Curb Your
Enthusiasm is an American
comedy series starring
Seinfeld writer, co-creator, and
executive producer Larry David as
himself. It is produced and broadcast by
HBO.
The series was inspired by a 1999 one-hour fake documentary titled
Larry
David: Curb Your Enthusiasm, which David and HBO
originally envisioned as a one-time project.
The series has been nominated for dozens of
Emmy Awards, although it has only won once, and
has won a
Golden Globe.
Seven seasons of the series were produced and aired on HBO between
2000 and 2009. The seventh season ended on November 22, 2009.
Concept
The show stars Larry David as a fictional version of himself,
accompanied by fictional re-creations of his real friends, usually
played by themselves.
Ted Danson,
Mary Steenburgen,
Wanda Sykes, and
Richard Lewis all have recurring
roles as characters based on themselves.
The show
is set in affluent Pacific Palisades
, California
, David's real place of residence, and revolves
around Larry's experiences as a semi-retired famous television
producer. Although Larry maintains an office, he is rarely
shown working, other than in season four which centered on his
being cast as
Max Bialystock in the
Mel Brooks play
The Producers, and in Season 7 writing
the
Seinfeld reunion. Most of the show revolves around
Larry's interactions with his friends and neighbors, with Larry
often at odds with the other characters (usually to Larry's
detriment). Despite this, the characters do not seem to harbour
ill-feelings towards each other for very long and the cast has
stayed stable throughout the show.
Characters
Main cast
- Larry David
Self-centered, misanthropic and regularly difficult, Larry creates
awkwardness and discomfort in social situations. His problems are
often caused by his neuroses and obstinate faith in his
understanding of ethics and etiquette. He usually has good
intentions but often finds himself a victim of circumstance and
social convention, not to mention most of the people around him are
almost as, if not more so, self-centered and stubborn as he is. The
show's popularity has resulted in the term "Larry David moment,"
meaning inadvertently causing a socially awkward situation,
entering the American pop culture lexicon. The real life Larry David has commented that he could never be
the way he is on TV because he is a lot more cautious when it comes
to social tension. Larry is known for his probing stare when he
doesn't think somebody is telling the truth and often says
something is "pretty, pretty, pretty good" when he likes
something.
- Jeff Greene (Jeff
Garlin) One of Larry's few friends, Jeff is his sympathetic
manager whose marital problems and avid interest in pornography entangle Larry in embarrassing
situations. Jeff often helps Larry with his problems, but that
usually leads to Jeff getting involved with the mess. Jeff and his
wife, Susie, have a daughter named Sammie (Ashly Holloway). Sammie
once said that she would choose her dog, Oscar, over her father if
he could not live in the same house as the dog. Jeff Greene often
says, "What the fuck?" when things do not go as planned. Jeff
frequently engages in sex even with women whom other men do not
find attractive, in situations that his wife is almost sure to find
out about, or in situations that cause physical danger to himself,
which suggests that he is a sex
addict.
- Cheryl David (Cheryl
Hines) Larry's long-suffering wife, who often expresses
annoyance with his behavior, even in situations beyond his control.
She is an active member of the NRDC. Cheryl left Larry in
the season six episode "The TiVo Guy" when he hung up on her
calling from a plane experiencing turbulence because he was with
the TiVo guy (Kevin
Heffernan) and "couldn't hear" her. Larry attempted to get her
back by producing a Seinfeld reunion episode and casting Cheryl as
George's Ex-Wife Amanda, which backfired when Jason Alexander shows an interest in her.
After hearing Larry on the phone confess to Jeff that he did the
entire reunion to get Cheryl back, Cheryl returns to him, only to
immediately regret it afterward.
- Susie Greene (Susie
Essman) Jeff's wife. She has a highly explosive temperament and
reacts with near violence to benign grievances. She and Jeff have
an "on-again, off-again" relationship. She often uses Larry as a
scapegoat for her marital problems.
Recurring roles
Among the show's many recurring roles,
Richard Lewis often plays himself
as a
neurotic stand-up comedian who is
recovering from alcohol and drug problems. He plays one of Larry's
oldest and closest friends, both having moved from New York City to
Los Angeles to pursue their comedy careers.
Ted Danson plays himself as a friend of Larry's
despite constantly butting heads with Larry.
Shelley Berman often plays Larry's
hard-of-hearing father, Nat David.
In later seasons,
Bob Einstein joins as
Marty Funkhouser, one of Larry's oldest friends. Despite this, he
and Larry tend to disagree on many topics such as whether or not he
is too old to be called an orphan, and he also argues that Larry is
his best friend, which Larry constantly tries to refute.
Additionally, in seasons six and seven,
J. B. Smoove appears as Leon Black, who lives in
Larry's house.
Notable guest appearances
Celebrities, including actors, authors, musicians and athletes,
have lent their celebrity to the show, usually playing themselves.
Of the guest stars,
Richard Lewis and
Ted Danson appear as regular
characters.
Plots
Episodes are typically named after an event, object, or person
which figures prominently in the plot, similarly to how Seinfeld
episodes were named. While each episode has an individual plot,
each season as a whole contains a plot that stretches across all
ten episodes.
Season
one is the only one without a story arc, instead the style and
characters of the show are introduced in mostly isolated
episodes.
In
season
two, Cheryl is tired of Larry not working, so he begins to
develop a new television show, first with guest stars
Jason Alexander and
Julia Louis-Dreyfus as themselves.
However, Larry's constant social mishaps ruin all of their chances
with every major television network. In
season
three Larry invests in a restaurant enterprise which finally
opens despite many mishaps, most of which are Larry's fault.
Mel Brooks casts Larry as the lead in his
hit musical
The Producers in
season
four. Larry's friend
Richard Lewis
gets very ill in
season
five and requires a kidney transplant. Larry is a match, but he
spends the season looking for other sources of a kidney for Lewis.
Also in season five, Larry suspects he may be adopted and embarks
on a search to find his "real" parents.
Season
six is built around Cheryl persuading Larry to take in an
African American family that is left homeless after a major Gulf
Coast hurricane. Later in the season, Cheryl leaves Larry,
mimicking Laurie David's real-life divorce from Larry. He spends
the rest of the season either fighting for her to come back or
looking for a replacement. The recently completed seventh season,
season
seven, is loosely centered on creating a
Seinfeld reunion show and Larry trying to get
back with Cheryl.
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" status. It is the sixth-highest rated
TV show on
metacritic.com. In that
same website, the fifth season ranked 91 based on 5 reviews and the
seventh season currently ranks 81 based on 18 reviews.
Curb Your Enthusiasm has received 28
Emmy nominations with one win,
Outstanding
Directing for 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.
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.
Curb Your Enthusiasm has also
received praise from
Galus
Australis magazine for being more unashamedly Jewish than
the
Seinfeld series.
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 outtake
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 crime-scene at the time of the murder, resulting in a
$320,000 settlement against the City of Los Angeles. On hearing of
the incident, Larry David commented that "Now I've done at least
one good thing in my life, albeit inadvertently."
Inspired shows
- In 2005, Danish comedians Frank Hvam
and Casper Christensen created
the comedy series Klovn, which is
inspired by Curb Your Enthusiasm.
- UK show Lead Balloon has
been described as "Britain's answer to Curb Your
Enthusiasm".
- German show Pastewka with comedian Bastian Pastewka is
also inspired by Larry David's show.
- South African show Sorted with Lionel Newton is
similarly inspired by Curb Your Enthusiasm.
- Rapper Cam'ron is working on a TV series
which he is dubbing a "black Curb Your Enthusiasm".
- In 2009, Sal the
Stockbroker, a fan of Curb Your Enthusiasm, created
the "loosely scripted" series Show In The Hallway for
Howard TV. Similar to Curb
Your Enthusiasm, it features the cast and crew of The Howard Stern Show as well as
occasional celebrity guests (Lisa
Lampanelli, John Stamos, Jerry O'Connell, Curb star Richard Lewis and others)
portraying versions of themselves.
- Australian series Whatever Happened To That
Guy? starring former Fast Forward performer
Peter Moon.
- American podcast series Star-ving, which shows Married With Children star
David Faustino and his life after the
show ended.
- Hong Kong actor Stephen Fung
produced and starred in Old Fung
Diary in 2006 which is based on "Curb Your Enthusiam" with
similar title theme song.
Media
Book
A
Curb Your Enthusiasm book was released
October 19,
2006, published
by Gotham Books (ISBN 1-59240-230-5). The book contains stories
from Larry David's past, original interviews and commentary,
episode outlines, episode guide, and over 100 full-color
photographs.
DVD
The first
six seasons have been released in full season DVD sets in Canada
, the
United
States
, the United Kingdom
, Ireland
and Australia. No release date for a seventh
season DVD set has been announced.
Music
The show is punctuated between scenes with music orchestrated by
Wendell Yuponce (first season), and
from a music library company called Killer Tracks (seasons two to
five).
The
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, so as to balance
the show's otherwise downcast, gloomy feel. In May 2006,
Mellowdrama Records released an
unofficial Curb Your Enthusiasm soundtrack.
References
-
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=larry+david+moment
- ABC news article
- Klovn at TV.com
- Dee writes BBC's answer to 'Curb Your
Enthusiasm'
- CAM'RON WORKING ON 'BLACK CURB YOUR
ENTHUSIASM'
- Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Book
- EzyDVD.com: Curb Your Enthusiasm - The Complete
6th Season
External links