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Episode guide

Essential Seinfeld Episodes

NBC, 1989 to 1998

Our 10 character guides for Seinfeld point to 39 key episodes across 9 seasons. Of those, 10 turn up in two or more guides, so they come first, followed by every episode in air order.

Season and episode numbers follow the original broadcast order.

The essentials(10)

Episodes that matter to more than one character, the most shared first.

  1. Season 9, Episode 23

    "The Finale"

    In 4 guides
    • Jerry Seinfeld: Jerry and his friends are put on trial and jailed for failing to help a robbery victim.
    • Newman: Newman warns Jerry that his day of reckoning is coming after Jerry refuses to take him to Paris.
    • The Soup Nazi: Yev Kassem testifies against the gang, revealing his name and that Elaine's stunt drove him to Argentina.
    • David Puddy: Elaine tells Puddy not to wait for her, and he agrees.

  2. Season 6, Episode 21

    "The Fusilli Jerry"

    In 3 guides
    • Frank Costanza: Frank is outraged that Kramer stole his signature stop short move and used it on Estelle.
    • David Puddy: Puddy debuts as Jerry's honest mechanic and Elaine's new boyfriend, and borrows Jerry's signature move.
    • Estelle Costanza: Kramer's stop short move in the car leaves Estelle flattered and Frank enraged.

  3. Season 4, Episode 11

    "The Contest"

    In 2 guides
    • Jerry Seinfeld: Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer make a bet to see who can hold out the longest.
    • Estelle Costanza: Estelle catches George in an embarrassing moment and ends up hospitalized in traction.

  4. Season 5, Episode 2

    "The Puffy Shirt"

    In 2 guides
    • Frank Costanza: Jerry Stiller debuts as Frank when George moves back in with his parents.
    • Estelle Costanza: George moves back home, and Estelle pushes him at dinner to take a civil service exam.

  5. Season 5, Episode 22

    "The Opposite"

    In 2 guides
    • Cosmo Kramer: Kramer's coffee table book tour falls apart after he spits coffee on Kathie Lee Gifford.
    • George Costanza: Doing the opposite of every instinct gets George a girlfriend and a job with the New York Yankees.

  6. Season 6, Episode 4

    "The Chinese Woman"

    In 2 guides
    • Frank Costanza: A crossed phone line connects Estelle with Donna Chang, and Estelle ends up going ahead with a divorce from Frank.
    • Estelle Costanza: Estelle confides in Donna Chang over a crossed phone line and ends up pursuing a divorce from Frank.

  7. Season 6, Episode 24

    "The Understudy"

    In 2 guides
    • Elaine Benes: A chance meeting on the street lands Elaine a job at the J. Peterman catalog.
    • J. Peterman: Peterman meets Elaine on the street and hires her as a catalog writer.

  8. Season 7, Episode 21

    "The Bottle Deposit"

    In 2 guides
    • Newman: Newman and Kramer take a postal truck to Michigan to cash in bottles, and Newman ends up chased off a farm.
    • J. Peterman: Peterman sends Elaine to an auction for JFK's golf clubs, and she badly overspends.

  9. Season 8, Episode 3

    "The Bizarro Jerry"

    In 2 guides
    • Jerry Seinfeld: Elaine finds a group of friends who are kind opposites of Jerry and his crew, while Jerry dates a woman with "man hands."
    • Cosmo Kramer: Kramer wanders into the Brandt-Leland office and starts working there without ever being hired.

  10. Season 9, Episode 3

    "The Serenity Now"

    In 2 guides
    • Frank Costanza: Frank shouts his calming mantra and hires George and Lloyd Braun to sell computers out of the garage.
    • Estelle Costanza: Estelle battles Frank over his decision to turn the garage into an office.

Every key episode by season(39)

Season 1(2 episodes)

  1. Season 1, Episode 1

    "The Seinfeld Chronicles"

    • Jerry Seinfeld: Jerry and George try to decode whether Laura, a woman Jerry met on the road, is coming to town for a date.

  2. Season 1, Episode 2

    "The Stake Out"

    • Elaine Benes: Elaine makes her first appearance, bringing Jerry to a birthday party where he meets a woman he wants to see again.

Season 2(2 episodes)

  1. Season 2, Episode 7

    "The Revenge"

    • George Costanza: George quits his real estate job in a huff, then tries to show up the next day as if nothing happened.

  2. Season 2, Episode 9

    "The Deal"

    • Elaine Benes: Elaine and Jerry set rules for sleeping together while staying friends, and the rules do not survive.

Season 3(2 episodes)

  1. Season 3, Episode 11

    "The Alternate Side"

    • Cosmo Kramer: Kramer gets one line in a Woody Allen movie and cannot stop rehearsing it.

  2. Season 3, Episode 15

    "The Suicide"

    • Newman: Newman's first on-screen appearance, where he blackmails Jerry for coffee cake and betrays him anyway.

Season 4(5 episodes)

  1. Season 4, Episode 3

    "The Pitch"

  2. Season 4, Episode 11

    "The Contest"

    An essential, in the guides for Jerry Seinfeld and Estelle Costanza. Read the notes

  3. Season 4, Episode 18

    "The Old Man"

    • Newman: The show reveals that Newman works as a mail carrier.

  4. Season 4, Episode 22

    "The Handicap Spot"

    • Frank Costanza: Frank makes his first appearance, originally played by John Randolph.

  5. Season 4, Episode 23

    "The Pilot"

    • Jerry Seinfeld: NBC shoots the pilot for Jerry and George's sitcom, Jerry.

Season 5(3 episodes)

  1. Season 5, Episode 2

    "The Puffy Shirt"

    An essential, in the guides for Frank Costanza and Estelle Costanza. Read the notes

  2. Season 5, Episode 14

    "The Marine Biologist"

    • George Costanza: George's lie about being a marine biologist catches up with him on a beach where a whale needs saving.

  3. Season 5, Episode 22

    "The Opposite"

    An essential, in the guides for Cosmo Kramer and George Costanza. Read the notes

Season 6(5 episodes)

  1. Season 6, Episode 4

    "The Chinese Woman"

    An essential, in the guides for Frank Costanza and Estelle Costanza. Read the notes

  2. Season 6, Episode 11

    "The Switch"

    • Cosmo Kramer: Kramer's mother lets slip that his first name is Cosmo.

  3. Season 6, Episode 21

    "The Fusilli Jerry"

    An essential, in the guides for Frank Costanza, David Puddy, and Estelle Costanza. Read the notes

  4. Season 6, Episode 23

    "The Face Painter"

    • David Puddy: Puddy paints his face as a devil for a Devils playoff game against the Rangers, to Elaine's dismay.

  5. Season 6, Episode 24

    "The Understudy"

    An essential, in the guides for Elaine Benes and J. Peterman. Read the notes

Season 7(7 episodes)

  1. Season 7, Episode 1

    "The Engagement"

    • George Costanza: George impulsively proposes to Susan Ross and instantly starts to regret it.

  2. Season 7, Episode 3

    "The Maestro"

    • Cosmo Kramer: Kramer sues a coffee company after a hot spill, with Jackie Chiles at his side.

  3. Season 7, Episode 6

    "The Soup Nazi"

    • The Soup Nazi: The Soup Nazi refuses George, bans Elaine for a year, warms to Kramer, and shuts down his shop when Elaine finds his recipes.

  4. Season 7, Episode 9

    "The Sponge"

    • Elaine Benes: Elaine hoards discontinued sponges and judges which boyfriends are spongeworthy.

  5. Season 7, Episode 16

    "The Shower Head"

    • J. Peterman: Peterman fires Elaine when poppy seed muffins make her fail a drug test, and only a borrowed clean sample clears her.

  6. Season 7, Episode 21

    "The Bottle Deposit"

    An essential, in the guides for Newman and J. Peterman. Read the notes

  7. Season 7, Episode 24

    "The Invitations"

    • George Costanza: Susan dies from the toxic glue on the wedding invitations George picked, ending the engagement for good.

Season 8(6 episodes)

  1. Season 8, Episode 1

    "The Foundation"

    • J. Peterman: After a breakdown, Peterman flees to Burma and leaves Elaine running the company.

  2. Season 8, Episode 3

    "The Bizarro Jerry"

    An essential, in the guides for Jerry Seinfeld and Cosmo Kramer. Read the notes

  3. Season 8, Episode 4

    "The Little Kicks"

    • Elaine Benes: Elaine's disastrous dancing at an office party becomes the talk of the company.

  4. Season 8, Episode 14

    "The Van Buren Boys"

    • J. Peterman: Peterman buys Kramer's life stories for his autobiography.

  5. Season 8, Episode 21

    "The Muffin Tops"

    • J. Peterman: Kramer crashes Peterman's book signing and launches a Peterman Reality Tour.

  6. Season 8, Episode 22

    "The Summer of George"

    • George Costanza: George plans a summer of leisure on his severance pay, and it ends with him in physical therapy.

Season 9(7 episodes)

  1. Season 9, Episode 1

    "The Butter Shave"

    • David Puddy: Puddy and Elaine break up and get back together on a long flight home from Europe.

  2. Season 9, Episode 3

    "The Serenity Now"

    An essential, in the guides for Frank Costanza and Estelle Costanza. Read the notes

  3. Season 9, Episode 5

    "The Junk Mail"

    • Newman: Newman tries and fails to talk Kramer out of his campaign against the mail.

  4. Season 9, Episode 10

    "The Strike"

    • Frank Costanza: Frank's family finally celebrates Festivus, Feats of Strength and all.

  5. Season 9, Episode 11

    "The Dealership"

    • David Puddy: Now a car salesman, Puddy offers Jerry a deal that sours over extras and a refused high five.

  6. Season 9, Episode 16

    "The Burning"

    • David Puddy: Elaine learns Puddy is religious when she finds Christian rock stations on his car radio.

  7. Season 9, Episode 23

    "The Finale"

    An essential, in the guides for Jerry Seinfeld, Newman, The Soup Nazi, and David Puddy. Read the notes

Seen them all? Test yourself with the Seinfeld trivia quiz, or meet the Seinfeld characters.

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