The Invitations

"The Invitations"
Seinfeld episode
Susan licking the toxic envelopes.
Episode no.	Season 7 Episode 134
Written by	Larry David
Directed by	Andy Ackerman
Production no.	724
Original airdate	May 16, 1996
Guest stars
Janeane Garofalo & Stephen Root
Season 7 episodes
Seinfeld – Season 7 September 1995 – May 1996
"The Engagement" "The Postponement" "The Maestro" "The Wink" "The Hot Tub" "The Soup Nazi" "The Secret Code" "The Pool Guy" "The Sponge" "The Gum" "The Rye" "The Caddy" "The Seven" "The Cadillac, Part 1" "The Cadillac, Part 2" "The Shower Head" "The Doll" "The Friars Club" "The Wig Master" "The Calzone" "The Bottle Deposit, Part 1" "The Bottle Deposit, Part 2" "The Wait Out" "The Invitations"
List of Seinfeld episodes

"The Invitations" is the 24th and final episode of the seventh season of Seinfeld and the 134th overall episode. It originally aired on May 16, 1996. It is notable as being the last episode written by co-creator Larry David before he left the series at the end of this season. He did return, however, to write the series finale in 1998. This episode was directed by Andy Ackerman.

Plot

George and Susan go shopping for wedding invitations and George decides to buy a cheap brand. Meanwhile, Kramer tells Jerry that the bank will offer anyone $100 if they are not greeted with a "hello" by a teller when they enter the building. Jerry and Elaine realize that once George gets married it will be just the three of them. Jerry says that if a guy wants to end the relationship, what they can do? George suspects his relationship with Susan will never go well if they got married. Elaine suggests that if George smokes in front of Susan, it will be a great plan for ending the relationship. At night, Elaine admits that she is also leaving the group, leaving Jerry and Kramer. In a dream sequence, Jerry and Kramer argue about stupid things, until he is jarred back to reality by almost getting hit by a car and is saved by a woman named Janeane Steinman (Janeane Garofalo)

Meanwhile, George says to Susan that Elaine wants to be a part of the wedding apart from being in the audience, but Susan will not allow a female usher in the wedding despite previously referring to it in The Pool Guy. She also says that Kramer could not be an usher because he had called her "Lily" when he bumped into them on the street. George tries the cigarettes, but it doesn't work because it makes him sick and fails to convince Susan. Then Jerry and Janeane go to the coffee shop for a date. The next day, George tells Elaine and Kramer about the past night and Jerry says he met Janeane. Kramer suggests George ask Susan for a pre-nup, but when George tries this, Susan laughs off because she earns a lot more money than George.

Kramer goes to the bank and upon being greeted with the word "hey" instead of "hello," he asks to see the manager (Stephen Root). Meanwhile, George and Susan receive a box of invitations. Holding the box, Susan remarks, "Ah, these are so cheap." After George leaves the house, Susan starts to seal the invitation envelopes by licking them to moisten the glue. She grimaces at the taste, but continues licking them, until she finally passes out (off-screen). After George comes home but finds her collapsed on the couch, he and his friends meet up at the hospital to wait for Susan. The doctor tells George that Susan is dead (because the envelopes were toxic) and the rest of the group offers their condolences in their own ways. George then tells his parents that he is no longer engaged. Ultimately, George immediately returns to dating, and we are left with him being hung up on after trying to get a date with actress Marisa Tomei right after the funeral.

Reaction

There was a very mixed reception to the episode's ending -- it generated many letters to publications such as TV Guide as to the tastelessness of Susan's demise, and the characters' hollow reactions. Seinfeld mocked the backlash in the first scenes of The Foundation, the following season's opener, where Jerry and George visit Susan's grave. The two only show any emotion when they start remembering the death of Spock in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

Heidi Swedberg, who played Susan, has stated she enjoyed the fact her character was killed off and had no problem with it, adding in an interview with "Entertainment Weekly" that fans of the show liked that the main characters were not nice people who "express the things the rest of us think but don't want to admit." Fans expressed frustration and resentment to her when she was recognized on the street for months after the episode's broadcast. Similarly, Jason Alexander claims that the George fanbase has only ever turned on him in anger twice, one being because of the suggestion that George murdered Susan. The other was the instance of George eating an éclair out of a trash-can.^[1]

Larry David later remarked that in retrospect, he was surprised that he killed off Susan in such a manner.

Trivia

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (January 2008)

• Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, long portrayed on Seinfeld by the voice of Larry David, filmed scenes for a guest appearance in this episode, but none of the footage made it to air. It was theorized that this was because Steinbrenner disapproved of the morbid plot twist in which Susan is killed; Steinbrenner has publicly stated his objections to the story several times. On the Roundtable disc in the Seinfeld full DVD set, Larry David says that he had to cut out the scenes because Steinbrenner wanted the scenes cut because he had thought that the character George (Costanza) had been named and modeled after him, to which Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld have said is not true. However, the Season Seven DVD release indicates that the scenes were cut simply for time. Furthermore, director Andy Ackerman indicated that he personally felt that it was a mistake to cast the real George Steinbrenner after Larry David's voice could no longer be used. Steinbrenner's scenes involved him taking Elaine out to dinner in anticipation of escorting her to George's wedding.
• Jerry and Jeannie mention that they are scheduled to be married on September 21. That would have occurred on September 21, 1996, exactly a year after the seventh season began and George proposed to Susan.
• The bank manager is played by Stephen Root, who was starring in NewsRadio (which also aired on NBC) during this time.
• George does not smoke American Spirits.
• This episode was temporarily pulled from syndication in the wake of the 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States. The episode returned to syndication in the summer of 2002.
• This is the last episode to feature Larry David as executive producer. He later returned to write the two-part finale and continued to voice the character of George Steinbrenner for the remainder of the series.
• It's also the last episode to open with Jerry performing his famous stand-up comedy until the finale in 1998.
• When Susan asks who she should invite to the wedding, she mentions "The Drake" who was seen in Season 4's "The Handicap Spot".

Superman reference

• During the montage, Jerry reads a Superman comic book while Jeannie reads a Supergirl comic book.

Reference List