The Phone Message is the 4th episode of Season 2 of Seinfeld, and first aired February 13, 1991.
Notes about nothing
- Of course, Jerry is not actually lactose intolerant as he jokes in this episode. Unless he's eating all his cereal without milk.
- Larry David once apparently tried replacing an answer-phone tape with a blank to remove an embarrassing message he left, inspiring the incident in this episode.
- George's preferred signal song "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria?" is a Rodgers and Hammerstein song sung by a bunch of nuns in The Sound of Music. Jerry's suggestion "Lemon Tree" is a Peter Paul and Mary song, although he seems to prefer the Trini Lopez cover.
- George pretends Jerry has a phobia of public toilets as a ruse to get invited into Carol's apartment. In later episodes we learn that both Jerry and George are very fastidious about their toilet habits.
- The fact that George's father wears his sneakers in the pool is referenced again in The Puffy Shirt (season 5).
Quotes
- "She invites me up at twelve o' clock at night for coffee and I don't go up. No thank you, I don't want coffee, it keeps me up. 'Too late for me to drink coffee. I said this to her. People this stupid shouldn't be allowed to live." - George
- "Coffee's not coffee, coffee is sex!" - George
- "Yesterday I'm a volcano. I try one more call, the machine comes on and I let fly like Mussolini from the balcony. 'Where the hell do you get the nerve? You invite me up for coffee and then you don't call me back for four days? I don't like coffee, I don't have to come up! I'd like to get one more shot at the coffee just so I could spit it in your face!'" - George