The Handicap Spot

"The Handicap Spot"
Seinfeld episode
Episode no.	Season 4 Episode 22
Directed by	Tom Cherones
Written by	Larry David
Production code	420
Original air date	May 13, 1993
Season 4 episodes
August 1992 – May 1993 "The Trip, Part 1" "The Trip, Part 2" "The Pitch" "The Ticket" "The Wallet" "The Watch" "The Bubble Boy" "The Cheever Letters" "The Opera" "The Virgin" "The Contest" "The Airport" "The Pick" "The Movie" "The Visa" "The Shoes" "The Outing" "The Old Man" "The Implant" "The Junior Mint" "The Smelly Car" "The Handicap Spot" "The Pilot, Part 1" "The Pilot, Part 2"
List of Seinfeld episodes

"The Handicap Spot" is the 22nd episode of the fourth season and the 62nd overall episode of Seinfeld. It aired on May 13, 1993.

Plot

The group travels to a mall in Lynbrook to buy a big-screen television as an engagement gift for their friend, "The Drake" (Rick Overton). George, who has borrowed his father's treasured car (a 1978-1980 model Mercury Monarch), parks in a handicapped parking space. The four assume they will only be a few minutes. However, they are mistaken and are in the store for much longer. When they return, they find an angry mob starting to trash the vehicle because a disabled woman, who had to park in a distant spot because of their illegal parking, has been injured in a wheelchair accident. After sneaking away for a time, they return to find the car completely demolished.

George invents a preposterous story about being cut off in traffic to explain the accident. While visiting Lola (Donna Evans Merlo), the injured handicapped woman, at the hospital, Kramer falls in love and feels compelled to replace her wheelchair. George and Kramer go on to buy a used wheelchair which is much cheaper than a brand-new one. Jerry and Elaine go to have lunch with The Drake after missing his party and discover that he and his fiancée have broken off their engagement.

George's father Frank Costanza receives an award for outstanding service in helping the handicapped. In the middle of receiving the award, he is arrested for George's parking in the handicap spot, as Frank is the registered owner of the vehicle. As a result of the accusation, Frank's award is taken away from him. Amusingly, George's father forces him to become his butler as punishment, which was initially an idea for the pilot episode that George is writing with Jerry.

Lola breaks up with Kramer (telling him that he's not good looking enough for her and to drop dead) and is later seen screaming and rolling down a hill in her wheelchair, which she cannot stop due to faulty brakes. George's first job as his father's butler is to retrieve the bigscreen TV at The Drake's house, so that it can be donated to charity. George and Kramer retrieve the TV from the ex-fiancée's apartment, then reunite with Jerry and Elaine to return it for a refund. In the final scene, the gang is once again looking for a parking space at the mall, and Kramer tries to talk George into parking next to a fire hydrant, using near-identical rationales as he had at the handicapped spot.

Continuity

• This is the first appearance of Frank Costanza who is George's father. Frank Costanza was originally played by John Randolph in this episode and not by Jerry Stiller who later replaced Randolph in the part. In 1995, the scenes featuring Randolph were re-shot with Stiller for syndication in order to maintain better continuity. Both versions, which were shown on TV, can be seen on the Season 4 DVD set, along with an introduction from Jason Alexander explaining the existence of two sets of scenes for Frank Costanza.

• Upon parking, Kramer says "Make sure we don't forget where the car's parked," prompting Jerry, George, and Elaine to exasperatedly assure him that they will remember. This is a callback to the memorable Season 3 episode The Parking Garage, chronicling the gang's fruitless efforts to locate Kramer's car in a parking garage. Jerry would later make a similar comment, "remember where we're parked", in the season 9's The Puerto Rican Day, after his car has been tipped over on the sidewalk by an angry mob.

• While at his parents' house, George sits on the couch and reads Glamour, the magazine that got him in trouble in The Contest.

• Jerry mentions to George that he is considering 'getting a yoyo'. This is a reference to 'The Junior Mint' (Ep. 60), where Jerry is found to play with a yoyo in the hospital. First he does it to non-verbally allude to the possibility that a formerly obese person who had recently slimmed will gain weight again ("yo-yo effect"). Later, he attempts to impress a physician with it.

Other references

The "love the Drake" line from this episode became popular among media and fans of the Drake University men's basketball team during its run to the Missouri Valley Conference regular season and tournament championships in 2008.^{[citation needed]}

The woman Jerry is talking to after Lola has her accident is Kathy Kinney, who would later become famous as Mimi in The Drew Carey Show.