The Stakeout
- Episode aired May 31, 1990
- TV-PG
- 23m
IMDb RATING
7.5/10
5.7K
YOUR RATING
Jerry and George stake out the lobby of an office building to find a woman Jerry met at a party but whose name and phone number he didn't get.Jerry and George stake out the lobby of an office building to find a woman Jerry met at a party but whose name and phone number he didn't get.Jerry and George stake out the lobby of an office building to find a woman Jerry met at a party but whose name and phone number he didn't get.
Philip Bruns
- Morty Seinfeld
- (as Phil Bruns)
Norman Brenner
- Man Walking Into Elevator
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis is the first appearance of Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Elaine. Although this is the second episode to air, it was the third episode to be produced. It was decided that it should air second because it provided background information about Elaine and her relationship with Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld).
- GoofsThis episode was released in 1990, but in the scene after the birthday party right before Elaine and Jerry are in the taxi going home, Times Square is shown as the transition. You can see the films The Bodyguard, Malcolm X, and Passenger 57 displayed on the cinema board. All of these movies were from 1992. How can three movies released in 1992 be displayed on TV episode released in 1990? Must have something to do with syndication.
- Alternate versionsWhen the episode was first rerun on December 2, 1992, it included a special introductory segment with Seinfeld and Louis-Dreyfus and Seinfeld stating that this is the first episode that they did together. (Although "Male Unbonding" was actually the first episode filmed with Louis-Dreyfus.) This segment can be seen on the DVD release.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Seinfeld: Highlights of a Hundred (1995)
- SoundtracksSeinfeld Theme Song
Written by Jonathan Wolff
Featured review
"Art Core... velay"
The Stakeout can be considered the proper start of Seinfeld, as the pilot had no Elaine and the other characters, bar Jerry, weren't that well defined, and boy, does it deliver: while most shows, especially sitcoms, improve in later seasons (even cult phenomenon Happy Days had a few sub-par moments in its first year), the series "about nothing" started superbly and never lost its edge over the course of 175 episodes.
This is the episode where Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) makes her first appearance, and in true Seinfeld fashion her debut doesn't go unnoticed: she and Jerry have a nice chat in a video store, discussing whether they should go to a dinner and telling a "dirty" joke that was pretty bold for 1991 (the stand-up comedian imagines a porn star's father referring to his son as a "public fornicator"). Subsequently, Jerry goes home to find his parents using his couch as a bed (priceless) and then attends the aforementioned dinner, where he meets a woman he is quite attracted to ("Do you date immature men?" "Almost exclusively"). Regrettably, he doesn't remember her name (Vanessa), nor did he ask for her phone number. All he remembers is the name of the law firm where she works (Sagman, Bennet, Robbins, Oppenheim and Taft - try forgetting THAT!), meaning he and George have to wait for her outside the building pretending they popped up by chance.
Taking everything that made The Seinfeld Chronicles excellent and fine-tuning it, Larry David and the protagonist define the formula that would make the series immortal: brilliant dialogue about rubbish topics (women using cheques), Jerry's monologues between one scene and the next, and one key moment for each cast member. In the case of this episode, the highlights are the bits featuring Kramer and George: the former shows up to play scrabble with Helen and Morty Seinfeld and invents the word "quone" (as in "to quone something"), while the latter, having to make up an excuse for him and Jerry being outside Vanessa's office, spawns one of the show's best recurring gags ("Art Vandelay. I'm an architect").
In short, The Stakeout is a quintessential Seinfeld episode: clever, well-written and, most of all, endlessly funny. A classic.
This is the episode where Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) makes her first appearance, and in true Seinfeld fashion her debut doesn't go unnoticed: she and Jerry have a nice chat in a video store, discussing whether they should go to a dinner and telling a "dirty" joke that was pretty bold for 1991 (the stand-up comedian imagines a porn star's father referring to his son as a "public fornicator"). Subsequently, Jerry goes home to find his parents using his couch as a bed (priceless) and then attends the aforementioned dinner, where he meets a woman he is quite attracted to ("Do you date immature men?" "Almost exclusively"). Regrettably, he doesn't remember her name (Vanessa), nor did he ask for her phone number. All he remembers is the name of the law firm where she works (Sagman, Bennet, Robbins, Oppenheim and Taft - try forgetting THAT!), meaning he and George have to wait for her outside the building pretending they popped up by chance.
Taking everything that made The Seinfeld Chronicles excellent and fine-tuning it, Larry David and the protagonist define the formula that would make the series immortal: brilliant dialogue about rubbish topics (women using cheques), Jerry's monologues between one scene and the next, and one key moment for each cast member. In the case of this episode, the highlights are the bits featuring Kramer and George: the former shows up to play scrabble with Helen and Morty Seinfeld and invents the word "quone" (as in "to quone something"), while the latter, having to make up an excuse for him and Jerry being outside Vanessa's office, spawns one of the show's best recurring gags ("Art Vandelay. I'm an architect").
In short, The Stakeout is a quintessential Seinfeld episode: clever, well-written and, most of all, endlessly funny. A classic.
helpful•298
- MaxBorg89
- Nov 6, 2007
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