The Wife

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Seinfeld episode
"The Wife"

Jerry and his girlfriend, pretending to be married.
Episode no. 81
Airdate March 17, 1994
Writer(s) Peter Mehlman
Director Tom Cherones
Guest star(s) Courtney Cox
IMDb profile
Seinfeld - Season 5
September 1993 - May 1994
  1. The Mango
  2. The Puffy Shirt
  3. The Glasses
  4. The Sniffing Accountant
  5. The Bris
  6. The Lip Reader
  7. The Non-Fat Yogurt
  8. The Barber
  9. The Masseuse
  10. The Cigar Store Indian
  11. The Conversion
  12. The Stall
  13. The Dinner Party
  14. The Marine Biologist
  15. The Pie
  16. The Stand In
  17. The Wife
  18. The Raincoats, Part 1
  19. The Raincoats, Part 2
  20. The Fire
  21. The Hamptons
  22. The Opposite
List of all Seinfeld episodes

"The Wife" is the eighty-first episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 17th episode for the 5th season. It aired on March 17, 1994.

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Jerry's girlfriend, Meryl (Courteney Cox), poses as his wife in order that she may share in his 25% dry cleaning discount. In fact, Jerry is having fun with the idea of having a wife, even if it's just to start a sentence. George urinates in the shower while at the health club and fears he may be reported to management. Elaine gets mixed signals from Greg, a prospective boyfriend in whom she is interested. As if things couldn't get more complex, the man Elaine has her eye on is the same person who caught George urinating in the shower.

Jerry eventually cheats on his "wife" with another woman in order to give her the discount. Meanwhile, Kramer is losing sleep because Jerry took his quilt to the cleaner, taking advantage of the discount. Kramer goes to get a tan to impress his girlfriend's family, and ends up falling asleep on the tanning bed.

As it happens, Greg wants to date a female gym instructor and not Elaine. Then he discovers Elaine is friends with George. The episode ends with Kramer meeting his girlfriend's family, who are black, and Kramer being horribly tanned. One of the girlfriend's relatives says "I thought you said you were bringing a white boy home! I don't see a white boy! I see a damn fool!"

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Trivia

  • Courteney Cox was still a little-known actress when she guest-starred in this episode. Months later, her career would take off with the sitcom Friends.
  • At the beginning of the episode Jerry doesn't want to have the same breakfast as Meryl because "it's one step from the couples that dress alike". However, he and Meryl are already dressed alike (he's wearing a striped, red scarf and a dark jacket while she's wearing a dark scarf and a striped, red jacket
  • Jerry's line, "We'll always have pancakes", is an obvious reference to the classic line from the 1942 film Casablanca, "We'll always have Paris".
  • In response to George's shower urination incident, Kramer admits that he takes baths, not showers. However, in a later episode entitled "The Shower Head", Kramer complains to Jerry about how he feels after taking a bath as opposed to a shower.