Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David’s revolutionized the storytelling of the sitcom, telling dense narratives with short, quick-paced scenes.
The show also had a number of two-part episodes, which allowed the writers to expand on certain plots. Seinfeld didn’t invent two-parters, but it did popularize them in the realm of TV comedy. As with any experimentation, Seinfeld’s two-part episodes were a mixed bag: some great, some good, some outright bad.
The Trip
The fourth season of Seinfeld kicked off with a two-parter, “The Trip,” following on from Kramer’s move to L.A. in the season 3 finale. Jerry is invited out to Hollywood with an extra ticket to appear on The Tonight Show and brings George along. The episode is usually ranked among Seinfeld’s worst.
The humor is unusually dark, with the storyline involving Kramer being mistaken for a serial killer, and Kramer’s antics as a struggling actor feel like they’re from a terrible spin-off as opposed to the flagship series itself.
The Finale
Seinfeld ended its nine-season run with one of the most controversial series finales in the history of television. After starting with a traditional finale setup, as Jerry and George’s pilot is picked up by NBC and they plan to move to Los Angeles, NBC’s private jet crash-lands in Latham, Massachusetts, where the gang ignores a mugging.
Their indifference violates a local law called “the Good Samaritan law” and they’re sent to jail and put on trial. The trial led to some fun callbacks as familiar faces from the series’ history came back to testify, but it was a strange direction to take the show’s ending.
The Wallet/The Watch
Season 4’s “The Wallet” and “The Watch” aren’t officially billed as a two-parter, but “The Wallet” ends with a classic “To be continued...” and “The Watch” opens with a recap of “The Wallet,” so it’s basically a two-part episode.
The episodes don’t really hold up as a complete whole, and the “Crazy” Joe Davola subplot is too creepy to be funny, but it still has some classic moments, like Morty yelling into the hallway of the doctor’s office: “My wallet’s gone! My wallet’s gone!”
The Pilot
In the season 4 finale “The Pilot,” the season-long arc comes to a head as Jerry and George’s sitcom pilot finally goes into production at NBC. The casting montage offers a hilariously meta look at how the show’s characters could be played differently.
However, the episode is let down by the Elaine/Russell storyline, which saw yet another loser pining after Elaine, and the “Crazy” Joe Davola storyline, which started off unsettling and became groan-inducing by the season finale.
The Bottle Deposit
After hearing that recycling in Michigan pays a lot better than recycling in New York (back in the ‘90s when people needed an incentive to recycle), Kramer and Newman hatch a scheme to round up a bulk amount of recyclable materials and take them across the country in a mail van to collect the loot.
Meanwhile, Elaine overbids on a set of JFK’s golf clubs for Peterman and accidentally leaves them in Jerry’s car, which is stolen by a protective mechanic (played by Everybody Loves Raymond’s Brad Garrett). Kramer spots Jerry’s car on the way to Michigan and hastily changes course to chase him down.
The Boyfriend
In season 3’s “The Boyfriend,” Seinfeld gets its first major guest appearance, courtesy of Keith Hernandez playing himself. Some of the humor that the episode gets out of comparing Jerry’s burgeoning friendship with Hernandez to a romantic relationship works brilliantly, but Hernandez is stretched thin across two episodes.
Fortunately, the episodes are saved by George going to insane lengths to stay on unemployment benefits and Kramer and Newman’s JFK-style reconstruction of a spitting incident involving Hernandez.
The Cadillac
Every episode set in Jerry’s parents’ Florida retirement community is an absolute joy. In “The Cadillac,” Jerry comes into some money and uses it to buy a Cadillac for his dad. However, due to the insanity of Del Boca Vista’s residents, this kind gesture sets off a chain of events that leads to Morty’s impeachment as condo board president in a hysterical parody of Oliver Stone’s Nixon.
There are a couple of great subplots, too, as an engaged George finds out he’s Marisa Tomei’s type and Kramer exacts revenge upon the cable company.
The Raincoats
Everything in “The Raincoats” works beautifully. Morty and Kramer enter into a doomed business deal and rope in the always-hilarious Jack Klompus. Jerry makes out with his girlfriend during Schindler’s List and gets into trouble with his mom for it. George tries to scam his way out of a Big Brother program and unwittingly ends up having to take an obnoxious kid to Paris.
Judge Reinhold gives one of Seinfeld’s all-time funniest guest performances in the role of Aaron, the “close talker” who dates Elaine and spends way too much time with Jerry’s parents.