The Fatigues (season 8, episode 6)

written by Gregg Kavet & Andy Robin, directed by Andy Ackerman
original airdate: October 31, 1996

Jerry dates a protégé whose mentor is dating Kenny Bania. George goes to great lengths to avoid reading a thick book on risk management. Elaine promotes a scary war vet at the Peterman Company. Kramer enlists Frank Costanza to help him cook for a Jewish singles event.

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The Improv is not featured in this episode.

Jerry’s Apartment
Jerry complains about his girlfriend’s mentor dating Kenny Bania, whose stand-up ends up driving her away from both her mentor and Jerry. George offers himself up as a new mentor, while Jerry ends up mentoring Bania. George devises a plan to purposely fail an eye exam, and Kramer upsets Frank when asking him to cook for his Jewish singles night.

Monk’s Café
Elaine laments to Jerry how she is terrified of Eddie Sherman, and keeps promoting him rather than firing him. Kramer invites Jerry and Elaine to a Jewish singles night he is hosting, even though he isn’t Jewish.

Isabella’s (NOW CLOSED)
359 Columbus Ave., New York, NEW YORK (map)
nearest subway: 81st Street – Museum Of Natural History (B,C)
Jerry goes for dinner with Abby, where he gets an understanding of the mentor-mentee relationship.

Brandt-Leland Investments (NOT REAL)
New York, NEW YORK
Jerry mentions to Abby that he has a friend that worked in mortgage bonds at Leland-Brandt,,,even though it was Kramer, and technically only for a week or so.

J. Peterman
Elaine intends to fire mailroom employee Eddie Sherman, but constantly promotes him out of fear. The situation eventually boils to the point where only Elaine and Eddie are writing the catalog, as all other writing staff quit in protest.

Everglades, FLORIDA (map)
Kramer mentions to Jerry that Lomez usually runs Jewish Singles Night, but Kramer is taking over since Lomez is in the Everglades.

Knights Of Columbus (actually Masonic Lodge)
71 W. 23rd St., New York, NEW YORK (map)
nearest subway: 23rd Street (N,R)
Kramer decides to host Jewish Singles Night, thanks to Frank getting him a room at his lodge. Frank later trashes the joint, thinking his food will harm party guests similar to his platoon in the Korean War. Ironically, the event meant to be hosted by the Catholic organization shows the exterior of a Grand Mason’s Lodge.

Symphony Café (NOW CLOSED)
238 W. 56th St., New York, NEW YORK (map)
nearest subway: 57th Street – 7th Avenue (N,Q,R)
Jerry and Abby go for dinner, where they meet Abby’s mentor, and her boyfriend…Kenny Bania.

Astor Place Station
Astor Pl. and Lafayette St., New York, NEW YORK (map)
nearest subway: Astor Place (6)
George, in talking to a blind man on the subway, discovers he can get textbooks on tape from Reading For The Blind (so long as he is proven to be blind). This station is accessible on the 4 or 6 lines.

optometrist
320 E. 15th St., New York, NEW YORK (map)
nearest subway: 1st Avenue (L)
George easily bombs an eye exam, giving him access to Reading For The Blind so he can avoid having to ever read again. This is the same building as Kramer’s fertility clinic in “The Chinese Woman.”

Yankee Stadium
George checks out his Risk Management book-on-tape, shocked to hear the voiceover reader sounds just like him. George ends up doing a speech on Ovaltine, and why it should be called Roundtine…instead of Risk Management, after his notes from Abby get switched with Bania’s.

Costanza House
Frank tells Kramer his Korean War experience, where he initially refuses to cook for Kramer’s Jewish singles night, but is re-invigorated by a bad dish from Estelle.

Incheon, SOUTH KOREA (map)
Frank reveals that he was a cook for the US Army (slinging hash for the Fighting 103rd) during the Korean War (“Shell shocked?” “Oh yeah…but that has nothing to do with it.”). One night in 1950, Frank sent 16 of his own men to the latrines due to undercooked meat, including Bobby Colby, who “they had to sit him on a cork for the 18-hour flight home!”

TEXAS (map)
Frank prepares (and overspices) 600 pounds of “once-prime” Texas steer for his platoon during the Korean War.

West Bengal, INDIA (map)
Eddie comes up with gruesome copy for Bengalese galoshes (“it’s tough keeping your feet dry, when you’re kicking in a skull!”).

Kramer’s Apartment
Frank, determined to restart his cooking career, visits Kramer to sign up to cook for Jewish singles night, but takes him from the apartment when Kramer says he has no T-Fal.

Phoenix, ARIZONA (map)
A reinvigorated, now-cooking Frank proclaims to Kramer at the Jewish singles night that he is “like a Phoenix…rising, from Arizona!”