Seinfeld episodes are a lot more than a show about nothing. There are many episodes about sex and dating. One is about disposing muffin stumps. Another is about George being mistakenly identified as the leader of a white nationist movement. And another is about him playing a marine biologist. Jerry meets Keith Hernandez in one episode and he dodges a stalker’s kibosh in another. There are also multiple episodes that feature Jerry and George pitching their show about nothing (which is eventually ruined by said Kibosh). You don’t watch an episode called “The Soup Nazi”Then, think about it. “Wow, yeah, just like my life!”All of this is fine. It is all brilliant, in fact. The “show about nothing”It’s more of a Seinfeld pitch than a descriptive descriptor. Any show that doesn’t take place in a characterless void is about something.
But within Seinfeld’s 9-season run, there are a few episodes that are held up as the example of the “show about nothing” ethos. These are episodes that tend to unfold in real time as Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer face the minor inconveniences with major reactions—which is exactly what happens in real life. The first episode to really nail this is, of course, Season 2’s “The Chinese Restaurant”—the first great episode of the series.
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This classic episode is incredibly quotable and contains a lot of great stuff.“We’re living in a society!“), but the plot begins and ends with Jerry, Elaine, and George waiting for a table at a Chinese restaurant. That’s it. And it’s marvelous. It’s the show’s purported premise executed flawlessly. And while there are a few other episodes about nothing (the gang tries to see a movie, the gang splits up on the subway, the gang gets stuck in traffic, etc.), there’s only one other episode that matches “The Chinese Restaurant’s” perfection: Season 3’s “The Parking Garage,”which first aired today, 30 years ago.
“The Parking Garage’s”This setup is something we all know and will be able to recall for the rest of our lives. The four of them wandered around a sprawling parking lot looking for their car. That’s it. Even though I have an iPhone, every time I park I always wonder for a split-second why I don’t carry a pen to jot down my location. How many times have I heard George Costanza’s voice say, “I’m afraid it’ll puncture my scrotum”in my life? Too many times, my friends, too many!
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The comedy in “The Parking Garage”It was also spot on with all four players receiving the right kind of motivation. Fastidious Jerry’s gotta pee, anxious George has nitpicky parents that he’s leaving hanging, Elaine’s rallying behind the cause of saving her new goldfish’s life, and Kramer… well, Kramer just has a big ass air conditioner that he’s lugging around.
With all these elements in play, the cast gets to do what they love: Jerry Seinfeld can be exasperated, sarcastic, and Jason Alexander can be aggressively miserable; Julia Louise-Dreyfus can hone her withering delivery that would win Selina Meyer Emmys; and Michael Richards can basically do a vaudeville act with a heavy, bulky box. The scene of him falling over at the end and dumping the AC unit into the trunk is so great.
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This episode even has a slight advantage “The Chinese Restaurant”: no one’s missing. The episode would not be complete without Kramer, who you know is a character who waits for no table. Kramer, just like the woman at a phone booth, isn’t part of the episode. “society.”His presence in “The Parking Garage”It makes the episode feel more Seinfeldy, and it even gives Kramer the rare chance to play it cool, while everyone else collapses around him. “The Parking Garage”Everything you need from a Seinfeld Episode.
Later attempts to rekindle the magic of nothing didn’t work as well. Season 3’s “The Subway”And Season 4’s “The Movie” are fine episodes, with Elaine’s internal nuclear meltdown on the subway being the most NYC joke in the entire series. But they don’t work quite as well because the cast are all split up for the majority of the episodes. “The Chinese Restaurant” and “The Parking Garage” work so well because they let the ensemble be an ensemble—one of the finest ensembles in sitcom history. And while Season 9’s “The Puerto Rican Day”Keeps the cast mostly together, “show about nothing”It was not easy to find a balance between the surrealist bombast in the later seasons and vibe.
Thirty-years later, “The Parking Garage”It is remembered as a great episode, but its reputation has gotten a little duller since. “The Chinese Restaurant”Did the first thing. I think that in hindsight, it’s safe to say that “The Parking Garage”It is just as good as “The Chinese Restaurant,”These episodes capture the essence and essence of Seinfeld. And while “The Chinese Restaurant”This was the first time that I understood the concept. “The Parking Garage”It was the last time she succeeded.
Stream Seinfeld’s “The Parking Garage” on Netflix