The Frogger

"The Frogger"
Seinfeld episode
George and Jerry watching a youth (Drake Bell) play the Frogger machine.
Episode no.	Season 9 Episode 174
Written by	Gregg Kavet, Andy Robin, Steve Koren, Dan O'Keefe
Directed by	Andy Ackerman
Original airdate	April 23, 1998
Guest stars
Peter Stormare & Drake Bell
Season 9 episodes
Seinfeld – Season 9 September 1997 – May 1998
"The Butter Shave" "The Voice" "The Serenity Now" "The Blood" "The Junk Mail" "The Merv Griffin Show" "The Slicer" "The Betrayal" "The Apology" "The Strike" "The Dealership" "The Reverse Peephole" "The Cartoon" "The Strong Box" "The Wizard" "The Burning" "The Bookstore" "The Frogger" "The Maid" "The Puerto Rican Day" "The Chronicle, Part 1" "The Chronicle, Part 2" "The Finale, Part 1" "The Finale, Part 2"
List of Seinfeld episodes

"The Frogger" is the 174th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 18th episode for the 9th and final season. It aired on April 23, 1998.

Plot

Elaine is confronted with cake from two separate celebrations at her workplace. She is tired of the forced socializing, so she calls in sick the following day. Jerry and George go to their old high school hangout, Mario's Pizza Parlor, which will soon be closing down, for one last slice of pie. Kramer was at the police station where he obtained some caution tape used for crime scenes and also hears about a serial killer, who is nicknamed "The Lopper", that is on the loose in the Riverside Park area.

At the pizza parlor, George discovers he still has the high score on the old Frogger video game, with a score of 860,630 points. Elaine's co-workers give her a cake to celebrate her return to work from being sick, and she refuses to take part in any future celebrations. Jerry goes out on a date with Elaine's friend Lisi, but he says she is a sentence finisher and, "it's like dating Mad Libs". After lamenting that his shrine will be gone, George decides to buy the Frogger machine to preserve his fame, but Jerry asks him how he is going to move it and keep it plugged in to preserve the high score. Kramer discovers the last victim of the Lopper looked a lot like Jerry.

George works to find a solution to his Frogger problem, and Kramer volunteers the help of a man he knows named "Slippery Pete" (played by Peter Stormare). Elaine misses the 4 o'clock sugar rush that she had gotten used to from all the celebrations, so she decides to raid her boss Peterman's refrigerator, where she finds a piece of cake. She finds out from Peterman that the piece of cake he has in his refrigerator is worth $29,000 because of its historical significance. The cake comes from the 1937 wedding of King Edward VIII.

Jerry is looking to breakup with Lisi (Julia Campbell), but discovers that she lives in the Riverside Park area. To avoid the Lopper, he takes Lisi back to his place, where she finishes one of his thoughts that takes their relationship to the next level. Elaine tells Jerry and George about the cake and she also tells Jerry that Lisi is planning a weekend trip for them to Pennsylvania Dutch country. Jerry fears that Lisi received the wrong message as that kind of a trip is for a serious relationship. Elaine tries to even out Peterman's slice of cake, but gets swept up in the moment and finishes it off. George tries to coordinate the movement of the Frogger machine. Elaine looks for a replacement for Peterman's cake, and Kramer suggests an Entenmann's cake. Jerry goes to Lisi's apartment, where he tries to break up with her. It goes on for ten hours, when he is ready to leave he discovers it is dark.

After exiting her apartment, Jerry sees a man whom he fears is the Lopper and pleads to be let back in to Lisi's apartment (it's actually just "Slippery Pete"). Peterman has his piece of cake appraised at $2.19. George finds "Slippery Pete" playing his Frogger game on battery power, so there is only about three minutes of power remaining. The only available power source is across the busy street, and Kramer has run out of caution tape. George, convinced he does not need any help, begins moving the machine across the busy street, moving through traffic like the frog from the video game. However, as George reaches the opposite sidewalk, an oncoming truck smashes the game cabinet, causing Jerry to quip, "Game over".

Later, Peterman shows Elaine surveillance videotape of her eating and "dancing" with the slice of cake; he is convinced that the age of the cake and its effect on her digestive system are all the punishment she needs. This episode was originally going to be titled "The Cake Parties."

Trivia

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (September 2007)

• There are several continuity goofs regarding Frogger: George's high score is not present when the Frogger game's screen is first shown. At that time, the high score is 7200, merely the score of the boy who just finished playing it. Also, Frogger arcade games only record high scores and not initials.
• On September 24, 2005, The Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard issued a colorful poster that offered a $1000 cash prize to the first video game player who could break George Costanza's fictional Frogger high score of 860,630 points as portrayed in "The Frogger". No player was able to break this mark before the December 31, 2005 deadline. According to the Twin Galaxies website the World Record score for Frogger is currently 771,060 held by Pat Laffaye of Westport, Connecticut.
• While the crew was filming the famous overhead shot of George moving the Frogger game across the street, Jerry Seinfeld noticed that the street was painted with white lines, which is inconsistent with the yellow lines in the actual Frogger layout. The crew quickly fixed this inaccuracy by covering the white lines with yellow tape.
• The sound effects during George's moving of the machine are actual sounds from Frogger, accurately played in time with his movements. The sound that plays shortly after the machine is smashed by a truck is the "squash" sound when Frogger is hit by a vehicle during the game.
• Jason Alexander performed his own stunt in this episode, actually diving out of the path of an oncoming truck and being showered with the shrapnel of the crushed Frogger machine as the truck ran it over. He later recounted that two large and heavy pieces of paneling from the side of the game landed uncomfortably close to his head during the shooting of this scene.
• The actor Reuven Bar-Yotam, who plays Shlomo, had a cameo appearance as a bus passenger in the previous season's "The Muffin Tops".
• The 1998 Super Nintendo version of Frogger features the name "George" as the default highest score on the high score list.
• Drake Bell of Drake and Josh made one of his first TV appearances in this episode.
• The greatest amount of deleted scenes involving Kramer attracting a new "long distance" girlfriend which leads to the next episode "The Maid".
• The "get well, get well soon" song has the same tune as Corkey Buchek's "Bing-Bang Song," interpreted by Borat in his film Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.

Quotes

• Slippery Pete: [to Kramer] Think you can handle that, numb nuts?

• Slippery Pete: [referring to an electrical outlet] Oh, you mean the holes.

• Mario: Where you been? We're tanking here.

• Mario: Here's your pizza, peabrains.

• Jerry: (to George, referring to Mario's insensitivity): I think I remember why we stopped coming here.

• George: GLC must live on!

• Jerry : [After George's Frogger machine is demolished] ...Game Over.

• Elaine (Holding a gingerbread cookie): You'll just need to make a clean break. (She then bites the head off the cookie in reference to the fictional "Lopper" killer in an attempt to frighten Jerry.)

• Jerry: I can't, I'm going away for the weekend. A long, long weekend.

• George (after hearing Elaine's friend Lisi speak Ancient language): I hear thee.

• Lisi (tearfully): So, it's over.

• Jerry (relieved): Oh, thank God.

External links

• Twin Galaxies' Poster for Frogger High Score