Summer of George

The Summer of George is a brief, fictional era that took place during the eighth season of Seinfeld, an American television sitcom. The era was named after its founder, George Costanza and had the promise of a summer of free time and a full salary for him. The era, however, ended in tragedy, another chapter in the hard luck life of him.

Pre-era
George Costanza and Jerry Seinfeld were chatting outside of a New York cafe. He opens a letter from his former employer, the New York Yankees and discovers that the Yankees are offering him a three month severance package. He, elated, begins to think about the possibilities of a summer where he would not have to work. He rings in the era by jubilantly proclaiming, with nascent optimism:

Era's highlights
Little is known as to what George Costanza actually did with his summer. Despite his good intentions, the era appears to consist primarily of a lazy guy with too much time on his hands. What is known is that the era consists of at least the following:
# Reading a book, from beginning to end and in that order.
# Playing disc golf. He plays at least once.
# Watching television programming, like The White Shadow and the Tony Awards.
# At least in the first couple days, he intended to relax or as he termed it, de-compress. Jerry derogatorily refers to this period as decomposing.
# Purchasing a new recliner with a refrigerator in it, stocked with soda.
# Mid-morning naps.
# Insignificant telephone conversations.
# Banging his head on tables.
# Assisting Jerry in maintaining his relationship with Lanette (Amanda Peet), a younger woman Jerry is dating. He acts as Jerry's relationship intern, ex, making dinner reservations on Jerry's behalf, coordinating Jerry's outfits, suggesting compliments, purchasing invitations for a party that Lanette is throwing, etc.

Post-era
While performing one of his chores for Jerry Seinfeld, George Costanza slips on one of the party invitations and falls down his apartment steps, severely injuring his legs. He is taken to New York Hospital. In the presence of Jerry, Elaine Benes and Cosmo Kramer, the doctor gives George the bad news:

Unmoved by this news, Jerry, Elaine and Kramer decide to go for coffee and leave him. He shouts at them as they walk away: "This was supposed to be the Summer of George!". Lamentingly, "The Summer of George".

We next see George in physical therapy, trying to walk with the assistance of parallel bars. He falls. He notes, however, that there is still a little summer left.

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