For a show about nothing, "Seinfeld" was truly something. In it's infancy, sitcom TV execs didn't get it and tried to prevent it from getting on the air. But it' creators knew better and once it was finally broadcast, its viewers did as well. Premiering in 1991, "Seinfeld" had a slow start, but once it hit its stride, it broke the mold defining half comedies. Today, we still watch with regularity to unwind after work or have a few good belly laughs before we go off to bed. Or wherever in between personal home viewing can now take us. There were 169 episodes over nine gut-busting season of this beloved show. Though our list of favorites can go on and on and on and on and on, here we've laid out the top 10.
#10 "The Merv Griffin Show" - Season 9, Episode 6
![seinfeld greatest episodes, seinfeld top 10, the merv griffin show]()
We only get small glimpses of Kramer's apartment throughout the series, but in this episode, it's on full display, albeit dressed up as a talk show. Kramer finds the set of the old Merv Griffin Show in a dumpster and naturally brings it home and adopts the duties of the host of his own chatfest. Meanwhile, George is inadvertently killing animals to his girlfriend's horror, Jerry schemes after being barred from playing with his girlfriend's classic toys, and Tic-Tacs make Elaine's problems with a workplace sidler even worse. This all culminates with everyone appearing as guests on Kramer's "show" sharing the stage with zoologist Jim Fowler. The best of the later episodes, just when you thought the show had done it all, "The Merv Griffin Show" proves it hadn't.
#9 "The Couch" - Season 6, Episode 5
![seinfeld greatest episodes, seinfeld top 10, the couch]()
An episode as perfect as a DIY pizza. It begins with Jerry getting a new couch, which normally leads one to experience harmony for weeks and weeks to follow. No such luck here. Kramer's potential partnership with Poppie in a pizzeria that lets customers make their own pies is jeopardized when Elaine causes a scene at the unhygienic restauranteur's establishment over his stance on abortion. When Jerry suggests she use the same litmus test on her new, handsome deliveryman boyfriend, she sets herself up for a big surprise. But Poppie has got the biggest surprises in store, whether leaving behind a puddle of filth in Jerry's apartment or taking his anti-choice position to gastronomical new levels. And George violates a video store's most sacred code of rental ethics in order to avoid having to read a classic book club selection. More highs achieved here by this sitcom's team of comic geniuses - finding humor in abortion and incontinence. Let alone the narrative erosion wrought by book-to-movie adaptations.
#8 "The Rye" - Season 7, Episode 11
![seinfeld greatest episodes, seinfeld top 10, the rye]()
You don't have to like rye bread to love this episode. The Rosses have George and his parents over for dinner and things go just about as you might expect. And the age old question of etiquette, "if I contribute to a meal as an invited guest, and that contribution isn't served or entirely consumed, can I reclaim it?" rears its thorny head when Mr. and Mrs. Costanza's answer becomes an emphatic "heck yeah!" And while Elaine is off letting a saxophonist toot her horn, George enlists Jerry and Kramer to cover up his parent's shameful dinner party transgression and secretly return a delectable-looking marble rye. This involves sporting gear, an awfully flatulent carriage horse and Jerry's lowest low of the series: mugging an old woman. No one may ever match the comedic impact Lucy and Ethel achieved trying to manage an overly swift conveyor belt of chocolates, but seeing George reel in a loaf of bread with a fishing pool from a third story window comes as close as possible.
#7 "The Bubble Boy" - Season 4, Episode 7
![seinfeld greatest episodes, seinfeld top 10, the bubble boy]()
Season 4 is really where "Seinfeld" kicked into high gear. One solid storyline, the selling and creation of a sitcom pilot and the characters that event snared in its wake, stretched throughout and every one of that year's episodes knocked it out of the park. It reached a level of truly inspired insanity, though, with "The Bubble Boy." Until then our only pop culture representation of the tragedy of severe combined immunodeficiency had been a mid-70s John Travolta in a characteristically mid-70s made-for-TV movie. Thankfully "Seinfeld" righted this lingering gap. Fast-driving George leaves Jerry and Elaine in his dust on a good will detour before all settling in at Susan's father's remote cabin. Things go up in flames quickly even before a cigar-obsessed Kramer decides to crash their excursion. Unadulterated hilarity, including the greatest game of Trivial Pursuit ever filmed.
#6 "The Pick" - Season 4, Episode 13
![seinfeld greatest episodes, seinfeld top 10, the pick]()
This won't be the last episode on our list where the series confronts the embarrassment created when caught performing an indelicate act to one's own body, and we as viewers have been so lucky to bare witness to them and/or their aftermath. Here Jerry's landed himself perhaps his most beautiful girlfriend yet, a fashion model no less, who he quickly loses because of one probing finger and needy nose. Noses, nipples, and other unmentionable body parts play key roles within this amazing Season 4 offering, as do faulty zippers, stolen scents, and the best Christmas card one could ever receive. All this is even sewn up with Jerry channeling Shakespeare. Brilliant bawdiness that would probably earn the praise of The Bard himself.
#5 "The Soup Nazi" - Season 7, Episode 6
![seinfeld greatest episodes, seinfeld top 10, the soup nazi]()
Another episode elevating "Seinfeld's" bona fides, and perhaps soup's itself. There have been many golden quotes attributed to the show, but the Soup Nazi's, at least, might be the most sponge... er, t-shirt-worthy. Only in NYC could a confrontational purveyor of five star soup also be an all out sensation. And only "Seinfeld" could give that premise the ultimate comedic spin. Jerry and company become obsessed with a new local soup stand where costumers must adhere to the owner's strict rules, which for this group, is an obvious problem. So many laughs in this one revolving around the Nazi himself that you almost forget the episode also features Jerry's Shmoopy girlfriend, dueling armoires, and two effeminate "street toughs." But if that's too much hilarity too handle, then "No soup for you!"
#4 The Hamptons - Season 5, Episode 21
![seinfeld greatest episodes, seinfeld top 10, the hamptons]()
Not the only episode on this list entirely taking place away from all our usual "Seinfeld" settings - there must be something truly special about that formula. In "The Hamptons," even America's most exclusive playground is ripe for trouble for Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer. For ugly babies, lobster traps, topless sunbathers, mistaken bedrooms and kosher girlfriends all become too much to contend with. But perhaps the biggest pickle of them all is shrinkage. "Like when a man goes swimming... afterwards." Everyone is so on their game out of their element here, particularly Louis-Dreyfus who takes her incredible prowess for effortless laughs to new highs.
#3 The Chinese Restaurant - Season 2, Episode 11
![seinfeld greatest episodes, seinfeld top 10, the chinese restaurant]()
Originally airing in the middle of Season 2, this was the audience's first true hint that "Seinfeld" was no run-of-the-mill sitcom, that this was a series to be reckoned with. What makes the premise so flat out brilliant is that we've all been there before, spending too much time in a restaurant's waiting area, where frustrations fester and inequities are flaunted. Seeing "Plan 9 from Outer Space" with friends while grabbing a nice dinner beforehand sounds like a perfect night out. Yet what we've learned from "Seinfeld" is that nothing works out perfectly, even when the gang is not steering things out of control themselves. Kramer was originally conceived as a shut-in, so he was not in this episode, and because it was so groundbreaking, actor Michael Richards was left with heavy regret for his absence. And like a Chinese restaurant's fortune cookies, we constantly continue to unearth wisdom about "The Chinese Restaurant." It was just this year we discovered why "Costanza" can very reasonably be mistaken for "Cartwright."
#2 "The Opposite" - Season 5, Episode 22
![seinfeld greatest episodes, seinfeld top 10, the opposite]()
"My name is George. I'm unemployed and I live with my parents," is the quote that sets off this gem of an episode, which takes role reversal to boundless new heights of hilarity. We never expected George to recover from his downward spiral which left him jobless and living with his cacophonous parents in Queens. But his luck is turned with the epiphany to go in the exact opposite direction of wherever his impulses would normally lead his behavior. When it becomes apparent he's on to something, the same is thought of the series itself, on to being the greatest comedy television has ever seen. Especially when Elaine, an unwitting victim to the menace that is a box Juicyfruit, experiences a demise as fast and random as George's ascension. Jerry? He'll just even out. The cherry on top is Kramer's appearance on "Live with Regis and Kathy Lee" who's own spit take is warning enough that as we watch any "Seinfeld" episode, it's best to keep our mouths beverage-free.
#1 "The Contest" - Season 4, Episode 11
![seinfeld greatest episodes, seinfeld top 10, the contest]()
Subject matter never dared discussed on prime time television before, never even mentioned within this uproarious half hour by name, initiates the premise of the greatest "Seinfeld" episode ever. Outrageous from the start, where George relates the story as to how his mother ended up in the hospital, "The Contest" takes a taboo topic and rips it open for a piñata's-worth of showering punchlines. This encapsulates the true achievement of this episode and the show and its creators in general. They took on risky subjects simply to be mined for comic gold. No messages. No moralizing - which is the lifeblood of most classic sitcoms. Instead "Seinfeld" set out to top itself and as a factory of laughs week after week and "The Contest" is the standard-bearer for that philosophy. The episode never reveals who is the contest's victor, but in the end we understand that when it comes to TV comedies, "Seinfeld" is Master of its Domain.
Photos via Photofest, sidereel.com and Pinterest
#10 "The Merv Griffin Show" - Season 9, Episode 6
We only get small glimpses of Kramer's apartment throughout the series, but in this episode, it's on full display, albeit dressed up as a talk show. Kramer finds the set of the old Merv Griffin Show in a dumpster and naturally brings it home and adopts the duties of the host of his own chatfest. Meanwhile, George is inadvertently killing animals to his girlfriend's horror, Jerry schemes after being barred from playing with his girlfriend's classic toys, and Tic-Tacs make Elaine's problems with a workplace sidler even worse. This all culminates with everyone appearing as guests on Kramer's "show" sharing the stage with zoologist Jim Fowler. The best of the later episodes, just when you thought the show had done it all, "The Merv Griffin Show" proves it hadn't.
#9 "The Couch" - Season 6, Episode 5
An episode as perfect as a DIY pizza. It begins with Jerry getting a new couch, which normally leads one to experience harmony for weeks and weeks to follow. No such luck here. Kramer's potential partnership with Poppie in a pizzeria that lets customers make their own pies is jeopardized when Elaine causes a scene at the unhygienic restauranteur's establishment over his stance on abortion. When Jerry suggests she use the same litmus test on her new, handsome deliveryman boyfriend, she sets herself up for a big surprise. But Poppie has got the biggest surprises in store, whether leaving behind a puddle of filth in Jerry's apartment or taking his anti-choice position to gastronomical new levels. And George violates a video store's most sacred code of rental ethics in order to avoid having to read a classic book club selection. More highs achieved here by this sitcom's team of comic geniuses - finding humor in abortion and incontinence. Let alone the narrative erosion wrought by book-to-movie adaptations.
#8 "The Rye" - Season 7, Episode 11
You don't have to like rye bread to love this episode. The Rosses have George and his parents over for dinner and things go just about as you might expect. And the age old question of etiquette, "if I contribute to a meal as an invited guest, and that contribution isn't served or entirely consumed, can I reclaim it?" rears its thorny head when Mr. and Mrs. Costanza's answer becomes an emphatic "heck yeah!" And while Elaine is off letting a saxophonist toot her horn, George enlists Jerry and Kramer to cover up his parent's shameful dinner party transgression and secretly return a delectable-looking marble rye. This involves sporting gear, an awfully flatulent carriage horse and Jerry's lowest low of the series: mugging an old woman. No one may ever match the comedic impact Lucy and Ethel achieved trying to manage an overly swift conveyor belt of chocolates, but seeing George reel in a loaf of bread with a fishing pool from a third story window comes as close as possible.
#7 "The Bubble Boy" - Season 4, Episode 7
Season 4 is really where "Seinfeld" kicked into high gear. One solid storyline, the selling and creation of a sitcom pilot and the characters that event snared in its wake, stretched throughout and every one of that year's episodes knocked it out of the park. It reached a level of truly inspired insanity, though, with "The Bubble Boy." Until then our only pop culture representation of the tragedy of severe combined immunodeficiency had been a mid-70s John Travolta in a characteristically mid-70s made-for-TV movie. Thankfully "Seinfeld" righted this lingering gap. Fast-driving George leaves Jerry and Elaine in his dust on a good will detour before all settling in at Susan's father's remote cabin. Things go up in flames quickly even before a cigar-obsessed Kramer decides to crash their excursion. Unadulterated hilarity, including the greatest game of Trivial Pursuit ever filmed.
#6 "The Pick" - Season 4, Episode 13
This won't be the last episode on our list where the series confronts the embarrassment created when caught performing an indelicate act to one's own body, and we as viewers have been so lucky to bare witness to them and/or their aftermath. Here Jerry's landed himself perhaps his most beautiful girlfriend yet, a fashion model no less, who he quickly loses because of one probing finger and needy nose. Noses, nipples, and other unmentionable body parts play key roles within this amazing Season 4 offering, as do faulty zippers, stolen scents, and the best Christmas card one could ever receive. All this is even sewn up with Jerry channeling Shakespeare. Brilliant bawdiness that would probably earn the praise of The Bard himself.
#5 "The Soup Nazi" - Season 7, Episode 6
Another episode elevating "Seinfeld's" bona fides, and perhaps soup's itself. There have been many golden quotes attributed to the show, but the Soup Nazi's, at least, might be the most sponge... er, t-shirt-worthy. Only in NYC could a confrontational purveyor of five star soup also be an all out sensation. And only "Seinfeld" could give that premise the ultimate comedic spin. Jerry and company become obsessed with a new local soup stand where costumers must adhere to the owner's strict rules, which for this group, is an obvious problem. So many laughs in this one revolving around the Nazi himself that you almost forget the episode also features Jerry's Shmoopy girlfriend, dueling armoires, and two effeminate "street toughs." But if that's too much hilarity too handle, then "No soup for you!"
#4 The Hamptons - Season 5, Episode 21
Not the only episode on this list entirely taking place away from all our usual "Seinfeld" settings - there must be something truly special about that formula. In "The Hamptons," even America's most exclusive playground is ripe for trouble for Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer. For ugly babies, lobster traps, topless sunbathers, mistaken bedrooms and kosher girlfriends all become too much to contend with. But perhaps the biggest pickle of them all is shrinkage. "Like when a man goes swimming... afterwards." Everyone is so on their game out of their element here, particularly Louis-Dreyfus who takes her incredible prowess for effortless laughs to new highs.
#3 The Chinese Restaurant - Season 2, Episode 11
Originally airing in the middle of Season 2, this was the audience's first true hint that "Seinfeld" was no run-of-the-mill sitcom, that this was a series to be reckoned with. What makes the premise so flat out brilliant is that we've all been there before, spending too much time in a restaurant's waiting area, where frustrations fester and inequities are flaunted. Seeing "Plan 9 from Outer Space" with friends while grabbing a nice dinner beforehand sounds like a perfect night out. Yet what we've learned from "Seinfeld" is that nothing works out perfectly, even when the gang is not steering things out of control themselves. Kramer was originally conceived as a shut-in, so he was not in this episode, and because it was so groundbreaking, actor Michael Richards was left with heavy regret for his absence. And like a Chinese restaurant's fortune cookies, we constantly continue to unearth wisdom about "The Chinese Restaurant." It was just this year we discovered why "Costanza" can very reasonably be mistaken for "Cartwright."
#2 "The Opposite" - Season 5, Episode 22
"My name is George. I'm unemployed and I live with my parents," is the quote that sets off this gem of an episode, which takes role reversal to boundless new heights of hilarity. We never expected George to recover from his downward spiral which left him jobless and living with his cacophonous parents in Queens. But his luck is turned with the epiphany to go in the exact opposite direction of wherever his impulses would normally lead his behavior. When it becomes apparent he's on to something, the same is thought of the series itself, on to being the greatest comedy television has ever seen. Especially when Elaine, an unwitting victim to the menace that is a box Juicyfruit, experiences a demise as fast and random as George's ascension. Jerry? He'll just even out. The cherry on top is Kramer's appearance on "Live with Regis and Kathy Lee" who's own spit take is warning enough that as we watch any "Seinfeld" episode, it's best to keep our mouths beverage-free.
#1 "The Contest" - Season 4, Episode 11
Subject matter never dared discussed on prime time television before, never even mentioned within this uproarious half hour by name, initiates the premise of the greatest "Seinfeld" episode ever. Outrageous from the start, where George relates the story as to how his mother ended up in the hospital, "The Contest" takes a taboo topic and rips it open for a piñata's-worth of showering punchlines. This encapsulates the true achievement of this episode and the show and its creators in general. They took on risky subjects simply to be mined for comic gold. No messages. No moralizing - which is the lifeblood of most classic sitcoms. Instead "Seinfeld" set out to top itself and as a factory of laughs week after week and "The Contest" is the standard-bearer for that philosophy. The episode never reveals who is the contest's victor, but in the end we understand that when it comes to TV comedies, "Seinfeld" is Master of its Domain.
Photos via Photofest, sidereel.com and Pinterest
