The Little Jerry

"The Little Jerry"
Seinfeld episode
Episode no.	Season 8 Episode 11
Directed by	Andy Ackerman
Written by	Jennifer Crittenden
Production code	811
Original air date	January 9, 1997
Guest stars
Andrea Bendewald John Michael Higgins Miguel Sandoval Paul Perri Al White
Season 8 episodes
September 1996 – May 1997 "The Foundation" "The Soul Mate" "The Bizarro Jerry" "The Little Kicks" "The Package" "The Fatigues" "The Checks" "The Chicken Roaster" "The Abstinence" "The Andrea Doria" "The Little Jerry" "The Money" "The Comeback" "The Van Buren Boys" "The Susie" "The Pothole" "The English Patient" "The Nap" "The Yada Yada" "The Millennium" "The Muffin Tops" "The Summer of George"
List of Seinfeld episodes

"The Little Jerry" is the 145th episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 11th episode for the eighth season.

The table reading for this episode took place on Sunday, November 24, 1996, and the majority of this episode was filmed in front of a live studio audience on Wednesday, November 27, 1996 (a day before Thanksgiving). It premiered on Thursday, January 9, 1997, being the first Seinfeld episode to air in the new year.

Plot

At Monk's, Kramer tells Jerry that the owner of a nearby bodega, Marcelino (Miguel Sandoval), posted one of Jerry’s bounced checks on his cash-register, along with the other bad ones. The check has a picture of a clown holding balloons.

At this moment, George walks into the restaurant, in a very happy mood. He explains that The Susan Ross Foundation made a large donation to a women’s prison, and he gets to go there to "check it out." Elaine then makes an entrance, introducing her new boyfriend Kurt (John Michael Higgins), who shaves his head.

Jerry goes to the bodega where his check is, and pays Marcelino what he owes. Marcelino, however, refuses to take the check down under "store policy." George goes to the women’s prison, and meets the warden: Betsy (Kathryn Joosten), but is disappointed as to how tame and peaceful the building is. George then proceeds to ask "out" the prison’s librarian, Celia (Andrea Bendewald), finding many pros with dating a woman who’s in jail.

Kramer announces that he bought what he thinks is a hen (whom he named "Little Jerry Seinfeld") for its eggs, but later finds out that it is a rooster. Meanwhile, Elaine is thoroughly disappointed in Kurt’s bald head after seeing the hair he could have if he didn’t keep shaving it off. She persuades him to regrow his hair, but is even more shocked to discover that he’s going bald. He soon proposes to Elaine in order to have as much time with her as possible before he goes completely bald.

Marcelino convinces Kramer to put Little Jerry in a cock fight, which he winds up winning. Marcelino then makes a deal with Jerry: he’ll take his check down only if he can have Little Jerry. Kramer strongly opposes this transaction, though. When George finds out that Celia is up for parole, he desperately tries to put a stop to it, judging that he interacts with her better when she’s in prison. He succeeds in preventing her from getting the parole, but doesn’t stop her from unexpectedly breaking out, which she does later on.

One of the last scenes in this episode takes place at the cock fight, where Little Jerry is faced with a huge and skilled opponent. Kramer dives after Little Jerry, trying to protect him, but winds up getting violently pecked by the opposing bird.

Celia is soon tracked down and arrested, and Kurt is also arrested after being mistaken for George because of his baldness. We then see Elaine visiting him in jail due to his fighting one of the arresting officers, and returns his engagement ring after finding out that by the time he gets out (10-14 months), he'll be bald.

Cultural references

The 1974 film Caged Heat and the television series American Gladiators are mentioned in this episode. Jerry buys a pack of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit gum at the bodega at one point during this episode, finding its price of 85 cents to be "outrageous."

Production

Continuity errors

On the check Jerry bounces at the bodega, the amount is incorrectly spelled as "fourty dollars". A continuity error is made at the end of the scene when George discovers Celia is available for parole. George had given her two cartons of cigarettes; in one shot she's holding the cartons, but in the next shot she's holding a bag with the cartons in it, presumably from an earlier take. Pecking is not an important move in cock fights, as depicted in this episode. Roosters mainly attack each other with their legs. In some regional variations, a sharp artificial spur or a blade is attached to the area of the bird's natural spur, which is partially removed.

Deleted scene

A deleted scene from this episode shows Jerry and Elaine walking down the streets of New York, talking about the difference between a man who’s bald and acts bald, and a man with no hair.

Reception

This episode was very well-received. It gained a 23.0 Nielsen Rating and a 33 audience share, meaning that 23% of American households watched the episode, and 33% of all televisions in use at the time were tuned into it.

External links

• "The Little Jerry" at the Internet Movie Database
• "The Little Jerry" on Sony Pictures
• "The Little Jerry" at TV.com