{"id":275171,"date":"2026-02-09T12:01:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T12:01:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/275171\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T12:01:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T12:01:10","slug":"30-years-ago-an-iconic-seinfeld-episode-gave-george-his-best-subplot-and-fans-believed-it-would-influence-the-mcu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/275171\/","title":{"rendered":"30 Years Ago, an Iconic Seinfeld Episode Gave George His Best Subplot (And Fans Believed It Would Influence the MCU)"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the beginning of Seinfeld<\/a> Season 7, Jerry and George make a pact to get their lives on track by getting engaged, hoping to settle down after years of misadventures across New York City. In typical sitcom fashion, things don\u2019t go as planned. After George proposes to his old girlfriend Susan Ross (who he dated throughout Season 4), Jerry decides to back out of his own engagement, leaving George as the only member of the main group who plans to marry. This started a hilarious season-long arc in which George has to adapt to his new reality as he prepares for the next chapter of life. Infamously, the story decidedly did not have a happy ending, but along the way, there were plenty of laughs to be had.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the best subplot that stemmed out of George\u2019s engagement came in the hour-long episode \u201cThe Cadillac,\u201d which originally aired on February 8, 1996. The titular storyline revolves around Jerry purchasing a new Cadillac for his father, but this episode is probably more famous for George\u2019s narrative. This is when Oscar-winning actress Marisa Tomei made her only appearance on Seinfeld, playing a fictionalized version of herself. She doesn\u2019t just have a cameo; it\u2019s an integral role in an unlikely romantic subplot that actually spawned Marvel fan theories decades later.<\/p>\n

George Costanza Could Have Dated Marisa Tomei On Seinfeld<\/p>\n

\"Marisa<\/p>\n

In \u201cThe Cadillac,\u201d George meets Katy, one of Elaine\u2019s friends. Upon learning the news of George\u2019s engagement to Susan, Katy expresses disappointment because George would have been the perfect match for her other friend: Marisa Tomei. If George wasn\u2019t engaged, Katy would have been willing to fix them up on a date. The very notion that someone like George Costanza could be Marisa Tomei\u2019s type is hysterical enough, but the added wrinkle of George\u2019s relationship with Susan makes the situation even funnier. One of the episode\u2019s best scenes is when George explains his plight to Jerry, bemoaning the fact that he\u2019s engaged when an Oscar winner is sitting at home waiting for him.<\/p>\n

Of course, George isn\u2019t going to let his engagement prevent him from meeting Marisa Tomei, and so begins a subplot that brings out all of George\u2019s worst tendencies. Seinfeld was never your traditional sitcom<\/a>; Larry David\u2019s mantra was \u201cno hugging, no learning,\u201d meaning the point of the show was not to teach characters morals that helped them grow as people. Seinfeld stood apart from the pack because its main characters were actually horrible (yet relatable) people that went through life without much regard for others around them. This is why the divisive Seinfeld finale<\/a> ends with Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer being sent to jail. These characters were fundamentally flawed despite being funny every week.<\/p>\n

George\u2019s pursuit of Marisa is a textbook example of how the Seinfeld characters were horrible and funny at the same time. Much of the humor stems from how incredibly selfish George is about the whole situation; he visits a hospitalized Katy not to offer moral support but to bug her for Marisa Tomei\u2019s phone number. He goes behind Susan\u2019s back to spend time with the award-winning actress and leads Marisa on by not revealing he\u2019s engaged until midway through the date. It\u2019s funny to watch George give into his impulses and attempt to navigate this web of deception he\u2019s weaved \u2014 not just because the whole setup is outrageous, but there\u2019s a small part of us that would be willing to do just about anything if we learned we had a shot with a popular actor. <\/p>\n

Seinfeld\u2018s Marisa Tomei subplot received the ultimate payoff in the Season 7 finale that really highlighted how awful George can be. After Susan dies from licking toxic envelopes for the wedding invitations (that George picked out), he wastes no time calling Marisa again to see if he still has a chance to be with her. Again, the callousness on display is what makes the scene so funny. A \u201cnormal\u201d person would take time to grieve their late fianc\u00e9 and maybe even need encouragement from friends before moving on. George doesn\u2019t mourn Susan; instead, he\u2019s almost relieved he doesn\u2019t have to go through with the wedding. What\u2019s even funnier is that George could have broken off the engagement, but he kept Susan around as a fallback option in case things didn\u2019t work out with Marisa. He\u2019d rather be unhappy and engaged than alone \u2014 which perfectly sums up George\u2019s character.<\/p>\n

Seinfeld\u2018s Marisa Tomei Subplot Fueled a Marvel Fan Theory<\/p>\n

\"MarisaImage Courtesy of Marvel Studios<\/p>\n

George\u2019s near romance with Marisa Tomei became part of the pop culture conversation years after \u201cThe Cadillac\u201d originally premiered after it was announced that Tomei would play Aunt May in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. She made her debut in Captain America: Civil War, which of course takes place well after Peter Parker has started operating as Spider-Man. Kevin Feige and Co. made the wise decision to forgo the origin story angle for the MCU\u2019s Spider-Man since that tale is so well-known by now. Other than Superman and Batman, Spider-Man has the most famous origin story in superhero media.<\/p>\n

This meant fans wouldn\u2019t see Uncle Ben\u2019s tragic death on screen again, but people couldn\u2019t help but wonder if the character would eventually appear in a flashback sequence. As that speculation swirled, Jason Alexander emerged as a popular fan cast pick for the MCU\u2019s Uncle Ben because of the Seinfeld episode. Many felt it would have been hilarious if \u201cGeorge\u201d ended up with Marisa decades after \u201cThe Cadillac\u201d first aired. The thought of Alexander bestowing wisdom upon Tom Holland\u2019s Peter Parker was also humorous. Alexander is a tremendously gifted actor, but he\u2019s so synonymous with George Costanza at this point \u2014 and George is hardly the first person who comes to mind when one things of respectful mentor figures. \u201cIt\u2019s not a lie if you believe it\u201d is a far cry from \u201cWith great power comes great responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, no actor played Uncle Ben in the MCU. The character was never shown on screen and was just referenced through dialogue on a few occasions. And as Holland\u2019s Spider-Man starts a new chapter in this summer\u2019s Spider-Man: Brand New Day<\/a>, it\u2019s unlikely that will change. As fun as it might have been to see the filmmakers try to put a fresh spin on Uncle Ben, it\u2019s better to just keep moving forward and not retread familiar territory. Plus, the deaths of Tony Stark and Aunt May essentially served the same purpose, having a profound emotional impact on Peter as he learns what it takes to be a hero. If nothing else, those who subscribed to the Jason Alexander\/Uncle Ben fan theory can keep that intact in their head canon since there isn\u2019t anything out there that debunks it.<\/p>\n

What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the\u00a0ComicBook Forum<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At the beginning of Seinfeld Season 7, Jerry and George make a pact to get their lives on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[156,111,139,69,11013,117445,437],"class_list":{"0":"post-275171","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-new-zealand","10":"tag-newzealand","11":"tag-nz","12":"tag-regular-feature","13":"tag-seinfeld","14":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}