Opportunism or Long Range Planning?

OK, gang, facts or opinions please:

     As you will recall, in an episode from many moons ago, Jerry, in a
hasty move which he no doubt now regrets, stole a marble rye bread from
some poor woman on the upper west side.  Lo and behold, many episodes
later, this same woman, upon suddenly realizing that it was Seinfeld fils
who stole the marble rye, cast the deciding vote against Seinfeld pere in
his quest to continue as the president of the Boca Phase II community
board.
     We wonder...
     Was this careful advance planning by the writers, who knew all along
that this victimized senior citizen would return to make miserable Jerry's
triumphant trip to Boca, or was it an opportunistic exploitation of what
had unwittingly developed in the past?
     Your replies are eagerly awaited.

This raises some interesting questions about the nature of Seinfeld. Is there some sort of greater plan involved in the writing of this show? Is there some grand outline that the writers refer to before writing each episode, or do Jerry, Elaine, George and Cosmo have no predestined fates? Are they merely subject to the changing whims of the writers? That is what I believe. I think that someone ransacked the previous scripts for this and most of the other links between episodes. For example, I dont think that the writers could have ever planned beforehand Susan's outcome, and it is obvious that no thought was put into it at all.

I think the marble rye is an example of opportunism...thinking "How can we get them kicked out" and remembering the rye lady. I doubt there is a lot of advance planning.

As for the Susan thing, OBVIOUSLY there was no advance planning. I still think that George, upon hearing of her death, should have gone crazy, been put in a mental institution for real- that follows the general theme of the season of George's encountering bellvue.

But, George was actually GLAD Susan died, so why would he wind up in a mental institiution? (The guy shook hands with the doctor THANKING him upon learning the news of his fiancee's death, then asks out Marisa Tomei the day of the funeral!) Also George was put into a mental institution once already by Mr. Steinbrenner!

hAcKeR

What ever happened to George after being "carried off by the men in white?" This was never touched on again. We never found out who/how he was rescued from the "nut house". Just wondering??????

In article , [email] (SSwind3897) wrote:

I agree. They probably just write week to week. I mean, how hard is it to connect an old woman with something related to Jerry's life (like the condo board). That's what writers are paid to do--

I agree. George's response worked for me but then again, it didn't. I think that his calling Marisa Tomei on the first day was completely in line with his character, but with something as serious as death, you would think he would want to milk all the self pity and sympathy he could from the situation. George looks for situations with dramatic potential to use to get the attention he needs. There was something weird (in relation to his character) to me about his reaction. Does anyone else think so? How could it have been written differently?

Diane M. dos Santos Chicago, IL "The barn's burnt down. Now I can see the moon."