Shaq (11 Nov. 2001)

After Larry accidentally trips and injures Shaq during a Lakers game, everything seems to start going his way.

Director:

Dean Parisot

Stars:

Larry David, Jeff Garlin, Cheryl Hines

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Larry David	...	Larry David
Jeff Garlin	...	Jeff Greene
Cheryl Hines	...	Cheryl David
Richard Lewis	...	Richard Lewis
Paul Dooley	...	Cheryl's Father
Shaquille O'Neal	...	Shaquille O'Neal
Joseph Brown	...	Coffee Counter Person
Scott Brown	...	Man of Steel
Dort Clark	...	Splashed Man
Evette Dabney	...	Worker
Mark DeCarlo	...	Albert Mayo
Shelly Desai	...	Janitor
Barry Diamond	...	Mental Patient
Angelo Di Mascio Jr.	...	Man in White Coat #1 (as Angelo Dimascio Jr.)
Jay Johnston	...	Jeremy

Storyline

Larry gets court side seats to the Lakers home opener. He's later vilified when he accidentally trips and injures Shaq. But after the incident, Larry uses it to get out of a number of unappealing situations, and things finally start going his way for a change. That is, until he meets Shaq to make up for the incident.

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 November 2001 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Home Box Office (HBO)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Quotes

Larry: Apparently, no one wants to have anything to do with me because of the Shaq thing.
Cheryl: That's... kinda sad.
Larry: What, are you kidding?

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Connections

Features Seinfeld: The Contest (1992)

User Reviews

Something for nothing

Larry has a thing about people that will think they are entitled to ask him for favors that border on impositions. The start of this show finds Larry and Cheryl having dinner with two couples. Bob asks Larry if he could write him a letter of recommendation as he is applying for a job with a local museum. The wife of the other dinner companion wants Larry to write something funny on the book she's preparing as a birthday gift. When the check comes, everyone is so involved that Larry keeps asking about his share and in desperation throws way too much for their dinner.

Cheryl parents are in town. They are a noisy couple, but what can he do? In the meantime, at the golf club locker room Jeff informs him about the great seats court-side for the Lakers game. The doctor in charge of the team is also changing and Larry asks him to take a look at something in his back, to what the man tells him to make an appointment.

When Jeff informs Larry he can't go to the game, he suggests he takes Richard Lewis instead. Larry's loyalties are with the NY Knicks and not with the local team. Not soon after the game starts, Shaquille O'Neal, who has been sitting at the Lakers' bench, is told to go play. O'Neal not noticing Larry's stretched legs, trips, and falls. The result is an injury that will take him away from the game for about two months. The Lakers' fans realize Larry is the culprit and they start shouting at the person responsible for their idol's fall.

Larry feels so bad, he doesn't know what to do to make things up with Shaq. In the meantime, his in-laws are furious because of the way Larry doesn't let them watch their favorite program in his agitated state because of what he has caused to Shaquille. Jeff is also mad at Larry because the Lakers will not give him tickets any more. The dinner friends that have asked for favors come back to tell Larry his letter of introduction is no longer wanted, and he doesn't have to write a funny page for the other person.

Larry, who has heard Shaq is a big fan of Seinfeld, goes to the hospital with all the tapes from the show. On the way to the hospital Larry's luck begin to change. Standing at a corner, waiting for the light to change, the man next to him is drenched by a passing car while he remains dry. Before seeing the Laker star, Larry stops a doctor in a hallway to ask if he can check what bothers him in the back and is told it's a benign thing, but to stay out of the sun. Shaquille is in a forgiving mood and asks to see his favorite Seinfeld tape. Larry, who has watched a game being played by Shaq, his girlfriend and the team doctor who was so nasty to him, realizes the doctor, who has been winning, is cheating. He tells Shaq, who immediately fires the man.

As he is leaving, Larry sees the friendly doctor he saw on his way to visit with O'Neal being led back by security guards who tell him, the man belongs in the psychiatric floor and is not a doctor. As he stands in the corner, a car comes by and goes over some water and drenches Larry, whose luck, evidently, ran out!

Larry David loves to explore the actions of the human beings that are part of his world. In this case, the way people take for granted the fact that even casual acquaintances will do anything to take advantage of whatever degree of friendship is for real to get favors done without any consideration of the other person's feelings. Larry, on the other hand, Larry tells us he is not immune to the practice himself.

Dean Parisot directed with great timing and as usual, he got his cast to excel in this funny installment.