When the news broke that Season 7 of Larry David’s improvised HBO comedy “Curb Your Enthusiasm” would follow the cantankerous “Seinfeld” co-creator accepting an offer to mount a reunion special for the legendary sitcom, everyone could not have been more excited. Well, almost everyone.
While David admits in a Hollywood Reporter oral history on the making of “Curb” Season 7 that they “had no other ideas” at the time, when he approached the titular Jerry Seinfeld about the idea, Seinfeld “was onboard immediately.” Seinfeld says that he “knew that doing a conventional network-type reunion show was never going to be appropriate” for the caustic tone of the show and “being on Larry’s show was a perfect way to do it.”
With Seinfeld onboard, David says “getting the others wasn’t that hard,” but that doesn’t mean everyone agreed with Seinfeld’s assessment. Jason Alexander, who played David’s stand-in George Costanza in the series, says that he had concerns “a reunion show wouldn’t be a good thing to do, or a fun thing to do.”
“So we’re all 10 years older. So the first thing I’m thinking is, what was barely charming on characters in their thirties and forties may be completely devoid of charm in their forties and fifties, and that may be a mistake,” says Alexander. Would the cast be able to “resurrect” the comedic alchemy that made the original series so influential? And as if that wasn’t hard enough, would they be able to improvise together? Most of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” is built around two characters interacting, but with a full cast of six people, that was a “daunting task,” according to Alexander.
Luckily, Alexander’s trepidations didn’t bear out to be true. “The experience was glorious,” he says with a hint of relief. “The ensemble feeling that we had, the affection that we had for each other, it was immediate. And walking back onto those exact replicas of our sets was like a time tunnel. It was just astonishing.”
‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ carried the ‘Seinfeld’ torch from its first episode to its last
The Season 7 story arc was the first time the two shows merged together, but it wouldn’t be the last. Over 20 years after the series finale for “Seinfeld” became a controversial lightning rod, David used the hotly anticipated finale of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” to get a second chance. In the “Seinfeld” finale, Jerry and the gang find themselves in a small Massachusetts town when they witness a carjacking. As the unhelpful people they are, the foursome laugh and mock the man being assaulted, and find themselves thrown in prison for violating what is called the Good Samaritan Law. Fans might have forgiven the misguided premise of the episode if it had at least stood up to the same level of laughs the show was capable of deep into its run, but even Seinfeld says that it’s still “bothered [him] all these years.”
So when David decided to bring “Curb Your Enthusiasm” to an end after 12 seasons, he took his last chance to write the wrong by turning the finale into a redux of “Seinfeld,” with David on trial and ending up in prison. Except now, due to a last-minute technicality, he’s freed. Seinfeld visits him in jail to give him the good news, and tells him, “You don’t want to end up like this. Nobody wants to see it. Trust me!”
As Larry walks out of jail, he has a sudden burst of clarity. “This is how we should’ve ended the finale!” he exclaims. Twenty years too late, but a punchline that hits harder because of it.
