The Puerto Rican Day

"The Puerto Rican Day" is the 176th episode of the NBC sitcom Seinfeld. It aired on May 7, 1998, and was the 20th episode of the ninth and final season. It was the show's second-highest-rated episode of all time, with 38.8 million viewers, only behind the series finale. The episode aired one week before the two-part clip show and the two-part series finale aired. It was a rare late-series return to a "plot about nothing" style and filmed in real-time, a format more often seen in early seasons. The episode follows the cast's misadventures as they try to escape from the traffic surrounding the Puerto Rican Day Parade. This episode of Seinfeld has more writer credits (ten) than any other episode. As co-creator Larry David was returning to write the finale, this was the final episode for the active "after Larry David" writing staff and thus was a group effort. Because of controversy surrounding a scene in which Cosmo Kramer accidentally burns and then stomps on the Puerto Rican flag, NBC apologized and had it banned from airing on the network again. Also, it was not initially part of the syndicated package. In the summer of 2002, the episode started to appear with the flag-burning sequence intact. Plot Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer head back to Manhattan after leaving a Mets game early, but have an altercation with a driver in a maroon Volkswagen Golf. George boasts about the comment ("That's gotta hurt!") he made during a new movie about the Hindenburg disaster titled Blimp. As they approach Fifth Avenue, traffic is blocked by the annual Puerto Rican Day Parade. They head towards a one-way side street, but are blocked by the maroon Golf, whose driver refuses to let them cross over.