"The Baby Shower" is the tenth episode of the second season of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld, and the show's 15th episode overall. In the episode, Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) throws a baby shower for her friend Leslie (Christine Dunford) at Jerry's (Jerry Seinfeld) apartment, while he is out of town. Jerry's friend George Costanza (Jason Alexander) once had a terrible date with Leslie and confronts her at the shower. Meanwhile, Jerry is convinced by his neighbour Kramer (Michael Richards) to install illegal cable television.
Larry Charles wrote the episode, which was directed by Tom Cherones, and was partly based on a friend of his who was pregnant but did not want to experience childbirth. All of the characters' storylines intersect in the final scenes, an element that the writing staff would continue to use in later episodes. The episode's first broadcast in the United States on May 16, 1991 gained a Nielsen rating of 12.4/21 and was negatively received by critics.
Plot
Elaine holds a baby shower for her friend Leslie at Jerry's apartment, while Jerry is performing in Buffalo. George is excited, as the baby shower is an opportunity to confront the woman who had given him the worst date of his life by pouring Bosco chocolate sauce on his red collared shirt while doing performance art. Jerry is frustrated by his television's bad reception, and is convinced by Kramer to have cable illegally installed by two Russians (Vic Polizos and James Lashly).
Jerry is tormented with guilt and fear over the illegal cable. His show in Buffalo is canceled due to bad weather, and George picks up Jerry at the airport so that George can encounter Leslie at the baby shower while wearing the red shirt. Kramer and the two Russians crash the shower to install the cable, start to eat all the food and get into a heated argument. When George and Jerry arrive, George cannot muster the courage to tell Leslie off and instead awkwardly tries to curry her favor. One of the other party guests, Mary, confronts Jerry because he never called her back after a date. This unpleasant scene is the final straw and the guests leave hurriedly. On the way out of the bathroom, Mary bumps Leslie and her dessert into George, adding a chocolate cake stain to the Bosco stain already on the shirt. Jerry changes his mind about the cable hook-up, but agrees to pay the Russians the full price for their trouble. However, he is irate when the charge turns out to be $400 instead of the $150 Kramer told him it would be. He refuses to pay, and the Russians retaliate by breaking his television.
Production
"The Baby Shower" was written by Larry Charles and directed by Tom Cherones, who directed all of season two's episodes. The episode was the first episode written by Charles, who would remain with the show through the fifth season. Charles had met Seinfeld co-creator Larry David and Richards when he was part of the writing staff of the ABC sketch show Fridays and David and Richards were part of the show's ensemble cast. He had been unable to write for the show's first season, as Charles had been writing for The Arsenio Hall Show during its production. Charles frequently had difficulty with writing Jerry's stand-up material; therefore, in "The Baby Shower", Seinfeld used some of his own material. The episode was a combination of loose storylines that had been brought to the writers table. Charles explained that the writing staff of the show considered it a challenge to weave together loose ideas into one episode. The episode was partly based on a friend of Charles, who was pregnant but did not want to experience childbirth and therefore asked the doctor to anesthetize her. Charles thought this was very ironic. The Leslie character was largely based on Karen Finley and Johanna Went, two performance artists who both used foods in their acts, Charles considered them "a ripe target for satire".