"The Understudy" is the 110th episode of the NBC

NBC

The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...

 sitcom Seinfeld

Seinfeld

Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...

. This was the 24th and final episode for the 6th season. It aired on May 18, 1995.

Plot

Jerry

Jerry Seinfeld (character)

Jerome "Jerry" Seinfeld is the main protagonist of the American television sitcom Seinfeld . The straight man among his group of friends, this semi-fictionalized version of comedian Jerry Seinfeld was named after, co-created by, based on, and played by Seinfeld himself.The series revolves around...

 is dating Gennice, the understudy

Understudy

In theater, an understudy is a performer who learns the lines and blocking/choreography of a regular actor or actress in a play. Should the regular actor or actress be unable to appear on stage because of illness or emergencies, the understudy takes over the part...

 of stage performer Bette Midler

Bette Midler

Bette Midler is an American singer, actress, and comedian, also known by her informal stage name, The Divine Miss M. She became famous as a cabaret and concert headliner, and went on to star in successful and acclaimed films such as The Rose, Ruthless People, Beaches, and For The Boys...

, and a crybaby who apparently cries for foolish reasons (for instance, crying when she drops her hotdog) but not for expected reasons (such as when her grandmother died). In a parody of the 1994 Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan scandal, George

George Costanza

George Louis Costanza is a character in the American television sitcom Seinfeld , played by Jason Alexander. He has variously been described as a "short, stocky, slow-witted, bald man" , "Lord of the Idiots" , and as "the greatest sitcom character of all time"...

 accidentally injures Midler in a softball game and the understudy has to take over Midler's part in the musical Rochelle Rochelle. Enraged New Yorkers turn against George, Jerry and Gennice, while Midler is nursed back to health by Kramer

Cosmo Kramer

Cosmo Kramer, usually referred to as simply "Kramer", is a fictional character on the American television sitcom Seinfeld , played by Michael Richards...

.

Meanwhile, Elaine

Elaine Benes

Elaine Marie Benes is a fictional character on the American television sitcom Seinfeld , played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. Elaine's best friend is her ex-boyfriend Jerry Seinfeld; she is also good friends with George Costanza and Cosmo Kramer...

 brings Frank Costanza to her favorite beauty shop to translate the jokes being made at her expense by her Korean

Korean people

The Korean people are an ethnic group originating in the Korean peninsula and Manchuria. Koreans are one of the most ethnically and linguistically homogeneous groups in the world.-Names:...

 manicurists. Frank runs into an old flame but Elaine is thrown out of the shop and banned for spying. Despondent, she wanders the streets of New York, where she meets J. Peterman, and finds herself a new job. When Gennice finally takes the stage, she has a problem with the laces on her boot and, in an act reminiscent of Harding's bootlace incident, tearfully asks that she be allowed to start over.

In a scene after the credits, Jerry is seen unlocking his front door. He overhears Kramer and Bette singing in Kramer's apartment.

Episode notes

• The off-camera voice crying out, "Oh my Gosh, Bette's hurt" is that of Larry David
  Larry David
  Lawrence Gene "Larry" David is an American actor, writer, comedian and producer. He is best known as the co-creator , head writer, and executive producer of the television series Seinfeld from 1989 to 1996, and for creating the 1999 HBO series Curb Your Enthusiasm, a partially improvised sitcom in...
  
  .
• This is the first episode not to have Jerry's stand-up routine, even in the original version.
• Michael McDonald
  Michael McDonald (actor)
  Michael James McDonald is an American actor, writer, comedian, and director, best known for starring in the sketch comedy show MADtv. McDonald joined the show during the fourth season and remained in the cast until the end of the thirteenth and penultimate season, having become the...
  
  , who later joined the cast of MADtv
  MADtv
  MADtv is an American sketch comedy television series. It licensed the name and logo of Mad, but otherwise had no connection with the humor magazine outside the animated Spy vs. Spy and Don Martin cartoon shorts and images of Alfred E. Neuman that the show featured during the late 1990s. Its first...
  
  , had a brief role in this episode as one of the Rochelle, Rochelle softball players. McDonald would also appear in next season's "The Wig Master
  The Wig Master
  "The Wig Master" is the 129th episode of the NBC situation comedy Seinfeld. This was the 19th episode for the 7th season. It aired on April 4, 1996.-Plot:...
  
  " as the guy who tries to ask the wig master out.
• This is the first episode in which J. Peterman makes an appearance.
• An infamous Buddy Rich
  Buddy Rich
  Bernard "Buddy" Rich was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. Rich was billed as "the world's greatest drummer" and was known for his virtuosic technique, power, groove, and speed.-Early life:...
  
  quote, "This guy - this is not my kind of guy", is used in this episode from the underground bootleg tapes of Rich throwing temper tantrums.