The Wife

Infobox Television episode
Title = The Wife
Series = Seinfeld


Caption = Jerry and his girlfriend, pretending to be married.
Season = 5
Episode = 81
Airdate = March 17, 1994
Production =
Writer = Peter Mehlman
Director = Tom Cherones
Guests = Courteney Cox
Episode list = List of "Seinfeld" episodes
Season list = Infobox Seinfeld season 5 episode list
Prev =
Next =

"The Wife" is the eighty-first episode of the NBC sitcom "Seinfeld". The 17th episode of the 5th season, it was originally broadcast on March 17, 1994.

Plot

Jerry's girlfriend, Meryl (Courteney Cox), poses as his wife in order that she may share in his 25% dry cleaning discount. In fact, Jerry is having fun with the idea of having a wife, even if it's just to start a sentence. George urinates in the shower while at the health club and fears he may be reported to management. Elaine gets mixed signals from Greg, a prospective boyfriend in whom she is interested. As if things couldn't get more complex, the man Elaine has her eye on is the same person who caught George urinating in the shower.

Jerry eventually cheats on his "wife" with another woman in order to give her the discount. Meanwhile, Kramer is losing sleep because Jerry took his quilt to the cleaner, taking advantage of the discount. Kramer goes to get a tan to impress his girlfriend's family, and ends up falling asleep on the tanning bed.

As it happens, Greg wants to date a female gym instructor and not Elaine. Then he discovers Elaine is friends with George.The episode ends with Kramer meeting his girlfriend's family, who are black, and Kramer being horribly tanned. One of the girlfriend's relatives says "I thought you said you were bringing a white boy home! I don't see a white boy! I see a damn fool!"

Trivia

* Courteney Cox was still a little-known actress when she guest-starred in this episode. Months later, her career would take off with the sitcom "Friends".
* At the beginning of the episode Jerry doesn't want to have the same breakfast as Meryl because "it's one step from the couples that dress alike". However, he and Meryl are already dressed alike (he's wearing a striped, red scarf and a dark jacket while she's wearing a dark scarf and a striped, red jacket
* Jerry's line, "We'll always have pancakes", is a reference to the classic line from the 1942 film "Casablanca", "We'll always have Paris".
* In response to George's shower urination incident, Kramer admits that he takes baths, not showers. However, in a later episode entitled "The Shower Head", Kramer complains to Jerry about how he feels after taking a bath as opposed to a shower - "I just took a bath Jerry...a bath. It's disgusting. I'm sitting there in a tepid pool of my own filth. All kinds of microscopic parasites and organisms having sex all around me."
* For the syndicated repeats, this episode is just one in a few this season to keep Jerry's opening stand-up routine intact.