The Rye

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"The Rye"
Seinfeld episode
The Costanzas eat with the Rosses.
Episode no.	Season 7 Episode 121
Written by	Carol Leifer
Directed by	Andy Ackerman
Original airdate	January 4, 1996
Guest stars
Frances Bay & Jeff Yagher
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 Rye" is the 121st episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 11th episode for the seventh season. It aired on January 4, 1996.

Plot

Elaine dates a jazz saxophonist and Jerry tells one of the band members that the saxophonist and Elaine are "hot and heavy" (even though she admitted she's upset because he doesn't do "everything"). Susan's parents meet and have dinner with the Costanzas for the first time, where both families obsess over a loaf of marble rye bread that wasn't served with the meal, which Frank takes back home. George thinks that by getting Susan's parents out of the apartment for one evening, he can get a new rye and place it in the kitchen, making it appear as though it had always been there. Kramer takes over a friend's horse-drawn tourist carriage for a week and feeds the horse Beef-A-Reeno, the same night he is scheduled to take Susan's parents on a hansom cab ride in the Central Park area.

The plans fall apart when neither Kramer nor Susan's parents can bear the smell emitted by Rusty the Horse after consuming an entire can of Beef-A-Reeno. Meanwhile Elaine's sax player wants to try adding a new "number to my repertoire" and takes her back to his place before a gig in front of some record executives. Furthermore, Schnitzer's Bakery sells the last rye to an elderly woman who refused to sell it to Jerry for fifty dollars. Jerry then follows the woman down the street in order to obtain the marble rye loaf, though she still refuses to sell it. When she refuses to give it to him, he steals it from her. By now the Rosses have returned and the only way George can retrieve the rye is by fishing it out of Jerry's hands from a third story window. He is eventually caught by Susan and her parents, thus ruining his carefully conceived plan. The saxophonist shows up late with Elaine, and after she tells him, "you just don't have to try so hard," he picks up his sax. However—likely owing to his brief sojourn with Elaine--he finds he can't play at all in front of the record company bigwigs. Elaine sheepishly sneaks out of the club.

Trivia

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

• Actors Frances Bay (Mabel Choate), Warren Frost (Mr. Ross), and Grace Zabriskie (Mrs. Ross) were all in TV series Twin Peaks.
• Mabel Choate appears again in later Seinfeld episodes "The Cadillac, Part 2" and "The Finale".
• While filming the scenes outside the Ross's apartment, a snowball fight broke out between the crew using the fake snow during filming.
• The loaf of bread inaccurately referred to as a Marble Rye during the episode is actually a Challah.

Memorable Quotes

• Jerry [to Mabel Choate]: Shut up, you old bag!

• George : You stole their marble rye?!

• Kramer : (after the horse farts) Rusty!

• Elaine : I didn't want you to tell him that we're hot n' heavy.

• Frank Costanza : You got the chicken, the hen and the rooster. The Rooster goes with the chicken, so who's having sex with the hen?

• Jerry : I have to have that Rye. It's a long story but a person's entire future might depend on it.

• Kramer : My name is Cosmo and I'll be your driver this evening.