Episode no. Season 2
Episode 12 Production code 203 | Directed by Tom Cherones Original air date June 26, 1991 | |
Written by Larry David & Jerry Seinfeld | ||
"The Busboy" is the 17th episode of Seinfeld to air, despite being the eighth produced. The episode was the 12th and final episode of the show's second season. It aired on June 26, 1991.
Contents
Plot
Jerry, George, and Elaine are at dinner when a menu on an adjacent table catches on fire. George puts it out and explains to the manager that the busboy, Antonio, (David Labiosa) left the menu too close to a lit candle, and Elaine jokingly declares she is never eating there again. The manager takes this seriously and the busboy is fired that very night, upsetting Elaine and George. George and Kramer later go to the busboy's ramshackle apartment to apologize, only to accidentally leave the door open, letting his cat out. A few days later, the busboy comes to see George, and tells him that there was a gas line explosion at the restaurant, killing five employees, including the busboy hired to replace him. He thanks George for inadvertently saving his life and says he's found a better paying job anyway and also his escaped cat has come back to him. Meanwhile, Elaine faces having her boyfriend Ed stay with her for a week. Then, she tries frantically to get him onto a plane back to Seattle, only to accidentally oversleep and on the way to JFK International Airport encounter a five-car pileup on Rockaway Blvd. With her boyfriend still with her, he gets into a shouting match and eventually a fistfight in the hallway of Jerry's apartment building with the busboy, resulting in injuries on both ends after they fall down several flights of stairs. The busboy loses his new job, George is forced to take care of his cat and Elaine's boyfriend is bed ridden at her apartment for several more weeks.
Notability of the episode
This episode was noted by the supporting cast in an interview used for a DVD set as the first sign that Larry and Jerry would be generous writers, being both very good about including the co-stars into simultaneous story lines. In fact, Jerry doesn't even have a storyline.
In this episode, George claims to know the best public toilets anywhere in Manhattan. In the seventh season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry has written the reunion so that George has parlayed this knowledge into an iPhone app called "iToilet" which the fictionalized version of Jerry would described as "An iphone application that leads you via your GPS to the nearest acceptable toilet wherever you are in the world".
This episode was filmed in October 1990, simultaneously with "The Pony Remark" and "The Ex-Girlfriend".
At 12.5 million viewers, this episode had the least amount of viewers for any Seinfeld episode in its original airing.
Reception
David Sims of The A.V. Club gave the episode a C+.