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Seinfeld: The Limo
by Joel Keller, posted Aug 28th 2006 8:31PM
(S03E18) Larry Charles, one of Seinfeld's primary writers, mentions in the DVD commentary for "The Limo" that it is one of his favorite episodes; he feels that it's one of the first episodes in the series to take a silly premise -- what if George and Jerry take the limo of a Neo-Nazi? -- and find humor in it by grounding it in reality. Well, the reality of Larry David, but at least it's someone's reality.
Personally, this is one of my least favortie episodes of the show's entire run. Sure, there are some funny moments, but the whole "pretending to be someone else" plotline comes right out of Sitcomland, and could have been taken right from an episode of Three's Company -- well, not the Neo-Nazi part, but you get the idea. At this point in Seinfeld's run, especially after the brilliance of "The Boyfriend" the week before, audiences were expecting more. And, to be honest, there wasn't a lot to laugh at in this one.
It was a technically difficult episode to film, by the way; they had to ditch the studio audience again in order to film the limo scenes. They also used a New York streetscape on the Paramount lot in the scenes where Kramer and Elaine wait for "O'Brien" and "Murphy." Those scenes, by the way, weren't great either; just Kramer and Elaine talking about Jerry and George. We're used to seeing a B plot, but there isn't one to be found here. It feels more like a Season Two episode than a late Season Three one. Guess they still had a few of those in their system.
OK, on to the "awards":
Best line: When George tells Jerry that Eva -- one of O'Brien's followers -- is cute, Jerry shoots back exasperatedly, "She's a Nazi, George... a Nazi."
Best facial expression: The eyeroll Jerry gives when George says that if they join Kramer and Elaine on the street, they won't get shot. "Nah. No one's ever been shot in the city," Jerry says right before the eyeroll.
Best Kramerism: He pretends to be like Michael Jordan and mimes a 360 dunk... right into a pile of garbage.
Observations and DVD tidbits:
- The story idea, that Jerry and George would pretend to be someone else to get a limo back from the airport, was submitted by Marc Jaffe. The writers didn't really know where to take the show after that until they came up with the Neo-Nazi idea. Larry Charles wrote the episode.
- The woman who played Eva, Suzanne Snyder, returned two years later in "The Pie," playing the daughter of incontinent restaurateur Poppy.
- The other O'Brien disciple, Tim, is played by Peter Krause, who later went on to star in Sports Night and Six Feet Under.
- One of the good parts of the episode is the "harmony of whining" at the end; Tim and Eva find out that George isn't O'Brien, and George, Jerry, and Elaine's mixed excuses as they're held at gunpoint are well-mixed. They end with all three of them saying the same thing -- "I swear!" -- in unison. Kramer remains quiet.
- The Paramount theater, where O'Brien was going to speak, is now The Theatre at Madison Square Garden.
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