The Finale (Seinfeld)

"The Finale"
Seinfeld episodes
The set shown here was used in this episode
Episode nos.	Season 9 Episodes 23 and 24
Directed by	Andy Ackerman
Written by	Larry David
Production code	923/924
Original air date	May 14, 1998 (1998-05-14)
Running time	56 minutes
Guest appearances
Wayne Knight as Newman Stanley Anderson as Judge Arthur Vandelay Philip Baker Hall as Lt. Joe Bookman Estelle Harris as Estelle Costanza Jerry Stiller as Frank Costanza Barney Martin as Morty Seinfeld Liz Sheridan as Helen Seinfeld Phil Morris as Jackie Chiles John Pinette as Howie James Rebhorn as District Attorney Hoyt Peter Riegert as NBC President James Kimbrough
Episode chronology
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Seinfeld season 9
List of episodes

"The Finale" is the series finale of the American television sitcom Seinfeld. It is the 23rd and 24th episode of the ninth season, and the 179th and the 180th episode overall.^[1] The episode, written by series co-creator Larry David and directed by Andy Ackerman, originally aired on NBC on May 14, 1998, to an audience of 76 million viewers, making it so the third-most watched overall television series finale. In the preceding hour, a clip show called "The Chronicle" (also called "The Clip Show") aired. The initial running time for the finale was 1 hour and 15 minutes.^[2]

In this episode, Jerry and George's Jerry pilot is finally picked up as a series by NBC. However, when their private plane is forced to land in a small town in Massachusetts, Jerry, George, and their friends Elaine and Kramer unknowingly violate a local duty to rescue law (referred to as a Good Samaritan law in the episode's dialogue) and are put on trial. Co-creator Larry David, who departed from the series after the seventh season, returned to write the script for this last episode.

The episode was negatively received by critics and viewers for its moralistic theme and lack of humor.