"The Junior Mint" | |
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Seinfeld episode | |
Episode no. | Season 4 Episode 20 |
Directed by | Tom Cherones |
Written by | Andy Robin |
Production code | 421 |
Original air date | March 18, 1993 |
Guest appearance(s) | |
Susan Walters as Mystery woman |
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Susan Walters as Mystery woman
Sherman Howard as Roy
Victor Raider-Wexler as Doctor
"The Junior Mint" is the 60th episode of the American sitcom Seinfeld. It was the 20th episode of the fourth season. It aired on March 18, 1993. This episode won Michael Richards his first Emmy of the series.
Unable to remember the name of the woman he is dating (played by Susan Walters), Jerry tries to solve the mystery, as he is too late to simply ask her. Given the clue that her name rhymes with a part of the female anatomy, Jerry and George come up with possible candidates: Aretha (for urethra), Celeste and Hest (for breast), and Bovary (for ovary), and finally George suggests Mulva. The payoff to the joke comes at the end of the episode when she presses him to say her name. Jerry guesses Mulva (for vulva), causing her to storm out of Jerry's apartment. As she is leaving, Jerry incorrectly guesses another name, Gipple (for nipple) and Loreola (for areola). Then, in a flash of insight, Jerry runs to the window and yells "Dolores!" (rhyming with a common pronunciation of clitoris). The character returns in season 8's "The Foundation". In this later episode, George and Jerry refer to Dolores as Mulva among themselves.
Meanwhile, Elaine goes to visit her ex-boyfriend Roy (played by Sherman Howard)—an artist who she dumped because he was fat—in the hospital. Noticing that he has slimmed down (due to depression from her breaking up with him), Elaine becomes interested in dating him again. Kramer and Jerry observe the artist's splenectomy and accidentally drop a Junior Mint from the viewing gallery into the patient's body (in actuality, a York Peppermint Pattie was used for filming this scene as a Junior Mint was too small for the camera). When George hears that Roy is in bad condition (after he develops an infection), he decides to spend $1900 (which he collected in interest from a bank account from the sixth grade) to buy some of Roy's art, thinking it will appreciate in value when Roy dies. Roy's condition suddenly turns around and he recovers. Although Roy attributes the change to George buying his art, the doctor attributes the limited effect of the infection to "something from above." (This marks the second time that George regrets his decision to purchase a piece of art. The first came in "The Letter", when he bought a piece of art from Jerry's girlfriend for $500.) The triangle art that George purchases in this episode can be seen on the shelves in his apartment in many subsequent episodes. As Kramer offers the doctor a Junior Mint, Elaine decides to cancel her date with Roy, whom she observes eating enthusiastically again in his hospital room after the surgery.