Conceived by Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David to be a half-hour comedy that showed how a standup comic generated his material, Seinfeld started out humbly with the lowest first-season order in TV history and struggled in a bad timeslot for a couple of years. It eventually became a cultural landmark that dominated the ratings for almost a decade and is still enjoyed by fans to this day.
Episodes like “The Chinese Restaurant” and “The Contest” marked watershed moments in sitcom history. There are a ton of great Seinfeld episodes – and only a couple of bad entries – but these ones are rated by IMDb as the very best the show has to offer.
10 The Limo (9.0)
One of Seinfeld’s darker episodes, season 3’s “The Limo” revolves around Jerry and George taking the identity of a waylaid passenger at the airport and scoring a ride in his limousine. Later, they find out that the man whose identity they’ve stolen is a white supremacist leader and the limo is taking them to Madison Square Garden to deliver a speech to his hateful followers.
Along the way, Elaine and Kramer join them, George falls in love with a Nazi, and the limo gets ambushed by angry protestors. “The Limo” was one of the great Larry Charles’ sharpest Seinfeld scripts.
9 The Chicken Roaster (9.1)
Jerry and Kramer switch apartments in “The Chicken Roaster,” as a Kenny Rogers restaurant opens up across the street and the bright lights frazzle Kramer’s brain. Jerry wants to keep the restaurant open so his friend can keep his job, so he moves into Kramer’s apartment and Kramer moves into his.
Living in Kramer’s apartment turns Jerry into Kramer, while Kramer takes on Jerry’s usual role as the wry voice of reason. Watching Michael Richards play Jerry Seinfeld and the latter play Cosmo Kramer is a delight.
8 The Abstinence (9.1)
When George’s girlfriend contracts mono and he’s forced to abstain from sex, he’s suddenly more focused and becomes an intelligent sophisticate.
Elaine, on the other hand, who is also in a sexless relationship (because her boyfriend is studying for medical school and she wants to marry a doctor), follows the opposite trajectory, gradually getting stupider and more juvenile.
7 The Merv Griffin Show (9.2)
This season 9 episode has drawn some controversy in recent years, as the B-plot of Jerry drugging his girlfriend so he can play with her vintage toy collection has come to be viewed as an ominous allegory.
But surprisingly, it’s still one of the top-rated episodes of the show on IMDb, even if the premise of Kramer and Newman digging TV sets out of a dumpster and pretending to host a talk show feels like it was scraped out of the bottom of the barrel.
6 The Marine Biologist (9.2)
George is perfectly comfortable when he’s living one of his own lies, like his architect persona Art Vandelay. However, Jerry throws him a curveball in “The Marine Biologist” when he tells George’s old crush that he’s since become a marine biologist.
This episode has one of Seinfeld’s greatest endings, dovetailing Kramer’s beach golf with George’s marine biology gambit. After telling the story of how he heroically saved a beached whale, George reveals the obstruction: a golf ball. (Specifically, a Titleist.)
5 The Bizarro Jerry (9.2)
After Larry David left Seinfeld (leaving behind a live grenade on his way out with Susan Ross’ death in the season 7 finale), Jerry Seinfeld took over as the sole head writer. With full creative control, Seinfeld introduced some meta elements into the eighth and ninth seasons.
“The Bizarro Jerry,” in particular, which uses a Superman reference to look at the characters through a self-aware lens, stands out as an idea that probably might not have come to pass if David had remained on the show.
4 The Soup Nazi (9.5)
Larry Thomas gave arguably the most memorable guest performance in Seinfeld’s history when he played the titular character in season 7’s “The Soup Nazi.” He became an icon with four words: “No soup for you!”
Elaine’s rivalry with the Soup Nazi gives the episode a great narrative backbone to explore the character, who was based on a real soup vendor that the writers encountered in New York.
3 The Outing (9.5)
There are a lot of episodes from ‘90s sitcoms about “gay panic” that have aged like milk. Seinfeld’s “The Outing” has aged surprisingly well, and it’s all thanks to one phrase: “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.”
That phrase made the episode about the fear of being politically incorrect, a topic that is more relevant today than back in the ’90s.
2 The Opposite (9.6)
In the season 5 finale “The Opposite,” George discerns that his natural instinct has constantly let him down; consequently, he decides to do the opposite of what he would usually do. Within days, George has a new girlfriend, a dream job with the Yankees, and is moving out of his parents’ house.
As George’s life improves, Elaine’s life falls apart as she “becomes” George. This ties in nicely with Jerry’s realization that things always work out for him – whenever a door is closed in Jerry’s life, a window is opened.
1 The Contest (9.6)
It should come as no surprise to Seinfeld fans that season 4’s “The Contest” is ranked highest (tied with “The Opposite,” technically). It is the go-to candidate for the best Seinfeld episode and even ranked in the top spot in TV Guide’s 100 Greatest Episodes of All-Time.
What really makes this episode special is Larry David’s Emmy-winning script, which flagrantly discusses masturbation at length for 22 minutes with nothing but network censor-friendly euphemisms.
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