Seinfeld: 7 Best Del Boca Vista Episodes

Some of the most hilarious Seinfeld episodes were set at Del Boca Vista, the Florida retirement community inhabited by Jerry’s parents Morty and Helen. Technically, Morty and Helen were living at the Pines of Mar Gables at the beginning of the series, but Del Boca Vista is by far their most renowned retirement community.

The bizarre, vindictive, passive-aggressive behavior of the residents of this retirement community made for some of the most hysterical material in Seinfeld’s nine-season run. From the squabble over Jack Klompus’ astronaut pen to Morty’s impeachment as condo board president, these are Seinfeld’s best Del Boca Vista episodes.

7 The English Patient (Season 8, Episode 17)

Jerry meets an 80-year-old bodybuilder named Izzy Mandelbaum in season 8’s “The English Patient.” Izzy is ridiculously competitive, despite his advancing age, and challenges Jerry to a weightlifting competition. He throws his back out and ends up in the hospital, but the competition doesn’t stop there.

When Jerry goes to visit Izzy in the hospital, Izzy’s father and son both challenge Jerry to lift the TV. They both throw their own backs out and end up in hospital beds right next to Izzy. The whole time, Jerry couldn’t be less interested in competing with these elderly bodybuilders.

6 The Money (Season 8, Episode 12)

When Jerry’s parents think he’s having financial difficulties, they sell the Cadillac he gifted them to give him some cash. They won’t keep the money, so he secretly flies down to Florida to buy the car back. Parents needlessly worrying about their kids’ finances is hilariously relatable.

Things get even more complicated when Jack Klompus crashes the Cadillac into a swamp. The episode reaches a hysterical ending when Morty and Helen downsize to a trailer in order to help Jerry with money problems that don’t exist.

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5 The Shower Head (Season 7, Episode 15)

When Frank and Estelle Costanza show an interest in moving to Del Boca Vista in season 7’s “The Shower Head,” the Seinfelds insist there are no available condos so they shouldn’t bother looking.

Realizing that Morty and Helen don’t want them there, Frank and Estelle decide to move in out of spite. Morty receives a threatening phone call delivered hysterically as always by the great Jerry Stiller: “This is Frank Costanza. You think you can keep us out of Florida? We’re moving in lock, stock, and barrel. We’re gonna be in the pool. We’re gonna be in the clubhouse. We’re gonna be all over that shuffleboard court! And I dare you to keep me out!”

4 The Raincoats (Season 5, Episodes 18/19)

In the season 5 two-parter “The Raincoats,” Morty and Helen stop by New York ahead of their trip to Paris. When Morty learns that a store in New York will pay big bucks for vintage clothes, he calls Jack Klompus down in Florida to get the unsold raincoats from his garage and send them to New York.

Morty ends up pushing back the Paris trip to accommodate the deal as Jack complicates things by breaking a window to get to the raincoats. The episode’s hilarious ending reveals that Jack never fixed the window and the Seinfelds got burgled in the meantime. As usual, a get-rich-quick scheme cooked up by Kramer ended in disaster.

3 The Wizard (Season 9, Episode 15)

When a Hollywood producer options the rights to turn Kramer’s coffee table book about coffee tables into a movie, he uses the money to retire and moves into Del Boca Vista. He even runs for condo board president when he gains popularity around the community.

The episode gets plenty of comedic mileage out of placing young, virile Kramer amongst the elderly residents of a Floridian retirement community. He’s as much of an imposition on Jerry’s parents in Florida as he was on Jerry himself back in New York.

2 The Pen (Season 3, Episode 3)

Fans were first introduced to the zaniness of Morty and Helen’s retirement community in season 3’s “The Pen,” in which Jerry and Elaine travel down to Florida to scuba-dive and watch Morty get honored with an award. Jerry is gifted a pen by Morty’s arch-nemesis Jack Klompus and comes to regret it as the news spreads across the community like a wildfire and gets the Seinfelds ousted as pariahs.

Elaine injures her back so badly on the pull-out couch that she can’t go scuba diving anyway, and she takes pain meds that make her so loopy that she spends the awards ceremony screaming, “STELLA!!!” Everything that can go wrong on Jerry and Elaine’s trip does go wrong.

1 The Cadillac (Season 7, Episodes 14/15)

While Kramer is messing with the cable company and George is trying to woo Marisa Tomei back in New York, Jerry is down in Florida gifting his dad an expensive new car after coming into an influx of extra cash in the season 7 two-parter “The Cadillac.”

The car turns out to be way more trouble than it’s worth as it gets Morty cast out from society and eventually impeached as condo board president in a hilarious parody of Oliver Stone’s Nixon. The show’s running joke of Del Boca Vista’s residents taking mundane things to the most extreme lengths is perfectly encapsulated here.

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