{"id":104669,"date":"2024-06-14T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-14T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/14\/larry-david-on-ending-curb-your-enthusiasm-and-staying-true-to-his-roots\/"},"modified":"2024-06-14T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2024-06-14T13:00:00","slug":"larry-david-on-ending-curb-your-enthusiasm-and-staying-true-to-his-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/14\/larry-david-on-ending-curb-your-enthusiasm-and-staying-true-to-his-roots\/","title":{"rendered":"Larry David on Ending \u2018Curb Your Enthusiasm\u2019 and Staying True to His Roots"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

The series finale<\/a>, aptly titled \u201cNo Lessons Learned\u201d\u2014referencing the decision to echo Seinfeld<\/em>\u2019s widely derided finale, as well as Larry\u2019s inability to change\u2014was celebrated by critics and fans in large part because of how true it felt to David\u2019s sensibility. \u201cIt\u2019s more than just about Curb,<\/em> and it\u2019s more than just about Seinfeld<\/em>,\u201d says Schaffer, who directed the episode and also worked with David on that iconic NBC sitcom. \u201cTo me, it ended up becoming about Larry and this kind of antiestablishment DNA of \u2018I\u2019m going to do what I\u2019m going to do and, basically, fuck all y\u2019all.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

David\u2019s Seinfeld<\/em> cocreator, Jerry Seinfeld,<\/strong> recently made headlines<\/a> for bemoaning the state of TV comedy, claiming the medium has gotten far less funny because of \u201cthe extreme left and PC crap, and people worrying so much about offending other people.\u201d The average Curb Your Enthusiasm<\/em> viewer may not have noticed this, given that show\u2019s consistency from 2000 to now. I ask David whether he\u2019s felt a similar shift at all in the culture, and whether that impacted the making of the show. The answer: Not really.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have our fans, and they don\u2019t want us to be politically correct or take into account a lot of things that are going on, and they don\u2019t care about wokeness,\u201d David says. \u201cThey just want to laugh, and they\u2019re not going to be offended by it. And we don\u2019t care either.\u201d<\/p>\n

Take David\u2019s dynamic with his fellow actors. Susie Essman<\/strong> has long been giving one of the funniest performances on TV as Larry\u2019s chief foil, Susie Greene\u2014wife of his manager, Jeff (Jeff Garlin<\/strong>), and maestro of \u201cgo fuck yourself\u201d delivery. (Note to Emmy voters: Essman has still, somehow, never been nominated.) She and David can get filthy, vicious, and gloriously rude in their interplay, which is always improvised. \u201cIn all these years, we\u2019ve never discussed the character ever\u2014Larry just got what I was doing and wrote more toward that, and I got what he wanted and went more toward that,\u201d Essman says. \u201cI yell, I scream, I kick people out of my house, I tell them all to go fuck off, and then they pay me, and then I go home. What\u2019s better?\u201d<\/p>\n

That sense of organic scene-to-scene discovery has long been intrinsic to Curb.<\/em> \u201cPeople ask me all the time, \u2018What do you have to call on to get angry?\u2019\u201d Essman explains. \u201cWell, these guys are always fucking with me!\u201d But the episodic constructions remain rigorous. \u201cEach episode, we\u2019re not really sure where we\u2019re going to end up, but we know we need to find the funniest conclusion for every episode,\u201d David says. \u201cHow are these things going to build and build to a funny thing?\u201d He cites a few favorites, like \u201cThe Doll\u201d or season seven\u2019s \u201cDenise Handicap,\u201d as examples, and says that this goal extends to the way they\u2019d devise a finale: \u201cThe season is an episode, just writ large. How are we going to take these ideas and make them the biggest, funniest ending?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n