Throughout the run of Seinfeld, Jerry dated seemingly as many women as the NBC sitcom had musical motifs. These beautiful ladies were played by future stars like Courteney Cox before the success of Friends, Jane Leeves prior to her breakout role on the recently revived Frasier and Will & Grace's Debra Messing. And if the actors weren't famous yet, the characters were. Everyone remembers the annoying laugher, the Romanian gymnast, Mulva AKA Delores, Man-Hands, the crying understudy, Miss Rhode Island and the talking stomach. But Jerry's least memorable girlfriend was the one who lasted the longest: Rachel Goldstein.
Rachel appeared in four episodes and was involved in plenty of memorable bits. Yet she felt like more of a tool to push the plot forward instead of an actual human being. Melanie Smith was pretty and played her part well, but there was just something about Rachel that made her fade into the background. Viewers shown a picture of the character likely wouldn't remember her name.
Melanie Smith was the actor tasked with bringing Rachel to life. Before Seinfeld, she had a long run on As The World Turns and multi-episode stints on shows like Melrose Place and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. According to Seincast, Smith retired from acting after over a decade of steady work and is now a yoga instructor and life coach. She had never seen the show and was nonplussed to even take the audition and showed it by asking how long it would take. Some working actors will say that the audition they care the least about is the one they're going to book, likely because they were the opposite of nervous. And there is something human about unrequited interest; that's why there are so many TV show, movie and anime storylines about it.
Viewers first met Rachel in Season 5, Episode 18, "The Raincoats." She was the woman living with her parents while Jerry's parents were in town, so they never got time alone. That led to her first important scene: the two of them making out during Schindler's List, which led to their forced breakup. Newman narc'd on Jerry to Rachel's dad after seeing them necking in the theater, along with blabbing to Jerry's parents. Rachel returned in Season 5, Episode 21, "The Hamptons," with a bit so memorable it entered the zeitgeist: shrinkage. She was the one who accidentally saw George naked after swimming the cold water, yet she was so forgettable that even Wikipedia doesn't remember her in the list of guest stars for that episode... and they list who played "The Cop."
Rachel's final appearance in the Season 5 finale, Episode 22, "The Opposite" saw her go full cipher. This was the Seinfeld episode in which Jerry realized that everything balanced out in life. Lose one gig, another comes around. Throw $20 out the window, find $20 in a coat pocket. Rachel became the human equivalent of that when she told Jerry she didn't think they should see each other anymore. He responded with a glib, "Oh, that's okay," and basically said that he'd meet someone new because things just work out for him. He then happily wished her good luck, leaving her as baffled as the audience.
Smith did exactly what she was supposed to do with her Seinfeld character. She hit her beats and her marks like a professional and presented Rachel as a real person. Yet for some reason she just didn't stick in the mind like the 30 or 40 other women in Jerry's romantic history. Perhaps it's because she was a comparably normal character. Or perhaps it's because the only time she came close to being the punchline was when George snuck lobster into her eggs. Either way, this was the rare case where there was nothing wrong with the writing or the performance; both were solid and served the story and the humor. It's just... one of those things. What was her name again?