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Part of what made “Seinfeld” so fresh and original was that it was unlike any other sitcom that had aired on television before. Most of the plots throughout its stellar nine season run could veer into the realm of outlandish absurdity, but there would often be this human commonality at the center of their conception, like someone double dipping a chip at a party or trying to find your car in the parking garage. NBC had the nerve to give the greenlight to a story about a bet involving masturbation, and from the moment it aired, the vernacular introduced in “The Contest” has become a common turn of phrase. But sometimes, it’s the little things that make for a great episode.
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In the season 8 episode, “The Muffin Tops,” everyone on the “Seinfeld” crew is having their own separate predicament. Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) struggles with an itchy chest after shaving to appease his girlfriend, George (Jason Alexander) is pretending to be a tourist to get a date, and Kramer (Michael Richards) finds himself in an inception tour bus get-rich-quick scheme to capitalize on his fame. Yet it’s Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) who walks away with the best subplot, however ridiculous it is.
The episode gets its namesake after Elaine tells her publishing boss Mr. Lippman (Richard Handy) that someone should open up a place where you can only buy muffin tops. Not too long afterwards, she discovers a new store run by him called “Top of the Muffin to You.” But when profits are starting to drop, Mr. Lippman brings Elaine into the business, which is like a dream come true. From Kramer trying to get rid of the muffin stumps to Newman (Wayne Knight) devouring them all, “The Muffin Tops,” which features Rebecca De Mornay (not that one), takes advantage of a hilarious scenario that almost didn’t go through.
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The Muffin Tops subplot happened because of a misunderstanding
In a behind the scenes featurette, “Seinfeld” writer Spike Feresten talks about how he initially had an idea for a subplot involving a bearcat scanner. He decided to veer in a different direction, claiming that an episode of “Frasier” beat him to the punch only a few days before the episode was about to shoot. It sounds like a reasonable excuse, especially not wanting to swim in similar waters of one of the most successful spin-off shows of all time, but the only issue is that he’s wrong — or at the very least, misremembering.
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I did some digging because I was curious as to what episode Feresten could have been referring to, but after cross checking the dates of the episode’s 1997 production date with the episodes of “Frasier” that aired around that time, I came to the conclusion there was no such episode that had a plot involving bearcat scanners. It turns out no one else on the internet could, either, and the internet remembers everything. Whether Feresten was misremembering an episode of a different show or simply needed an excuse to write something different, it’s all for the best, because the muffin tops storyline is hilarious.
Feresten came up with the subplot on account of a girlfriend who didn’t bother with the muffin stumps after she ate the top. I see the vision, to an extent: The muffin tops really are the best part. There’s nothing wrong with the stumps, but it’s not as exciting to chomp into them once the edges are gone. But the idea of making batches of batches upon muffins and essentially tossing out half of your product really plays into the psychotic behavior of this world. If only Elaine knew that you would eventually be able to buy muffin tops at the store without having to go to the trouble of stuffing bags of uneaten stumps in the back of your friend’s makeshift tour bus.
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Every episode of “Seinfeld” is currently streaming on Netflix. Solana Token Creator
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