The Classic Seinfeld Episode That Injured Michael Richards

At the beginning of the "Seinfeld" episode "The Parking Garage" (October 30, 1991), Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), Kramer (Michael Richards), Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), and George (Jason Alexander) have just completed a trip to a shopping mall in New Jersey. Elaine has purchased a few pet goldfish and carries them in a plastic baggie. More inconveniently, Kramer has just purchased an outside, window-mounted air conditioning unit, which he insists on awkwardly carrying back to the car in spite of its heaviness.

The main issue of the episode: no one can remember where they parked. The bulk of this misadventure takes place in the parking garage as the quartet becomes increasingly frustrated with their plight. Jerry has to pee, and doesn't want to walk all the way back to the mall to find a bathroom, leading to an awkward situation when he tries to whizz in a corner. The same then happens to George. Both are caught by a security guard. By the end of the episode, Kramer is exhausted, Elaine's fish have died, and both George and Jerry have paid fines. What do they learn? Absolutely nothing, as per the show's comedy-changing ethos. Is the episode relatable? Absolutely. We have all likely had the experience of forgetting where we parked in a massive parking structure. "Seinfeld" just took that experience and constructed a really terrible –and sublimely comedic — day out of it.

On the special features for the "Seinfeld" DVDs, the cast and show creator Larry David all explained in camera that shooting "The Parking Garage" was as harrowing as it looked. The shoot was made especially difficult by a strange demand that Richard made of the prop department. Namely, he wanted to carry around an actual air conditioner, rather tahn an empty box. Richard said he felt it the weight would make the scenes more realistic and make his comedic physicality more convincing.

Richards' handling of a real air conditioner — a real heavy one — led to frustration, headaches, and a legitimate injury on set. Richards even split his lip in one scene.

At the end of "The Parking Garage," Kramer does finally locate his car, and is relieved to be able to unload the air conditioner into his trunk. As Alexander explains it in his DVD interview, the trunk was only about three-quarters of an inch wider than the box the air conditioner was in, making for little leeway. In order to get the very real air conditioner into the trunk, Richard had to give the box a gigantic heave, hoping it would slide quickly into place.

Of course, that wasn't what happened. Richard noted that the box stopped short on the edge of the trunk and he accidentally slammed his face into it. His lip split open and he started bleeding. "Which was good," Richards noted, "for the comedy." Richards tried to play off the injury, saying that he only had "a bit of a bump. Bumps are good." He was also a consummate professional and stayed in character throughout. "Michael refuses to break," Alexander noted. Sadly, Louis-Dreyfus witnessed the injury close up, saw the blood, and started to laugh, completely breaking character.

Richards, trying to salvage the take, merely said, still in character, "I really hurt myself, Elaine." He then tried to continue with his next line. Sadly, Seinfeld and Alexander also started laughing, and Richards eventually had to chuckle to himself.

The episode's pièce de résistance, it turns out, wasn't scripted. After a terrible day of being lost in a parking garage — and a frustrating day of grunting and lip injuries — the quartet finally gets in their car to leave. Richards was to start the car and drive away. But, because the car was old and terrible, it didn't actually start. A close look then reveals the cast cracking up inside the car, amused at the sheer bleak perfection.

It's a horrid, aggravating, and utterly hilarious "button" to a very good episode. It's also part of why certain "Seinfeld" cast members aren't convinced the show could get made today.