The Deal (Seinfeld) The Deal (Seinfeld) "The Deal" is the ninth episode of the second season of NBC's "Seinfeld", and the show's 14th episode overall. The episode centers on protagonists Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld) and Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) who decide to have a sexual relationship, with a set of ground rules. However, as their "relationship" progresses, they experience difficulties maintaining their original friendship. Series co-creator Larry David wrote the episode in a response to NBC's continued efforts to get the two characters back together. The main inspiration behind the episode was a similar agreement David once made with a woman. The episode, which
The Apartment (Seinfeld) write an episode for the show after they read a few articles he wrote for newspapers and magazines. Mehlman originally had the idea of Elaine moving away from Jerry, but David and Seinfeld felt it would be funnier if Elaine moved closer to Jerry instead. "The Apartment" was first broadcast in the United States on April 4, 1991 on NBC (and was the first new episode of the series after the underwhelming reception of the previous episode, The Phone Message caused it to go on a two-month hiatus), and was watched in 15.7 million homes, making it the ninth most-watched