The Cheever Letters (Ep. 408)

George has to have dinner with Susan's parents to let them know about the cabin burning down. The dad doesn't take it well since it's one of his favorite places to go and it had been in the family since 1947. Later, someone from the insurance company shows up with a box saying it was the only thing that was salvaged from the cabin. Susan opens it to discover that it's filled with letters from author John Cheever. She begins reading them only to learn that they are addressed to her dad and are about an affair that the two of them had one time. Her dad walks in and takes them away and storms off.

Jerry and George are trying to write the script for the pilot episode of the the Seinfeld show, but are having "writers" block. They never make any progress and they keep taking breaks to get away from having to write more. During one break, Jerry calls Elaine at work and complains to her that her secretary always talks his ear off when he calls. She mentions this to her secretary, but she gets upset and quits. To make things better, Jerry ends up calling to clear things up and ends up going on a date with her. Things start getting pretty hot and heavy at his apartment and she starts talking dirty. Jerry trying to keep up with her uses the line, "you mean the panties your mother laid out for you?" but this only disgusts and offends her making her storm out.

To try to keep Elaine from finding out, he tells her to fire her instead of letting her come back. She doesn't fire her, but has her transfered to another office. This causes her to tell Mr. Lippman about Elaine's personal calls to Europe on the company phone. Elaine tells Jerry and gets him to pay, which he gladly does just to keep anything else from being said. In the end, Elaine tells George and Jerry that she knew all along about the comment.

Interesting quote: "She just bought me some new panties and they're all laid out for me." - Elaine

Grade: B+ (bizarre, but that's what makes a good Seinfeld episode)