"Jerry never doubted his TV counterpart would be similar to himself." ""I've seen comedians try to give themselves other jobs in sitcoms and they just look silly."" "As the show gained popularity, the line between fiction and reality was blurring for the audience." "When he performed standup during summer hiatuses Jerry would be bombarded by fans shouting:" ""Where's Kramer, where's Elaine, where's George?"" "Jerry gave the obvious reply:" ""They're not here." "They're not real." "It's a TV show."" "Standup for this episode was filmed on Tuesday, December 18, 1990." "In a vice-presidential debate during the 1988 presidential election campaign, Dan Quayle George Bush's youthful running mate defended his political experience." ""I have as much experience in the Congress as Jack Kennedy did when he sought the presidency."" "His Democratic counterpart, Texas Senator Lloyd Bentsen barely hesitated in his reply." ""Senator, I have served with Jack Kennedy." "I knew Jack Kennedy." "Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine." "Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy."" "The retort froze Dan Quayle and became one of the most quoted phrases ever spoken during a political debate." "Jason Alexander knows his character, and told the Boston Globe about the one epithet he doesn't think relates to George:" ""I bristle at schmuck." "To me, schmuck means a sort of aggressive idiot as opposed to someone who's sort of a victim." "George is another in a long line of television losers:" "Barney Fife in Andy Griffith Mel Cooley in The Dick Van Dyke Show the guys who kept putting their feet in their mouths."" "This scene originally ended with Jerry and George discussing where they are going on their dates." "George then asks what people did on dates in the 1850s." ""They strolled," Jerry replies." ""A lot of strolling." "Winter, the guy would go over the woman's house and they would talk for an hour."" "George asks how Jerry knows all this." ""I'm guessing," he says." "GEORGE'S GIRLFRIEND COUNTER:" "#5 – Carol the phone message woman" "JERRY'S GIRLFRIEND COUNTER:" "#3 – Donna, "Cotton Dockers"" "Tory Polone (Carol) has also appeared in the TV movies:" "Sparks and When We Were Young as well as a 1989 episode of Beauty and the Beast." "Gretchen German (Donna) has appeared in many television shows." "Her credits include recurring roles on Wings and Home Improvement as well as guest-starring roles on:" "Will and Grace, Payne and Judging Amy." "In an early draft of this scene, George says:" ""Oh, lord, why have you put me here?"" "This scene originally began with Jerry telling Donna about his pony remark and how, when looked at in a certain way he could be considered Manya's murderer." ""The Phone Message" was first read by its cast on Friday, December 14, 1990." "Table reads were usually held on Wednesday but this week was different." "The script read by the cast on that particular Wednesday was never filmed." "Called "The Bet," the abandoned episode was written by Larry Charles." "In early preproduction drafts "The Bet" was also known as "The Gun."" "The main storyline had Jerry and Elaine betting over whether Elaine would buy a gun to protect herself in the city." "Meanwhile, Kramer returns from a vacation in Puerto Rico." "His skin is peely, because he got a sunburn from the hotel's malfunctioning sun bed." "On the flight back, Kramer had sex with a stewardess in one of the rows of the nearly-empty plane." "Jerry, knowing Kramer's sexual prowess, believes the story but George is sceptical." "George and Jerry bet $100 over whether Kramer is telling the truth." "Kramer takes Elaine to see his friend, Mo Korn who is described as overweight, greasy, slow and low-key." "Mo is a man of few friends who lives with his mother." "Ernie Sabella was cast as Mo, and participated in the cast reading." "Sabella would later appear in a produced Seinfeld episode playing the naked fat guy in "The Subway."" "Mo shows Elaine and Kramer several guns and Elaine reluctantly holds a gun for the first time." "At one point, Mrs. Korn asks about Kramer's mother and Kramer responds that, "She's better." "Her tonsils grew back."" "One of Jerry's peers in the comedy world Jeff Cesario, assessed Jerry's star-making qualities:" ""He's the consummate writer." "It's what other comics respect about him." "He can always think of four ways to tell a joke." "He's the latest part of a lineage that goes back to Robert Klein and Jay Leno, the bearer of the even-keeled perspective."" "Couple those traits with those of his writing partner Larry David who Jerry described in a 1991 interview:" ""He was an underground legend in New York comedy circles." "His material was brilliant." "It was the best." "But he never took off because he didn't have the stagecraft or the structure and he just wasn't good at pandering to drunken strangers."" "In an early draft of this scene George explained his greatest dating fear." "He says: "But I knew I had one last hurdle:" "The good night." "The good night always gives me trouble." "You could be having a great time, but an awkward stumble on the good night and the whole evening is ruined." "That's what they'll remember." "That's why it's always so tense in the car on the way back."" "Jerry: "Baseball is 90 percent pitching." "Dating is 90 percent good nights."" "NORAD stands for North American Aerospace Defence Command." "It's a joint Canadian and United States defence network to protect North American airspace from hostile attacks." "During the cold war, NORAD was thought of as the eyes and ears of North America with regard to possible missile attacks from the Soviet Union and other communist countries." "KRAMER ENTRANCE COUNTER: #22" "Returning now to the events of the lost Seinfeld episode, "The Bet."" "A bit later, Elaine is in the car with George and tells him that she didn't buy a gun." "She decided to buy a toy gun instead, since in their bet Jerry never stipulated that it had to be a real gun." "Jerry enters the car, and the trio head off to the airport to find the stewardess Kramer had sex with to verify the story and determine who won the bet." "At the airport, near the airport security screening area George spots Kramer's stewardess a beautiful red-headed woman named Lucy Merritt." "George tells Jerry and Elaine that a woman so beautiful " would never have sex with Kramer unless she has a fetish for human oddities in which case, I might have a shot."" "Bobbi Jo Lathan was cast as Lucy and also attended the read through." "A few weeks later, Lathan would play Patti the prostitute in "The Stranded."" "George introduces himself to Lucy." "He says his name is Ralph Flemm-er a journalist doing a story for a magazine." "He introduces Elaine and Jerry as his "wife Amanda and her cousin Jess." "They're going to Rochester on the 1: 15, and they're a little early so they'd just like to listen."" "After asking Lucy what a copilot does, and whether she's ever seen anyone get sucked out of a plane George gets to the subject of having sex with passengers." "Lucy quickly ends the conversation so George tells Elaine to pull out the picture of Kramer they had taken of him earlier." "While rummaging through her purse Elaine absent-mindedly pulls out the toy gun she had bought." "Lucy spots it, screams and soon security guards swarm onto Jerry, George and Elaine." "The final scene begins on black." "We hear Kramer murmuring, clearly having sex." "The phone rings, Kramer turns on the light revealing that he's in bed with Lucy." "Kramer listens to George tell of his predicament." "Kramer tells him he doesn't have the $200 for bail." "He then hands the phone to Lucy who says:" ""Hi, Georgie." "It's Lucy." "Well, you win some, you lose some."" "Concerns by the network and cast over the gun content led to the script being abandoned almost immediately after it was read." "To fill the void left in the production schedule "The Phone Message" was brought up to replace "The Bet."" ""The Phone Message" was filmed in front of an audience on December 19, 1990." "I Love Lucy was a Lucille Ball sitcom that ran from 1951 to 1957." "179 episodes were produced, one fewer than the number of Seinfeld episodes produced during its nine seasons on NBC." "Lactose intolerance is the inability to digest significant amounts of lactose." "Lactose is the predominant sugar of milk." "It results from a shortage of the enzyme lactase." "Symptoms include cramps, bloating, nausea, diarrhoea and gas." "Gina Hecht also auditioned for the role of Donna." "She later appeared in the show's fourth season as George's psychiatrist, Dana Foley." "Jerry's apartment number begins as 3A this season." "It would change to 5A in the following episode "The Apartment."" "KRAMER ENTRANCE COUNTER: #23" "In an early draft, Kramer's first name is revealed to be Konrad but this never made it to the table draft." "However, the idea of keeping this information a secret soon became important to the character." "By the time it was finally revealed the character had outgrown the name Konrad." "In the sixth season episode "The Switch"  Seinfeld viewers learned that Kramer's real first name is Cosmo." "This is the first reference to "the vault." "The vault" is a term referring to the quartet's ability to keep a secret." "In "The Betrayal" Seinfeld fans learned the combination to Elaine's vault:" "Get her drunk on peach schnapps." "Jerry has a practical view of the role TV played in most people's lives:" ""It's a habitual medium." "Most people aren't really entertained." "What they need is to watch TV." "Entertainment is almost a luxury item." "Television is like a flyer somebody sticks in your windshield." "Who gives a damn what's on it?" "It's iridescent wallpaper." "Sometimes I think people just like the light on their faces."" "Benito Mussolini was the fascist dictator of Italy from 1922 to 1943." ""How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria" was one of many popular songs in the musical, The Sound of Music." "The Sound of Music, by Rodgers and Hammerstein was based on the true story of the von Trapp family's escape from Nazi Germany." "The 1965 film of that musical starred Julie Andrews as Maria." "Trinidad "Trini" Lopez was born on May 15, 1937 in Dallas, Texas." "He had several hit singles during the 1960s." "His hits include "If I Had a Hammer," "La Bamba" and of course, "Lemon Tree."" "Seinfeld writer, Larry Charles, once assessed George Costanza:" ""George is Larry David's id." "He embodies all the dark impulses that Larry David has occasionally acted upon." "George is not a loser." "People inaccurately pigeonhole him." "He's struggling, but he's definitely not a loser."" "Three years later, in the classic episode, "The Puffy Shirt" George mentions that his father wears sneakers in the pool." "He uses this as evidence that his own parents are worse than Jerry's." ""The Phone Message" first aired on NBC on February 13, 1991." "It achieved an underwhelming Nielsen rating of 9.7 and an audience share of 15." "Only around 13 million viewers tuned in compared to the 19 to 22 million who had watched during the first season when the show aired after Cheers." "Discouraged by the lower numbers NBC put Seinfeld on hiatus for almost two months." "The network made this decision even though nine produced episodes had yet to air." "In today's television climate, such a ratings-induced hiatus would have spelled the end for Seinfeld." "But NBC decided to again air Seinfeld after Cheers where it could be tested as a companion to that hit show."