The Old Man

"The Old Man" is the fifty-eighth episode of the American television sitcom Seinfeld. It was the 18th episode of the 4th season. It aired on February 18, 1993.

Plot

Jerry, Elaine and George volunteer to help the elderly. Jerry gets assigned to Sid Fields (Bill Erwin), a bad-tempered old man with a Senegalese housekeeper (Lanei Chapman), that he claims is trying to steal his possessions. Elaine is repulsed by the goiter problems of the woman she is visiting and George depresses his assigned senior citizen, Ben Cantwell, by questioning his outlook on dying, until he walks out, telling George that "Life's too short to waste on you". Later, George becomes attracted to Mr. Field's housekeeper when he learns that she can't speak English.

Kramer and Newman try the business of selling some of Jerry's old records to a used record store but are not satisfied when the store's owner (Tobin Bell) offers them a meager amount. The man Jerry is responsible for tells him that he wants to get rid of some of his "junk", including a large amount of old records which Kramer and Newman show up later to pick up. The man bites Kramer's arm, causing him to jerk back and launch his dentures in to the garbage disposal. Jerry loses track of his man when they try to take him to the dentist to repair his dentures which were promptly destroyed after the garbage disposal was turned on, mistaken for a light switch.

Meanwhile, Elaine discovers that her old woman had an affair with Gandhi, and one of the stories she tells directly mirrors what George had said to the housekeeper about him "dipping my bald head in oil and rubbing it all over your body".

The search for Jerry's old man leads to everyone (including the old man's son) bursting in on George having oil rubbed on his head by the housekeeper.

The episode ends with the two old men, in the diner, in the same booth the main characters use, having much the same conversation Jerry and George had at the beginning of the episode, during which Fields tells Cantwell about the woman he was recently "fixed up" with - mentioning both her goiter and her youthful relationship with Gandhi.

Production

In this episode it is revealed that Newman is a mailman. Lanei Chapman plays the housekeeper. In an alternate ending to this episode that was never broadcast, her character reveals that she speaks fluent English (with an accent native to New York, not Senegal), causing George to lose interest in her.

This is the first Seinfeld episode in which a real person is impersonated by using the rear view - a technique which is so bad at suspending disbelief, its funny. The technique avoids creating problems by attempting to make an actor's face actually match the well known person. In this episode the rear of George Steinbrenner's head (and voice) is impersonated . The part is played by Lee Bear , and the audience only sees the back his head and shoulders. The voice is done by Larry David. Same would be used again in "The Muffin Tops" in which the "fake" Steinbrenner is talking to the Tyler Chicken's chief.

Continuity errors

The fork on the bike in Jerry's apartment is backwards.

Cultural references

The old man's name, Sidney Fields, is a reference to Sidney Fields, who was a writer and actor who was featured in The Abbott and Costello Show. Veteran actor Bill Erwin was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for his portrayal of Sid Fields, the old man Jerry is assigned to.

The scene where Kramer tells Newman what to say is similar to a scene in the 1957 film The Seventh Seal. Tobin Bell from Saw fame plays the record store owner. Later on in the series other Saw actors appear, including Ned Bellamy, Scott Patterson and Cary Elwes. The record on the top of Jerry's stack after Kramer and Newman return them to him is Journey's Escape.