"The Baby Shower" is the tenth episode of the second season of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld, and the show's fifteenth episode overall. The episode was written by Larry Charles and directed by Tom Cherones and it was first aired on May 16, 1991.
Plot[]
Elaine holds a baby shower for her friend Leslie at Jerry's apartment, while he is performing in Buffalo. George is excited, as he expects the baby shower to be the perfect opportunity to confront Leslie, the woman who gave him the worst date of his life by pouring Bosco chocolate sauce on his red-collared shirt while doing performance art. Jerry is frustrated by his television's bad reception, and is convinced by Kramer to have cable illegally installed by two Russians.
As Jerry is sleeping on the plane he dreams of returning to his apartment only to find several FBI agents there interrogating Kramer who told them about the illegal cable, it shows that the Russian was an FBI undercover agent. Jerry tries to flee only to be gunned down by the agents. He then wakes up. His show is canceled due to bad weather, and George picks up Jerry at the airport. Jerry informs George they cannot go back to his apartment because of the baby shower, but discovers that George is wearing the red shirt and wants to encounter Leslie at the shower. Meanwhile, Kramer and the two Russians crash the shower to install cable television. The party is ruined when the two Russians eat all the food and get into a fight. When George and Jerry arrive, George's plan proves unsuccessful, as he cannot muster the courage necessary to yell at Leslie. When a woman confronts Jerry because he never called her back after a date, the good mood of the shower is completely ruined and the guests leave. Jerry changes his mind about the cable hook-up, but is still charged with a large amount of money. When he refuses to pay, the Russians break his television set.
Notes About Nothing[]
- Christine Dunford (Leslie) later appeared in season five, playing a snooty saleswoman in "The Pie."
- The episode was ranked third on a list of Seinfeld's "not-so-top episodes", compiled by the New York Daily News.
- The episode contained a dream sequence in which the title character was killed, as episode writer Larry Charles was interested in "the Quentin Tarantino version of a sitcom."
- Elaine shares her desire to meet John F. Kennedy, Jr., in this episode, something she later found herself doing in the classic season four episode "The Contest."
- The scene where Jerry's cable shoot-out death with Kramer and the FBI agents is a reference to Sonny Corlene's death in the the 1972 film, The Godfather.
- Bosco, the chocolate syrup that is stained over George's shirt, is later found out to be his secret ATM code in the season seven episode "The Secret Code."
- Kramer invites Jerry, Elaine and George into his apartment to watch Doctor Zhivago. Earlier in that scene, Elaine reminisces a day when, while riding a bus, she spotted John Kennedy walking on the sidewalk nearby but couldn't get the bus to stop. The memory recalls a scene from Doctor Zhivago where Yuri Zhivago, while riding a tram in Moscow, spots Lara walking on a sidewalk and only barely manages to exit the tram before succumbing to a fatal heart attack.
Quotes[]
- "She doesn't deserve a baby shower. She deserves a baby monsoon." - George
- "What's her husband's name again? Chip? Kip? Skip?" - Jerry
- "What? You don't think I can attract beautiful, intelligent women?" - George
- "Because I've seen these pregnant women, and they sometimes misjudge their fetal girth. And like, just one wrong turn and the whole buffet is like, right off the table." - Jerry
- "I'm offering you 56 channels. Movies, sports, nudity, and it's free for life!" - Kramer
- "Cable boy. Cable boy. What have you done to my little cable boy?" -Kramer
Season Two Episodes |
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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 Un-Produced: |