In the "Seinfeld" episode "The Pie" (February 17, 1994), George (Jason Alexander) accumulates a rival, an enemy he attracts over the purchase of a suit. The rivalry will culminate when George attends a job interview at a local restaurant. George, while sitting with a prospective boss, spies his rival lurking around the kitchen, becoming convinced that his rival is trying to taint his food. When George's interviewer offers him a bite of pie, George refuses. His refusal ends up costing him the job.
George's pie refusal is the punchline to an episode-long gag where several characters refuse to eat a bite of pie. Early in the episode, Jerry's girlfriend Audrey (Suzanne Snyder) had already refused a bit of Jerry's pie without offering a reason, leading to his undying consternation. This was returned by Jerry refusing to eat her pizza when she offered, due to certain hygiene issues from the pizza's chef, only causing tensions to mount between them. Pie is everyone's downfall.
"The Pie" is a run-of-the-mill episode of "Seinfeld" that contains no significant pieces of lore or mythology. It's funny, but it's not important. The only notable thing about the script for "The Pie" is that Jerry Seinfeld once admitted that he quotes a line of dialogue from this episode to his kids. Specifically, he likes to say, "If you're one of us, you'll take a bite."
More significantly, production on "The Pie" had to be delayed for three weeks because of a natural disaster. The script was completed, and the cast gave a table read on January 14, 1994, ready to report to the set in the next few days. Citizens of Los Angeles, however, will recall that the devastating Northridge earthquake struck on January 17 of that year. The earthquake did extensive damage to large areas of L.A., knocking out power for a few days and making water unsafe to drink. Notable to this story, the CBS studios where "Seinfeld" filmed were damaged and had to be completely refurbished.
It took three weeks to make the sets usable again. The crew talked about the delay on the DVD special features for "The Pie."
Read more: 14 Phrases & Sayings That Only Exist Because Of Seinfeld
Seinfeld Was Delayed By The 1994 Northridge Earthquake
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, who played Elaine on "Seinfeld" lamented that the series was the only thing keeping her in Los Angeles, appreciating the irony that the job might have potentially killed her. She said, "I thought at the time ... I really thought ... please let the show get canceled. I have got to get out of this state." She also recalls panicking that she would have to show up at work during the chaos, assuming shooting would resume as usual. S
Supporting actor Reni Santoni, who played the character of Poppie in five episodes of "Seinfeld," noted that the morning of the Northridge quake was supposed to be his first day ever on the set. He didn't learn until he arrived at the front gate of the CBS studios that it had been damaged and that the show would be delayed.
It was series director Tom Cherones who pointed out that the quake took out the north and south walls of the soundstage. But, he said, no lights fell down and no one was injured. At the time, no one knew how long the damage would take to fix, and Cherones started looking for another shooting venue, just in case. "We seriously considered moving over to Paramount," he said, "they had a stage available. It wasn't damaged." The CBS lot owners, however, preferred to work quickly on their own repairs. They likely enjoyed hosting a high-profile series like "Seinfeld" and didn't want to lose its business.
Jerry Seinfeld recalled that his home, located at the top of a steep hill, could easily have detached and gone tumbling down into a ravine. Michael Richards, who played Kramer, only recalls the three-week delay, knowing that everything would be delayed after his next-door neighbor's home actually did tumble into a ravine. Luckily, no one was killed. He also joked that the cast missed an opportunity in fixing the studio gas lines. If anyone had been killed in a flaming gas explosion, "that would be quite a blooper," he said.
The show began shooting again in February.
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