Larry David’s semi-autobiographical sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm is about to return for its much-anticipated tenth season on HBO. Exactly what antics the fictionalized misanthropic TV version of David will get up to this time around remains to be seen, but you can bet it’ll involve a lot of complaining and protesting social convention.
With its cinéma-vérité shooting style, entirely ad-libbed dialogue, and blending of reality and fiction, Curb is one of the most visually and creatively interesting sitcoms on the air. This is the result of rigorous work behind the scenes. So, here are 10 Prett-ay Good Behind-The-Scenes Facts About Curb Your Enthusiasm.
All the dialogue is improvised
Episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm don’t have a traditional script, with all the characters’ dialogue being written out. Instead, Larry David writes a story outline that breaks down each scene with its narrative beats and the characters’ motivations. All of the dialogue is improvised by the actors on the set.
On average, each scene will need about seven or eight takes to get it right, which is particularly high for a TV series. The improvisational style of the show means that around 30 hours of footage will be shot for any given episode, which the poor editors then have to cut down to a half-hour show.
Shooting Curb Your Enthusiasm helped Jeff Garlin to recover from a stroke
When the first season of Curb Your Enthusiasm went into production, Jeff Garlin had just suffered from a stroke and was recovering. He credits the production demands of the show – shooting a weekly TV series on a tight schedule – with aiding his full recovery.
Garlin ended up being involved in the series because he had an office next to Larry David’s at Castle Rock Entertainment when he first started developing the HBO comedy special that would morph into the series. In fact, it was Garlin’s idea to film it. David was planning to return to standup, and Garlin encouraged him to shoot a special.
Larry David and Richard Lewis met when they were 12 – and hated each other
In Curb Your Enthusiasm, Larry David and Richard Lewis don’t hold back when it comes to making fun of each other. This is because they’re actually close friends in real life. But they weren’t always friends. When they first met at the age of 12, as they were attending the same summer camp, they hated each other. According to Lewis, “I despised the guy, and he hated me.”
Over a decade later, the two were reunited on the New York standup comedy circuit. As adults, they got along a little better, but as shown on Curb, it’s still a love-hate kind of bond.
The characters keep moving house because the neighbors complain about all the yelling
Every couple of seasons or so, both Larry and Jeff move house. This is because the neighbors keep complaining about the production. Almost every scene of a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode will devolve into an all-out yelling match between the characters, particularly if Susie is involved, and the noise usually irks the neighboring residents of the houses that HBO rents to shoot in.
So, when these complaints pile up so much that the people who own the houses won’t rent them to the production anymore, Larry David has to come up with a story-related reason for Larry or Jeff moving into a new house.
If Cheryl David doesn’t know Larry is lying, neither does Cheryl Hines
Larry David is the only actor on Curb Your Enthusiasm who gets to see the full story outline, because he writes them. Everyone else only gets to see their scenes. So, in any scene in which Larry is lying to Cheryl – which, obviously, happens an awful lot – Cheryl Hines doesn’t know that it’s a lie.
She’ll occasionally ask the real Larry David for more information about the story, but he’ll refuse to give it to her, because keeping her in the dark draws a more authentic reaction to the lie. The same goes for any other character that Larry lies to: Jeff, Susie, Lewis, Danson, Funkhouser, etc.
Jorge Garcia’s guest performance as a dealer on Curb won him his role on Lost
In the season 4 episode “The Car Pool Lane,” Larry can be seen buying marijuana to help with his father’s glaucoma from a street dealer. The dealer is played by Jorge Garcia, who is best known for playing Hurley on the show Lost.
As it turns out, the producers of Lost were casting the show when this episode first aired on HBO. They saw Garcia’s turn as a drug dealer on Curb and decided he would be the perfect choice to play Hurley. Hurley isn’t actually a drug dealer like the actor’s Curb character, but something about Garcia struck the Lost producers.
J.B. Smoove only auditioned to play Leon because he happened to be in L.A. for a funeral
Curb Your Enthusiasm hasn’t been the same since J.B. Smoove joined the cast in the role of Leon Black (in a good way). He brought a whole new comic energy to the show, and gave Larry a new comedic foil following his divorce. But he almost wasn’t available for the show at all.
After his contract at Saturday Night Live wasn’t renewed, Smoove went on the road to perform standup comedy across the country. He returned to L.A. to attend the funeral of his friend Oji Pierce, and while he was in town, his agent decided to set him up for the Curb audition on a whim.
Larry David originally heard the theme song on a bank commercial
The theme song for Curb Your Enthusiasm, “Frolic” by Luciano Michelini, has to be one of the most apt pairings of theme and TV series. The light, breezy tones of “Frolic” pair hilariously with the carefree, misanthropic attitude of Larry David in the face of serious subject matter.
David first heard this track on a bank commercial, years before he was making Curb, and it immediately stuck in his head. He thought that he could use it in one of his projects one day, so he made a note of it. When Curb went into development, it was a perfect fit.
Ted Danson agreed to be in the show because he felt sorry for Larry
Ted Danson only agreed to be in Curb Your Enthusiasm because he felt sorry for Larry David: “I didn’t meet Larry until shortly after he had shot the pilot of Curb Your Enthusiasm...We sat there, looking at his pilot, up in this attic room that was the only room that had a TV in it. It was boiling hot, it was after dinner, and...a couple of folks watching fell asleep...I felt a little sorry for him.
“I thought, ‘You know, it’s a nice idea, but...’ But I said, ‘Well, let’s be supportive and say, “Hey, Larry, if you ever need anybody, please call us. We’d love to take part in it in any way, shape, or form.”’ And a year later or something, we got a call.”
Curb helped a murder suspect prove his innocence
The Curb Your Enthusiasm episode “The Car Pool Lane” helped a man named Juan Catalan to prove his innocence. He was arrested for murder in Los Angeles. His alibi was that, at the time of the murder, he was attending a baseball game at Dodger Stadium with his daughter. However, when his lawyer subpoenaed footage of the game, he couldn’t find Catalan in the crowd.
Fortunately, Curb had been shooting at Dodger Stadium that day, and in one of the unused takes, Catalan could be seen with his daughter in the background, proving his innocence. Larry David said, “I’ve now done one decent thing in my life, albeit inadvertently.”