Talk:The Pool Guy

Pool Guy vs. Cable Guy

Is there a connection of any kind between the seinfeld episode "The Pool Guy" and the motion picture "Cable Guy"? In neither of the articels I could find a reference to the other. If this is a coincidence, it's a VERY big one, considering the parallels in the title, the plot and the look of the pool guy who really resembles Jim Carrey. With his jacket he looks like Jim Carey in "Dumb and Dumber". I already checked the "Behind the Scenes" stuff on the Seinfeld Season 7 DVD and the adio commentary, that says it is based on a real story of a guy at the health club being just "too friendly". However there are a few facts against that theory. As mentioned in "Behind the Scenes", at first the pool guy character should have been played by another actor (Danny Hoch) featurung a Latino accent and who most problably didn't look like Jim Carey. The most peculiar thing though is, that Cable Guy was released in June of 1996 and the TV episode was produced spring the same year. So there isn't really a time window to sneak a peak on each other. That may be more true for the motion picture, which takes more time. On the other hand, inside information from that movie would have been necessery to produce an episode imitating it.

I just watched the film and was reminded of this episode. According to IMDb the episode aired on November 16th 1995, and The Cable Guy started shooting on November 27th. So it's conceivable that the filmmakers saw the episode immediately prior to filming and were somewhat influenced by it, and maybe Jim Carrey drew on Carlos Jacott's performance. Possible, if unlikely. It's also possible that the film script was circulating for a while and that someone attached to the show had come in contact with it, though the central idea of rebuffing a wannabe friend isn't so unusual that it couldn't be a coincidence. The resemblance of Jacott to Carrey, on top of all that, must just be a huge coincidence though. Wetdogmeat (talk) 04:14, 15 November 2012 (UTC)

It's possible the writers got the idea from the trailer of The Cable Guy, which gives most of the plot away. Also the film was directed by Ben Stiller -- the son of Jerry Stiller who played Frank Constanza on Seinfeld. MrEricSir (talk) 05:11, 13 May 2020 (UTC)

As already mentioned, the episode aired before The Cable Guy even started filming, so I don't know how you imagine the Seinfeld writers could have gotten the idea from the film's trailer unless you think they could see into the future. (And if they could, surely they could find a more profitable way of using that power than ripping off a so-so movie that had a middling performance at the box office?) Martin IIIa (talk) 15:49, 24 June 2023 (UTC)

No Alec Mapa inclusion in guest stars?

I know he only had a brief scene, but still. Macshill (talk) 07:52, 19 September 2008 (UTC) macshill