Larry David on ending ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ and staying true to his roots
The final seriesis aptly titled “No Lesson Learned”—referring to the decision to repeat SeinfeldLarry’s widely derided finale, as well as Larry’s inability to change—was lauded by critics and fans largely for how true it felt to David’s sensibility. . “It’s not just about Roadside, and it’s not just about Seinfeldsaid Schaffer, who directed the episode and also worked with David on the iconic NBC sitcom. “For me, it ended up becoming about Larry and this kind of anti-establishment DNA of ‘I’m going to do what I’m going to do and basically, fuck all of you.’”
by David Seinfeld co-creator, Jerry Seinfeld, recently Make headlines for complaining about the state of television comedy, claiming that the medium has become much less funny because of “extreme left-wing and PC crap, and people worrying too much about offending other people.” . Medium Curb your enthusiasm viewers may not notice this, given the consistency of that show from 2000 to present. I asked David if he felt a similar shift in culture and if it affected the making of the show. Answer: Not really.
“We have our fans and they don’t want us to be politically correct or take into account a lot of the stuff that’s going on and they don’t care about sanity,” David said. “They just want to laugh and they won’t be offended by it. And we don’t care either.”
Take David’s dynamic with his fellow actors. Susie Essman has long given one of TV’s funniest performances as Susie Greene, Larry’s frontman, the wife of his manager, Jeff (Jeff Garlin) and is the master of the “go to hell” delivery style. (Note to Emmy voters: Somehow, Essman has still never been nominated.) She and David can be gloriously dirty and vicious and rude in their interactions theirs, which is always improvisational. “In all these years, we never discussed the character—Larry understood what I was doing and wrote more about it, and I got what he wanted and worked toward it more ,” Essman said. “I yelled, I yelled, I kicked people out of the house, I told them to go away, then they paid me, then I went home. What is better?”
The feeling of naturally exploring each scene has long been the essence of Roadside. “People always ask me, ‘What do you have to call out to get angry?’” Essman explains. “Wow, these guys are always playing tricks on me!” But the construction of each episode is still strict. “Each episode, we weren’t really sure where we were going to end up, but we knew we needed to find the funniest ending for each episode,” David said. “How is this going to build and build into something funny?” He cites some favorites, such as “The Doll” or season seven’s “Denise Handicap” as examples, and says this goal extends to how they come up with a finale: “The season is a episode, just written out loud. How can we take these ideas and turn them into the biggest, funniest ending?”
David isn’t sure if he’s finished or not Roadside if he didn’t realize that this season finale could have worked as the perfect ending to the show as a whole. He and Schaffer knew the premiere would end with David being arrested for flouting Georgia’s ridiculous election laws. About halfway through the 10-episode sketch, they realized that a trial would naturally happen. Then boom. The only thing they really didn’t plan for was the former president’s random comedic symmetry Donald Trump arrested in Georgia over the events of the 2020 election. “That image of Mr. Trump It was absolutely a gift to us,” says David. “When he was arrested in Georgia, we had already written the program. The show is basically done. We’re waiting for the strike to end so we can finish editing. And we just said, ‘Wait, that guy got arrested?’” After the actors’ strike ended, David had enough time to film a parody Mugshot.
Alike Seinfeld, curbside brought back many fan favorites over the years for the finale, from Larry’s old coffee shop rival Mocha Joe (Saverio Guerra) to an Orthodox woman named Rachel Heineman, who jumped from a ski lift almost to her death to escape Larry. (The actress who plays her, Iris Bahr, flew from Israel to return to the show for the finale.) But not everyone on their very long list can make it to the finals. David and Schaffer wanted to bring in beloved Denise Handicap or Krazee Eyez Killa, but had to decide which one would make sense in the context of the narrative. “[Krazee Eyez] is a great classic Roadside that, but for comedy, it doesn’t make sense in a story about a trial,” Schaffer said.
Likewise: The show doesn’t end with Jerry Seinfeld gracefully escorting his ex Seinfeld partner gets out of jail. Instead, it gives us one final scene of Larry, his best friend Richard Lewis (who died shortly after filming), his roommate Leon (JB is smooth), ex-wife Cheryl (Cheryl Hines), her new husband Ted Danson, and Jeff and Susie both flew home from Georgia. We’re treated to a final argument, another set-up that David and Schaffer had considered for years before pulling it off at the end of their show.
Susie covers the window so she can read a magazine, much to the disgust of a sleepy Larry. They argue. Susie says one final “go to hell,” before an even meaner line ends the show for good: “Go back to goddamn prison, Larry!”
“If I can be a little proud, I like that I have the last line,” Essman said with a laugh. “And I love that it ends with all of us—it ends with the family. Especially when Richard is there. Oh, I’m about to cry. That’s so special. All are special.”
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