The Lip Reader

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"The Lip Reader"
Seinfeld episode
Jerry learns his first sign at a restaurant.
Episode no.	Season 5 Episode 70
Written by	Carol Leifer
Directed by	Tom Cherones
Original airdate	October 28, 1993
Guest stars
Marlee Matlin
Season 5 episodes
Seinfeld – Season 5 September 1993 – May 1994
"The Mango" "The Puffy Shirt" "The Glasses" "The Sniffing Accountant" "The Bris" "The Lip Reader" "The Non-Fat Yogurt" "The Barber" "The Masseuse" "The Cigar Store Indian" "The Conversion" "The Stall" "The Dinner Party" "The Marine Biologist" "The Pie" "The Stand In" "The Wife" "The Raincoats, Part 1" "The Raincoats, Part 2" "The Fire" "The Hamptons" "The Opposite"
List of Seinfeld episodes

"The Lip Reader" is the seventieth episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 6th episode for the 5th season. It aired on October 28, 1993. The episode brought in a 20.4 rating and a very high 31 share.

Plot

Jerry and George are at the U.S. Open where George mentions that he had invited his girlfriend Gwen to a party, to which Jerry replies by saying is a bad idea, as he cannot socialize with others when he is with his girlfriend. George buys an ice cream sundae at the match and eats it, getting the chocolate all over his face and also getting caught by the cameras and broadcasted on TV. Jerry becomes smitten with the lines-woman, and when he tries to get her attention it appears as if she is ignoring him. Only after she turns around Jerry realizes that she is deaf.

Elaine, who is using the company car service to travel, is tired of all the chatty drivers - so to avoid talking to one she pretends to be deaf. However her plan fails when she "hears" the radio message to the driver to pick up Tom Hanks. To make it up to the driver, who was disgusted with her feigned deafness, she gets him tickets to a rock concert.

Jerry tells Kramer about the deaf lines-woman, Laura (Marlee Matlin). Kramer claims to know sign language because a deaf cousin lived with him for a year. He then gets an idea to become a ball-man(corrected from ball boy) and asks Jerry to find out from Laura how to get the job.

Gwen breaks up with George saying "it's not you, its me" which George considers to be his break-up line. Kramer tells George about seeing him on TV with the pudding on his face, which George starts believes to be the reason for Gwen breaking up with him. Jerry takes George as the third wheel on a date with Laura, and they find out that Laura can eavesdrop on people by lip reading . George then gets the idea to take Laura to a party to read his girlfriends lips to see what she is saying about him. After the date Jerry asks if he can pick up Laura at six for the party, which she mistakes as 'sex' and leaves him.

Kramer goes for the ball-boy tryouts and aces it, getting the job. Jerry tells George about the 'six/sex' misunderstanding and that he straightened it out with Laura. Newman enters and askes to 'borrow' Laura to spy on his superviser, not suprisingly Jerry refuses. Later in the Limo they find out that the driver has gone slightly deaf from sitting near the speakers at a Metallica concert, the tickets which were given to him by Elaine. When they pick up Elaine, the driver recognnizes her and kicks everyone out.

They arrive late at the party and meet Laura, who then has a sign language conversation with Kramer. When Gwen arrives Laura watches her conversation with Todd and signs to Kramer who voices it out loud. The converation is suprisingly mundane - about peas, pea soup, carrots and carrot soup, until Todd asks Gwen if he wants to sweep with him after the party. This is misinterpreted as 'sleep' with him and George goes hysterical. He runs up to them and rants about the disloyalty. When he is corrected he starts shouting at Laura and Kramer. When Laura and Kramer start arguing she accidentally hits George in the eye who then topples over a table and crashes the party.

Later, the group are seen at a tennis match where Kramer is the ball-man. Kramer rushes at the ball and accidentally knocks down Monica Seles, who is then knocked out. After the match Laura gets into the car of the chatty driver, when he starts talking to her she states that she is deaf.

Notes

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (December 2009)

• This was the first television script that Carol Leifer wrote.
• This was the first produced episode for writer Carol Leifer.
• The U.S. Open donated the uniforms used in all of the shots of tennis.
• Producer Larry David makes a cameo as one of the television announcers for the U.S. Open. the other announcer is Steve Skrovan
• Larry David makes another cameo as the limo dispatcher on the radio.
• The Elaine subplot was based on Carol Leifer's life as a stand up comedian. She would be driven around all the time and had the "Chattiest" drivers.
• The Kramer subplot was added later as a small part of the episode.
• The "ice-cream sundae" idea was based on a real event; Carol Leifer was watching the U.S. Open when they cut to a man eating an ice-cream sundae and the commentators were making fun of him.
• The line when Kramer says "I may be old, but I'm spry" is from an episode of I Love Lucy.
• The extras during the tennis match were not watching an actual tennis match, they were looking at a ball being thrown back and forth off camera.
• The sounds of the ball hitting the racket were added in post-production.
• The court set that they built was built on stage 9, as apposed to stage 19 where the show is filmed.
• Marlee Matlin was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her role.

Guest cast

• Wayne Knight - Newman
• Marlee Matlin - Laura
• Christopher Darga - Limousine Driver
• Veralyn Jones - Renee
• Linda Kash - Gwen
• Jerry Sroka - Todd
• Dylan Haggerty - Young Man
• Bret Anthony - Teen