Seinfeld Question

Cafe Society
1

In the season four episode titled “The Old Man” the episode ends with the two eighty-year-olds having an extended talk in the coffee shop. Multiple cameras are used and both the shooting style and content of the conversation mirrors that of the normal cast. Apart from the series finale, is this the only instance of a complete scene of this sort being shot with no main cast member in it?

Also, I’ve been watching Seinfeld episodes in order lately, and I never realized how much continuity there was. There’s lots of mini-arcs that carry over multiple episodes. I’d only ever seen the show in sporadic syndication, and while I was never lost, it’s like I’ve gained a whole new appreciation.

Lastly, having only watched them on TV, I discovered that I had almost always missed the post credits scenes. Sometimes these are just Seinfeld’s stand-up, but they also often resolve loose ends. I must have gotten in the habit of channel surfing and not sitting through a final two minutes of commercials to see another 20 seconds of show.

2

There was the last scenes of The Bizarro Jerry, which focused on the bizarro friends and played up all their bizarro ways.

I’m sure there are some others - perhaps not as lengthy or obvious as those two - but I can’t think of them. It’s an interesting question!

3

IIRC, the early years always ended with a standup snippet, which sort of wrapped up the concepts illustrated by the episode. Sometime in the middle of the show’s run they switched over to scripted, acted post-credit punch-lines.

4

They also got rid of the stand-up piece at the top of the show.

5

There’s the scene where the members of the Susan Ross Foundation all agree that George probably murdered Susan, but that may have been right after George left the room.

6

Don’t they often trim a couple of minutes from the show to fit in more commercials when it is shown in syndication? That might explain some of the scenes you didn’t see before.

7

I think there was a scene featuring Bubble Boy and his parents without the main characters.

8

This is true of almost every sitcom ever made. Once they are released for syndication and need to jam in more commercials they typically trim off the last scene, commonly called a “tag scene” or “closing coda”.

9

There is an episode that ends with the head of NBC getting washed away off a Greenpeace boat.

10

Steinbrenner and George’s boss did a scene w/o a core member when they though George was dead.

And then Steinbrenner did a scene with Frank and Estelle when he told them that George was dead. Frank later called Jerry to confirm.

11

Fun fact for fun fact fans: the two people in the boat with him are Larry David (co-creator) and Larry Charles (one of the writers).

12

tonight TBS repeated the episode, The Visa, where Babu gets deported to Pakistan. The final scene is in Pakistan with Babu and a friend (or relative). and none of the core characters.

Also interestingly, the final line of The Visa fore-shadowed the series finale. Babu indicating he was wronged by Jerry and vowed (while moving his index finger) revenge.