After killing off Susan with poisonous envelopes in the season 7 finale, co-creator Larry David departed fromSeinfeld’s writing staff, leaving Jerry Seinfeld to serve as the sole head writer. The groundbreaking sitcom went on for another two seasons before calling it quits. There’s a marked change in tone in seasons 8 and 9. David’s unique brand of satirical cynicism was missing and Seinfeld took the series in a more bizarre, absurdist direction in its final years. These seasons weren’t as consistently great as their predecessors, but they do have some of the strongest episodes of the whole series.
The Little Kicks (Season 8, Episode 4)
Season 8’s “The Little Kicks” is a rare example ofaSeinfeldepisodein which every character has something hilarious going on. In addition to Elaine’s infamous titular dance, “The Little Kicks” sees Jerry and Kramer getting embroiled in the illicit bootlegging market and George adopting a “bad boy” persona to impress a woman.Julia Louis-Dreyfus nailed the physical comedyof Elaine’s notorious dance, accurately described by George as “a full-body dry heave set to music.”
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This episode is full of classic moments, from Elaine’s standoff with Frank Costanza at the police station (“Are you saying you want a piece of me?”) to Kramer trying to convince Jerry that movie piracy is “a legitimate business.”
The Strike (Season 9, Episode 10)
Frank Costanza introducedSeinfeldfans to “a Festivus for the rest of us” in the classic season 9 episode “The Strike.” Disillusioned by the commercialization of Christmas, Frank decided to create a holiday of his own. Festivus gives a hilarious backdrop to storylines like Elaine’s desperate efforts to claim a free sandwich and Kramer returning to his job at H&H Bagels after a decade-long strike.
Thanks to the fan-favorite concept introduced in this episode, when the yuletide season rolls around,Seinfeldlovers don’t celebrate Christmas;they join Frank in celebrating Festivuswith a decorated pole and the “Feats of Strength.”
The Comeback (Season 8, Episode 13)
Everybody has been in the situation that George finds himself in at the beginning of season 8’s “The Comeback.” After one of his co-workers gets a big laugh with a shot about his eating habits (“Hey, George, the ocean called… they’re running out of shrimp!”), George thinks of the perfect comeback on the drive home (“Oh, yeah? Well, the jerk store called… they’re running out of you!”). Everyone has been there at some point in their lives. But no one has gone to the lengths that George goes to; most people would just let it go.
In true Costanza fashion, George flies across the country, gorges on shrimp in another boardroom meeting, and pulls his comeback out of the bag. And, in true Costanza fashion, the whole thing blows up in his face. SomeSeinfeldcharacters acted out of sorts as the show became more cartoonish in its final years, but this isone of George’s finest hours.
The Betrayal (Season 9, Episode 8)
Mostsitcom writers have run out of story ideasby the time they reach their ninth season. But theSeinfeldstaff continued to explore bold narrative experiments right until the end of their run. “The Betrayal,” named in honor of the Harold Pinter play that inspired its inventive structure, tells its story in reverse. Like the play,Seinfeld’s “The Betrayal” revolves around an affair as Jerry sleeps with George’s girlfriend on the eve of all three – and Elaine – traveling to India for a destination wedding.
Not only does the backwards plotting put a unique spin on the standard sitcom farce storyline; writers Peter Mehlman and David Mandel also mine the reverse chronology for all its comedic potential. Kramer eats a giant lollipop throughout the episode that gradually gets bigger and bigger as the story moves back in time. The episode ends years earlier, withJerry moving into his apartment, meeting Kramer for the first time, and telling him, “What’s mine is yours,” unwittingly setting the stage for a decade of shameless mooching.
The Bizarro Jerry (Season 8, Episode 3)
Three episodes into his tenure as solo head writer, Jerry Seinfeld turneda fan-favorite concept from the Superman comicsinto aSeinfeldepisode. One of the advantages of being eight years into a TV show is the ability to play on the audience’s familiarity with the characters for laughs. In “The Bizarro Jerry,” Elaine dates a thoughtful, well-read, compassionate guy that she describes as Jerry’s opposite in every way. Jerry compares him to the inhabitants of DC Comics’ Bizarro World, and the comparisons just get eerier and eerier.
Whereas Jerry has a friend who’s cheap and manipulative, Bizarro Jerry has a friend who’s generous and honest. WhereasJerry has a neighborwho barges into his apartment and follows through on his terrible get-rich-quick schemes, Bizarro Jerry has a neighbor who knocks every time he comes over and has no faith in his ingenious invention ideas.
