Curb Your Enthusiasm
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. A seventh season is scheduled to begin production in December 2008.[1]
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 Cheryl David (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.
It has been said that "Soup's Too Distracting" was an alternate working title considered for the show.
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") – Self-centered, impatient, and difficult, Larry creates awkwardness and discomfort in social situations. His problems are often caused by his own neuroses and an obstinate faith in his own understanding of ethics and etiquette. At the same time, he usually has good intentions and often finds himself a victim of circumstance and of the sensitive, easily-offended natures of those encounters.
- 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. Jeff often 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. Where Larry generally tries to do the right thing, Jeff seems to take a more selfish pragmatic approach.
- Cheryl David (played by Cheryl Hines) – Larry's constantly put-upon wife. As the straight man of this comedic duo, she is alternately patient with and exasperated by his behavior. Her extraordinary patience and tolerance in the face of David's various problems may be explained by a desire to benefit from his largesse.
- 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 fuck" and Larry as a "sick pervert four-eyed fuck." She shows more affection to her dog, Oscar, and her daughter, Sammie, than her husband. In a montage in the final episode of Season 6, Loretta Black fights Susie off when the latter launches into Larry with one of her foul-mouthed tirades.
- 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. Lewis was central to the story arc of Season 5, in which he asked Larry to donate a kidney in order to save his life.
- Marty Funkhouser (played by Bob Einstein) – One of Larry's oldest friends. He considers Larry to be his best friend although Larry begs to differ. He is a self-described "orphan", having lost his parents in death a year apart when he was about 65. He has a wife, and one daughter Jodi, who is a lesbian. He also has a cousin who is a dentist. He is also often very methodical and by-the-book about most of his actions and puts much emphasis on family first, making sure the entire family takes one opinion on a certain matter. Despite that, sometimes he has been known to take credit for things that don't necessarily apply to him.
Guests
- See also: List of celebrities appearing on Curb Your Enthusiasm
Guest stars frequently appear and often play themselves. Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen and Wanda Sykes have recurring roles as friends of the Davids while Shelley Berman plays Larry's father. Former Seinfeld stars Jason Alexander and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, along with Martin Scorsese, David Schwimmer, Mel Brooks, Ben Stiller, and Michael York have had recurring roles as themselves.
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 pedophile.
- 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 and Michael York. 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 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 an hour 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 New Orleans 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 moving on himself and finding a relationship with Loretta Black.
Impact
Critical response and awards
- List of Curb Your Enthusiasm awards and nominations.
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.[2]
Curb Your Enthusiasm has been nominated for 28 Emmy nominations with only one win, Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series for Robert B. Weide for the episode "Krazee-Eyez Killa". The show has also won a Golden Globe Award for Best TV show - musical or comedy, a Directors Guild of America award and a Writers Guild of America award for Comedy Series. The show has been nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series since the first season, but has never won one.
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.[3]
Inspired shows
- In 2005, Danish comedians Frank Hvam and Casper Christensen created the comedy series Klovn, which is inspired by Curb Your Enthusiasm.[4]
- UK show Lead Balloon has been described as "Britain's answer to Curb Your Enthusiasm"[5]. In fact, the BBC Radio 4 sitcom, Ed Reardon's Week, might be said to be closer in spirit to Curb Your Enthusiasm, despite Lead Balloon's formal imitations.
- German Show 'Pastewka' with Comedian Bastian Pastewka is also inspired by Larry David's show.
Media
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
DVD
All six seasons have been released in full season DVD sets in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Ireland. Season 6 is yet to be released in Australia.
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.
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:
- "Frolic" - Luciano Michelini
- "Bubba Dub Bossa" - Robby Poitevin
- "Beach Parade" - Armando Trovaioli
- "For Whom The Bell Tolls" - Gianni Ferrio
- "The Stranger" - Alessandro Alessandroni
- "Tango Passionate" - Piero Umiliani
- "Ein Swei March" - Renato Rascel
- "Suspicion" - Ennio Morricone
- "Solo Dance" - Italo Greco
- "Moulin Rouge Waltz" - Teddy Lasry
- "Walk Cool" - Nino Oliviero
- "Slow On The Uptake" - Luis Bacalov
- "Corfu" - Eric Gemsa
- "Thrills And Spills" - Stefano Torossi
- "The Puzzle" - Franco Micalizzi
- "Au Vieux" - Christian Sebasto Toucas
- "Merry Go Round" - Armando Trovaioli
- "Riviera Nostalgia" - Jacques Mercier
- "La Ballada Di Periferia" - Jacques Mercier
- "The Little People" - Carlo Rustichelli
- "Mazurka Bastiaise" - Jean Michel Panunzio
- "Spinning Waltz" - Piero Umiliani
- "Amusement" - Franco Micalizzi
- "Frolic (30 Second Edit)" - Luciano Michelini
John Legend covers the classic Ray Charles song "You Don't Know Me" in the final episode of Season Six; it is not available for purchase.
See also
- Larry David
- List of Curb Your Enthusiasm episodes
- List of celebrities appearing on Curb Your Enthusiasm
- Seinfeld
References
External links
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Curb Your Enthusiasm |
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| Main characters |
Larry David · Cheryl David (Cheryl Hines) · Jeff Greene (Jeff Garlin) · Susie Greene (Susie Essman) · Richard Lewis
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| Related |
Episode list · List of guest stars
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