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Rob Cesternino and Akiva Wienerkur continue their journey to watch every Seinfeld episode as they discuss Season 6, Episode 2, “The Big Salad.”
Rob Cesternino and Akiva Wienerkur were glad that Newman never dated their wives so they could discuss this week’s recap of the latest episode in their run through the Seinfeld series. This week, they took on “The Big Salad”, which first aired September 29, 1994 as part of season six. The episode was written by the Larry David.
First Akiva shared this week’s Seinfeld news. Julia Louis-Dreyfus turned 55 this week, and Jason Alexander appeared on The Nerdist Podcast, where he discussed the unique contract negotiations the cast had between season eight and nine. He also mentioned how he thought a spin off with Jackie Childs, or the Seinfeld and Costanza parents would have been great.
In this episode, Jerry dates a woman Margaret, but after seeing George and his new girlfriend trying so hard, he feels like dating is too embarrassing, so he wants to avoid go outside with her. Things turn further worse when he learns that Margaret once dated Newman, but he dumped her. He can’t let this go, learning from Newman that he just didn’t find her pretty enough, souring Jerry on Margaret altogether to the point he can’t even kiss her. Newman takes every opportunity to needle Jerry about this, which further turns off Jerry, leading him to break it off with Margaret.
George is dating a sophisticated woman named Julie, who’s interests are far different than his. In an effort to impress her, he buys Elaine a big salad at Monk’s, though he can’t let it go when Julie takes credit for the purchase when giving it to Elaine. In a later scene, George tells Elaine how he actually bought the salad, though Elaine is not impressed at all. Elaine complains to Julie about how George wanted credit for the salad purchase, causing Julie to break up with him.
Elaine is tasked by Mr. Pitt to find a specific mechanical pencil. When the creepy salesman at the stationary store tries to hit on her and get her number, she gives Jerry’s number to thwart him off. The salesman calls Jerry’s several times to give meaningless updates about his progress on the pen, but she ducks every call. Eventually, Elaine decides to buy the pencil somewhere else, really letting down the creepy salesman to the point he guilts her into going on a date with him.
Kramer’s story starts with him describing an argument he had with his golf partner, former baseball player Steve Gendason. Gendason violated a rule, so Kramer gave him a penalty stroke, which enraged Gendason, causing a huge argument. Later on in the episode, Jerry sees a news report about how Gendason murdered a dry cleaner after getting in an argument over a stained garment. Kramer feels guilty for putting Gendason in the mindset to commit this crime. He makes amends by driving the getaway car for Gendason, a scene exactly like the OJ Simpson car chase.
There were several great tangents by Akiva and Rob this week. First they discussed how the writers of the show must have had a hard time with the string of new girlfriends Jerry and George have each episode. Next they talked about the correlation between this episode and the OJ Simpson ordeal that happened the summer prior to this airing. Akiva wondered if Rob was a museum guy, but Rob has never been predisposed to them.
In 2016, there would be only be a couple things that would be different. They all could have followed the Gendason situation on the internet, and DNA evidence would have sunk Gendason.
Akiva gave the episode a ranking of 95, feeling it was more enjoyable the first watch. Both cast their letter grades on each of the core four. They thought Jerry deserved a B, and Elaine deserved a D, since it didn’t go anywhere. Akiva thought George deserved an A-, while Rob thought a B+. Lastly, they thought Kramer deserved a B+.
The email bag was pretty full this week. Johnny De Silveira offered some insight to the Miss America winners. He also asked what ever happened to Gendason, to which Akiva thought it probably mirrored the OJ thing. Amir thought Julie should have known handing the big salad to Elaine would mean she was taking credit. Amir also noted that Jerry does have a problem with dry cleaners.
Craig thought Newman had his most complete story in this episode. He wondered if either of them have dated and dumped a woman out of their league, to which Rob laughed. Craig also wondered if Newman is an enigma wrapped in a riddle or a Twinkie, and they both thought Twinkie. Liz wanted to thank them for discussing Making a Murder, and she wondered if either of them needed credit for something they’ve done. Both of them agreed that they do want to be recognized. Finally, Chester wondered why Jerry would pay for pens, since you can get a free one just about anywhere.
Tune in next week as the guys will recap “The Pledge Drive”. Send in your questions by emailing Seinfeld@postshowreca ps.com. Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast by going to postshowrecaps.com/ seinfeldITunes where you can rate and review the podcast. You can get a discussion going about the podcast by leaving a comment on the show page, and as always, you can follow them on Twitter @robcesternino and @keev26.
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