Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm

Years ago America pondered the "Seinfeld" philosophy, climaxed, and then closed the book after the closing episode on NBC. Seinfeld was, at times, a good show, and in more ways than one. Unbeknownst to me, Seinfeld made promises that it did not keep - I would never have realized this had I not encountered HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm. It is becoming apparent that Larry David is the John Lennon to Jerry Seinfeld's Paul McCartney. Curb Your Enthusiasm is awkward, tense and diabolically funny. Although the show resembles Seinfeld, HBO's Larry Sanders and Woody Allen merchandise, it is impossible not to say that Larry David and the creators have not re-re-re-invented the situation comedy once again.

I saw this sometime during Season 7 of the series and I had no idea it was from 10 years previous. The only clues along the way were that Jerry looked a lot younger and the joke about the Clinton BJ.

It's not a conventional pilot: It's more like a one-off mockumentary special that probably inspired HBO to pursue a series. The only reason I give it only 8/10 is because the series would become even better in many episodes.

It seems that some of the interviews (with Charles and Seinfeld for example) aren't scripted at all, but are their actual comments about the real Larry David. This isn't surprising, since even the rest of the screen time doesn't seem that outside reality.

Curb Your Enthusiasm is the best comedy on TV! I've talked with Larry and he is as funny as on TV! Watch it!

Too bad that the three big networks don't realize that their shows are so bad mostly because they use a cookie cutter method in creating shows!

this was an hour-long mockumentary (pilot?) made for HBO counting down Larry's days to his HBO comedy special. It exposed Larry David to the rest of the world, with a few bits that would later re-surface in the HBO series "Curb Your Enthusiasm", most notably the death in the family bit. It was really funny from beginning to end. It had to be one of the most convincing mockumentaries ever made, through a clever fusion of celebrity cameos, a real solid technical understanding of the "documentary" aesthetics (from the slightly "imperfect" composition to occasional on camera interviews), and a pitch-perfect satire. It was obvious that Larry David was putting on a routine, but the tone of the film was so dead-pan that David seemed distant enough for those kind of neurotic reactions. That, unlike Woody Allen's neurotic New York comic reacting to the LA phonies in "Annie Hall", David's interactions with the people around him were passive-aggressive enough to take place in the actual LA.

Compared to the series, it was more subdued and unpredictable, which made it a little slower and less funny I guess.

From watching CYB, it is obvious that Larry David was the real genius behind "Seinfeld." Don't get me wrong, Jerry is great and a genius himself, but from watching the show, you can see that Larry David is responsible for the way jerry would act and a lot of the dialogue. Not to mention, he was responsible for the setups and payoffs. The script structure is superb. The production quality isn't the greatest, but this show is by far the best on TV. I hope that it will just last a while.