- Jerry does a set at a comedy club, then goes to meet George, Elaine, and Kramer afterward to see a screening of Checkmate. However, a simple miscommunication causes the four to keep missing each other at two different theaters.
- It's a evening of mix-ups and mayhem when Jerry is supposed to get together with Elaine, Kramer and George to go to the movies. He has two gigs that night and in the process of moving them round, he manages to miss both of them. George is first at the theatre and gets in line not realizing the tickets had to be bought first. By the time he realizes what's going on, the movie is sold out. George, Elaine and Kramer then go to another theater but their attempts to leave Jerry a message only adds to the confusion.—garykmcd
- Jerry tries to make two show dates and afterwards go to the movie theater to meet everyone. George gets in the wrong line for tickets. George, Elaine and Kramer decide to go to another theater to see the movie. Kramer waits outside for Jerry but also wants a hot dog. Jerry misses his first show, then goes to movie theater to tell everyone he won't make the movie, but no one is there. Through a comedy of errors, everyone (but Kramer) misses the movie, they were originally going to see.
- The episode begins with Jerry ranting in a stand-up comedy monologue about age gaps in employment: What's with the age gap hiring policy at most movie theaters? Did you ever notice, they never hire anyone between the ages of fifteen... and eighty, you know what I mean? Like, the girl that sells you the ticket, she's ten. Then there's the guy who rips the ticket, he's a hundred and two. So, what happened in the middle, there? You couldn't find anybody? It's like they want to show you how life comes full circle.
A night filled with miscommunication begins when Jerry has two stand-up acts scheduled for the same night. At first, the Improv manager, Kernis (Tom La Grua), tells Jerry that the show has been delayed. Jerry is upset that he must lose his on-stage slot. Jerry says "You don't understand. I got this all timed out. I got another spot across town at 9:50, I'm not going to be able to make it!". So, Kernis offers him a slot at 11 PM. Jerry tells Kernis that he'll agree to lose his moment at the microphone, saying, "I'm supposed to meet my friends to see this [fictional] movie, CheckMate, at 10:30." But then Jerry agrees to take the 11 PM slot.
Jerry then learns, when he shows up at the other comedy stage later, that his spot was for 9:15, not 9:50. Adding to Jerry's distress is the fact that a hopeful comedian, Buckles (Barry Diamond), "hangs around hoping that somebody drops out." Buckles always bores and pesters Jerry. When Jerry didn't show up for his 9:15 slot, Buckles grabbed it.
George has been chosen to buy the movie tickets. At the Paragon Theater, George joins the end of a queue. He taps the shoulder of the man in front of him and asks, "Excuse me, do you have a ticket?" When the answer is no, George is certain that he is in the line of ticket purchasers; in fact, he is in the wrong line, the line of ticket holders.
Jerry decides to head for the movie theater to meet his friends and tell them that he has a 11 PM show. He is grabbed by Buckles, who insists on sharing a taxicab. Buckles irritates Jerry by trying out a new comic routine: "Hey, do you think this is funny? 'Why do they call it athlete's foot? You don't have to be an athlete to get it. I mean, my father gets it all the time, and believe me, he's no athlete!'"
Elaine joins George in line, and they squabble a bit about films they've seen. Elaine says she hated a movie about Ponce De León: "That Fountain of Youth scene at the end, where they're all splashing around, and then they go running over to the mirror to see if it really worked? I mean, come on!" Interestingly, George protests that he liked that film: "When Ponce looked in that mirror and saw that he hadn't changed, and that tear started to roll down his cheek? ... I lost it." George, identifying with Ponce, found it moving, whereas Elaine found no emotional or cognitive gratification in the film at all.
Kramer joins George and Elaine, but he missed dinner and wants to cross the street to get a Papaya King hot dog. When Elaine urges him to get movie concession food, he protests, "I don't want to get a movie hot dog!"
Elaine: Kramer, Jerry is going to be here any second, and then this line is going to start moving, and we're going to end up in the front row. Kramer: Well, just save me a seat. Elaine: No! I don't want to save seats. Don't put me through that! I once had the fleece just ripped out of my winter coat in a seat-saving incident!
They all realize that they are not in the ticket buyer's line, so George goes to buy tickets for all of them & finds that they are all sold out, but Elaine and Kramer want to change plans. It is now 10:20, and they can go instead to see the 10:45 showing at the theater around the corner. Elaine refuses, because "a Miniplex multi-theater" has screens that are too small: "It's like a room where they bring in POWs to show them propaganda films."
Elaine finally agrees that she and George will go purchase tickets at the Multiplex, and Kramer will wait to tell Jerry of the change in plans. However, just before Jerry arrives, Kramer runs over to buy a hot dog at the Papaya. Jerry, meanwhile, is suffering an apparently unending taxi ride with Buckles, and when he finally escapes the cab, Buckles reveals his real intention: "Can you get me on The Tonight Show?"
At the new movie theater, George is interested in another film there, Rochelle, Rochelle. As the line starts moving, he asks Elaine to enter the theatre and waits outside for Kramer and Jerry. Meanwhile, Elaine struggles to save seats for everyone. George comes in as the movie is about to start. Elaine asks George to go over to the other theatre and give the 2 tickets to Kramer and come back to watch the start of the movie. But George misses Kramer as he was getting the hot dog. The usher won't let George in without the ticket stubs. Jerry then misses his second show (at 11 PM) after being delayed by his taxi driver.
Through a comedy of errors, everyone (but Kramer) misses the movie they were originally going to see and end up in Rochelle, Rochelle. Elaine was holding seats at Checkmate, but then went outside to get popcorn & then couldn't find her seat but has her coat inside. The usher suggests her to watch Rochelle and then come back for her coat. Meanwhile George can't find Elaine in Checkmate and goes to see Rochelle. Kramer is waiting for Jerry outside the first theatre and then leaves to the second theatre and gets into Checkmate, where he can't find Elaine, but sits in her seat. Jerry finds that Buckles took his 2nd spot and then goes to see Rochelle with him. They all meet in the theatre when Elaine complains loudly about the movie.
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