The Stakeout

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.

Jerry shows that despite having a relatively level head on his shoulders, he can talk hiimself into some odd things. Interestingly, he seems to feel that George should be his go to guy for ideas. The funniest part of this episode is the discussion about names and professions as they try to have a reason for stalking that young woman.

If it wasn't for the laugh track we doubt people would even realize this is a comedy show.

Jerry's opening monolog didn't age very well. Who writes checks?

Maybe the episode itself will be funny. Nope, it wasn't.

Oh, and every "audience" has the same actors. See for yourselves.

Elaine makes her debut and she wasn't bad in seasons 1 to 3ish. After that she became a Veep and an empowered strong female.

This review was completed on January 3rd 2023

About: Jerry attends a boring social gathering with Elaine and meets a female that he falls in love with. He can't remember her name or if the guy he's with is her boyfriend, also he tries to avoid friction with his Ex Elaine Benes.

George has a minor role as a wing man to Jerry.

Elaine is just Elaine less annoying than her future self. She's just there to make Jerry feel awkward.

Jerry's parents make their debut they are there to provide advice for Jerry. This is the last time you see Phillip Burns as Jerry's dad.

I wish they gave him more time to develop, I have no beef with his performance.

Highlight: Lobby with George and Jerry that dialgue was well written and well stated. Georgy and Jerome had great chemistry from the getgo.

Overall, a great start to a classic series.

Should you watch this? Yes. Its a great simple to the point episode without modern day annoying tropes. Everyone in this sounded intelligent and like they had dignity.

This is the first appearance - and mention for that matter - of Elaine Benes. She's in the very first scene as she and Jerry are browsing in a video store. From the conversation they introduce her as somebody Jerry had dated, but that now they are friends. There's even some talk of why they broke up - apparently arguments and a lack of chemistry - that doesn't get mentioned later in the series.

Jerry and Elaine agree to accompany one another to events where a date would help the situation. Jerry will accompany Elaine to a birthday party for one of her friends, and Elaine will go with Jerry to a family wedding this weekend. But then Jerry meets a woman at the birthday party that he would like to get to know better, but it appears she has a date there, though she is flirting with Jerry. So the awkwardness of the situation - both of them being with other people - keeps him from just outright asking her name and number, but he does know the law firm she works for.

His solution? He decides to take George to the office building where her law firm is and wait for her to come down the elevator and go to lunch. How they will try and explain their presence other than outright stalking is the fun part, and it marks the first appearance of the imaginary character "Art Vandelay".

Also appearing for the first time are Jerry's parents, up from Florida for a visit.