- The Millennium (Seinfeld)
Infobox Television episode
Title = The Millennium
Series = Seinfeld
Caption =
Season = 8
Episode = 154
Airdate =May 1 ,1997
Production =
Writer =Jennifer Crittenden
Director =Andy Ackerman
Guests =Lauren Graham
Episode list = List of "Seinfeld" episodes
Season list = Infobox Seinfeld season 8 episode list
Prev =
Next ="The Millennium" is the 154th episode of the
NBC sitcom "Seinfeld ". It was the twentieth episode of the eighth season and aired onMay 1 ,1997 .Plot
After being recruited by the
New York Mets to be their head scout, George is told that they can only hire him if he gets fired from theNew York Yankees . However, his increasingly dramatic attempts to get fired only end up making him look better. He wearsBabe Ruth 's jersey and deliberately gets food stains all over it, but Mr. Steinbrenner praises him, thinking it supports an "out with the old, in with the new" mentality. George then appears to streak throughYankee Stadium during a game, but he is actually wearing a flesh-colored body suit that makes him popular with the fans. Finally, he tries to destroy aWorld Series Trophy by hitching it to his Buick Regal and driving through the parking lot while screaming insults to the ball club with amegaphone . This finally brings the ire of Steinbrenner, before Mr. Wilhelm appears, takes credit for telling George what to do, gets fired, and then takes the job with the Mets.Elaine tries to run an ethnic-themed clothing store, Putumayo, out of business after receiving bad
customer service . First, she tries shopping at a competing store, Cinco de Mayo, but discovers that the same woman owns both stores. Later, she tries to get Kramer, under analter ego , to change the price tags on the labels, but he destroys the pricing gun before he can finish.Meanwhile, Jerry gets caught in a war over speed dial rankings between his girlfriend, Valerie (
Lauren Graham ), and her stepmother. Eventually, the stepmother hides Jerry's number in one of her emergency speed dials. Later, she is poisoned by eatingdesiccant from Putumayo's clothing that Kramer spilled into a bowl of salsa at the store. When Valerie tries calling poison control she ends up calling him instead, to which Jerry replies, "Wow! Poison control? That's even higher than number one!"Finally, Kramer and Newman learn that they are each planning rival
millennium parties, both onDecember 31 ,1999 (Newman's party is called the "Newmanium"). Eventually, they agree to combine them into one party on the insistence of Newman that they not invite Jerry. However, Newman allows Jerry to come in exchange for Elaine's presence, after she had committed to Kramer's party. In the end, Jerry tells Newman that by making his reservation on the "millennium", his party would be onDecember 31 ,2001 , one year later than everyone else, and "Thus, quite lame."Cultural references
*The episode references the film "
The Graduate " in a few scenes. The scene where Valerie's stepmother gets in Jerry's car and demands a higher speed dial ranking is a parody of a scene where Mrs. Robinson gets in Ben's car and demands that he stop seeing Elaine. Other scenes show Jerry meeting with the stepmother secretly to negotiate speed dial rankings in addition to being in a three-way phone call between Valerie and her stepmother.*When Jerry and Valerie are watching a movie, one can hear the soundtrack from "Nixon, the Movie", which was first heard in "The Cadillac".
*When Kramer mentions Newman being "stuck between the moon and New York City," he was making a reference to "
Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do) " byChristopher Cross , whom Newman booked for his party.External links
* [http://www.tv.com/seinfeld/the-millennium/episode/2394/summary.html?tag=ep_list;title;19 Episode recap at TV.com]
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