TVSquad

(S03E12) The synchonization of the airing and production orders of the Season Three episodes started to getting a little dicey as the series entered 1992. For instance, the episode "The Suicide" was produced before "The Subway", but was aired two weeks after "The Subway" aired . But since I'm trying to present these in the order they aired, I'm doing "The Subway" next.

At this point in the third season, the memorable episodes are coming with more frequency. And they're getting more daring; because most of the scenes were shot on a subway-car set specially made for movie and TV shoots, the episode had to be shot out of order without a studio audience. Considering the logistics involved in the previous audience-less episode, "The Parking Garage", this one was realtively easier to do. But it still wasn't easy. The results, though, are pretty damn great.

Here we have a completely separate storyline for each of the Fab Four, which Julia Louis-Dreyfus -- who was on the commentary of this episode with Jason Alexander and Michael Richards -- didn't really like. For some reason, she just felt the chemistry was better when the four of them played off each other. She even disliked the entire scene where Elaine is slowly panicking as the train she was taking to a lesbian wedding stalled. For some reason, she just didn't feel Elaine's internal monologue was all that funny.

I respectfully disagree. Even though the voice-over monologue itself isn't that funny (except for the repeated refrain of "What is that on my leg?"), the facial expressions Julia gives while Elaine is supposedly thinking these panicked thoughts was high comedy to me. In fact, Julia shined throughout this episode, as her throat-clearing, furrowed brow revelation to that nice older lady that she was going to a lesbian wedding really sold that whole conversation.

Kramer's story, where he overhears two guys talking about a longshot horse, has a happy ending, of course, and one that no one expected (the blind bum is a cop!). Jerry talking baseball and hot dogs with the naked fat guy made me feel all warm inside (see? We can all get along, even with weirdos). And George got what he deserved, just like George always does.

Ok, on to the "awards":

Best line: As the nice older lady walks away from Elaine after hearing about the lesbian wedding, Elaine calls after her, "You don't understand! I'm not a lesbian! I hate men, but I'm not a lesbian!"
Best facial expression: Every facial expression Elaine makes as she's stuck on the train, especially when she grits her teeth while screaming to herself, "Move! MOVE!"
Best Kramerism: The dance he does when he bursts into the subway and tries to beat other people out for a seat. Apparently, Michael Richards choreographed and blocked out much of that scene himself.

Observations and info from the DVD:

• We still see the "nice" Elaine here. Like in the scene where the Fab Four all transfer to different subways, she's the only one who wistfully calls out a "See ya" after they separate.
• The subway car, which the producers had to rent from Warner Brothers, had to be redressed a few times to shoot the various scenes. It got destroyed as it got carted back to Warners, and production designer Tom Azaari built a better one to replace it.
• Barbara Stock of Spencer: For Hire fame played the woman who conned George. As nice as she looked in this episode, I might ditch a job interview and join her for an afternoon delight, too.
• Julia was very pregnant by the time this episode was shot. She says a lot of the discomfort you see in those stuck subway scenes probably stemmed from the waves of nausea that were coming over her at the time.
• Oh, and the man to Julia's left in those scenes? Longtime show writer and producer Peter Mehlman.
• Kramer's winning horse, Papanick, was named after the show's main key grip, Peter Papanikolas.
• Finally, Ernie Sabella, who played the naked guy, is quite a well known character actor. I remember him best as Mr. Donatelli on It's Your Move and Mr. Twinkacetti from Perfect Strangers. He was also the voice of Pumba on The Lion King.

Later tonight, I'll talk about one of Larry and Jerry's favorite Season Three episodes...