The Library (season 3, episode 5)

written by Larry Charles, directed by Joshua White
original airdate: October 16, 1991

The Public Library contacts Jerry about a book he took out but never returned back in 1971. He faces the wrath of a cantankerous library cop, Lt. Bookman (Philip Baker Hall). George relives his junior high school gym class.

FEATURED LOCATIONS

The Improv

Jerry’s Apartment
Jerry is told that he is 20 years overdue on a library book taken out in 1971, and that a library investigator, Lt. Bookman, is being sent to investigate.

Monk’s Café
George tells the gang about Mr. Hayman’s high school antics (including giving George a wedgie and calling him “Can’t-stand-ya”), and Jerry later meets classmate Sherry Becker to discover the truth about what happened to “Tropic Of Cancer.”

New York Public Library Main Branch, Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
476 Fifth Ave., New York, NEW YORK (map)
nearest subway: 5th Avenue (7)
The NYPL dispatches their library cop, Lt. Bookman, over to Jerry for not returning “Tropic Of Cancer” in 1971. George also spots his old gym teacher in front of the library, now homeless, and Kramer dates a librarian who works here.

Pendant Publishing
Elaine fears for her job after she is not invited to order lunch, and when Mr. Lippman rejects her manuscript.

John F. Kennedy High School
99 Terrace View Ave., Bronx, NEW YORK (map)
nearest subway: Marble Hill – 225th Street (1)
George tells how he got Mr. Hayman fired after he gave George a wedgie in class, and we also discover Jerry gave George the book in gym class, and George is ultimately responsible for its loss. We originally see George wearing a JFK High shirt in gym, but the show typically implies they are both from Queens, and George even once says in “The Nose Job” that he is from Long Island. There is also a JFK High at 75-40 Parsons Blvd. in Kew Gardens, at 3000 Bellmore Ave. in Bellmore, and 50 Kennedy Dr. in Plainview).

Kramer’s Apartment
Marion the librarian, secretly seeing Kramer, hides out in his apartment after discovering Lt. Bookman is across the hall in Jerry’s apartment.

Erasmus Hall High School
911 Flatbush Ave., Flatbush, Brooklyn, NEW YORK (map)
nearest subway: Church Avenue (B,Q)
George says Mr. Hayman smelled like the locker room “after that win against Erasmus,” to which Jerry reminds George that the game was double overtime.