To me this episode is essentially perfect as an interesting story with comedic opportunities that are nicely exploited. Briefly, Jerry and Elaine are en route to catch a flight back home from St. Louis as Jerry had an extra flight ticket from a gig that Elaine used to visit her sister. George, who lost a bet to Jerry, is riding with Kramer to pick them up at Kennedy Airport.
What seems like a fairly cut and dried premise fully blossoms in the individual stories. Jerry takes the first class fare relegating Elaine to survive in coach purgatory. Kramer makes a turn that puts their timely arrival in jeopardy and George into paroxysms of anger and anguish. Once they arrive at Kennedy, George gets into an altercation with a crazed criminal in cuffs being escorted by a US Marshall and Kramer comes to realize the man he vaguely recognizes at the airport is an old roommate who left owing him money. But then George is elated to learn Jerry and Elaine's flight plans have changed so now he and Kramer have time to pick them up at LaGuardia instead.
It's really hard to do justice to Dreyfus' portrayal of all of the tortures that a bad coach flight inflicts. It's a clinic in depicting the sweaty, cramped agony of flying second class exaggeratedly compared against Jerry's life of bourgeois privilege in the section closest to the cockpit.
Even if I had 20 pages, I couldn't convey all the comedic opportunities exploited in this episode so I won't even try but I will leave this one teaser. The story culminates in two of the funniest sight gags in the show's history, both done by Kramer, one with Kramer's most epic funny entrances ever.
What seems like a fairly cut and dried premise fully blossoms in the individual stories. Jerry takes the first class fare relegating Elaine to survive in coach purgatory. Kramer makes a turn that puts their timely arrival in jeopardy and George into paroxysms of anger and anguish. Once they arrive at Kennedy, George gets into an altercation with a crazed criminal in cuffs being escorted by a US Marshall and Kramer comes to realize the man he vaguely recognizes at the airport is an old roommate who left owing him money. But then George is elated to learn Jerry and Elaine's flight plans have changed so now he and Kramer have time to pick them up at LaGuardia instead.
It's really hard to do justice to Dreyfus' portrayal of all of the tortures that a bad coach flight inflicts. It's a clinic in depicting the sweaty, cramped agony of flying second class exaggeratedly compared against Jerry's life of bourgeois privilege in the section closest to the cockpit.
Even if I had 20 pages, I couldn't convey all the comedic opportunities exploited in this episode so I won't even try but I will leave this one teaser. The story culminates in two of the funniest sight gags in the show's history, both done by Kramer, one with Kramer's most epic funny entrances ever.