired of getting swamped with junk mail, tries to stop all delivery of his mail, only to uncover a conspiracy by the United States Postal Service to keep the public from realizing that mail is pointless. Produced when e-mail was becoming a mainstream form of communication, the episode reflected the popular prediction of the time that postal service would soon become obsolete.

"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 Bookstore" is the 173rd episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 17th episode for the ninth and final season. It aired on April 9, 1998. In this episode, Jerry catches his Uncle Leo in the act of shoplifting, George is forced to buy a book after he is caught reading it in the bookstore's public bathroom, and Kramer and Newman attempt to start a rickshaw business.

"The Frogger" is the 174th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. It is the 18th episode for the ninth and final season. It first aired on April 23, 1998. In this episode, Elaine eats a vintage cake from King Edward VIII's wedding, Jerry maintains a relationship with a woman he doesn't like in order to avoid running into a serial killer, and George tries to preserve his high score on the Frogger machine at his high school hangout.

"The Secret Code" is the 117th episode of 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 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.

"The Foundation" is the 135th episode of the American television sitcom Seinfeld. This was the first episode of the eighth season, and as such was the first episode in which Jerry Seinfeld assumed command of the show following the departure of its co-creator, Larry David. It was originally broadcast on the NBC network on September 19, 1996.

"The Shower Head" is the 126th episode of 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 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

↑ "Seinfeld Season 8 Episodes". TV Guide . Retrieved December 10, 2021.
1 2 3 Seinfeld Season 8: Notes About Nothing - "The Van Buren Boys" (DVD). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. 2007.

External links

"The Van Buren Boys" 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 8 Episodes". TV Guide . Retrieved December 10, 2021.

[NaN-2] 1 2 3 Seinfeld Season 8: Notes About Nothing - "The Van Buren Boys" (DVD). Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. 2007.

[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