In the “Seinfeld” episode “The Red Dot” (December 11, 1991), George (Jason Alexander) bemoans the fact that he’s out of work. Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) manages to secure him a gig at a publishing firm, for which he is entirely grateful. While working at the firm, George hits it off with a woman named Evie (Bridget Sienna) who works on the building’s janitorial staff. George and Evie almost instantly instigate a torrid love affair, and they begin regularly copulating on George’s desk after hours. The affair, it should be noted, is not permitted by management; it’s uncouth for employees to sleep with the janitorial staff and vice versa.
George, of course, is busted. Mr. Lippman (Richard Fancy), upon learning of the affair, calls George into his office for a dressing down and a clean termination. When confronted with his relationship, George, not really missing a beat, good-naturedly asks Mr. Lippman if what he was doing was against the rules. “Was that wrong? Should I not’ve done that?” he asks. George points out that he’s worked in offices where interoffice coupling is common. “I gotta plead ignorance on this thing,” he says. He had no idea “that sort of thing was frowned upon.” George’s feigned ignorance doesn’t save him, however. Mr. Lippman fires him immediately.
In a 2024 interview with the Daily Mail, Alexander declared that single moment as his favorite. Of all the moments on “Seinfeld” where the callow George really showed his true colors, the “Was that wrong?” moment in “The Red Dot” was the most honest. George, like all four leads of “Seinfeld,” was sniveling, neurotic, and petty. Alexander found “The Red Dot” to be the pettiest — and the best — George has ever been.
Jason Alexander loved how sniveling George was
Alexander loved George specifically because the character was kind of a scoundrel. “George got hoisted on his own petard so many times, and had to dig himself out of a hole, or not dig himself out of a hole,” he said. George had an enormous ego, a lot of rage, and gave honesty a very low priority. Alexander loved how George lied and cheated in tiny ways all the time, and was caught just about every time. It was “The Red Dot” that came to mind immediately when he was asked about his favorite “Seinfeld” moments, however. He said.
“The one that I remember so clearly, because I thought it was so brilliant, was in an episode where George was working at the publishing company, and he was having sexual relationships in his office with the cleaning woman, and he got caught. […] If you’re writing that scene and you’re going: ‘Okay I’ve got this guy George Costanza, what happens next?’ Whatever you would imagine, it wouldn’t be what they came up with. [‘Was that wrong’?] […] That is the most brilliant try to save your own behind that I could have ever imagined.”
Alexander loved his nine years on “Seinfeld,” and was a key contributor to the show’s long-running success. He even got to direct once. George was based very directly on “Seinfeld” co-creator Larry David, whom one can see unvarnished in the series “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” Watching “Curb” only makes Alexander’s performance all the more impressive. “Seinfeld” always aimed to deconstruct traditional sitcom norms by populating one with nothing but petty characters incapable of learning. The joke worked well for nine full years.
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