The Chinese Restaurant

rdf:langString The Chinese Restaurant

rdf:langString right

rdf:langString List of Seinfeld episodes

rdf:langString *James Hong as the maître d'hôtel *David Tress as Mr. Cohen *Judy Kain as Lorraine Catalano *Michael Mitz as man on phone

rdf:langString "The anti-sitcom: no contrived plots, in fact no plots at all: these people can be funny just waiting to be seated."

rdf:langString "['The Chinese Restaurant'] was the point where the network said, 'You know, we really don't understand what you're trying to do with this show, and we think it's wrong. But we're going to air it anyway.' I was thrilled that NBC took that attitude. We had done enough good things at that point that they were willing to trust us."

rdf:langString Seinfeld

rdf:langString Jamie Malanowski, Time

rdf:langString Seinfeld on NBC's reaction

rdf:langString "The Chinese Restaurant" is the 11th episode of the sitcom Seinfeld's second season on NBC, and is the show's 16th episode overall. The episode revolves around protagonist Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) and his friends Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and George Costanza (Jason Alexander) waiting for a table at a Chinese restaurant, on their way to see a special one-night showing of Ed Wood's infamous science fiction feature Plan 9 from Outer Space. George tries to use the phone but it is constantly occupied, and Jerry recognizes a woman, but he is unsure where he has seen her before. Co-written by the series' creators Seinfeld and head writer Larry David, the episode is set in real time, without any scene breaks. It was the first of two episodes in which Jerry's neighbor Kramer (Michael Richards) did not appear (the other being "The Pen"). It is considered a "bottle episode", and NBC executives objected to its production and broadcast due to its lack of an involved storyline, thinking that audiences would be uninterested. It was not until David threatened to quit if the network forced any major changes upon the script that NBC allowed the episode to be produced, though the network postponed broadcast to near the end of season two. First broadcast in the United States on May 23, 1991, the episode gained a Nielsen rating of 11.7/21. Television critics reacted positively to "The Chinese Restaurant", widely considering it one of the show's "classic episodes". In 1998, a South Florida Sun-Sentinel critic wrote that the episode, along with season four's "The Contest", "broke new sitcom ground".