"The Glasses" is the 67th episode of the sitcom Seinfeld. It is the third episode of the fifth season, and first aired on September 30, 1993. This is the first episode of Seinfeld written by Tom Gammill and Max Pross. This episode ends with the dedication "In memory of our friend, John Oteri," who worked as a camera operator on the show. Rance Howard appears as the blind man in this episode. Rance is actor/director Ron Howard's father. Anna Gunn, who plays Jerry's girlfriend Amy, later went on to star in Breaking Bad.
Plot
claims his eyeglasses were stolen at the Health Club and he needs a new pair. He goes to see Kramer's optometrist friend Dwayne, who Kramer promises will give George a 30% discount because Kramer had helped the optometrist break his addiction to sugar. Elaine is bitten by a dog while with George at the optometrist's, and she becomes afraid of dogs as well as the possibility that she may have rabies. While not wearing his glasses, George thinks he recognizes, from a distance, Jerry's girlfriend Amy kissing Jerry's cousin Jeffrey, who apparently has a "horse face". He tells this to Jerry, who then goes to Amy and tries to get her to confess her infidelity; she indignantly denies it. Jerry doesn't know what to think of George's uncanny ability to see fine details while "squinting"; however after George mistakes an onion for an apple, Jerry wonders whether George was also mistaken about having seen Amy with Jeffrey. After trying on many pairs of glasses, George finally decides upon a new style and buys them, but is distressed when Kramer later points out that they are women's-style glasses made by Gloria Vanderbilt. Dwayne also refuses George a discounted price. When Kramer finds out about the refused discount, he goes down to the optometrist store and "threatens" him with a candy bar, forcing Dwayne to reinstate the discount and his promise to Kramer in owing him. George then makes a deal with an unsuspecting blind man to trade the man's uncomfortable eyeglass frames with George's, and have the lenses switched. With his vision back, George finally realizes that it was not Amy kissing Jeffrey, but a mounted police woman affectionately petting her horse. Meanwhile, Kramer, bursting into Jerry's apartment, accidentally jars Jerry's giant new air conditioner loose from the windowsill, and it falls to the sidewalk, serendipitously crushing and almost killing the same dog that had earlier bitten Elaine at the optometrist's. Uncle Leo gives Jerry and Amy tickets to see Paul Simonlive and tells them that Jeffrey apologized; Jerry mistakes Jeffrey's apology for the latter supposedly seeing Amy and blames her until UncleLeo says Jeffrey apologized for getting different seats. The episode ends as we see George's "stolen" glasses right on top of the lockers in the Health Club.
Production
The theft of writer Tom Gammill's glasses from a gym was the inspiration for George's predicament. Gammill's solution was to wear prescription goggles. A short scene revealing that Amy was in fact having an affair with Jeffrey was filmed but deleted before broadcast.
