“The Chinese Restaurant” was the 16th episode of “Seinfeld” but for many fans, it was the first episode where “Seinfeld” became the show they loved. The episode follows Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), George (Jason Alexander), and Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) as they duck into a Chinese restaurant to get some dinner before a movie. Then they wind up being forced to wait longer than the promised five to 10 minutes, even as other people who arrived later are seated. So, after 20-ish minutes, they leave — right as a table opens up.
The episode was inspired by a long wait that Seinfeld and co-creator Larry David had at a real Chinese restaurant. “I thought this could be a pretty funny idea, waiting in real-time. You get 23 minutes to do the show; let’s just have them wait 23 minutes for a table,” as David once explained.
Indeed, “The Chinese Restaurant” is about the feeling of waiting, where it seems like there’s no end in sight and you fixate on the “unfairness” of other people being served first. Basically, don’t try to find rhyme or reason why other groups get served before our main characters. The episode is also the one where the show’s “no hugging, no learning” rule for its characters comes into view. There’s no lesson for the characters or audience in the episode. The ending, where if they’d waited 10 seconds more they’d have gotten their table, is not about the virtue of patience, it’s just adding salt to the wound.
You might’ve noticed one key ingredient missing from this meal, though: Kramer (Michael Richards) does not appear in “The Chinese Restaurant.” In fact, Richards has admitted this made him concerned about his future on “Seinfeld.”
Kramer does not appear in the Seinfeld episode The Chinese Restaurant
The reason Kramer isn’t in “The Chinese Restaurant” is because the character was originally conceived and written as a shut-in. In the pilot episode, Jerry claims that Kramer (originally named “Kessler”) hasn’t left their apartment building in 10 years. So, the writers thought, he wouldn’t fit in a bottle episode set entirely outside the apartment building.
This was the first time an episode of “Seinfeld” excluded a main character. Richards’ worries about his job might seem like paranoia, but think about it. If “The Chinese Restaurant” proved to be a success (which it did), then the writers and his castmates might take away that the show could work without him.
Interviewed for an “inside look” at “Seinfeld” season 2, Richards recalled, “When I wasn’t in the Chinese restaurant episode, I felt hurt. I felt that I was being written out of the show. I remember Larry [David] came to me and said, ‘We’re not gonna do this all the time.'”
Contrary to his fears, Richards stayed on “Seinfeld” for all of its nine season run. Kramer was ultimately absent from only one other episode: “The Pen,” the third episode of “Seinfeld” season 3. That one didn’t include George/Jason Alexander either; it’s about Jerry and Elaine visiting the former’s parents in Florida, so their friends’ absence makes sense.
“Seinfeld” could (if need be) work without Kramer but the failure of “The Michael Richards Show” suggests maybe Kramer couldn’t work without “Seinfeld.”