The Cadillac

the TV episode

"The Cadillac" is an hour long, two part episode of NBC sitcom Seinfeld. It was the 124th and 125th episode and 14th and 15th episode for the seventh season. It aired on February 8, 1996. Awed at the thought that he could have dated an Oscar winner, George belatedly decides it wouldn't count as cheating to meet Marisa for a cup of coffee. He obsesses with getting Marisa's phone number, to the point of harassing Katy when she is in the hospital with an arrhythmia.

The Seinfelds meet with Mabel, who Jerry recognizes as the woman from whom he stole a marble rye in "The Rye". Jerry takes his leave as Morty explains his side of the story in order to get Mabel's vote. George obtains Marisa's phone number and works with Elaine to create a cover story involving Elaine and her fictitious boyfriend, an "import exporter". George and Marisa have a date in the park. Marisa is enchanted by George, but when he tells her he is engaged, she is furious, decking him and storming off. Susan suspects George is having an affair with Elaine and separately questions George and Elaine regarding what her boyfriend imports. Elaine says potato chips; George says matches, and receives his second punching that day. The board votes against impeachment. In frustration, Jack calls Mabel an "old bag," triggering her memory of Jerry robbing her. Mabel tells everyone it was Morty's son who stole the rye bread from her, and the board unanimously votes for Morty's impeachment. As vice president, Jack becomes the new condo president. The Seinfelds leave the condo. The cable guy chases Kramer, but he gets away. The cable guy finally concedes defeat and apologizes on behalf of cable guys everywhere, promising better service across the board. Kramer appears and has an emotional reconciliation with the cable guy.

The inspiration for the episode came when Larry David bought a Lexus for his father, who was president of his condominium in Florida, and started wondering what the other residents would think of him having a Lexus. Like most of Seinfelds one hour time slot episodes, "The Cadillac" was initially conceived as a normal half hour show. The original script was filmed on January 10, and ran well over the 23 minutes allotted for a half hour time slot. While this was not unusual for Seinfeld, in this case Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld decided it would be easier to pad the episode out to a one hour time slot than edit it down to a half hour, so they wrote a number of additional scenes, such as those dealing with the early bird special. The additional scenes, and extended reworkings of existing scenes, were filmed on February 1. The episode's final scene, showing the Seinfelds leaving the condo, is a shot for shot parody of the movie Nixon.

David Sims of The A. V. Club praised the deep politics of the retirement condo story but said the George/Marisa subplot "wraps up too quickly with George just getting his comeuppance from both ladies with none of his usual deviousness."