Larry David Had a Wildly Ridiculous Reason for Reuniting ‘Seinfeld’ on ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’
Most of America would have done anything for a Seinfeld reunion following its conclusion in 1998. The closest thing anyone received for the next decade was the best outcome: Curb Your Enthusiasm, created by and starring co-Seinfeld head Larry David, which captured the original show’s essence in unbridled, cable television form. In typical David fashion, he finally got around to getting the band back together as part of the overarching narrative in Curb Your Enthusiasm‘s seventh season in 2009. The Larry character, instead of fulfilling artistic ambitions or doing a favor to his co-writer, Jerry Seinfeld, conceived of a reunion show to win back the affection of his ex-wife, Cheryl (Cheryl Hines), who was pursuing an acting career.
Like every story in Curb Your Enthusiasm, Season 7 had a brilliant premise that subverted the expectations of reunion shows while also delivering the innate satisfaction of seeing the Seinfeld Four back together. However, this concept only arose due to an irresolvable creative block on the writers’ part.
‘Seinfeld’ Loomed Over ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’
The cast of ‘Seinfeld’ and Larry David go over a script on ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’Image via HBO
Seinfeld alum made sporadic appearances on Curb Your Enthusiasm, which recently concluded on HBO in 2024 with its 12th season, most notably in Season 2, when a listless Larry attempts to develop new separate shows for Jason Alexander and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The eponymous star of the NBC sitcom is a prominent figure in the series finale, “No Lessons Learned,” which knowingly repeats the same beats as Seinfeld‘s controversial finale. For the most part, Curb was Larry David’s stand-alone creation that spawned as many lovable characters and iconic quotes as his previous show.
After six remarkable seasons of improvisational and no-holds-barred comedy, David and his team brought out the big guns with Season 7, which centers around the divorced Larry separating from Loretta Black (Vivica A. Fox) and vying to win back Cheryl by casting her as George Costanza’s ex-lover in a Seinfeld reunion. Series reunions are generally maudlin and self-serving, counterintuitive to Seinfeld and David’s mantra of “no hugging, no learning.” Naturally, Larry stooping to this hackneyed premise, an idea that Jerry reminds him that he once scoffed at, is a hilarious joke on its own.
Larry David Had “No Ideas” When Writing Season 7 of ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’
At the outset, David never intended to frame Season 7 around any meta-commentary about Seinfeld. In fact, he was short of any ideas at the time, as revealed in the new oral history of Curb Your Enthusiasm, No Lessons Learned by Lorraine Ali. According to writer, director, and executive producer Jeff Schaffer, the perpetually pessimistic David always concludes each season with a proclamation that he’s run out of ideas, only to return to the writer’s room, reluctantly ready to workshop a new season’s pitch, which always revolved around a strong overarching narrative. “We knew it was something we could have fun with,” David said of the Seinfeld reunion story in the book. There was also another reason why they went with this premise. “We had no other ideas at the time,” the star and showrunner revealed.
One thing was clear for David and Schaffer: their take on a Seinfeld reunion would not be the kind of “corny” revival that NBC would’ve dreamed of. “We were going to do a Curb-style Seinfeld reunion, which meant Curb Larry was going to get the cast back together and do a reunion for his own selfish reasons,” Schaffer said. The genius of Season 7, however, was that Curb wisely had its cake and ate it too. By meticulously re-creating the sets, hiring the old crew members to play themselves, and letting Jerry Seinfeld, Jason Alexander, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, and Michael Richards play the greatest hits as Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer, the season hit all the sweet spots for casual and die-hard fans of Seinfeld.
Season 7 of ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ Upends All Expectations of a ‘Seinfeld’ Reunion
Jerry and Larry talk on the reunion episode of Seinfeld Image via HBO
Per David and Schaffer’s wishes, Season 7 is anything but cheap fan service and rehashed material from Seinfeld. The metatextual nature of creating a fake reunion show within a real show complements the stubborn Larry character, who never learns from his past mistakes, and he is now going back to the well of his past glory to restore his relationship with Cheryl. Replicating his role on the original show as the facilitator, Seinfeld plays the Jerry character as the steady hand to Larry’s neuroticism and provides David with some of the most natural ad-libbing. With the real Julia Louis-Dreyfus emerging as an even bigger star than she was on Seinfeld, her character is imbued with the weariness of someone who has no patience with Larry’s shenanigans.
In previous meetings with Jason Alexander, Larry had always been put off by the actor’s disparaging comments about George Costanza, famously based on the real David, as a selfish and moronic individual, as if Jason was insulting Larry in front of his face. Things get complicated when the Alexander character in Season 7 enters a flirtatious relationship with his frequent screen partner, Cheryl, driving Larry to extreme paranoia and bewilderment. He can’t grasp why Cheryl would be into the man who played the loose impression of himself. Because the actors are playing dramatized versions of themselves (like David) and not solely reprising their Seinfeld roles, they seamlessly integrate themselves into Curb‘s awkward, uneasy tone, which perfectly counters the sharp and manic personas they established for themselves on network television.
The standout component of the Seinfeld reunion comes from Michael Richards, making his first prominent appearance in the public eye following his infamous racist tirade at a comedy club in 2006. Curb handled this story as creatively and daringly as you might expect, with the Richards character, believed to be suffering from a fictional disease, culminating with him berating Leon (J.B. Smoove) after he pretends to have been cured of this sickness, only to back down when bystanders whip out their phones and start recording. The show never explicitly addresses the comedy club outburst, but Richards’ timidness, antithetical to the zany and live-wire Cosmo Kramer, sold the real figure’s likely feeling of daily trepidation.
Season 7 of Curb Your Enthusiasm features some all-time classics, including episodes directly relating to the Seinfeld reunion, like “The Table Read,” and episodes removed from the main arc, like “Denise Handicap.” Re-teaming everyone’s favorite sitcom quarter for a story arc in his own show was one of Larry David’s most inventive creative decisions. Most writers would dream of a concept this exciting, but for David, this idea came out of a creative rut.
Release Date
2000 – 2024-00-00
Network
HBO Max
Showrunner
Jeff Schaffer
Directors
Robert B. Weide, Larry Charles, David Steinberg, Bryan Gordon, Alec Berg, Andy Ackerman, David Mandel, Barry Gordon, Cheryl Hines, Dean Parisot
