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Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.
IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: January 25, 1996
PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: Seinfeld, “The Caddy” (Season 7, Episode 12) [Watch on Hulu].
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: “The Caddy” was not the first time that Seinfeld addressed the O.J. Simpson murder trial. For whatever reason, perhaps residual guilt for having employed O.J. for so many years on their sports coverage, NBC was very invested in scoring comedy points off the circus that was the O.J. trial. Whether it was Jay Leno’s Dancing Itos or the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air episode that parodied the so-called “trial of the century,” the network was all-in on O.J. So Seinfeld had already done an episode, “The Big Salad,” where Kramer’s friend and former athlete ended up suspected of murdering a dry-cleaner in a rage Kramer may or may not have provoked. That episode parodied the Bronco chase/Al Cowlings portion of the O.J. affair more than anything. With “The Caddy,” a whole season later, Seinfeld found more to satirize.
The plot of “The Caddy” brings back two previous bit characters, one being Sue Ellen Mischke, bra-less wonder and Elaine’s recurring frenemy. Elaine gifts Sue Ellen with a for her birthday in a supreme act of shade, but Sue Ellen shows herself to be a flawless queen in her own right when she wears that bra as a top, flouting herself around the streets of fake-New York City. When Sue Ellen’s spectacle causes a car crash and Kramer sues her for damages, he hires another previously-introduced character: Jackie Chiles. If the name didn’t tip you off, the likeness, cadences, and penchant for slogans as legal advice will let you in on exactly who the inspiration was for his character:
As if a very obvious Johnnie Cochran impersonation wasn’t enough, the episode’s centerpiece moment comes when Jackie (at the behest of Kramer’s caddy) asks Sue Ellen to try the bra on in court, a callback to the prosecution’s disastrous overreach when they asked O.J. to try on the bloody gloves found at the crime scene. Of course, she’s trying the bra on over her clothes, so it doesn’t fit (just as O.J. tried his gloves on over rubber gloves so as not to tamper with the evidence). As Jackie says at the end, it’s supposed to fit right on the skin!
With the O.J. trial poised to come barging back into our pop-cultural lives with Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story and a forthcoming 30 for 30 documentary, Seinfeld‘s “The Caddy” would make for a good palate cleanser.
