Curb Your Enthusiasm

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Curb Your Enthusiasm

Curb Your Enthusiasm title card
Format Sitcom
Created by Larry David
Written 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
Executive producer(s) Larry David
Jeff Garlin
Gavin Palone
Robert B. Weide
Camera setup Single camera
Running time approx. 30 min.
Broadcast
Original channel HBO
Original run October 15, 2000 – present
External links
Official website

Curb Your Enthusiasm is an American comedy series 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. Six seasons of the series have been produced and aired on HBO between 2000 and 2007. A seventh season began production in December 2008.[1] As of late 2008, along with several other shows, HBO has been promoting the upcoming season for Fall 2009.

Contents

[edit] 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 have all had recurring roles as characters based on themselves.

The show is set in Santa Monica, David's real place of residence. As his character, David is notoriously unliked by the residents of Santa Monica for his outlandish behavior, inapproriate remarks, and self-centered attitude. David often expresses sentiments of being misunderstood rather than rude. A frequently recurring line of his, usually spoken after such a misunderstanding, is "You can't even leave your house anymore," in reference to his frequent altercations with friends and acquaintances.

Most episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm follow an unusual plot structure. Each episode typically involves David becoming involved in a situation beyond his control, which he then perpetuates with his intellectually narcissistic and inept behavior. His actions, intentional or not, tend to be put back on him in related situations later in the episode. An example of this type of story can be found in episode nine of season one, in which David accidentally tries to bribe a maitre d' with a prescription that he mistook for a twenty-dollar-bill. This later leads to David being forced to root through the restaurant's dumpster in search of the prescription, which his wife needs in order to obtain medication for a rash.

[edit] Characters

  • Larry David : 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 he encounters.
  • Jeff Greene (played by Jeff Garlin) : One of Larry's few friends, Jeff is his manager whose marital problems and avid interest in pornography are often put upon Larry. They are frequently seen golfing together. Jeff and his wife, Susie, have a daughter named Sammie, who expresses a liking for Larry.
  • Cheryl David (played by Cheryl Hines) : Larry's melodramatic wife, who often expresses annoyance with his behavior, even in situations beyond his control. She is an active member of the NRDC.
  • Susie Greene (played by 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, sometimes calling him a "fucking four-eyed shmuck weirdo."
  • Richard Lewis (as himself) : A neurotic stand-up comedian with alcohol and drug problems. 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. Often, Richard becomes the victim of Larry's follies, causing Richard to blame Larry for almost everything wrong in 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 a year apart when he was about 65. He and Larry disagreed in one episode as to whether he is a real orphan, due to his old age. He has a wife, and one daughter Jodi, who is a lesbian. He also has a cousin who is a dentist. He is 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, he has been known to take credit for things which may or may not necessarily apply to him.

[edit] Guests

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. Other celebrities from outside the entertainment world have also made guest appearances as themselves, such as John McEnroe, Hugh Hefner, Shaquille O'Neal, Muggsy Bogues, and Gary Player. Actors who have featured as fictional characters include Dustin Hoffman, Sacha Baron Cohen, Steve Coogan, Bea Arthur and Vivica A. Fox.

[edit] Plots

See also: List of Curb Your Enthusiasm episodes

With the possible 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.

  • Season 1 (2000) – The first season has no connecting story arc. The first season introduces us to Larry's post-Seinfeld world, where despite his wealth, a loving wife, and a best friend, he manages to offend everyone around him. It is not long into the series though that we realize that Larry David is his own worst enemy. He finds himself being accused of an adultery-suggestive erection due to an odd "bunch-up" that his pants form when he is seated; feuding with a shoe salesman; submitting an obituary for Cheryl's aunt in which the paper makes a typo changing the word "aunt" into "cunt"; accidentally reacting grotesquely to drinking his friend's mother's water; 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 megahit sitcom finds it difficult to maintain a sturdy career afterward because of the public's strong identification of them as their famous former character. Larry pitches the idea to various networks, but eventually ends up alienating or offending everyone he makes a deal with, and anyone else attached to the project. The season concludes with Larry being arrested for fork theft and being 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 act of adultery before the end of their anniversary. This causes him to frantically try to approach and avoid fulfilling with a number of women. The final episode ends with a ten minute montage of The Producers where Larry nearly crashes the show but manages to finish it with triumph. This turns out to disappoint Mel Brooks, as he had secretly hoped Larry would ruin the show and thus allow Mel Brooks to retire. At the end of the performance Larry points at his watch from on stage to indicate to Cheryl that he still has one 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 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.
  • Season 7 (2009) – Currently in production stages. Cheryl Hines has confirmed that she will be returning to the show.[2] It has been confirmed that the principal cast of Seinfeld will be appearing together in several episodes.[3]

[edit] 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 sixth-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.[4]

Curb Your Enthusiasm has received 28 Emmy nominations with 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.

[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 crime-scene, resulting in a $320,000 settlement.[5][6]

[edit] Inspired shows

  • In 2005, Danish comedians Frank Hvam and Casper Christensen created the comedy series Klovn, which is inspired by Curb Your Enthusiasm.[7]
  • UK show Lead Balloon has been described as "Britain's answer to Curb Your Enthusiasm"[8].
  • 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"[9].
  • In 2009, Sal the Stockbroker, a fan of Curb Your Enthusiasm, created the partially improvised 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 and John Stamos) portraying versions of themselves.

[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 stories from Larry David's past, original interviews and commentary, episode outlines, episode guide, and over 100 full-color photographs.[10]

[edit] DVD

All six seasons have been released in full season DVD sets in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Ireland. Season 6 will be released in Australia on June 3, 2009.[11]

[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 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, which contained much of the music used in the show:

  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. ^ Daniel Frankel. "'Curb' to resume production in Dec." Variety magazine.
  2. ^ [1] TV Guide. 16 January 2009
  3. ^ [2] MSN. 05 March 2009
  4. ^ Lapidos, Juliet (September 21, 2007). "Oh, How We've Missed You!". Slate magazine. http://www.slate.com/id/2174389/nav/navoa/#TheWireHBO. Retrieved on 2007-09-23. 
  5. ^ http://www.courttv.com/news/2004/0604/larrydavid_ctv.html
  6. ^ ABC news article
  7. ^ Klovn at TV.com
  8. ^ Dee writes BBC's answer to 'Curb Your Enthusiasm'
  9. ^ CAM'RON WORKING ON 'BLACK CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM'
  10. ^ Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Book
  11. ^ EzyDVD.com: Curb Your Enthusiasm - The Complete 6th Season

[edit] External links

Sister project Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Curb Your Enthusiasm
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