The Serenity Now

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"The Serenity Now"
Seinfeld episode
Frank Costanza shouting "Serenity now!"
Episode no.	Season 9 Episode 159
Written by	Steve Koren
Directed by	Andy Ackerman
Original airdate	October 9, 1997
Guest stars
Lori Loughlin & Matt McCoy
Season 9 episodes
Seinfeld – Season 9 September 1997 – May 1998
"The Butter Shave" "The Voice" "The Serenity Now" "The Blood" "The Junk Mail" "The Merv Griffin Show" "The Slicer" "The Betrayal" "The Apology" "The Strike" "The Dealership" "The Reverse Peephole" "The Cartoon" "The Strong Box" "The Wizard" "The Burning" "The Bookstore" "The Frogger" "The Maid" "The Puerto Rican Day" "The Chronicle, Part 1" "The Chronicle, Part 2" "The Finale, Part 1" "The Finale, Part 2"
List of Seinfeld episodes

"The Serenity Now" is the 159th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 3rd episode of the 9th and final season. It aired in the U.S. on October 9, 1997.

[edit] Plot

Frank Costanza is advised to say "serenity now" aloud every time his blood pressure is in danger of going up, but he yells it instead. Jerry's girlfriend gives his Knicks tickets away. She comments that she has never seen him get "real mad." George gets Kramer to help him fix his parents' screen door. They remove the old door and Kramer takes it with him. Frank is selling personal computers in his garage, he wants to bring George into his business. Mr. Lippman's son takes advantage of "becoming a man" at his bar mitzvah to tongue-kiss Elaine.

Kramer installs the screen door outside his apartment to give his apartment "the cool evening breezes of Anytown, USA," and turns his hallway into a small town front porch, complete with barbecue grill, lawn chairs, potted plants, and American flag. Kramer sits on his porch with the "fireworks" (a sparkler). George's first impulse is to quit but he decides it is finally time to take on his arch-rival, Lloyd Braun, whom Frank has also hired to sell computers. When Jerry learns how to get mad, it releases all his other feelings, including caring and another that results in a proposal.

Kramer fights with the neighborhood kids of "Anytown, USA." George tells Elaine she is attractive to the Lippman men because of her "shiksa appeal." The result gets her two Lippman men who want to renounce Judaism. George hatches a scheme to sell more computers: to buy them himself and return them later for a refund; however, continual use of the phrase "serenity now" has an adverse effect on his sales. The release of emotions from George has an impact on emotional Jerry. Jerry asks Elaine to marry him. George stores computers in Kramer's apartment. Kramer has a nervous breakdown and breaks the computers. Elaine seeks help from the rabbi to see if she can reduce her "shiksa appeal", instead the Rabbi comes on to her. George's father blames him for nearly bankrupting his company, and it is then revealed that Lloyd Braun was insane, because his phone was never plugged in, and hence he never made any sales. George then tells his dad to instead say "hoochie-mama" in place of "serenity now", which his father follows when Estelle is about to park her car in the garage.

[edit] Cultural References

• This episode's plot was inspired by real-life events in the life of writer Steve Koren. While driving with his arguing parents, Koren was bewildered to hear his father shout "Serenity now!" at the top of his lungs as part of a rage controlling exercise and questioned whether or not the phrase was meant to be screamed.
• The inspiration for Frank's computer business was the 1995 film The Net (to which Frank Costanza refers to "starring that girl from 'The Bus').
• The sales contest Frank Costanza institutes (where the highest seller is rewarded and the lowest is fired) is a parody of the 1992 film Glengarry Glen Ross.
• Kramer mentions to Jerry that he was ambushed by the "neighborhood kids", including Joey Zambino, who Kramer previously babysat in The Wait Out.