The Bookstore 

George is forced to buy a book he took with him into the bathroom. Jerry finds out that his Uncle Leo is a shoplifter. Elaine doesn't want to be known as the office skank. Kramer and Newman start a Hong Kong rickshaw business.

Director:

Andy Ackerman

Writers:

Larry David (created by), Jerry Seinfeld (created by)

Stars:

Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Michael Richards

Cast

Episode cast overview, first billed only:
Jerry Seinfeld	...	Jerry Seinfeld
Julia Louis-Dreyfus	...	Elaine Benes
Michael Richards	...	Cosmo Kramer
Jason Alexander	...	George Costanza
Wayne Knight	...	Newman
Barney Martin	...	Morty
Liz Sheridan	...	Helen
John O'Hurley	...	J. Peterman
Len Lesser	...	Uncle Leo
Jonathan Penner	...	Zach
Ted Rooney	...	Crichton
Jon Gries	...	Rusty
Sonya Eddy	...	Rebecca DeMornay
Merrin Dungey	...	Cashier
Kevin Ruf	...	Security Guard

Storyline

While at Brentano's, George is forced to buy an expensive art book after taking it into the bathroom. George has a hard time getting rid of said book. Jerry catches Uncle Leo shoplifting and has a hard time dealing with the situation. Kramer and Newman set up a rickshaw business using New York's homeless population but the plans quickly backfire. Elaine gets in trouble when she has a drunken make out session at Peterman's Christmas party and Peterman orders the guy to attend rehab.

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Plot Keywords:

rickshaw | party | shoplifting | knuckle tattoo | homeless man | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 April 1998 (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

George (Jason Alexander) deciding to steal another book and return it in order to even things out is similar to the story line in episode 3.10, Seinfeld: The Stranded (1991), when George claims the drugstore cashier shortchanged him $10 & he attempts to shoplift cold medicine in order to settle the score.

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Goofs

When Kramer (Michael Richards) attaches the hose to Jerry's (Jerry Seinfeld) kitchen sink, the sink is moving and it's clear it's not attached to the counter.

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Quotes

Elaine Benes: Yeah. Now I can break up with him. He's clean, and I'm the office hero.
Jerry Seinfeld: Seems like you're better at fake relationships than real ones.
Elaine Benes: Yeah, huh. I even got an idea out of it: the Detox Poncho.

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Connections

Referenced in Tucker Carlson Tonight: Episode dated 12 August 2019 (2019)

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Soundtracks

Seinfeld Theme Song
Written by Jonathan Wolff

User Reviews

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Seinfeld

Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the creators, of the dream sitcom for every stand up artist is the milestone set as an example on how to use your humor as a part of narrative. The series was clearly ahead of its time and fixated within that time limit when it was aired- or maybe not even then. This is how the series both remains timeless and also fails to test against time. The concept of the series- in fact there is an episode, where the series takes an almost meta turn, whispering the secretive meeting held within the confound of NBC walls about the pitch- is to just joke, just talk, analyse with a mockery tone, bombing brutally on a subject from the most privileged position under that circumstances. There is no storyline, no character development, no arc, no rhythm to follow. Usually, a film like such becomes more than a film with such an idea; take the Life Of Brian series. And similarly the series refuses to participate in the expected or not even expected aspects of the storytelling.

There is no end, no beginning, it captures a brief period with an agenda in mind that you will have the time of your life. But this is where this coherent plan backfires. First the runtime itself. Something so monotonous cannot withhold its audience for nine years. It is simply preposterous. For the style of the joke, the humor, the vocab of these characters, if as-planned is intended to be the same, will grow natural or normal to the viewers. This makes the relationship between the viewers and the characters, similar to what the viewers have in the outer world, maybe a friend or a family member.

Basically it would never be interesting, sure some cases would come up, just as chapters does in here, but that too will carry the momentum of just that brief period of screentime. Another major challenge it faces is, in order to stay far away from the textbook sitcom structure, the character has to and does deny on getting on or blending in with the society. Now that's fine. But in order to last longer they had to create an unfair world that takes uncalled detours just for the laughs, ignoring both emotional and ethical aspect of it, resulting into a physical distance that you, as an audience, carry for the rest of the series. By the end, it gets difficult to survive and something so beloved, something so smart, Seinfeld is left under a dry heap of jokes.

The Bookstore

Seinfeld's family doesn't disappoint and this time his Uncle is on fire, spewing chaos blatantly. But the real issues lies under Anderson's pocket where his money-saving and lazy-working debacle, both are tickled annoyingly, he has to get angry.