The Stand In (Seinfeld)

"The Stand In"
Seinfeld episode
Episode no. Season 5
Episode 16
Directed by Tom Cherones
Written by Larry David
Production code 516
Original air date February 24, 1994
Guest actors

"The Stand In" is the 80th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. This was the 16th episode for the fifth season. It aired on February 24, 1994.

Plot

Riding on a bus Jerry and George meet a friend, Al Netche, who tells them another friend, Fulton, is in a hospital, and that Jerry may want to visit him as he might need a "good laugh." George feels bored when he has nothing to talk about with his girlfriend, Daphne, and he wants to break up. Later, Daphne tells George that Al encouraged her to end the relationship as George doesn't commit and may end up hurting her. George decides to postpone the break-up and sustain the relationship just for spite, to prove Al wrong.

Kramer has got a job as a stand-in actor, in the series All My Children, along with his friend Mickey Abbott (Danny Woodburn), a "little person" who is offended by the term "midget". Mickey, however, is worried about keeping his role as the young actor he stands in for is rapidly growing. Kramer suggests Mickey use "lifts" to increase his height, to which Mickey reluctantly agrees. Jerry later sets up a date for Elaine with his friend, Phil Totola.

Jerry visits Fulton in the hospital where he tells a story about a guy "Pachyderm" and the hot pizza slices he was juggling, but Fulton doesn't laugh. Phil arrives at the hospital to make Fulton laugh, but to no avail. Meanwhile, other "little" actors notice something different on Mickey as he plans to date Tammy, a little woman. Johnny Bigiano, another small actor who envies Mickey for being a stand-in for some famous child actors, sets to find out what is going on with him.

Jerry feels added pressure to be funny after his first visit to the hospital coincides with a deterioration in Fulton's condition. He offers to do his act with new material. Elaine had a good evening with Phil, including the Pachyderm story, until Phil suddenly takes "it out".

When Johnny discovers the lifts after breaking Mickey's locker open, Mickey is ostracized by the other dwarf actors, including Tammy; even though Mickey tries to defend himself and his career and even blaming everything on Kramer, no one believes him and as Tammy leaves with Johnny, Mickey angrily attacks Kramer. At the hospital, Jerry is being so funny that Fulton cannot stop laughing. Fulton then suddenly stops laughing, supposedly dying from it. Later at Monk's, George has said to Jerry that he would go as far as to marry Daphne just to prove he can commit. However, to George's relief, Daphne says that she met another person: Jerry Persach, who George reveals is "Pachyderm" who used the pizza trick from his earlier mentioned story to woo Daphne.

Future episodes

This is the first appearance of Mickey Abbott, one of Kramer's eccentric circle of friends.

The child for whom Mickey acts as stand in was actor Thomas Dekker, who would later play the child who Kramer visits in the hospital in the Season 7 episode "The Wink".

External links

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