The Invitations

George and Susan go shopping for wedding invitations and George insists on buying the cheapest brand in the store. They run into Kramer, who misremembers Susan's name, prompting Susan to decide he can no longer be an usher at the wedding. She also declines Elaine's demand to be an usher, not wanting any female ushers.

Kramer visits a bank which offers anyone $100 if they are not greeted with a "hello". Upon being greeted with "hey" instead of "hello", he demands $100. After consulting with the other employees, all of whom use various non-hello greetings, the manager compromises by giving Kramer $20.

Jerry absentmindedly walks in front of a car and is saved by a woman named Jeannie Steinman, who is just like him. He falls in love, and after dating for a while, proposes marriage to her. Almost immediately after her acceptance, Jerry no longer thinks Jeannie is his type, and regrets the proposal.

George admits that he does not want to marry Susan, but is unwilling to go through the fight which will ensue if he calls the wedding off. Elaine suggests George smoke, stating that it is a deal breaker for her. Jerry agrees for him to try it out. George communicates that Susan hates smoking and continues with the plot to try the nicotine packed stick, but the smoking makes George sick. Angry at Susan for not allowing him to be an usher, Kramer suggests that George offend her by asking she sign a prenuptial agreement. Kramer's suggestion to assist backfires when Susan unreservedly agrees to sign the prenuptial agreement.

Disregarding George's suggestion to use glue for the wedding invitations since the adhesive in the envelopes takes a lot of moisture to work, Susan keeps licking envelopes until she passes out. George returns to his apartment, finds that Susan has collapsed, and takes her to the hospital. After the examination, a doctor informs George that Susan is dead from licking the envelopes, since the adhesive is toxic. George, Jerry, and Elaine seem puzzled by their own lack of emotional response to her death. The tables have turned since Jerry is now unhappily engaged and George, with the death of Susan, is not.

George calls Marisa Tomei, tells her his fiancée has died, and asks her on a date. She hangs up on him.

The episode's writer, Seinfeld co-creator Larry David, originally came up with George's plan to move to China for the season two episode "The Ex-Girlfriend". It was cut from that episode prior to broadcast, so he repurposed the material for "The Invitations".[2]

Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, long portrayed on Seinfeld by the voice of Larry David, filmed scenes for a guest appearance in this episode, but footage for the episode ran well over its allotted 23 minutes, so his scenes were all cut for time.[3] Other cuts made to fit the episode within its time slot include some sequences from the Jerry and Jeannie montage, Jerry and Jeannie's conversation after making out, and Jeannie joking that she's only marrying Jerry to get her green card.[2]

The cast reading for the episode was on March 31, 1996. Filming commenced on April 1, and the majority of the scenes were filmed before a live studio audience on April 3.[2]

This episode was temporarily pulled from syndication in the wake of the 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States in October.[4] The episode returned to syndication in the summer of 2002.

This is the last episode to feature Larry David as executive producer. He returned to write the two-part finale and continued to voice the character of George Steinbrenner for the remainder of the series.

On June 3, 2015, Jason Alexander said during an interview on The Howard Stern Show that Swedberg's character had been killed off due to incompatibility with other stars' comedic rhythm on the show, and the decision was made to cut Swedberg after Jerry Seinfeld and Julia Louis-Dreyfus acted alongside her.[5] The following day Alexander apologized on Twitter for his comments, explaining that his words were ill-chosen and misconstrued, and that the decision to kill Susan had nothing to do with Swedberg. He added that Swedberg had more than once offered to adapt her acting to any suggestions he might have, and he had declined, and that while he always felt the rhythm between the two of them was off, show creators David and Seinfeld and the show's fans clearly felt the chemistry between them was just what it should be.[6]

The episode's ending received a very mixed public reaction,[7] and generated many letters to publications such as TV Guide regarding the tastelessness of Susan's demise, and the characters' indifference.

Heidi Swedberg, who played Susan, has stated she had no problem with her character's death, explaining in an interview with Entertainment Weekly that "A lot of the show's humor is based on the fact that the main characters are not nice people. They admit to things the rest of us think about but don't like to admit."[7] For months after the episode's broadcast, fans recognizing her on the street expressed frustration and resentment regarding her character's fate. Similarly, Jason Alexander claims that fans of George's character turned on him only once, over Susan’s death.[3]

Alexander later said, "On that set, funny was the ruler, and it was unquestionably funny. Wrong and rude and dangerous—but funny."[3]

Larry David later used the idea of the car periscope invention as the basis for an investment opportunity in the Curb Your Enthusiasm episode "Car Periscope".

• "The Invitations" at IMDb
• "The Invitations" at TV.com