"Seinfeld" The Pony Remark (1991)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Tom Cherones

Writers:

Larry David (creator) &
Jerry Seinfeld (creator) ...

TV Series:

"Seinfeld" (1990)

Original Air Date:

30 January 1991 (Season 2, Episode 2)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

Jerry fears that an inappropriate comment he made at a dinner party caused his relative's subsequent death. |

Plot Keywords:

Neurotic | Eccentric | Stand Up Comedian | Friendship | Neighbor

Cast

Jerry Seinfeld	...	Jerry Seinfeld
Julia Louis-Dreyfus	...	Elaine Benes
Michael Richards	...	Kramer
Jason Alexander	...	George
Liz Sheridan	...	Helen
Barney Martin	...	Morty
Rozsika Halmos	...	Manya
Len Lesser	...	Uncle Leo
David Fresco	...	Isaac
Scott N. Stevens	...	Intern
Earl Boen	...	Eulogist

Runtime:

23 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Canada:PG (video rating)

Company:

Shapiro/West Productions

Trivia:

Kramer steals the milk from Jerry's fridge and leaves the apartment when Jerry learns of Manya's death over the phone.

Goofs:

Continuity: Kramer's apartment number is usually 5B. But in this episode, when Jerry closes the door after his parents come back up, you can see that Kramer's apartment number is 3B.

Who figures an immigratant's gonna have a pony?

Great episode, full of great laughs and a very memorable plot line, but I wouldn't say I'm as impressed as most Seinfeld fans appear to be with it. I actually preferred the opening episode of season two, and felt it had much more laughs and interesting character development in it. Nevertheless, 'The Pony Remark' is a fine effort itself and is certainly one of the best I've seen thus far (8 episodes in to Seinfeld).

My main problem with the episode comes from the distinct lack of George, a character who I grew to love during the very first episode. Instead Larry and Jerry decide to focus this one on Elaine, hoping to maybe flesh out her character a little more. Unfortunately it still hasn't worked for me. I still don't get Elaine; don't know who she is as a character and don't really find her funny. This episode was a good chance to fix that, but ultimately it fails to do so.

Even Uncle Leo who is first introduced here, I feel I know more than Elaine. Maybe Elaine is more of subtle character than the rest featured so far, and I'm sure I'll grow to love her soon enough- but for now, her focus in this episode in place of George kind of ruined the episode in terms of laughs. Furthermore, I have the same problem with Jerry's parents, they seem like they have identity's here but it's still not clear at this point. So I had a real problem enjoying their scenes, at least until Jerry arrives to strengthen things up.

Kramer's brief involvement is humorous with Richards giving yet another amazing performance, which is always wonderful to watch. My favourite scene however comes from inside the Diner where Jerry, George and Elaine are eating whilst discussing George's sex life (briefly), the nature of spirits' travelling habits and Jerry's guilt over his relative's death. I think it's the way the dialogue is written in combination with the everyday-casual nature of the cast's tone that brings out the real comedy in this scene. Everything about it works, and it's a joy to watch, really helping to solidify the episode.

In addition to this I enjoyed the various stand-up scenes (as I always do) and thought the main plot involving the funeral being on the same day as Jerry's baseball final was pretty clever and evenly paced out. Overall, a great episode for sure, but perhaps missing the mark on some jokes here and there and failed to convince me of Elaine's character, again. Nevertheless I did get to know the rest of the characters a little bit more, so the characterisation on the whole, was good.