The Phone Message
Encyclopedia
"The Phone Message" is the ninth episode of the NBC
sitcom Seinfeld
, and the fourth of the show's second season
. The episode concerns protagonist
Jerry Seinfeld
(Jerry Seinfeld
) dating a woman who likes a commercial for cotton Dockers
he dislikes. Meanwhile, his friend George Costanza
(Jason Alexander
) leaves an obnoxious message on the answering machine
of his girlfriend, and has to go to a lot of trouble to prevent her from hearing it.
Written by series co-creators Seinfeld and Larry David
and directed by Tom Cherones
, the episode was produced to replace a script by staff writer Larry Charles
. Charles had written an episode called "The Bet", revolving around Elaine Benes
(Julia Louis-Dreyfus
) buying a handgun. The script's gun content was deemed too provocative and, in little time, Seinfeld and David wrote "The Phone Message" to fill the production void. Though the episode met with positive critical responses, its initial broadcast on February 13, 1991, was watched by an underwhelming audience of 13 million viewers, causing NBC to put the show on a two-month hiatus.
for sex. Jerry's date Donna (Gretchen German
) remarks that she likes a cotton Dockers
commercial that Jerry absolutely hates, and with that ends his interest in her.
George decides to call Carol, but gets her answering machine. He leaves her an extremely long, obnoxious message, and is concerned that she will think he is an idiot. Jerry's friend Elaine Benes
(Julia Louis-Dreyfus
) tells George how something similar happened to her brother-in-law, who took care of the problem by secretly switching the tape. Jerry advises George to wait a few days for Carol to call back; George agrees, but continues to leave increasingly angry—and eventually almost hostile—messages on her machine. When he discovers she was out of town, he decides to go through with the plan of changing the tape. Frustrated by his inability to use an answering machine, George convinces Jerry to go with him. They decide to wait for Carol outside her apartment, and George will distract her while Jerry changes the tape. They succeed, but, just as they are about to leave Carol's apartment, she tells George that she had already heard the messages and found them funny, adding that she "loves jokes like that."
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Staff writer Larry Charles
had written a script for an episode entitled "The Bet". In the episode, which was also known as "The Gun", Elaine would bet against Jerry on the ease of buying a handgun to protect herself. The episode's subplot revolved around Jerry's neighbour Kramer
returning from a vacation in Puerto Rico
, claiming he had sex with a stewardess on his flight home. George and Jerry would remain skeptical, and make a bet with him; eventually, George, Jerry and Elaine would go to the airport to check if Kramer was telling the truth. In writing "The Bet", Charles had attempted to make a "funny, dark-themed" episode. Sets for the episode were built. Bobbi Jo Lathan was cast as flight attendant Lucy Merrit and Ernie Sabella
was cast as gun salesman Mo Korn, who was described in the script as "overweight, greasy, slow and low-key".
However, during the read-through
of the episode, it was negatively received by cast and crew members; both Alexander and director Tom Cherones
felt the episode's gun content was too provocative. When she read a scene that referenced the assassinations of John F. Kennedy
and William McKinley
, Louis-Dreyfus turned to Alexander and stated, "I'm not gonna do this." Though they did not want to, the cast started rehearsing. After twenty minutes they convinced Cherones to talk to Charles. On his way to Charles' office, Cherones bumped into NBC executive Glenn Padnick, with whom he talked to Charles, eventually agreeing not to film the episode. Commenting on the episode, Charles stated "You know, it would have been an interesting show, but we couldn't solve the funny problem of it. It never seemed to quite be as funny as it should be and, because of that, the balance was off and the darkness kind of enveloped it, and it could never really emerge from that darkness and become what it should have been. So, it was disappointing but also understandable." Both Lathan and Sabella were given roles in later episodes; Lathan appeared as Patti in the season three
episode "The Stranded
", while Sabella was cast as the "greasy naked guy" in "The Subway", also for the show's third season.
co-wrote the episode with Seinfeld in two days, as, with the cancellation of "The Bet", they had little time to write the script. George's storyline was largely based on David's personal experiences of leaving phone messages to women that would mean the end of a relationship. David had previously written a sketch for Saturday Night Live
regarding a man who went into his girlfriend's house to erase her answering machine. The sketch was never produced, which allowed David to use its storyline for the Seinfeld episode. Jerry's storyline was based on Seinfeld's own predicaments, as he extremely disliked the cotton Dockers commercial discussed in the episode.
A few changes were made to the first few drafts of the script. Additional dialogue between George and Jerry regarding dates during the 1850s was removed for timing purposes. During his date with Donna, Jerry would mention his remark about ponies in the earlier episode "The Pony Remark
", but this was later changed to remark about leaving a note when committing suicide. Initially, Kramer's first name was revealed in the episode; though the information was removed from the eventual script, the idea of revealing Kramer's first name would be further exploited in the season six
episode "The Switch
".
Gretchen German was cast as Donna, Jerry's date. Gina Hecht
, who would go on to portray George's psychiatrist Dana Foley during the show's fourth season
, also auditioned for the part. Tory Polone, who portrayed George's date Carol, had previously appeared in the 1989 television films When we were Young and Sparks. The episode was first read by the cast on Friday, December 14, 1990. Table reads usually took place on Wednesdays, but the read-through of "The Bet" had been held on December 12. Directed by Cherones, as were all other episodes of the second season, "The Phone Message" was filmed in front of a live audience on December 19, 1990. Jerry's stand-up routine had been filmed one day earlier.
of 9.7 and an audience share of 15, indicating that 16.1% of American households watched the episode, and that 26% of all televisions in use at the time were tuned into it. Nielsen Media Research
also estimated that approximately 13 million American viewers watched the episode, making it the 59th most-watched show of the week it was broadcast in. Disappointed with the ratings, as earlier episodes had averaged between 19 and 22 million viewers each, the network put the show on a two-month hiatus. When the series returned in its original timeslot behind Cheers, its high ratings and increasing popularity led NBC to order the full season.
"The Phone Message" gained positive responses from critics. Jerry's dumping Donna because she likes the commercial has been frequently cited as an example of how the show's central characters would often break up with people for "fantastically insignificant reasons". In a 1998 article, the staff of South Carolina newspaper The State cited "The Phone Message" as "the first episode that made an impression on [them]", referring to Seinfeld as "the comedic version of Hill Street Blues
." Entertainment Weekly
critics Mike Flaherty and Mary Kaye Schilling graded
the episode with a B+, calling it "the first of two consecutive and classic George angst-fests, as Jason Alexander—master of frantic venom—begins to make the character his own."
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
sitcom Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
, and the fourth of the show's second season
Seinfeld (season 2)
Season two of Seinfeld, an American television series created by Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, began airing on January 23, 1991, on NBC. Because of the commencement of the first Gulf War, the second season's premiere was postponed one week. The season comprised 12 episodes, and concluded its...
. The episode concerns protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
Jerry Seinfeld
Jerry Seinfeld (character)
Jerome "Jerry" Seinfeld is the main protagonist of the American television sitcom Seinfeld . The straight man among his group of friends, this semi-fictionalized version of comedian Jerry Seinfeld was named after, co-created by, based on, and played by Seinfeld himself.The series revolves around...
(Jerry Seinfeld
Jerry Seinfeld
Jerome Allen "Jerry" Seinfeld is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and television and film producer, known for playing a semi-fictional version of himself in the situation comedy Seinfeld , which he co-created and co-wrote with Larry David, and, in the show's final two seasons,...
) dating a woman who likes a commercial for cotton Dockers
Dockers
Dockers is a brand of khaki garments from Levi Strauss & Co.Levi Strauss & Co., then specialized in denim, introduced the Dockers brand in 1986. Dockers became a leading brand of business casual clothing for men led by Bob Siegel. In 1987, Dockers introduced a women's line...
he dislikes. Meanwhile, his friend George Costanza
George Costanza
George Louis Costanza is a character in the American television sitcom Seinfeld , played by Jason Alexander. He has variously been described as a "short, stocky, slow-witted, bald man" , "Lord of the Idiots" , and as "the greatest sitcom character of all time"...
(Jason Alexander
Jason Alexander
Jay Scott Greenspan , better known by his professional name of Jason Alexander, is an American actor, writer, comedian, television director, producer, and singer. He is best known for his role as George Costanza on the television series Seinfeld, appearing in the sitcom from 1989 to 1998...
) leaves an obnoxious message on the answering machine
Answering machine
The answering machine or message machine, also known as the telephone answering machine in the UK and some Commonwealth countries) and previously known as an ansaphone, ansafone, or telephone answering device is a device for answering telephones and recording callers' messages.Unlike voicemail,...
of his girlfriend, and has to go to a lot of trouble to prevent her from hearing it.
Written by series co-creators Seinfeld and Larry David
Larry David
Lawrence Gene "Larry" David is an American actor, writer, comedian and producer. He is best known as the co-creator , head writer, and executive producer of the television series Seinfeld from 1989 to 1996, and for creating the 1999 HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, a partially improvised sitcom in...
and directed by Tom Cherones
Tom Cherones
Tom Cherones is an American director and producer of several TV series.-Early life:He grew up in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where his father operated a radio and TV repair shop. His grandfather was a Greek immigrant. From 1961 to 1965, he was a lieutenant in the United States Navy...
, the episode was produced to replace a script by staff writer Larry Charles
Larry Charles
Larry Charles is an American writer, director, and producer. He is best known as a staff writer for the American sitcom Seinfeld for its first 5 seasons, contributing some of the show's darkest and most absurd storylines...
. Charles had written an episode called "The Bet", revolving around Elaine Benes
Elaine Benes
Elaine Marie Benes is a fictional character on the American television sitcom Seinfeld , played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Elaine's best friend is her ex-boyfriend Jerry Seinfeld; she is also good friends with George Costanza and Cosmo Kramer...
(Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Scarlett Elizabeth Louis-Dreyfus is an American actress and comedienne, widely known for her sitcom roles in Seinfeld and The New Adventures of Old Christine....
) buying a handgun. The script's gun content was deemed too provocative and, in little time, Seinfeld and David wrote "The Phone Message" to fill the production void. Though the episode met with positive critical responses, its initial broadcast on February 13, 1991, was watched by an underwhelming audience of 13 million viewers, causing NBC to put the show on a two-month hiatus.
Plot
George is excited when he finds that he and Jerry are having dates on the same night. Both of their dates go well up to the point that they have to say goodnight. George's date Carol (Tory Polone) asks George to come up to her place for some coffee, but George tells her that he can't drink coffee at night because it "keeps [him] up". Once she leaves his car he realizes he made a mistake, as "coffee" is a euphemismEuphemism
A euphemism is the substitution of a mild, inoffensive, relatively uncontroversial phrase for another more frank expression that might offend or otherwise suggest something unpleasant to the audience...
for sex. Jerry's date Donna (Gretchen German
Gretchen German
Gretchen German is a Canadian-born American actress who has appeared in both film and television. She is best known for her guest roles in an episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld, an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and as Joe Hackett's girlfriend, Gail, during the third season of Wings...
) remarks that she likes a cotton Dockers
Dockers
Dockers is a brand of khaki garments from Levi Strauss & Co.Levi Strauss & Co., then specialized in denim, introduced the Dockers brand in 1986. Dockers became a leading brand of business casual clothing for men led by Bob Siegel. In 1987, Dockers introduced a women's line...
commercial that Jerry absolutely hates, and with that ends his interest in her.
George decides to call Carol, but gets her answering machine. He leaves her an extremely long, obnoxious message, and is concerned that she will think he is an idiot. Jerry's friend Elaine Benes
Elaine Benes
Elaine Marie Benes is a fictional character on the American television sitcom Seinfeld , played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Elaine's best friend is her ex-boyfriend Jerry Seinfeld; she is also good friends with George Costanza and Cosmo Kramer...
(Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Julia Scarlett Elizabeth Louis-Dreyfus is an American actress and comedienne, widely known for her sitcom roles in Seinfeld and The New Adventures of Old Christine....
) tells George how something similar happened to her brother-in-law, who took care of the problem by secretly switching the tape. Jerry advises George to wait a few days for Carol to call back; George agrees, but continues to leave increasingly angry—and eventually almost hostile—messages on her machine. When he discovers she was out of town, he decides to go through with the plan of changing the tape. Frustrated by his inability to use an answering machine, George convinces Jerry to go with him. They decide to wait for Carol outside her apartment, and George will distract her while Jerry changes the tape. They succeed, but, just as they are about to leave Carol's apartment, she tells George that she had already heard the messages and found them funny, adding that she "loves jokes like that."
"The Bet"
Larry Charles
Larry Charles is an American writer, director, and producer. He is best known as a staff writer for the American sitcom Seinfeld for its first 5 seasons, contributing some of the show's darkest and most absurd storylines...
had written a script for an episode entitled "The Bet". In the episode, which was also known as "The Gun", Elaine would bet against Jerry on the ease of buying a handgun to protect herself. The episode's subplot revolved around Jerry's neighbour Kramer
Cosmo Kramer
Cosmo Kramer, usually referred to as simply "Kramer", is a fictional character on the American television sitcom Seinfeld , played by Michael Richards...
returning from a vacation in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, claiming he had sex with a stewardess on his flight home. George and Jerry would remain skeptical, and make a bet with him; eventually, George, Jerry and Elaine would go to the airport to check if Kramer was telling the truth. In writing "The Bet", Charles had attempted to make a "funny, dark-themed" episode. Sets for the episode were built. Bobbi Jo Lathan was cast as flight attendant Lucy Merrit and Ernie Sabella
Ernie Sabella
Ernest "Ernie" Sabella is an American actor, who is best known for his role as the official voice of Pumbaa from the The Lion King.-Life and career:...
was cast as gun salesman Mo Korn, who was described in the script as "overweight, greasy, slow and low-key".
However, during the read-through
Read-through
The read-through, table-read, or table work is a stage of film and theatre production when an organized reading around a table of the screenplay or script by the actors with speaking parts is conducted....
of the episode, it was negatively received by cast and crew members; both Alexander and director Tom Cherones
Tom Cherones
Tom Cherones is an American director and producer of several TV series.-Early life:He grew up in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, where his father operated a radio and TV repair shop. His grandfather was a Greek immigrant. From 1961 to 1965, he was a lieutenant in the United States Navy...
felt the episode's gun content was too provocative. When she read a scene that referenced the assassinations of John F. Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
and William McKinley
William McKinley
William McKinley, Jr. was the 25th President of the United States . He is best known for winning fiercely fought elections, while supporting the gold standard and high tariffs; he succeeded in forging a Republican coalition that for the most part dominated national politics until the 1930s...
, Louis-Dreyfus turned to Alexander and stated, "I'm not gonna do this." Though they did not want to, the cast started rehearsing. After twenty minutes they convinced Cherones to talk to Charles. On his way to Charles' office, Cherones bumped into NBC executive Glenn Padnick, with whom he talked to Charles, eventually agreeing not to film the episode. Commenting on the episode, Charles stated "You know, it would have been an interesting show, but we couldn't solve the funny problem of it. It never seemed to quite be as funny as it should be and, because of that, the balance was off and the darkness kind of enveloped it, and it could never really emerge from that darkness and become what it should have been. So, it was disappointing but also understandable." Both Lathan and Sabella were given roles in later episodes; Lathan appeared as Patti in the season three
Seinfeld (season 3)
Season three of Seinfeld, an American television series created by Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, began airing on September 18, 1991 on NBC, a U.S. broadcast television network. It comprises 23 episodes and concluded its initial airing on May 6, 1992. "The Tape", "The Pen", and "The Letter" are...
episode "The Stranded
The Stranded
"The Stranded" is the twenty-seventh episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. It is the tenth episode of the show's third season. It first aired on November 27, 1991...
", while Sabella was cast as the "greasy naked guy" in "The Subway", also for the show's third season.
"The Phone Message"
Series co-creator Larry DavidLarry David
Lawrence Gene "Larry" David is an American actor, writer, comedian and producer. He is best known as the co-creator , head writer, and executive producer of the television series Seinfeld from 1989 to 1996, and for creating the 1999 HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, a partially improvised sitcom in...
co-wrote the episode with Seinfeld in two days, as, with the cancellation of "The Bet", they had little time to write the script. George's storyline was largely based on David's personal experiences of leaving phone messages to women that would mean the end of a relationship. David had previously written a sketch for Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...
regarding a man who went into his girlfriend's house to erase her answering machine. The sketch was never produced, which allowed David to use its storyline for the Seinfeld episode. Jerry's storyline was based on Seinfeld's own predicaments, as he extremely disliked the cotton Dockers commercial discussed in the episode.
A few changes were made to the first few drafts of the script. Additional dialogue between George and Jerry regarding dates during the 1850s was removed for timing purposes. During his date with Donna, Jerry would mention his remark about ponies in the earlier episode "The Pony Remark
The Pony Remark
"The Pony Remark" is the second episode of the second season of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld, and the seventh episode overall. The episode was written by series co-creators Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, based on a remark David made once....
", but this was later changed to remark about leaving a note when committing suicide. Initially, Kramer's first name was revealed in the episode; though the information was removed from the eventual script, the idea of revealing Kramer's first name would be further exploited in the season six
Seinfeld (season 6)
Season six of Seinfeld, an American comedy television series created by Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, began airing on September 22, 1994, and concluded on May 18, 1995, on NBC...
episode "The Switch
The Switch
"The Switch" is the 97th episode of NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 11th episode for the 6th season. It aired on January 5, 1995. This episode is notable for revealing Kramer's first name as Cosmo.-Plot:...
".
Gretchen German was cast as Donna, Jerry's date. Gina Hecht
Gina Hecht
-Television:* 1979–1981: Mork & Mindy .... Jean DaVinci* 1979: Hizzonner .... Melanie* 1987: Everything's Relative .... Emily Cabot* 1988: HeartBeat .... Patty* 1989: Baywatch: "Panic at Malibu Pier" .... Gina Pomeroy...
, who would go on to portray George's psychiatrist Dana Foley during the show's fourth season
Seinfeld (season 4)
Season four of Seinfeld, an American comedy television series created by Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, began airing on August 12, 1992, and concluded on May 20, 1993, on NBC.-Production:...
, also auditioned for the part. Tory Polone, who portrayed George's date Carol, had previously appeared in the 1989 television films When we were Young and Sparks. The episode was first read by the cast on Friday, December 14, 1990. Table reads usually took place on Wednesdays, but the read-through of "The Bet" had been held on December 12. Directed by Cherones, as were all other episodes of the second season, "The Phone Message" was filmed in front of a live audience on December 19, 1990. Jerry's stand-up routine had been filmed one day earlier.
Reception
The episode was first broadcast in the United States on February 13, 1991, on NBC. "The Phone Message" received a Nielsen ratingNielsen Ratings
Nielsen ratings are the audience measurement systems developed by Nielsen Media Research, in an effort to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States...
of 9.7 and an audience share of 15, indicating that 16.1% of American households watched the episode, and that 26% of all televisions in use at the time were tuned into it. Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research
Nielsen Media Research is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre films and newspapers...
also estimated that approximately 13 million American viewers watched the episode, making it the 59th most-watched show of the week it was broadcast in. Disappointed with the ratings, as earlier episodes had averaged between 19 and 22 million viewers each, the network put the show on a two-month hiatus. When the series returned in its original timeslot behind Cheers, its high ratings and increasing popularity led NBC to order the full season.
"The Phone Message" gained positive responses from critics. Jerry's dumping Donna because she likes the commercial has been frequently cited as an example of how the show's central characters would often break up with people for "fantastically insignificant reasons". In a 1998 article, the staff of South Carolina newspaper The State cited "The Phone Message" as "the first episode that made an impression on [them]", referring to Seinfeld as "the comedic version of Hill Street Blues
Hill Street Blues
Hill Street Blues is an American serial police drama that was first aired on NBC in 1981 and ran for 146 episodes on primetime into 1987. Chronicling the lives of the staff of a single police precinct in an unnamed American city, the show received critical acclaim and its production innovations ...
." Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
critics Mike Flaherty and Mary Kaye Schilling graded
Academic grading in the United States
Academic grading in the United States most commonly takes on the form of five letter grades. Historically, the grades were A, B, C, D, and F—A being the highest and F, denoting failure, the lowest. In the mid-twentieth century, many American educational institutions—especially in the Midwest —began...
the episode with a B+, calling it "the first of two consecutive and classic George angst-fests, as Jason Alexander—master of frantic venom—begins to make the character his own."
Errors
- When the door to Jerry's apartment is opened, the apartment number is clearly 3A, as opposed to 5A in other episodes
- Jerry tells Donna that he has never watched one "I Love Lucy" episode, but in "The Apartment" he mentions Fred Mertz to his show audience