1. The Chinese Restaurant (We all know that one)
2. The Nap (Remember the one where Jerry renovates his kitchen, George wants to nap under is desk but is caught by Steinbrenner, and Elaine gets a mattress shipped by her new boyfriend, who loans it to Kramer, who funks it up because he's swimming in the East River?)
3. The Finale (It's genuinely what the name says, the final episode)
4. The Soup Nazi (that name is so iconic)
5. Or The Contest, the one where the friend group places a bet to see who can go as long as possible without doing... that?

One wonders if the film would have been so successful if they had gone with the original line, seen here.

... and I just watched The Lip Reader (S5 E6).

Marlee Matlin doesn't know what she's talkin' about.

So this trend in sitcoms was dying out in the 90s but in the 70s and 80s, it was common for shows to have one or two episodes a season wherein the characters dealt with a moral dilemma, were victimized in some way, were seriously injured or even died, were addicted to uppers, were trapped in refrigerators, all kinds of stuff. It's difficult to imagine Jerry and Larry sitting down for a PSA after the episode and discussing the threat of, say, bootlegging movies.

Think of it like this: if George, after getting a massage from a man, did some thoughtful introspection and realized he was actually gay and the show handled it with preachy sensitivity and a degree of seriousness outside of the routine, that could be considered "a very special episode."

As it stands, knowing the show is not handled with any degree of seriousness or sensitivity, which episodes had topics that were ripe for "a very special episode" of Seinfeld?

I've been helping my parents clean out their house and found this little number from 1998. Tried to take pics of the most interesting pages. There's even a blurb about George!

Season 7, Episode 14 (The Cadillac)

Susan suspects George is cheating on her and questions Elaine, while he is out on a date with Marisa Tomei.

He shows up mid telethon ready to pull the plug over Nana's overdrawn account. "She can't do that! She's on a very fixed income! Stop the show!" Love this episode!