The Rye

Infobox Television episode
Title = The Rye
Series = Seinfeld


Caption = The Costanzas eat with the Rosses.
Season = 7
Episode = 121
Airdate = January 4, 1996
Production =
Writer = Carol Leifer
Director = Andy Ackerman
Guests = Frances Bay & Jeff Yagher
Episode list = List of "Seinfeld" episodes
Season list = Infobox Seinfeld season 7 episode list
Prev =
Next =

"The Rye" is the 121st episode of the NBC sitcom "Seinfeld". This was the 11th episode for the seventh season. It aired on January 4, 1996.

Plot

Elaine dates a jazz saxophonist and Jerry tells one of the band members that the saxophonist and Elaine are "hot and heavy" (even though she admitted she's upset because he doesn't do "everything"). Susan's parents meet and have dinner with the Costanzas for the first time, where both families obsess over a loaf of marble rye bread that wasn't served with the meal, which Frank takes back home. George thinks that by getting Susan's parents out of the apartment for one evening, he can get a new rye and place it in the kitchen, making it appear as though it had always been there. Kramer takes over a friend's horse-drawn carriage for a week and feeds the horse Beef-A-Reeno, the same night he is scheduled to take Susan's parents on a hansom cab ride.

The plans fall apart when neither Kramer nor Susan's parents can bear the smell emitted by Rusty the Horse after consuming an entire can of Beef-A-Reeno. Meanwhile Elaine's sax player wants to try adding a new "number to my repertoire" and takes her back to his place before a gig in front of some record executives. Furthermore, the bakery sells the last rye to an elderly woman who refused to sell it to Jerry for fifty dollars. Jerry then follows the woman down the street in order to obtain the marble rye loaf, though she still refuses to sell it. When she refuses to give it to him, he steals it from her. By now the Rosses have returned and the only way George can retrieve the rye is by fishing it out of Jerry's hands from a third story window. He is eventually caught by Susan and her parents, thus ruining his carefully conceived plan. The saxophonist shows up late with Elaine, and after she tells him, "you just don't have to try so hard," he picks up his sax. However--likely owing to his brief sojourn with Elaine--he finds he can't play at all in front of the record company bigwigs. Elaine sheepishly sneaks out of the club.

Trivia

* Actors Frances Bay (Mabel Choate), Warren Frost (Mr. Ross), and Grace Zabriskie (Mrs. Ross) were all in TV series "Twin Peaks".
* Mabel Choate appears again in later "Seinfeld" episodes "The Cadillac, Part 2" and "The Finale".

Memorable Quotes

* Jerry " [to Mabel Choate] ": Shut up, you old bag!
* George : You stole their marble rye?!
* Kramer : Rusty!
* Elaine : I didn't want you to tell him that we're hot n' heavy.