TRIAL STORY: THE "SEINFELD" FIRING: MACKENZIE V. MILLER BREWING CO. (TV)
Summary
One in this series of documentary films that present condensed and annotated versions of high-profile trials. This episode examines the case that became known in the media as "The Seinfeld Firing." Host Gregg Jarrett opens the program by introducing the history of the case. In 1993, he explains, Miller Brewing Company executive Jerry MacKenzie watched an episode of the television situation comedy "Seinfeld" that featured a stretch of dialogue laced with sexual double entendre. Several clips of the episode in question bolster the argument that the dialogue was crucial to the plot. In the clips, the character Jerry Seinfeld meets a woman but immediately forgets her name. He tries to elicit it from her subtly, only to be told that it rhymes with "a piece of the female anatomy." Eventually, after guessing at possibilities with his friends, the comedian recalls the name. "Dolores!" he screams after her as she is walking out the door. MacKenzie says in an interview that he was shocked by the joke when he saw the episode, remarking to his wife that he was surprised that it "got by the censors." The next day at work, MacKenzie asked co-worker Patty Best whether she had seen the episode. He says that he figured that the question was related to work as Miller Beer had sponsored this episode of "Seinfeld." When the joke was relayed to her, Best was appalled and called her superiors. A day later, viewers learn, MacKenzie was fired from Miller Brewing Company for exercising poor judgement after working there for nineteen years. MacKenzie hired a prominent Milwaukee lawyer named Gerald Boyle, in the news previously for defending serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, and sued Miller for wrongful termination. The remainder of the program features footage of the trial. During Best's testimony, she bursts into tears and repeatedly has to stop. Just as it looks as though all is smooth for MacKenzie, however, the defense presents an unexpected piece of evidence. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: Court TV
- DATE: November 30, 1997
- RUNNING TIME: 0:46:01
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: T:65419
- GENRE: Public affairs/Documentaries
- SUBJECT HEADING: Miller Brewing Company - Trials, litigation, etc.
- SERIES RUN: Court TV - TV series, 1991-1998
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Carolyn Kresky … Executive Producer
- Jonathan Greene … Producer, Director
- Corrie E. Kaufman … Associate Producer
- Gregg Jarrett … Host
- Patty Best
- Gerald Boyle
- Jeffrey Dahmer
- Jerry MacKenzie
- Jerry Seinfeld