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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: October 19, 1995
PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: Seinfeld, “The Hot Tub” (season 7, episode 5). [Stream on Hulu.]
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: Famously, in the series finale of Seinfeld, the four principal characters — Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer — were all sent to prison for violating Good Samaritan laws and generally being amoral, bad people. This seemed like an appropriate fate for the quartet, especially after Seinfeld and Larry David kept bringing up their steadfast commitment to make sure there was “no hugging and no learning” on the show. For my money, I always thought that particular ending was trying a bit too hard to crystalize Seinfeld as (ironically) about something. All this time, it was about how these four characters were unapologetic jerks who, once removed from the environs of New York City which encourages or even requires such behavior, were exposed as being callous and monstrous? It felt more like the stuff of a critical essay than the mission statement of a sitcom. And sure enough, that finale episode feels heavy and effortful in all the ways that Seinfeld never was.
With all that said, however, an episode like “The Hot Tub” sure makes the case that these four people can sure do a lot of damage with their self-centeredness. Of course, the irony is that it isn’t their indifference that causes such pain and heartache for marathon runner Jean-Paul, but rather their repeated, misguided attempts to help.
Look at it from Jean-Paul’s perspective: he’s a marathon runner who is still trying to get over his Olympics disaster where he overslept and missed the marathon. He’s staying with Elaine, through some convoluted means, and while she seems decently together, her friend Jerry gets weirdly obsessed with making sure that he doesn’t miss the marathon this time. Jerry’s overzealous meddling spells doom for Jean-Paul again, due in part to the idiocy of this week’s designated Weirdo Kramer Sublot, and THEN, when Jean-Paul does make it to the marathon (late), Kramer’s idiocy leads to him being scalded by hot tea.
“The Hot Tub” truly makes the case that the Seinfeld gang ruins lives and makes that case much more effectively than the finale. These aren’t cruel people who would laugh at a fat guy being mugged. They’re massively neurotic people who — to use Jerry as an example — would end up annoying a hotel concierge with his repeated wake-up-call requests, then shlep on back home because he doesn’t trust that the concierge won’t refuse to call him out of spite.
When Seinfeld was on point, it was a marvelously intricate stacking game of real-world neuroses that led to a bizarre result. “The Hot Tub” works so well in this regard, even with the George subplot (where he gets caught up with some foul-mouthed Texas businessmen) dying on the vine. It’s a shame that a good man like Jean-Paul had to suffer at the hands of these Manhattanite life-ruiners. Hey, where was he during the finale?
