Seinfeld

The Seinfeld Chronicles

Season 1, Episode 1, Aired 7/5/89

Next
Episode

Episode Summary

Jerry is excited that a woman he met on the road is coming to visit him in New York. However, he has a tough time discerning whether her intentions are romantic or platonic.

7.4

EPISODE RATING: Good

373 votes

Your Rating: 10

"Perfect"
Your Rating: 9.5

"Superb"
Your Rating: 9

"Superb"
Your Rating: 8.5

"Great"
Your Rating: 8

"Great"
Your Rating: 7.5

"Good"
Your Rating: 7

"Good"
Your Rating: 6.5

"Fair"
Your Rating: 6

"Fair"
Your Rating: 5.5

"Mediocre"
Your Rating: 5

"Mediocre"
Your Rating: 4.5

"Poor"
Your Rating: 4

"Poor"
Your Rating: 3.5

"Bad"
Your Rating: 3

"Bad"
Your Rating: 2.5

"Terrible"
Your Rating: 2

"Terrible"
Your Rating: 1.5

"Abysmal"
Your Rating: 1

"Abysmal"

Rate It

Watch Online

TBS

Subscription

Cast & Crew

See All EDIT

Michael Richards

Kessler (pilot only)
Jerry Seinfeld

himself
Jason Alexander

George Costanza

Fan Episode Reviews (30)

See All

good start

10

"Perfect"

By WhipMyAss, Dec 12, 2010 Report Abuse

I love Seinfeld but the pilot was average. With a small but weak plot. Also no Elaine which was odd. Kramer was still good as usual but a little different. The one downfall to the pilot was too much stage time. Its good but only a little is ok. Too much was in the pilot. The comedy was weak. It was nice to see how the style of the show would be. The intro to the chacaters were done well. The odd things were different apartment. The resturant was different also. It was a ok start but could of done better.
In the end average start to a great show.moreless

DO YOU AGREE?
0 1
The show had to start somewhere...

9.0

"Superb"

By Hasakinopahai, Dec 12, 2010 Report Abuse

Every show has it's ups and downs. The writers try to see what does and doesn't work. Trial and error has it's place in every show. No pilot is perfect, and this one is no different. The comedic conversations with the waitress that are never to be seen again, the lack of the full future cast (Elaine) as they haven't really been created yet. The rest of the first season is about the same, although it's still entertaining (even though you rarely ever see these episodes aired on television anymore). But hey, for a very small budget and extremely low expectations when it first started, The Seinfeld Chronicles have come a long way.moreless

DO YOU AGREE?
2 0
So boring.

6.5

"Fair"

By cactusjack39, Feb 13, 2009 Report Abuse

I am glad that I was only a year old when this pilot aired. If I began watching it then, I probably never would have continued watching due to the fact that Seinfeld's pilot episode was as boring as it was unfunny. I am surprised that it wasn't axed completely after that. But I must say that it wasn't completely bad. I liked the introduction Kramer and George. The thing that bothered me is how boring the first season was compared to the later ones. Overall, this wasn't a very good episode and barely passed on my scale. In other words, not good. Thank you.moreless

DO YOU AGREE?
0 1
As huge of a Seinfeld fan I am, I won't lie. The pilot could have been better.

7.0

"Good"

By McKellars, Sep 07, 2008 Report Abuse

There are a lot of things that separate this pilot episode apart from the others. This is also a very tough episode to rate for me because Seinfeld is one of if not my favorite show of all-time. Anyways, this episode wasn't horrible, they introduced Jerry, George, and Kramer well and had a pretty good story line. I mean, this episode right here really defines "The show about nothing" because nothing really does happen in this episode, or at least nothing important. I mean, it had a little story to it, but they really had to have one to introduce the characters.moreless

DO YOU AGREE?
0 0
Seinfeld had to start at the pilot but sadly this isn't a faithful introduction of the classic series. Mediocre is an overstatement but the show's overall genius excuses a lousy beginning.moreless

5.0

"Mediocre"

By oceanic6, Mar 02, 2008 Report Abuse

Meet Jerry Seinfeld (Jerry Seinfeld): club and occasional TV comic enjoying a modest success. Boyishly handsome, obsessively neat; a frequent consumer of whole grain cereal, basketball games, bad movies, and young women who keep ditching him on the flimsiest of pretexts when he's not disposing of them on equally slim grounds. Once came close to engagement to a woman who resembled him so uncannily he couldn't stand her. George Costanza (Jason Alexander)is his best friend but completely the opposite; always between pedestrian jobs, relationships never working, being unattractive with no self - esteem or ego to compensate it and relies on tall stories and lies to impress girls and bosses. He too came close to marriage until........Check out the Season 7 finale, "The Invitations." Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards) is the enigma of the group whose background and source of income is never fully revealed and even his apartment isn't seen until Season 3. He appears to be living every man's dreams; casual relationships, lots of money without having to work, lots of food (his neighbours) and generally no responsibilities or worries. Sadly none of these traits for any of the 3 characters are revealed in the pilot; all we learn about Jerry is that he's a comedian and likes baseball, George bought a purple shirt and thinks we should do the opposite when it comes to girls and Kramer has a dog and ruins the outcome of a baseball game Jerry taped. The plot is so one - sided it's almost see - through. Jerry is having a woman stay at his bachelor pad while him and George thoroughly interpret the "signals" behind what she said on the phone. When she finally comes over there's a twist that she's actually married and is using Jerry as a b - plan. The plot itself could've been done in about 5 minutes but there's all sorts of diversionary scenes and cutaways like Jerry's stand - up, him and George's conversations on "nothing" and Kramer raiding his fridge and couch but even those weren't really that interesting and did almsot nothing to save this sorry pilot. There's no "Elaine" character in the first episode, the only woman is the blunt waitress who gives George reguler coffee and offers some womanly advice but contributes nothing other than that and only appears in the opening scene, so God knows why she was given top billing. The first of Jerry's many female associates it attractive enough and knows there's nothing for her to work with so she gets through it with her dignity intact. The sets and locations are so sound - stagey it's suprising they made the effort of hiding the cameras and studio audience when their presence would justify the use of it. While Jerry' monologues are funny in essence, it's not enough the constitute the humour of an entire episode. Sure this show was famous for making "nothing" funny but the "nothing" on show here like doing the laundry and talking about buttoning a shirt and cleaning a bathroom is not exactly Emmy - material. The Seinfeld Chronicles is just not that good a pilot. Yes, it opens one of the most influential TV series' of all time but it's entire structure is just weak and clearly they were touched by an angel when it was decided to give them 5 more episodes to do and it evolved from there.moreless

DO YOU AGREE?
0 0

Write a Review

Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

See All

Trivia
ADD TRIVIA
- Kramer was called "Kessler" because the real Kramer (Kenny Kramer, not Michael Richards) did not want his name to be in the show. After the pilot, Jerry said to Larry that the name had to be Kramer, because it just sounded funnier, so after a lot of work it finally became Kramer. The coffee shop in which Jerry and George are was not intended to be implied [by viewers] as "Monk's". It has been said that Monk's and Pete's are two totally different shops. That explains why we never see the waitress, Claire, again. (Taken from "Notes About Nothing") The character of Elaine was not cast as of this episode. After the pilot NBC said to Jerry and Larry that they could make four more episodes, but only if they bring in a female character into the cast. Edit
- Notice that when Jerry's door is open in this episode, there is no door or apartment for Kramer across the hall. It's just a wall with a Cuba picture. Edit
- Correction to the microphone wire goof, that cannot be a microphone because if it was he would have a big thing in the back of his pants like they do on talk shows. They use boom mics that go above the actors in tv sitcoms. Edit
Notes
ADD NOTES
- This episode was nominated for the Casting Society of America's 1991 Artios for "Best Casting for TV-Pilot". Edit
- The character Kessler/Kramer was nominated for the 2005 TV Land Award for "Favorite Nosy Neighbor". Edit
- Jerry Seinfeld and Michael Richards (Kramer/Kessler) also worked together in the 1984 TV movie The Ratings Game. Edit
Quotes
ADD QUOTES
- Jerry: Let's face it, a date is a job interview that lasts all night. The difference between a date and job interview is not many interviews is there a chance you'll end up naked at the end. Edit
- Jerry: I swear, I have absolutely no idea what women are thinking. I don't get it, okay? I… I… I admit, I, I'm not getting the signals. I am not getting it! Women, they're so subtle, their little… everything they do is subtle. Men are not subtle, we are obvious. Women know what men want, men know what men want, what do we want? We want women, that's it! It's the only thing we know for sure, it really is. We want women. How do we get them? Oh, we don't know 'bout that, we don't know. The next step after that we have no idea. This is why you see men honking car-horns, yelling from construction sites. These are the best ideas we've had so far. The car-horn honk, is that a beauty? Have you seen men doing this? What is this? The man is in the car, the woman walks by the front of the car, he honks. E-eeehh, eehhh, eehhh! This man is out of ideas. How does it…? E-e-e-eeeehhhh! "I don't think she likes me." The amazing thing is, that we still get women, don't we? Men, I mean, men are with women. You see men with women. How are men getting women, many people wonder. Let me tell you a little bit about our organization. Wherever women are, we have a man working on the situation right now. Now, he may not be our best man, okay, we have a lot of areas to cover, but someone from our staff is on the scene. That's why, I think, men get frustrated, when we see women reading articles, like "Where to meet men?" We're here, we are everywhere. We're honking our horns to serve you better. Edit
- George: Ho ho ho, "Had to"? "Had to come in"? Jerry: Yeah, but… George: "Had to come in" and "maybe we'll get together"? "Had to" and "Maybe"? Jerry: Yeah! George: No…no…no, I hate to tell you this: you're not gonna see this woman. Edit
Allusions
- Help by adding allusions to this episode. Add allusions