Seinfeld’s 10 Most Underrated Episodes
While Seinfeld has many iconic episodes, the sitcom has some forgotten gems with hilarious antics from Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer.
Across nine seasons of Seinfeld, series co-creators Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David contributed some of the greatest episodes of all time to the sitcom lexicon. “The Contest” was named by TV Guide as the best TV episode ever broadcast, while classics like “The Opposite,” “The Soup Nazi,” and “The Puffy Shirt” rank alongside such legendary TV installments as The Simpsons’ “Last Exit to Springfield,” Fawlty Towers.
When a show has as many iconic and revered episodes as Seinfeld, then a handful of hidden gems can get lost in the show’s massive 180-episode library.
The Wink (Season 7, Episode 4)
Although it doesn’t relate to the season-long story arc of George’s engagement to Susan, season 7’s “The Wink” is an example of a Seinfeld episode in which everyone has something funny going on.
George is constantly winking thanks to a grapefruit-related incident and this gets a lot of people in a lot of trouble; Kramer is trying to get George Steinbrenner’s birthday card back from a sick kid after George’s wink led him to pawn it; Jerry tries to convince his girlfriend he’s a big eater while he’s on a diet; and Elaine is chased through the streets by dogs looking for the discarded mutton in Jerry’s jacket.
The Bookstore (Season 9, Episode 17)
In season 9’s “The Bookstore,” Jerry uncovers a nationwide criminal underbelly populated with old people who steal for fun and then claim to be confused if they get caught. He’s plagued by Cape Fear-esque nightmares of Uncle Leo after turning him in.
Meanwhile, George tries to get a refund for a book he was forced to buy after taking it into the bathroom in the titular bookstore.
The Truth (Season 3, Episode 2)
Just when Jerry is being audited by the IRS for donating money to a fake charity Kramer told him about, George starts dating a tax attorney. Jerry thinks his prayers are answered and hands George the only copies of his tax papers to give to his girlfriend.
However, in the coffee shop, George snaps and tells his new flame that he finds her unbearably pretentious. He initially thinks he’s discovered the key to happiness but realizes he may have made a mistake when he finds out she threw Jerry’s papers out the window and checked herself into a mental institution.
The Andrea Doria (Season 8, Episode 10)
A lot of Seinfeld’s later episodes (especially in the last two seasons after Larry David left the show) brought a self-aware edge, relying on the audience’s knowledge of the characters and their past for laughs.
In season 8’s “The Andrea Doria,” George contends with a survivor of the Andrea Doria shipwreck for an apartment. After the shipwreck survivor tells his story to the board, George brings them to tears by recounting his many embarrassments from throughout the series — including shrinkage.
The Old Man (Season 4, Episode 18)
Elaine’s charity work with the elderly inspires Jerry and George to take on their own elderly companions from the organization. Unfortunately, they make their lives worse. George is baffled by his assigned senior man’s zest for life and refusal to fear death, while Jerry can’t seem to do right by his crotchety new friend.
Meanwhile, Kramer and Newman try to pawn some old records, and Elaine’s assigned woman claims to have had a sexual relationship with Gandhi back in the day.
The Parking Space (Season 3, Episode 22)
When it comes to Seinfeld episodes about parking, the most iconic is undoubtedly “The Parking Garage,” a spiritual allegory in which Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer are trapped in a kind of purgatory on Earth, endlessly searching for their parked car only to find that it’s broken down.
But season 3’s “The Parking Space” is also a gem. George and one of Kramer’s friends spend the whole episode in a standoff over a primo parking space outside Jerry’s building. This is one of the rare cases of George being in the right — it was totally his space.
The Conversion (Season 5, Episode 11)
The lengths that George would go to were shown hilariously throughout Seinfeld’s run. He fished a marble rye into the Rosses’ apartment, he pretended to be a marine biologist, he drove to the Hamptons to show off a house that doesn’t exist, and he converted to Latvian Orthodox to appease his girlfriend’s devout parents.
George’s bumbling interactions with the church’s leaders and his parents’ disapproval of the conversion provide a ton of laughs in season 5’s “The Conversion,” while Kramer’s kavorka curse is a great B-plot.
The Limo (Season 3, Episode 18)
One of Seinfeld’s darker episodes (which are always the most fun), season 3’s “The Limo” opens with Jerry and George getting in somebody else’s limo and being taken to Madison Square Garden.
They think they’re going to a Knicks game, but when they’re joined by two strangers, they learn that the identities they’ve assumed are the leaders of a white supremacist movement expected to give the keynote speech at a heavily protested rally.
The Airport (Season 4, Episode 12)
The best Seinfeld episodes for balancing the ensemble are the ones in which two characters have one storyline and the other two have another storyline. This works especially well when the two storylines are tied together.
A prime example of this is the season 4 episode “The Airport,” in which Jerry’s luxurious experiences in first class are hilariously contrasted with Elaine’s struggles in coach, and George and Kramer’s quest to pick them up is marred by unpaid age-old debts and a run-in with a convict.
The Cadillac (Season 7, Episodes 14/15)
When it comes to two-part Seinfeld episodes, the most-discussed ones are “The Raincoats,” “The Boyfriend,” and “The Bottle Deposit.” But there’s a doozy in season 7, “The Cadillac,” in which Jerry buys his father a fancy new car that sets off a chain reaction that gets him impeached as condo board president.
Meanwhile, an engaged George is dismayed to find out he could’ve dated Marisa Tomei and Kramer exacts hysterical revenge on the cable company.
