Seinfeld Season 2 was where the “Show about nothing” tone really started to be firmly established. It was where we got the best single locale episode, “The Chinese Restaurant” and it was where we got commentary on people who talk to closely to others in “The Pony Remark.” No other sitcom could have made waiting for a table work as the DNA for a full episode and no other sitcom could make a tiny social quirk such an integral part of a narrative. Season 2 also gave the world George Costanza quitting his job and returning the next day, which Larry David once did in real life, as well as the first mention of Newman (though it wouldn’t be until the next year that he officially debuted as played by Wayne Knight).
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And, thanks to the second season’s fifth episode, “The Apartment,” we got both one of the series’ best recurring lines as well as the only appearance of two characters who have since gone on to be seen as fan-favorites. What was the line and who are the one-off characters? Let’s unpack “The Apartment.”
What Makes “The Apartment” a Special Episode?
The crux of the narrative in “The Apartment” is a now-vacated apartment on the floor above Jerry and Kramer. Elaine has been wanting to get out of her apartment, and this new apartment is shockingly cheap for a New York living space, so Jerry tells her about it. However, when she says she’ll be able to visit any time, Jerry realizes that he’s not actually comfortable with living so close to an ex, even if that ex has become an integral addition to his friend group.
Jerry is informed of his upstairs neighbor’s passing away by Harold and Manny, the building’s managers. They’re also the ones who tell Jerry that they have been offered $5,000 from someone for the apartment, and that’s just for the right to move in. Elaine doesn’t have even close to that, so Jerry, selfishly, feels as though he’s off the hook.
Kramer bursts in with the suggestion that Jerry front Elaine the $5,000, which delights Elaine, but makes Jerry scramble. After Jerry confronts Kramer, the latter ends up finding someone who is willing to pay $10,000 for the apartment. Unfortunately for Jerry, this individual ends up being a member of a loud rock band.
Harold and Manny only appear in a few scenes, but actors Glenn Shadix (Beetlejuice, The Nightmare Before Christmas) and Tony Plana (Netflix’s The Punisher, JFK) steal each of them. Shadix’s Harold is a kindhearted man who prefers to stick to his word while Manny, who only speaks (or, rather, yells) in Spanish is the one perpetually aiming for the bigger buck.
Supposedly Harold was supposed to come back in the same season’s
“The Revenge,” but that didn’t end up happening. It’s odd, because throughout the entire series we spend a substantial amount of time in Jerry’s apartment. It’s a consistent presence. Yet, this duo never returned.
However, plenty of people see a certain connection between Harold and Manny and the later seasons’ Cedric and Bob. It’s not clear if Shadix and Plana’s characters were gay, but there are throughlines. For instance, Bob is Latino, just like Manny, and Cedric often wears glasses and a hat, also just like Manny. They’re likely not repurposed, altered versions of the Season 2 building managers, but it’s not impossible to imagine that being the case.
Now we get to the catchphrase introduced in this episode. Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ Elaine Benes had some fantastic lines throughout the series. For instance, “Spongeworthy” to describe a man she wanted to use one of her few remaining contraceptive devices on, her gleeful spitting out of “Next!” back in the Soup Nazi’s mean-spirited face, and her saying “I don’t have a square to spare” in reference to toilet paper. But her big recurring line was “Get out!” with emphasis on the second word. It popped up whenever she was really excited, and that started with “The Apartment.”
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Image Courtesy of Paramount
