The Frogger
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Seinfeld episode | |
| "The Frogger" | |
 George watching a youth (Drake Bell) play the Frogger machine. |
|
| Episode no. | 174 |
|---|---|
| Airdate | April 23, 1998 |
| Writer(s) | Gregg Kavet, Andy Robin, Steve Koren, Dan O'Keefe |
| Director | Andy Ackerman |
| Guest star(s) | Peter Stormare & Drake Bell |
| Seinfeld - Season 9 September 1997 - May 1998 |
|
|
|
| List of all Seinfeld episodes | |
The Frogger is the 174th episode of the hit NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 18th episode for the 9th and final season. It aired on April 23, 1998.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
Elaine is confronted with cake from two separate celebrations at her workplace. She is tired of the forced socializing, so she calls in sick the following day. Jerry and George go to their old high school hangout for one last slice of pizza. Kramer was at the police station where he obtained some caution tape used for crime scenes and also hears about a serial killer that is on the loose in the Riverside Park area.
At the pizza parlor, George discovers he still has the high score on the old Frogger video game, with a score of 860,000 points. Elaine's co-workers give her a cake to celebrate her return to work from being sick, and she refuses to take part in any future celebrations. Jerry goes out on a date with Elaine's friend Lisi, but he says she is a "sentence finisher, it's like dating Mad Libs." George decides to buy the Frogger machine, but Jerry asks him how he is going to move it and keep it plugged in to preserve the high score. Kramer discovers the last victim of the serial killer looked a lot like Jerry.
George works to find a solution to his Frogger problem, and Kramer volunteers the help of a man he knows named "Slippery Pete". Elaine misses the 4 o'clock sugar rush she had gotten used to from all the celebrations, so she decides to raid her boss Peterman's refrigerator, where she finds a piece of cake. She finds out from Peterman that the piece of cake he has in his refrigerator is worth $29,000 because of its historical significance. The cake comes from the 1937 wedding of King Edward VIII.
Jerry is looking to breakup with Lisi, but discovers that she lives in the Riverside Park area. To avoid the serial killer, he takes Lisi back to his place, where she finishes one of his thoughts that takes their relationship to the next level. Elaine tells Jerry and George about the cake and she also tells Jerry that Lisi is planning a weekend trip for them to Pennsylvania Dutch country. Jerry fears that Lisi received the wrong message as that kind of a trip is for a serious relationship. Elaine tries to even out Peterman's slice of cake, but gets swept up in the moment and finishes it off. George tries to coordinate the movement of Frogger machine. Elaine looks for a replacement for Peterman's cake, and Kramer suggests an Entenmann's cake. Jerry goes to Lisi's apartment, where he tries to break up with her. It goes on for ten hours, when he is ready to leave he discovers it is dark.
After exiting her apartment, Jerry sees a man whom he fears is the serial killer and pleads to be let back in to Lisi's apartment. Peterman has his piece of cake appraised at $2.19. George finds "Slippery Pete" playing his Frogger game on battery power, so there is only about three minutes of power remaining. The only available power source is across the busy street, and Kramer has run out of caution tape. George, convinced he does not need any help, begins moving the machine across the busy street, moving through traffic like the frog from the video game. However, as George reaches the opposite sidewalk, an oncoming semi-truck smashes the game cabinet, causing Jerry to quip, "Game over".
Later, Peterman shows Elaine surveillance videotape of her eating and "dancing" with the slice of cake; he is convinced that the age of the cake and its effect on her digestive system are all the punishment she needs.
[edit] Trivia
- Actual Frogger machines of that era do not let players enter their initials on a high-score board. Such high-score tables had not yet become a standard feature of arcade machines in 1981.
- George's high score is not present when the Frogger game's screen is first shown. At that time, the high score is 7200, merely the score of the boy who just finished playing it.
- On September 24, 2005, The Twin Galaxies Intergalactic Scoreboard issued a colorful poster that offered a $1,000 cash prize to the first video game player who could break George Costanza's fictional Frogger high score of 863,050 points as portrayed in "The Frogger". Though no player could break this mark before the December 31, 2005 deadline, Donald Hayes of Salem, New Hampshire reached 589,350 points on March 25, 2006, making his the highest Frogger score to date.[citation needed]
- The boy playing Frogger is Drake Bell who is now famous for his role in The Amanda Show and Drake & Josh.
- The actor Reuven Bar-Yotam, who plays Shlomo, had a cameo appearance as a bus passenger in the previous season's "The Muffin Tops".
- Peter Stormare plays Slippery Pete, the rogue electrician.
[edit] Quotes
- Slippery Pete: Think you can handle that, numbnuts?
- Slippery Pete: Oh, you mean the holes
- Mario: Where you been? We're tanking here.
- George: GLC must live on!
