""The Chinese Restaurant" is one of the most controversial episodes in the history of Seinfeld." "On its first read, NBC apparently despised its lack of a traditional sitcom story." "Episode cowriter, Larry David, threatened to quit the show if the network forced major changes upon the script." "Jerry Seinfeld defended his writing partner and NBC begrudgingly allowed them to produce the show without any significant alterations." ""The Chinese Restaurant" is now widely acknowledged as the first classic Seinfeld episode." "WHERE'S NORMAN?" "There he is, sitting by the door of the restaurant." "He's still sitting there at the end of the episode." "In the original draft of "The Chinese Restaurant" the three characters entered discussing their least favourite days of the year." "George picks Halloween because he finds the constant knocking on the door very jarring." ""And frankly, I'm not amused by adults in costumes." "They're dangerous enough without an alias."" "Elaine picks the 4th of July." ""All those sociopaths with explosives." "You're walking down the street, then boom!"" "George hates fireworks, because everybody loves them." ""All these people staring up at the sky, oohing and aahing, for what?" "I ooh and aah over air conditioning, call waiting, the garbage disposal." "These are accomplishments."" "Jerry picks New Year's Eve because:" ""It's not even a day." "It's like the end of a jar of mustard." "You're trying to get something out of it when you should just be throwing it away."" "It was replaced with the cop/ garbage man discussion that Jerry used while hosting Saturday Night Live the following year." "The idea of this episode came to Larry David while waiting for a table with Jerry at Genghis Cohen a Chinese restaurant on Fairfax Avenue in Hollywood." "Many Seinfeld story ideas began life as ideas jotted down in one of David's many ideas notebooks." "While typing David and Seinfeld's script writers' assistant Karen Wilkie was thrown by the fact that there were no scene breaks." "This, of course, is because the show was essentially one long scene." "Filmed like a play, the cast recall that the episode's filming was possibly the shortest audience record ever for Seinfeld." "Filming began at 7:30 p. m and was wrapped at roughly an hour and a half later." "Most second season Seinfeld episodes took at least twice that long to film." "This is one of only two episodes not to feature Michael Richards as Kramer." "The other is season three's "The Pen."" "Richards was concerned that he was being written out of the show." "The production crew reassured him that this was not the case but Richards still regrets not having been involved in this groundbreaking story." "Upon receiving the script, the reaction at NBC was cool to say the least." "They felt there was no story, which is not exactly accurate." "Jerry's story is that he recognizes a woman but isn't sure how he knows her." "Elaine's story is that she is very, very hungry." "George's story is that he needs to use the phone to call his girlfriend." "But NBC didn't see it that way and promptly banished it to near the end of Seinfeld' s spring run." "Michael Mitz (Phone Guy) would appear again in Seinfeld in the fifth season episode, "The Puffy Shirt."" "In it, he plays a photographer who takes pictures of George's hands after he is hired as a hand model." "Mitz has also appeared in the sitcoms:" "Grosse Pointe, Married..." "with Children and Frasier." "After "The Chinese Restaurant" aired and became a hallmark Seinfeld episode the network realized that leaving the writers alone was their best course of action." "Some of that freedom was due to the fact that Seinfeld remained outside the realm of NBC's prime-time programming department." "In 1991, Jerry described the writers and producers relationship with NBC during a typical production week:" ""We stayed in late night and special programming with some very nice people who know nothing about telling stories and using characters and doing that kind of comedy." "So they just come down once a week and say, 'How's everything going, fellas?" "'" "And we go, 'Fine, nice to see you.'" "And they leave."" "If you listen closely, you can hear Larry David's voice amid the chatter at the table that Elaine approaches." "He's the one shouting, "What did she say?" several times in his best old-person voice." "While "The Chinese Restaurant" more or less unfolds in real time one significant cut was made to this episode before it aired." "You can see George grab his leg just as he approaches the pay phone." "Jerry's query about George's limp was cut." "So was George's response." "He explained that he pulled his hamstring while trying to untuck the covers on a hotel bed during his recent stay in Boston." "This footage is available elsewhere on this DVD so now you can see everything that happened to the gang while waiting at the Chinese restaurant." "George's struggles with hotel bedsheets would be discussed again during his massage in the third season premiere episode, "The Note."" "Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born in 1869 in Porbandar, India." "The people of India nicknamed him Mahatma, meaning "great soul."" "He was one of the most respected political and spiritual leaders of the 20th century." "In 1948, a 7 8-year-old Gandhi began a fast to stop violence between rival factions in India." "After five days without food, the fighting ended." "Twelve days later Hindu fanatic Nathuram Godse assassinated Gandhi." "GEORGE GIRLFRIEND COUNTER:" "#4 – Tatiana the woman he fails to call." "Jason Alexander told the Calgary Herald his own theory about why George continually dates attractive women:" ""He tries very hard and metamorphoses himself to become something that might be attractive." "The fact that he can't sustain that never enters his head." "I happen to be married to a beautiful woman who, when I first met her wasn't terribly interested." "I've found that determination goes a long way." "The same goes for George." "Batman is a DC comic superhero created by Bob Kane." "He is a member of the Justice League which also features Jerry's idol, Superman, among its members." "Seeing Plan 9 From Outer Space was not originally included in the script." "To satisfy NBC's need to " raise the stakes" for the characters led to the suggestion that there be a special movie to see." "Mr. Cohen is described in the script as a 40-ish, garrulous expansive country club type." "David Tress (Mr. Cohen) has also appeared in the films:" "Xanadu and The Boost." "He's also appeared on the drama series:" "Quincy, Matlock and Murder, She Wrote." "James Hong (Bruce) was born in 1928 in Minneapolis, Minnesota." "He has appeared in hundreds of television shows and films." "We could probably take up the whole episode noting each Hong's screen credits." "We'll show a few now and a few more later." "Before appearing on Seinfeld, Hong appeared in films such as:" "The Golden Child, Marco Polo, and Blade Runner." "His prior television work included roles in Kung Fu, Family Affair, Dynasty and Bonanza." "Judy Kain (Lorraine Catalano) has appeared in St. Elmo's Fire and the television shows Grosse Pointe, The West Wing and Friends." "It isn't made clear which of Jerry's uncles Lorraine works for though it's pretty unlikely that she works for Uncle Leo." "When airing on NBC  Seinfeld episodes included a two second "bumper" between acts." "This episode featured the Seinfeld musical sting performed with Chinese instruments." "As he continues discussing the chain reaction of phone calls Jerry mentions a sister." "Though Jerry has a sister in real life his television sister is never mentioned again in the series." "Plan 9 From Outer Space is widely considered the best bad movie ever made." "It was written and directed by B-movie auteur Ed Wood." "Plan 9 is about a pair of disgruntled aliens who concoct a scheme to reanimate corpses in order to march on the world's capitals." "The initial cast reading for this episode was held on Wednesday, December 5, 1990." "The filming for this episode took place on Tuesday, December 11, 1990." "In the initial script, George suggests a $5 bribe." "Jerry says that the $5 bribe went out with Louis v. Schmeling." "Roller Derby is a game in which two teams roller-skate against one another and score points by passing their opponents as they race around an oval skating rink." "If you listen closely you can make out Castle Rock executive Glenn Padnick's distinctive laughter after this joke." "Padnick's laugh was particularly distinct and can be heard in many episodes." "Often Padnick laughed ahead of the other audience members because he was aware of the jokes ahead of time having heard them during the week's rehearsals." "NBC held off airing it until near the end of the season because they feared it would turn off viewers to the series." "It received a Nielsen rating of 11.7 and an audience share of 21." "Since this episode was filmed James Hong has starred in the sitcom, Zoe as well as appearing in The Practice Malcolm in the Middle and Charmed." ""The Chinese Restaurant" originally aired on May 23, 1991." "Elaine originally wanted to go to Jet Burger." "The name was changed to Sky Burger during rehearsals." "The end of the first draft had the characters deciding how to avoid the mistake they made in this episode." "George: "Next time I'll bring a deck of cards."" "Jerry: "I have a jigsaw puzzle that's all penguins."" "WHERE'S NORMAN?" "There he is, still sitting by the door." "After this episode aired NBC and Castle Rock executives held meetings to discuss the fate of the show." "Despite the fact that Seinfeld was being watched by the demographic groups advertisers coveted the third season of Seinfeld was not certain until the week before this episode originally aired." "The network and creative team struck a deal:" "The show would go on, provided the episodes featured more story content." "Under no circumstances should Seinfeld episodes ever again be about "nothing." This was a direct reference to the disappointment the network felt about "The Chinese Restaurant."" "From the third season on, Larry David made sure NBC got more stories in each Seinfeld show than they ever expected."