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| Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jerry Seinfeld, Norman Brenner (in back), and Jason Alexander on Seinfeld. |
Something rather remarkable happened on May 23, 1991. One of Ed Wood's movies was integral to the plot of a prime time American network sitcom watched by millions of people. That was the fateful night when Seinfeld aired its famous episode, "The Chinese Restaurant," on NBC. Can that episode really be 31 years old already? How time flies.
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| James Hong on Seinfeld. |
The plot has Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), George (Jason Alexander), and Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) stopping at Hunan 5th Avenue to get a quick dinner before going to see Plan 9 from Outer Space (1957) at a "one night only" screening. Their plans are derailed when the restaurant's ever-smiling host, Bruce (screen legend James Hong), fails to give them a table, and they are forced to mill around in the lobby for what seems a small eternity. Bruce repeatedly assures Jerry and the gang that the wait will only be "five, ten minutes," but they eventually grow weary and leave, giving up on their now-ruined evening plans.
Apart from two brief wraparound segments showing Jerry Seinfeld performing stand-up comedy in a nightclub, "The Chinese Restaurant" unfolds in real time in one location. The script includes lots of dialogue and very little action, making it more like a stage play than a typical TV sitcom. NBC was baffled by it and was even reluctant to air it. Seinfeld was still a fledgling show back then—not yet the ratings powerhouse it would become—and network executive Warren Littlefield admits he "didn't get it" when Jerry and his writing partner, Larry David, submitted the script for approval. And yet, "The Chinese Restaurant" proved pivotal in Seinfeld's history. The unusual episode garnered a lot of audience attention and helped distinguish Seinfeld from the dozens of other live-action comedies on TV at the time. This was the kind of offbeat story other shows would never even think of doing.
For Ed Wood and Plan 9 from Outer Space, this attention was almost unprecedented. Not since It Came from Hollywood (1982) had Eddie received such mainstream exposure. And, since that movie had flopped pretty hard, it's likely that "The Chinese Restaurant" was the first time most viewers had even heard of Plan 9. Rudolph Grey's biography Nightmare of Ecstasy (1992) wasn't even out yet, and Tim Burton's Ed Wood (1994) was years away. It's possible that some viewers even sought out Plan 9 because of "The Chinese Restaurant," though I'm not sure what the movie's VHS availability would have been at the time. Jerry doesn't mention any specific plot points but does say that Plan 9 is the worst movie of all time and that he's going to the screening specifically to make snide comments. That's why he needs George and Elaine to come with him and serve as an audience.
The idea to include Plan 9 in "The Chinese Restaurant" came from Seinfeld executive story editor and proud Ed Wood fan Larry Charles. If Jerry were trying to make a movie on time, that would give the story a "ticking clock" and a sense of urgency. He has to get that table! He even dodged a dinner with his uncle (apparently not Uncle Leo) for this opportunity. As Jerry himself explains to Elaine: "I couldn't have dinner with him. Plan 9 from Outer Space! One night only! The big screen! My hands are tied!" I'm not sure if either Jerry Seinfeld or Larry David had ever heard of Plan 9, but the bearded, long-haired Larry Charles—imagine a hippie Gandalf—definitely looks like the kind of cult film freak I've seen at Ed Wood marathons over the years.
Revisiting Seinfeld's "Chinese Restaurant" episode for this article was a total delight. It still made me laugh out loud 31 years after I first saw it, mainly because I could relate to the characters' impatience and rising frustration throughout the running time. Jason Alexander, in particular, is a master of peevishness. The lobby of the restaurant becomes a gaily-decorated purgatory for the Seinfeld characters, the bright red color scheme offering an ironic counterpoint to the misery of Jerry, George, and Elaine.
The long-running series notoriously ended with the characters in an actual jail cell, but this early episode (only the 16th to air!) shows how these jaded New Yorkers are already boxed in by the world around them. I was reminded of that Twilight Zone episode, "Five Characters in Search of an Exit," or the works of Franz Kafka. In particular, "The Chinese Restaurant" strongly resembles "Before the Law," a parable included in Kafka's novel The Trial (1925). In the parable, a man from the country tries to access "the law" but is kept from it by a sinister, aloof doorkeeper. The man from the country even tries to bribe the doorkeeper to no avail. The doorkeeper accepts the bribe but does not allow the man entry to the law. ("I'm only taking this so you won't feel you've left something untried," the doorkeeper tells him.) A very similar thing happens in this episode when Elaine clumsily bribes Bruce for a table but gets nothing in return.
Incidentally, at the height of Seinfeld mania in the early '90s, Entertainment Weekly put out an entire book called The Entertainment Weekly Seinfeld Companion (1993) by Bruce Fretts. You can read it here if you like. It's an A-to-Z glossary of the pop culture references and running jokes of Seinfeld. And, yes, Plan 9 from Outer Space makes the cut, right between "Ping" and "Polar Bear Club." It's even accompanied by a stock (uncredited) photo of Tor Johnson and Vampira.
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| Tor Johnson and Vampira in a Seinfeld companion book. |
And here's a closer look at the relevant passage:
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| Let's give you a better look at Tor Johnson's pretty face. |
P.S. Jerry finally gets to see Plan 9 from Outer Space in a later Seinfeld episode called "The Postponement." And, yes, I may have to revisit that one as well eventually.