The Ex-Girlfriend
[1] The episode was first broadcast on NBC in the United States on January 23, 1991, after being postponed for one week due to the start of the First Gulf War.
Jerry starts dating Marlene, who annoys him as much as she did George, but he finds himself unable to break up with her because she has a "psycho-sexual" hold on him.
This prompts George to hum the Tony Bennett song "Rags to Riches," replacing the chorus with "nods to nothing".
The episode was written by series co-creators Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld and directed by Tom Cherones.
[3][4] David based the story on a personal experience of his, when he gave a ride home to a woman who had recently dated a friend of his.
Club commented, "Seinfeld started its second season, its first real season after a four-episode test run, very strongly with 'The Ex-Girlfriend', and it is the first time we really see George as the character we know and love, that weird dark shadow of Larry David's mind who behaves as no functioning human being honestly could.
[2][7] Norman Brenner, who worked as Michael Richards' stand-in on the show for all nine seasons,[8] appears as an extra during the second scene, walking by twice in different clothing.
[2] "The Ex-Girlfriend" was first broadcast on NBC on January 23, 1991, after being postponed for one week due to the start of the First Gulf War.
"[14] Joyce Millman of Salon.com stated that she disliked Seinfeld's pilot episode, but after seeing a scene from "The Ex-Girlfriend" in which Jerry and Kramer discuss returning fruit, she was "awed by Seinfeld and co-creator/writer Larry David's brilliant grasp of, A) working-class Jewish craziness, and, B) the absurd humor of the deeply mundane.
"[15] In a review of the episode, Jon Burlingame of The Spokesman-Review stated, "Seinfeld is an offbeat take on the standard sitcom concept.
"[16] In his review of the episode, Chicago Tribune critic Rick Kogan stated, "Hip without posing, it delivers its comedy in sharp and spectacular style".
[17] Mike Flaherty and Mary Kaye Schilling of Entertainment Weekly called "The Ex-Girlfriend" "The series' most multifaceted (if not most engaging) narrative so far", and graded it with a B.
[4] David Sims gave the episode an A, writing, "George is really the most revolutionary character: he's often repulsive and pathetic, but here these are traits we heartily enjoy and sympathize with and want more of...
[18] Overall, Grahnke commented "At his best, Seinfeld draws a chuckle or two from his middle-brow remarks on modern life and its perplexing contradictions.
At his worst, the comedian shows the smugness of a detached star who can mechanically control the level of laughter that greets whatever quip he may utter.
