Episode no. Season 4
Episode 10 Teleplay by Peter Mehlman Original air date November 11, 1992 | Directed by Tom Cherones Production code 410 | |
Story by Peter Mehlman, Peter Farrelly, and Bobby Farrelly | ||
"The Virgin" is the 50th episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. It was the tenth episode of the fourth season. It aired on November 11, 1992. The cast assembled to read this episode's script on October 14, 1992, and it was filmed six days later, on October 20.
Contents
Plot
After a month and a half of procrastinating on a television pilot idea, Jerry is nervous about the series' fate, while George remains indifferent. Jerry then introduces Marla, his new girlfriend, who has not lost her virginity.
George asks out a woman named Stacy (Leah Lail). He knows he cannot keep this relationship up, though, considering that he's dating Susan. George then finds himself in a dilemma: this is the first time he has something good to say when asked "What do you do?" ("television writer"), but he cannot use this title to pick up women because of Susan. However, if he breaks up with Susan to see other women, he'll wind up losing his good job title, since Susan is one of the executives of NBC. Jerry is amused by the irony of this situation.
Elaine talks colorfully about the diaphragm she carries around while Marla is in the room, unaware of Marla's virginity. Later, when Jerry informs her of this, she fears that she may have offended Marla and goes to talk to her. She then educates Marla on the "normal behavior" of men after they're through having sex with someone. This makes Marla hesitant to have sex with Jerry.
George eventually winds up coming up with an idea for the pilot, involving a man being forced into becoming a butler after a set of insurance-related circumstances. Meanwhile, Elaine becomes the indirect cause of a biking accident that Ping has (this is later dealt with in further detail in "The Visa").
Jerry pitches the butler idea to the NBC executives, getting much unexpected approval; during the meeting, George inadvertently gets Susan fired for kissing her in front of NBC executive Rita (Anne Twomey). She breaks up with him, but George finds that he still cannot pick up women, most of whom view the role of television writer as unprestigious.
Production
"The Virgin" was written by Peter Mehlman, and co-written by the Farrelly brothers, who went on to write and direct such comedies as Dumb and Dumber, There's Something About Mary, Shallow Hal, and Stuck on You. This episode marked the introduction of the character Marla. She later appears in "The Contest" (the next episode), "The Pilot", and "The Finale". Jackie Swanson and Dedee Pfeiffer were additional actresses who auditioned for the role.
Before pitching the butler idea to the NBC executives, Jerry tries an idea that he came up with on his own. This idea was a whole show where all the main characters are doing is waiting for a table in a Chinese restaurant. This is an inside joke, pertaining to when Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David proposed season two's "The Chinese Restaurant". This left the real-life executives of NBC indifferent, as was the case when the idea was proposed in this episode. Bob Balaban (who plays Russell Dalrymple) was supposed to appear in this scene, but the role was written out due to a scheduling conflict. It was established in the episode that Russell had to deal with "a problem on the set of Blossom."
Reception
Over 16 million people viewed this episode. It gained an 11.6 Nielsen Rating and a 17 audience share, meaning that 11.6% of American households watched the episode, and 17% of all televisions in use at the time were tuned into it.