SEINFELD - Season 7, Episode 10 - The Gum

“The Gum”

First Script Read: Thursday, November 9, 1995

Filmed: Monday-Tuesday, November 13-14, 1995

Aired: December 14, 1995

Nielsen rating: 21.2

Audience share: 33

Directed: Andy Ackerman

Writers: Tom Gammill and Max Pross

Once again, Tom Gammill and Max Pross have written an extremely fun episode, with plenty of Seinfeld-ian interconnections. Kramer has taken Lloyd Braun under his wing because the former Mayoral aide last seen in season five's "The Non-Fat Yogurt" has just gotten out of a mental institution. George, meanwhile, runs into his old neighbor, Deena, who starts to believe George himself belongs in a mental institution.

Some of the funniest scenes are George's attempts to explain to Deena the series of coincidences and complex events that have led him to appear crazy too her. On another level, George actually sounds like Seinfeld fans must when they explain a typical episode's various storylines to friends who haven't seen the show: 

DEENA: ...since my father's breakdown I've become very sensitive to the warning signs.

GEORGE: Warning signs?

DEENA: Nervousness, irritability, paranoia.

GEORGE: What? Ha! Wh... what're you talking about? I'm not the one with the problem. Lloyd Braun was in the nuthouse, not me.

DEENA: Yet again, taking pleasure in the misfortunes of others.

GEORGE: All my friends do that.

DEENA: George, I'm only trying to help...I'm... I'm concerned. George? George, are you listening to me?

GEORGE: You see that woman on the horse?

[THE RESTAURANT CASHIER, RUTHIE COHEN, IS PASSING BY ON HORSEBACK]

GEORGE: She stole twenty dollars from me. Yeah, I might've gotten it back, but Lloyd Braun interfered!

DEENA: So again it all comes back to Lloyd.

GEORGE: Hey! Hey, you! Come back here!! Don't gallop away!!

First Deena reads characteristics of George that fans of the show understand are his typical traits as signs that his mental state is collapsing. Her observation of his pleasure at Lloyd Braun's misfortunes is equally ironic, as it is one of the gang's defining characteristics (one that will get them thrown into jail in the series finale). Then, as often happens in the show, another character appears and George is distracted, confusing Deena all the more. So even as they write a funny store about George, Gammill and Pross are commenting on the typical qualities of the show.