Curb Your Enthusiasm

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Curb Your Enthusiasm
Format Comedy
Created by Larry David
Starring Larry David
Cheryl Hines
Jeff Garlin
Susie Essman
Opening theme Luciano Michelini - Frolic
Country of origin United States
No. of seasons 6
No. of episodes 60 (List of episodes)
Production
Camera setup Single camera
Running time approx. 29 minutes (with several extended episodes)
Broadcast
Original channel HBO
Original run October 15, 2000 – present
External links
Official website
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Curb Your Enthusiasm is an American sitcom starring Seinfeld writer, co-creator, and executive producer Larry David as himself, and produced and broadcast by HBO. The series was inspired by a 1999 one-hour mockumentary titled Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm, which David and HBO originally envisioned as a one-time project.

Contents

[edit] Concept

Set in Santa Monica and loosely based on David's life as a semi-retired multi-millionaire in the world after Seinfeld, the series is often described as a more subversive take on that hit program's "show about nothing" motif.

Shot on location with hand-held cameras, Curb Your Enthusiasm is produced unconventionally, eschewing traditional scripts in favor of detailed scene outlines from which actors improvise dialogue (a practice referred to as retroscripting). Curb Your Enthusiasm develops ongoing story lines and in-jokes set around Larry's interaction with his easily annoyed but put-upon wife (played by Cheryl Hines), his loyal manager Jeff Greene (played by Jeff Garlin), and Jeff's foul-mouthed outburst-prone wife Susie (played by Susie Essman).

Although many scenarios are drawn from his own experiences, the real-life David has downplayed the notion that he is like the character portrayed onscreen. In a Bob Costas interview, he said that the Larry David of the show was the one he can't be in real life due to his sensitivity to others and to social conventions.

[edit] Characters

See also: List of celebrities appearing on Curb Your Enthusiasm

The show's natural, fly-on-the-wall style, together with the fact that David and many other characters play "themselves", have contributed to the show's blurring of distinctions between fiction and reality, again echoing Seinfeld.

  • Larry David (as "himself") – The ultimate passive aggressive, Larry creates awkwardness and discomfort in most social situations. His problems are often caused by his own petty neuroses and obstinacy, which render him incapable of admitting fault, accepting blame and letting matters rest. At the same time, he is often a victim of circumstance and the sensitive, easily-offended natures of those he happens to encounter. He can be a likeable character with good intentions, while those around him are being petty, volatile or annoying. The reverse is also true on many occasions, when Larry is petty, impatient, self-centered and difficult. Whether or not Larry or the other characters on the show are 'likeable,' they generally each believe they are playing by (or only lightly bending) the rules of society. However, they do not always agree on what those rules are.
  • Jeff Greene (played by Jeff Garlin) – Larry's friend and manager who doggedly sticks up for him and gets involved in his schemes, no matter how morally dubious they may be. Obsessed with sex, Jeff involves Larry in covering up his marital infidelities and hiding his pornography. Jeff, although loyal to Larry, will comfortably act the innocent in a confrontation.
  • Cheryl David (played by Cheryl Hines) – Larry's wife. As the straight man of this comedic duo, she is alternately patient with and exasperated by his behavior.
  • Susie Greene (played by Susie Essman) – Jeff's wife. Her relationship with Jeff is mercurial, leading to numerous separations in the course of the show. She often reacts to Jeff and Larry's shenanigans with angry, profane tirades in which she usually refers to Jeff as a "fat piece of shit" and Larry as a "four-eyed fuck." She shows more affection to her dog, Oscar, and her daughter, Sammie, than her husband.
  • Richard Lewis (as himself) – A stand-up comedian who is neurotic, self-loathing, and a recovering alcoholic. He is one of Larry's oldest and closest friends, both having moved from New York City to Los Angeles to pursue their comedy careers. Despite this, his relationship with Larry is often volatile and complicated. It was in season 5 that Richard Lewis became a central character due to his need for a new kidney, which apparently only Larry or Jeff could provide.

Guest stars frequently play key roles. Ted Danson, Bob Einstein (as Marty Funkhouser), Mary Steenburgen and Wanda Sykes often appear as friends of the Davids. Shelley Berman plays Larry's father. Former Seinfeld stars Jason Alexander and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, along with Martin Scorsese, Paul Reiser, Alanis Morissette, Hugh Hefner, David Schwimmer, Mel Brooks, and Ben Stiller, have all appeared as themselves. Jerry Seinfeld and Stephen Colbert made cameo appearances in Season 4. Bobby Lee, Aislinn Willouer,Crista Flanagan, Rosie O'Donnell, Hugh Hefner, Dustin Hoffman, Sacha Baron Cohen and Bea Arthur appear in Season 5. The sixth season featured Vivica Fox, Lucy Lawless, Senator Barbara Boxer, Michael McKean, Tim Meadows, Steve Coogan, John Legend, and John McEnroe as well as others.

[edit] Plots

See also: List of Curb Your Enthusiasm episodes

With the exception of Season 1 (2000), seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm are loosely linked by a story arc, although most episodes still have their own separate plot. David took a similar approach on Seinfeld during seasons four and seven.

  • Season 1 (2000) – The first season has no connecting story arc. The first season introduces us to Larry's post-Seinfeld world, where everything seems just right. He has wealth, a loving wife and a best friend. It is not long into the series though that we realise that poor Larry is his own worst enemy. He finds himself variously being accused of an adultery-implying erection due to a badly stitched zipper; feuding with a shoe salesman; submitting an obituary for Cheryl's aunt in which the word "aunt" is unintentionally substituted with "cunt"; and unintentionally causing someone to believe that his uncle is an incestuous paedophile.
  • Season 2 (2001) – Larry David pursues a new television project, first with Jason Alexander, and then Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The premise: an actor who starred in a phenomenally popular t.v. show (obviously referring to Seinfeld) finds it difficult to secure subsequent work because of the public's strong association of them with their famous former character. Larry pitches the idea to executives for several different networks, who are initially receptive but ultimately back away for a variety of reasons (usually involving a mishap with Larry). It is during a meeting with Julia Louis-Dreyfus and her agent (to discuss abandoning the new show) that Jeff coins the term 'a victim of circumstance' in respect to Larry. The season concludes with Larry, having offended or alienated everyone involved with the project, being arrested for fork theft. Despite reasoning with the trial judge that the fork was for the limo guy waiting outside the restaurant, Larry is sentenced to parade along the sidewalk with a sandwich board which reads "I steal forks from restaurants".
  • Season 3 (2002) – Larry joins a restaurant venture with a group of investors that includes Ted Danson. The season ends with the restaurant's grand opening. A sub-plot involves Larry being cast in a Martin Scorsese movie.
  • Season 4 (2004) – Larry works with Mel Brooks, Ben Stiller and David Schwimmer to star on Broadway in The Producers. He also struggles to fulfill his wife's tenth anniversary present to him – a one-time-only extramarital sexual encounter which he frantically tries to fulfill and tries not to fulfill, with some women. The season ends with an hour-long special in which Larry travels to New York City to perform on Broadway. The final episode ends with a ten minute montage of The Producers starring Larry, which comes close to disaster but ends in triumph. It turns out that Mel Brooks, bored sick of his musical, deliberately chose Larry because he knew Larry could be relied upon to ruin the show. Unexpectedly, Larry's personal charm shines through -- bolstering the show's already interminable popularity, thereby ruining Mel's sabotage plan (which, ironically, is the actual plot of The Producers). At the end Larry points at his watch from on stage to indicate to Cheryl that he still has a few hours to validate his gift.
  • Season 5 (2005) – Larry's friend, comedian Richard Lewis, is in dire need of a kidney transplant operation. Purely out of paranoid guilt, Larry offers one of his own to Richard if Richard cannot find a suitable donor in time. Larry then makes many concerted, ridiculous efforts to find Richard a kidney donor. Larry also feels excited that he might have been adopted, due to a potentially misunderstood word his father said (and no longer remembers) while in the hospital; Larry hires a private investigator (Mekhi Phifer) to look into it. The final episode of the season ("The End") sees Larry undergo the transplant-donation surgery for Lewis. Larry apparently dies during the procedure, though, and arrives in heaven. Due to certain inevitable rantings by Larry, it is decided by his guardian angels that Larry is not quite 'ready' for the afterlife, and he is duly sent back to the living world.
  • Season 6 (2007) – Cheryl and Larry shelter an African-American family named "the Blacks" (headed by Vivica A. Fox and also featuring J.B. Smoove) in their house, after a hurricane destroys the Blacks' home. A distracted phone call between Larry and Cheryl causes her to re-evaluate their marriage and intellectual chemistry. Cheryl soon thereafter separates from him and even finds another man; the season ends with Larry finding a new love interest of his own.

[edit] Impact

[edit] Critical response

Since its 2000 debut, the show has enjoyed wide critical acclaim and a steadily growing, dedicated audience that has helped it emerge from its early "cult"-only status. Through 2004, it has been nominated for twenty Emmy Awards (winning one), and has received a Golden Globe for best television comedy (2003). It is the fifth-highest rated TV show on metacritic.com.

Slate magazine named the characters of Cheryl David and Susie Greene as two of the best on television and as reasons they were looking forward to the return of the show in fall 2007.[1]

[edit] The Juan Catalan incident

In 2003, Juan Catalan, a resident of Los Angeles, was cleared of premeditated murder charges against a material witness (a crime eligible for capital punishment) after cut-out footage shot for the "Carpool Lane" episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm showed him and his daughter attending the Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Atlanta Braves baseball game some 20 miles from the scene, resulting in a $320,000 settlement.[2]

[edit] Inspired shows

  • Starting in 2005, German comedian Bastian Pastewka produced the comedy series Pastewka, which was loosely based on CYE.[citation needed] Though scripted and not improvised (as CYE is), similarities extend to its title theme which closely resembles CYE's original ("Frolic" by Luciano Michelini).[citation needed]

[edit] Season 7

Season 7 has recently been unofficially confirmed by Susie Essman, who told the New York Post that she had auctioned off a walk-on role in season 7[3]. In an interview, Richard Lewis said David seems "very energetic and very upbeat, which usually means that he's come up with an arc for the next season."[4] In a televised interview available on YouTube, Jeff Garlin stated that Larry David was in the process of writing Season 7.[5]

[edit] Media

[edit] Book

A Curb Your Enthusiasm book was released October 19, 2006, published by Gotham Books (ISBN 1-59240-230-5). The book contains:[6]

  • stories from Larry David's past
  • original interviews and commentary
  • episode outlines
  • episode guide
  • over 100 full-color photographs

[edit] DVD

All six seasons have been released in full season DVD sets in the United States and the United Kingdom.

[edit] Music

The show is punctuated between scenes with music orchestrated by Wendall J. Yuponce (first season), and from a music library company called Killer Tracks (seasons two to five). The bouncy opening and closing theme song (not mentioned in the credits) is "Frolic" by Italian composer Luciano Michelini. David heard the music used in a bank commercial years before the show was created and thought it had a lighthearted, joyful quality that could redeem him of any and all of the repugnant, self-serving acts that define his not-so-endearing personality. It was featured in the Family Guy episode "Chick Cancer".

In May 2006, Mellowdrama Records released an unofficial Curb Your Enthusiasm soundtrack, which contained much of the music used in the show. It featured the following tracklisting:

  1. "Frolic" - Luciano Michelini
  2. "Bubba Dub Bossa" - Robby Poitevin
  3. "Beach Parade" - Armando Trovaioli
  4. "For Whom The Bell Tolls" - Gianni Ferrio
  5. "The Stranger" - Alessandro Alessandroni
  6. "Tango Passionate" - Piero Umiliani
  7. "Ein Swei March" - Renato Rascel
  8. "Suspicion" - Ennio Morricone
  9. "Solo Dance" - Italo Greco
  10. "Moulin Rouge Waltz" - Teddy Lasry
  11. "Walk Cool" - Nino Oliviero
  12. "Slow On The Uptake" - Luis Bacalov
  13. "Corfu" - Eric Gemsa
  14. "Thrills And Spills" - Stefano Torossi
  15. "The Puzzle" - Franco Micalizzi
  16. "Au Vieux" - Christian Sebasto Toucas
  17. "Merry Go Round" - Armando Trovaioli
  18. "Riviera Nostalgia" - Jacques Mercier
  19. "La Ballada Di Periferia" - Jacques Mercier
  20. "The Little People" - Carlo Rustichelli
  21. "Mazurka Bastiaise" - Jean Michel Panunzio
  22. "Spinning Waltz" - Piero Umiliani
  23. "Amusement" - Franco Micalizzi
  24. "Frolic (30 Second Edit)" - Luciano Michelini

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Lapidos, Juliet (21). Oh, How We've Missed You!. Slate magazine. Retrieved on 2007-09-23.
  2. ^ ABC news article
  3. ^ MORE 'CURB'ED - New York Post
  4. ^ Lewis still has enough neuroses to fill a show - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
  5. ^ Curb Your Enthusiasm's Jeff Garlin on KRON 4 - YouTube
  6. ^ Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Book

[edit] External links

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v • d • e
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Main characters
Larry David · Cheryl David (Cheryl Hines) · Jeff Greene (Jeff Garlin) · Susie Greene (Susie Essman) · Richard Lewis
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