Meanwhile, Jerry's friend George Costanza (Jason Alexander) wears a wedding ring to a party to see what effect it will have on women.
Series co-creators Seinfeld and Larry David asked Mehlman to write an episode for the show after they read a few articles he wrote for newspapers and magazines.
To make up for his earlier mistake, Kramer finds somebody who is willing to pay $10,000 for the apartment, a sum so large Elaine would not be willing to borrow it from Jerry.
However, the new renter is a musician who constantly plays loud music, and Jerry ends up regretting not letting Elaine rent the apartment.
[4][5] He discussed the idea with Seinfeld, David and staff writer Larry Charles, who felt that it would be funnier if Elaine moved closer to Jerry instead.
The scene in which Jerry informs George he told Elaine about the apartment initially showed them standing in line for the movies, talking about sitting in the front of the theatre.
[4] George would tell Jerry that he once pretended to have a grotesque physical impairment while he was standing in line to get a ticket for The Exorcist, and people would let him go in front of them without saying anything.
[4] The location of this scene, however, was changed to Monk's Cafe, a regular hangout for the show's main characters, and George and Jerry's dialogue was shortened.
[4] Harold was set to return in the season two episode "The Revenge," in which he would tell the show's central characters that Jerry's suicidal neighbor Newman jumped from the building, but an awning broke his fall.
[7] Theresa Randle, Patricia Ayame Thomson and Leslie Neale guest starred as women George unsuccessfully flirts with while wearing a wedding ring.
[4] The episode was first aired in the United States on NBC on April 4, 1991 as part of a Thursday night line-up that also included Cheers and L.A.
[9] "The Apartment" gained a Nielsen rating of 16.9 and an audience share of 28, meaning that 16.9% of American households watched the episode, and that 28% of all televisions in use at the time were tuned into it.
[4] Ocala Star-Banner critic Jon Burlingame praised the episode for its "smart humor" and stated the show could be a perfect fit between Cheers and L.A.
[9] Mike Flaherty and Mary Kaye Schilling of Entertainment Weekly reacted very positively to the episode and praised Alexander's performance in particular, stating "George's profound self-hatred is now in full bloom ('Please, a little respect, for I am Costanza, Lord of the Idiots!').