The Trip: Part 1 (12 Aug. 1992)

When Jerry is asked to appear on The Tonight Show in Los Angeles, George accompanies him to look for Kramer.

Director:

Tom Cherones

Writers:

Larry David (creator), Jerry Seinfeld (creator),

Stars:

Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Michael Richards

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Jerry Seinfeld	...	Jerry Seinfeld
Julia Louis-Dreyfus	...	Elaine Benes (credit only)
Michael Richards	...	Kramer
Jason Alexander	...	George Costanza
Peter Murnik	...	Lt. Martel
Elmarie Wendel	...	Helene
Debi A. Monahan	...	Chelsea
Ricky Dean Logan	...	The Freak
Vaughn Armstrong	...	Lt. Coleman
Keith Morrison	...	Newscaster
Winston J. Rocha	...	Security Agent
Manfred Melcher	...	Officer
Christopher Michael Moore	...	Studio Guard
Dyana Ortelli	...	Chambermaid
Michael Gerard	...	Receptionist

Storyline

Jerry is set to appear on the Tonight Show in Los Angeles and asks George if he'd like to come along. They also decide to take the opportunity to see if they can find Kramer. For his part, Kramer has been going to auditions and trying to sell a treatment for a movie. At the NBC studios, George tries to talk Corbin Bersen and George Wendt into using his ideas. Jerry and George are taken aback when they see on TV news that Kramer is wanted by the police and is a suspected serial killer.

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Plot Keywords:

newscast | pay phone | pipe smoking | los angeles california | shower cap | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 August 1992 (USA)

Filming Locations:

CBS Studio Center - 4024 Radford Avenue, Studio City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Shapiro/West Productions, Castle Rock Entertainment

Technical Specs

Runtime:

23 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

4:3

Did You Know?

Trivia

First appearance of Ruth Cohen as the later self named cashier Ruthie Cohen in the diner Monks. Ruth would go on to become the most frequent character on the show besides the main four, due to that she was present in basically every scene at Monks from this episode and forward, although not always seen, depending on what camera angles where used in the diner. She however only received on-screen credit a few times, when she had a couple of lines of dialogue during the last seasons.

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Connections

References L.A. Law (1986)

User Reviews

The beginning of true greatness

The signs were clearly displayed in the Season Three finale The Keys, and The Trip: Part 1 confirms it: Seinfeld's fourth season is the show at its most inspired, provocative and constantly, endearingly funny. It's the only time the series won the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy (the remaining five seasons lost out to another NBC sitcom classic, Frasier), and it's also the year that saw Seinfeld become the ratings success it had deserved to be since 1990 (courtesy of Rick Ludwin's decision to air the show right after Cheers, which was in its final season).

Picking up from the discovery that Kramer has moved to Los Angeles and become an actor, The Trip has Jerry go to L.A. to make an appearance on The Tonight Show and George come with him to look for Kramer. What they don't know is that their friend is involved in a case of mistaken identity, and while Kramer gets in more trouble than usual, George manages to make a total ass out of himself once again by suggesting some of his crazy ideas to famous NBC stars such as Corbin Bernsen (L.A. Law) and George Wendt (Norm from Cheers).

The true genius of The Trip: Part 1 lies in what can be seen as a foreshadowing of the season's now legendary story arc about Jerry and George making a sitcom. The storyline isn't actually introduced until Episode 3, but the program's willingness to make fun of its own network is already visible in most of the episode, be it when Jerry talks to Jay Leno (a parody of the comedian's real-life guest appearance on the famous talk show) or the instantly hilarious moment when George asks Wendt if they could use another setting instead of the bar (it would be like asking Larry David to stop using Jerry's apartment).

In short: the show's love for self-mockery is most evident in the fourth season, and an appetizer of some of the series' finest moments are visible in this episode. It's so good, it doesn't even matter that Elaine is absent for the first time since the pilot (in which she didn't even exist yet).