Curb Your Enthusiasm

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Image:9133 512.jpg Curb Your Enthusiasm title card

Created byLarry David
StarringLarry David
Cheryl Hines
Jeff Garlin
GenreComedy
Run timeapprox. 0:30 (with several extended episodes)
Original channelHBO
Original runOctober 15, 2000
No. of episodes50
Origin CountryUSA
Rating
Website

Curb Your Enthusiasm is an American sitcom starring Seinfeld writer, co-creator, and executive producer Larry David. Since its 2000 series debut, the HBO show has enjoyed wide critical acclaim and a steadily growing, dedicated audience that has helped it emerge from its early cult status. Through 2004, it has been nominated for twenty Emmy Awards (winning one) and has won a Golden Globe for best television comedy (2003). The series was inspired by a 1999 one-hour mockumentary titled Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm, which David and HBO had originally envisioned as a one-time project.

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[edit] Concept

Set in Los Angeles 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 retroscripting. Curb Your Enthusiasm develops ongoing story lines and in-jokes set around David's interaction with his patient but put-upon wife (played by Cheryl Hines). Larry's loyal manager Jeff Greene (played by Jeff Garlin) is always by his side through thick and thin. Jeff's outburst-prone wife Susie (played by Susie Essman) has a tendency to see right through Larry and Jeff's plans.

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 Luciano Michelini.

Though 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. For example, he forbids characters in CYE to use insults that may personally offend the actors (for example calling Jeff Greene fat) unless the actor (in this case, Jeff Garlin) okays it.

Production on the show's fifth season began in January 2005, with the season premiering on September 25 of that year. According to HBO Chairman and CEO Chris Albrecht, David was asked to make the episodes run less than thirty minutes. Upon receiving the first two new shows, Albrecht discovered that David had turned in episodes clocking in at 29 minutes, 59 seconds with credits [1].

There is no word whether the sixth season will be the shows last.

[edit] Characters

The show's natural, quasi-documentary 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 star of the show. The rich but inept, if not obnoxious, David has terrible luck in social situations (with a few notable exceptions) and is often on the losing end of heated confrontations with "the help" — waiters, retail clerks, secretaries, etc. Politically liberal but socially obtuse, Larry is sensitive to offending others (such as the handicapped), but often does so inadvertently. He is a perpetual victim of not only his own petty neuroses and stubborn obstinacy, which render him incapable of admitting fault and accepting blame, but also of fate and circumstance (which seem to actively conspire against him) and, on occasion, the over-sensitivities and easily-offended natures (sometimes to a ridiculous degree) of those he happens to encounter.
  • Cheryl David (played by Cheryl Hines) – David's wife. A foil for David, often exasperated by his eccentricities.
  • Jeff Greene (played by Jeff Garlin) – David's friend & manager. He doggedly sticks up for his client and friend. Among his character quirks is an obsession with sex, complete with hidden pornography collections and a string of infidelities.
  • Susie Greene (played by Susie Essman) – Jeff's wife. Often reacts to Jeff and Larry's shenanigans with extensive profanity. Often shows more affection to her dog, Oscar, than her husband.
  • Richard Lewis (as himself) – A neurotic, recovering alcoholic standup comedian. He is one of Larry's closest friends having also come to LA from New York and so perhaps relates to some of Larry's eccentricities. Like Susie Greene, Richard Lewis does not appear in every episode but is heavily featured in Season 5, when Larry vows to donate Richard a kidney.

Guest stars frequently play key roles. Richard Lewis and Ted Danson often appear as Larry David's friends, Wanda Sykes features as a friend of Cheryl's and Shelley Berman plays Larry's father. Others have included former Seinfeld stars Jason Alexander and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, along with Martin Scorsese, Alanis Morissette, Hugh Hefner, David Schwimmer, Mel Brooks, and Ben Stiller. Most play themselves. Jerry Seinfeld made a non-speaking cameo appearance in the Season 4 finale. Dustin Hoffman, Sacha Baron Cohen and Bea Arthur appear in the Season 5 finale.

[edit] Plots

With the exception of Season 1 (2000), seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm are linked by a single overarching story arc. David took a similar approach on Seinfeld during seasons four and seven.

Template:Spoiler-about

  • 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 famous television show (Seinfeld being the obvious reference point) finds it difficult to secure work because of the public's strong association with their famous former character. David pitches the idea to initially receptive network executives who ultimately back away for a variety of reasons.
  • Season 3 (2002) – David 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) – David 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.
  • Season 5 (2005) – Larry's friend, comedian Richard Lewis, is in dire need of a kidney; out of sheer feelings of paranoid guilt, Larry offers one of his own kidneys to Richard if he cannot find a suitable donor in time. Larry then makes many concerted, ridiculous efforts in finding Richard a kidney donor, including frequent visits to Richard's estranged, comatose cousin, in the hopes that he will pass away, resulting in a perfect kidney for Richard, and also befriending a heavily Orthodox Jew who happens to be the head of the kidney donation board. Larry also feels that he is adopted due to a misunderstood word his father said (and no longer remembers) while in the hospital; Larry hires a private investigator (Mekhi Phifer) to look into it.

Template:Endspoilers

[edit] Season 6

After months of speculation, HBO has officially confirmed that there will be a 6th season of "CYE". Production offices opened in September 2006. The new episodes will air sometime in 2007.

At a post Emmy show for E! News on August 27, 2006, Cheryl Hines confirmed that the sixth season would begin filming on October 16, 2006; however, she is uncertain of the air date. [2]

[edit] The Book

A Curb Your Enthusiasm book was released October 19, 2006, published by Gotham Books (ISBN 1-59240-230-5). The book contains:[3]

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

[edit] Running Gags

  • When Larry encounters an old friend or someone else he knows and they ask him how he is, he likes to respond with what's becoming a popular catch-phrase of Larry David's: "Pretty, Pretty, Pretty, Pretty Good."
  • Another recurring gag is when Larry suspects someone of lying and he stares into their eyes to see if they crack, while The Puzzle by Franco Micalizzi is playing in the background. This occurs for several seconds until Larry says "ok..... ok", shakes his head and walks off.

[edit] Trivia

  • 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 Dodgers vs. Atlanta Braves baseball event some 20 miles from the scene.
  • In the first season episode AAMCO, guest star Michael G. Hagerty (as Mike Duffy) asks Larry if he still gets royalties for his work on Seinfeld. Duffy guest starred on Seinfeld as a sales clerk in the episode The Raincoats. Later, Duffy proposes a toast to Larry David saying "Here's to friends. That was a good show, eh? Friends?", and asks if Larry had anything to do with that show. Michael G. Hagerty plays Mr. Treeger in Friends.
  • The show is known for popularizing several terms, such as "Stop and Chat" & "Trick or Treat Bang Bang", along with creating the popular "V" sign (using two hands) which alludes to women with unusually large vaginas.
  • In the 2005 movie The Upside of Anger, Kevin Costner's character and two girls are watching TV, and though the screen is never shown and the sound barely audible, closed captioning confirms they are watching Curb Your Enthusiasm. They are watching "Trick or Treat", where Larry is complaining about two girls defacing his house after he refuses to give them candy.
  • In Season 1, a hobo thanks Larry for the chicken l'orange in the episode entitled "The Bracelet", but Larry is shown giving this food to the hobo three episodes later, in "AAMCO". This probably indicates that HBO aired or received these episodes out of order.

[edit] The Music

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] External links

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