The Pilot

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"The Pilot, Part 1"
Seinfeld episode
The cast of the pilot for Jerry.
Episode no.	Season 4 Episode 63-64
Written by	Larry David
Directed by	Tom Cherones
Original airdate	May 20, 1993
Guest stars
Jeremy Piven Mariska Hargitay Larry Hankin Peter Crombie Teri Hatcher Jane Leeves Ping Wu Lanei Chapman Brian Doyle-Murray
Season 4 episodes
Seinfeld – Season 4 August 1992 – May 1993
"The Trip, Part 1" "The Trip, Part 2" "The Pitch" "The Ticket" "The Wallet" "The Watch" "The Bubble Boy" "The Cheever Letters" "The Opera" "The Virgin" "The Contest" "The Airport" "The Pick" "The Movie" "The Visa" "The Shoes" "The Outing" "The Old Man" "The Implant" "The Junior Mint" "The Smelly Car" "The Handicap Spot" "The Pilot, Part 1" "The Pilot, Part 2"
List of Seinfeld episodes

"The Pilot" is the two-part season finale episode from fourth season of Seinfeld. It is the sixty-third and sixty-fourth episode and aired on May 20, 1993.

This two-part episode aired at an earlier time, 8:00 P.M, to make room for the two-hour finale of Cheers, whose timeslot would be claimed by Seinfeld at the start of the new fall season. Approximately 32 million watched this episode (both parts) when it initially aired, and the show became a major ratings grab for its next five seasons.

Plot

The Pilot, Part 1

Jerry and George get the green light to produce Jerry, the pilot for the series based on their "nothing" lives. Russell Dalrymple, the president at NBC behind the pilot, is obsessed with Elaine. George is obsessed with a potentially cancerous white spot on his lip and a box of raisins taken by an actor playing Kramer, played by Larry Hankin, who had actually auditioned for the role of Kramer when Seinfeld began production. The real Kramer has intestinal problems and, on his way to find a bathroom, he gets delayed by being mugged and "misses his chance" to resolve the problem, resulting in constipation. Jerry has an audition with the new "Elaine" (played by Elena Wohl), a method actress interested in being Elaine in every way. The real Elaine has a problem with Monk's coffee shop, as they appear to be only hiring buxom waitresses, so she tries to get hired and files a report.

The Pilot, Part 2

Rehearsals for the pilot begin. NBC executive Russell Dalrymple's obsession with Elaine begins to affect his work; she tries to let him down easy by saying she can't be in a relationship with a high-powered man and would prefer to be with someone selfless, such as a member of Greenpeace. Kramer resolves his constipation by administering himself an enema. George mistakenly thinks that his white spot has been diagnosed as cancer and goes on a tirade at NBC, only to discover that he misunderstood the diagnosis. At the taping of the pilot, "Crazy" Joe Davola jumps out of the audience and onto the set while yelling "Sic semper tyrannis;" he's removed and the taping goes well. The pilot airs, and numerous characters from past episodes comment on its accuracy. In order to prove himself worthy of Elaine, Russell joins Greenpeace and is lost at sea during a botched assault on a whaling ship. His replacement at NBC dislikes the show and cancels it. In the end, George, Jerry, Kramer, and Elaine convalesce at Monk's, where Elaine finally calls out the owner of the cafe for only hiring large breasted women; the owner explains that they are all his daughters, and everything goes back to normal. The last scene is Russell trying to be saved by his ship mates. He presumably drowns and dies. The cover for the Jerry Pilot script floats away at sea, along with the former NBC president.

Series continuity

The sample lines used by the actors in the audition sequences are real "Seinfeld" lines, taken from such earlier episodes as "The Pony Remark", "The Deal", "The Note", and "The Boyfriend, Part 1".

Trivia

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• Jeremy Piven auditions and eventually plays The George Costanza character.

• The wallet Elaine finds was the missing wallet from a previous episode of the season, The Wallet.

• One of the men accompanying the former NBC president Russell Dalrymple (Bob Balaban) when he is on a dinghy for Greenpeace is played by Larry David. The other is played by Larry Charles.

• The scene where Russell Dalrymple is in contemplation about Elaine while watching the pilot, if you look a few rows behind him is former NBC head Warren Littlefield posing as an extra. Bob Balaban (Russell Dalrymple) portrayed Littlefield, in the 1996 American TV movie The Late Shift.

• The 'Director' of the mock pilot is the director of the actual episode Tom Cherones.

• Mariska Hargitay, now Detective Benson on Law & Order SVU, auditions for the role of Elaine and offends George with her "Bald Convention" comment.