The Bubble Boy 

On their way to the family cabin, George and Susan visit a boy who lives in a bubble; Kramer and Naomi start a fire that ends up burning down the cabin.

Director:

Tom Cherones

Writers:

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

Stars:

Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Michael Richards

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
Jerry Seinfeld	...	Jerry Seinfeld
Julia Louis-Dreyfus	...	Elaine Benes
Michael Richards	...	Cosmo Kramer
Jason Alexander	...	George Costanza
Heidi Swedberg	...	Susan Ross
Jessica Lundy	...	Naomi
Brian Doyle-Murray	...	Mel Sanger
Carol Mansell	...	Mrs. Sanger
O-Lan Jones	...	Waitress
Jon Hayman	...	Donald Sanger (voice)
George Gerdes	...	Man #1
Tony Papenfuss	...	Man #2 (as Tony Pappenfuss)

Storyline

George and Susan invite Jerry, his girlfriend Naomi, Elaine and Kramer to spend the weekend at her parents' cabin upstate. Naomi bows out after Jerry makes a comment on her laugh and Kramer isn't interested. After Elaine goads him into it, Jerry agrees to stop off on the way and visit a fan who lives in a plastic bubble enclosed room due to an autoimmune disease. They go in separate cars and George drives so fast that Jerry and Elaine lose them and not having the boy's address end up in a diner. Kramer and Naomi meanwhile decide to go to the cabin with unfortunate results.

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Plot Keywords:

plastic bubble | trivial pursuit | diner | strangulation | house fire | 

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

PG

Did You Know?

Trivia

O-Lan Jones, who plays the diner waitress, was often typecast in waitress and barmaid roles, playing similar characters in a number of movies such as Natural Born Killers and The Truman Show.

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Goofs

While George is wrestling with the bubble boy, he pulls him forward and for a moment the top of the actor's head can be seen, distinctly outside of a bubble.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Jerry Seinfeld: Have you ever called someone up, and you're disappointed when they answered the phone? You wanted the machine, you know, and you're always kind of thrown off. You go, "Oh, I, uh... I... I didn't know you were there. I, uh, just wanted to leave a message saying sorry I missed you." So here what we have is two people, hate each other, don't really ever want to talk, but the phone machine is like this relationship respirator keeping these marginal, brain-dead relationships alive, and ...

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Connections

Referenced in Bubble Boy (2001)

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Soundtracks

Seinfeld Theme Song
Written by Jonathan Wolff

User Reviews

"He lives in a bubble!"

After a relatively normal start of the season, the "show about nothing" pitches one of its silliest, and therefore most brilliant stories, courtesy of another exquisite collaboration between Larry David and the Emmy-winning Larry Charles (The Fix-Up, back in Season 3), who again use very dark humor to cover a more serious subject (an approach which resulted in some angry reactions at the time of the original broadcast).

The original premise is that Jerry, George, Elaine and Susan Ross (Heidi Swedberg), an NBC employee who's secretly dating Costanza, have planned to go to a cabin in the woods, belonging to Susan's parents. Before they leave, Jerry and Elaine meet a man (Brian Doyle-Murray, Bill's brother), who asks the comedian to come visit his son, a sick boy who's forced to live inside a plastic "bubble". Unfortunately, Jerry gets lost on the way, and George and Susan end up meeting the bubble boy in his place. As for the cabin... Well, let's just say Kramer comes along...

Proving that no subject, no matter how delicate, is untouchable in comedy, David and Charles take a very serious and real topic (which also inspired a Jake Gyllenhaal-starring movie) and turn it into the perfect playground for their comedic mischief, here depicted best in George's open conflict with the bubble boy over a game of Trivial Pursuit. In fact, this is really a George episode, as he hijacks all the best scenes, from a hilarious phone message he leaves on Jerry's machine to the impeccably timed ending, making for 20 minutes of non-stop laughs. Oh, and just so we're clear: it's "Moors", not "Moops".

Details

Official Sites:

Hulu Sony Pictures Television

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

7 October 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