"The Heart Attack" is the eighth episode of the second season of
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
's ''
Seinfeld'',
and the show's 13th episode overall. It aired on April 25, 1991.
Plot
While watching a
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
B movie, ''The Flaming Globes of Sigmund'',
Jerry falls asleep. He wakes in the middle of the night and scrawls a joke for his stand-up comedy act. The following day he is unable to read what he wrote down; a running gag in the episode has Jerry asking people what he wrote and they all offer different interpretations.
While Jerry has lunch with
George
George may refer to:
People
* George (given name)
* George (surname)
* George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George
* George Washington, First President of the United States
* George W. Bush, 43rd Presid ...
and
Elaine at
Monk's Café
Monk's Café is a fictional coffee shop from the NBC sitcom ''Seinfeld''.
The exterior of Tom's Restaurant on the corner of West 112th Street and Broadway, near Columbia University, which first appears in season 1 episode 3, "The Robbery," is ...
, hoping they can interpret his note, George becomes alarmed by pains in his chest and thinks he is having a
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...
; they have him transported to a hospital. The doctor informs him that he needs a
tonsillectomy
Tonsillectomy is a list of surgical procedures, surgical procedure in which both palatine tonsils are fully removed from the back of the throat. The procedure is mainly performed for recurrent tonsillitis, throat infections and obstructive sleep ...
. George had his tonsils removed when he was younger, but now they have grown back.
Kramer, being paranoid about surgery, recommends a
holistic healer as an alternative. Jerry warns George that the healer who Kramer is recommending spent time in prison. George takes Kramer's advice, because of the large difference in price. Elaine becomes attracted to George's doctor, and she goes on a date with him. Elaine discovers that the doctor has a
fetish for tongues, which causes her to dump him once the date ends.
George, Kramer, and Jerry meet Tor Eckman, the holistic healer (
Stephen Tobolowsky
Stephen Harold Tobolowsky (born May 30, 1951) is an American character actor. He is known for film roles such as insurance agent Ned Ryerson in '' Groundhog Day'' and amnesiac Sammy Jankis in '' Memento'', as well as such television characters ...
). Eckman performs a number of hand gestures to identify George's ailment, which he concludes has nothing to do with his tonsils, but with his "imbalance with nature". He then concocts a tea containing
cramp bark
''Viburnum opulus'', the guelder-rose or guelder rose () is a species of flowering plant in the family Adoxaceae (formerly Caprifoliaceae) native to Europe, northern Africa and central Asia.
Description
''Viburnum opulus'' is a deciduous shrub ...
,
cleavers, and
couch grass Couch grass, as a vernacular common name, may refer to:
* ''Cynodon dactylon'', known as couch grass in Australia and South Africa, often planted as a turf grass
* ''Elymus repens'', known as couch grass in the United Kingdom and North America, of ...
that would cure him, also prescribing that George stop using hot water entirely. However, upon drinking the tea, George suffers from an allergic reaction turning his skin purple and has to be transported to the hospital again. On the way, the EMT (
John Fleck) and the driver get into an altercation over a missing
Chuckle. They stop the ambulance to fight outside. The driver beats the EMT bloody and leaves him in the street. While arguing with Jerry and Kramer over this, he takes his eyes off the road, causing a crash. George and Jerry are put in neck braces and George has the tonsillectomy though he is unable to speak. Elaine visits briefly to give George some ice cream. The hospital television shows ''The Flaming Globes of Sigmund'' again, and Jerry remembers that what he wrote down was a line from the movie. As he realizes this, he notes "That's not funny."
Production
"The Heart Attack" was written by
Larry Charles
Larry Charles (born ) is an American comedian, screenwriter, director, actor, and producer. He was a staff writer for the sitcom '' Seinfeld'' for its first five seasons. He has also directed the documentary film ''Religulous'' and the mockumen ...
. Like George, Charles had his tonsils removed and grow back later in life. He was inspired to write the ambulance scene by a news report about an ambulance driver and EMT who stopped an ambulance in the middle of traffic so that they could get out and have a fist fight, leaving a dying patient in the back.
This is the first episode in which Jerry's bedroom is shown.
The doctor's tongue fetish was more extreme in Charles' original draft, but these scenes were cut over concerns that they were too dark.
[
Jerry's line "You're not a doctor, but you play one in real life" is a play on a famous line from a 1986 commercial for cough syrup: "]I’m not a doctor, but I play one on TV
Peter Michael Bergman (born June 11, 1953) is an American actor best known for his portrayals on soap operas, such as Cliff Warner on ''All My Children'' (1979–89) on ABC as well as Jack Abbott on ''The Young and the Restless'' (1989–prese ...
."[
In a bizarre coincidence, the episode seemingly makes an outlandish prediction when Jerry attempts to have Tor translate the note he wrote. Upon examining it, Tor laughs and mutters "Cleveland 117, San Antonio 109", leaving Jerry even more baffled. Twenty-eight years after the episode aired, the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the ]San Antonio Spurs
The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio. The Spurs compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Southwest Division. The team plays its home ...
117–109.
Reception
Critical responses to the episode were mixed; Mike Flaherty and Mary Kaye Schilling of ''Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...
'' graded the episode with a D, writing "What Seinfeld excels at is finding the eccentric in the apparently normal. A kooky New Age doctor? That's hitting the broad side of a barn." ''The Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...
'' critic Robin Oliver felt that, though he did not think the episode was bad, it was among ''Seinfeld''s lesser episodes. However, Andy Patrizio of IGN
''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa distri ...
considered "The Heart Attack" one of season two's best episodes. ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the ''Belleville News-De ...
'' critic Eric Mink also reacted very positively on the episode, praising the Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
reference and Michael Richards' performance in particular.
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heart Attack
Seinfeld (season 2) episodes
1991 American television episodes