After 11 seasons and more than two decades on HBO, Emmy voters still find “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” in Larry David’s parlance, “beautiful…beautiful…so good.”
Since the comedy series debuted in 2000, “Curb” has garnered a staggering 51 nominations—including two wins—with four nominations in the final season adding to the total. After 110 episodes, “Curb’s” tightly planned but semi-improvised style is still fresh and impressive enough to continue its enviable run at the Emmys, not to mention a point of pride for executive producer and showrunner Jeff Shaffer.
“Look, I know we’re not like a flashy, trendy new option, and we’ve been around since 2000,” Schafer says. “But I’m really proud that we still do really funny shows and that we still do things that people talk about and are shocked that we do, whether it’s Larry using Klansman to show Woody Harrelson a cow or using Alexander Vindman on ‘Perfect Call.
Schafer says season 11 requires an extra degree of commitment and creativity due to pre-vaccine pandemic protocols. “Larry David is a germaphobe and doesn’t want to be sure of that,” but the team moved forward largely because all the episodes had already been written.
“We wouldn’t have shot at COVID,” he says. “But once we write it down, it’s like, ‘Okay, we have to do that. We’ve already done the hard part. Let’s do the fun part. “
Given the nature of David’s TV personality that already alienates people, the show’s writers also made the unexpected but ultimately clever choice not to come face-to-face with the pandemic.
“We decided to live in a world where COVID happened, but people don’t worry about it anymore — basically like Florida,” Schafer jokes. “We didn’t want to tell jokes that someone else had already made.”
The show is often at its best when introducing selected antagonists for David to tangle with them, and the Emmy-nominated cast of Allison Jones and Ben Harris served a feast of new antagonists, from comedy stars including Bill Hader, who earned a guest actor nomination, To Tracy Ullman, Seth Rogen, Harrelson, Albert Brooks, Josh Gad, and Vince Vaughn.
“This year, perhaps more than any other, we really benefited from having an amazing guest,” Schafer says. “It’s been a team of comedic stars coming in to play with Larry, and I think the shows really have that energy to absorb all of this talent in the ‘Curb’ world.”
Newcomers, including Keyla Monterroso Mejia who played the untalented wannabe actress Maria Sofia, also provided surprising sparks. “She was a total inspiration — she did really well poorly, but she was completely in control of your instrument doing it,” Shaffer says.
“We knew she was good in testing, but once we played with her on the set, she showed us a lot of gears.”
Schafer also says the role nominated for Hader as the supposed three brothers David encountered almost never happened. David suggested him for the role, but Hader, while eager to receive an invite, initially refrained from shooting during the pandemic, even halting production on the third season of his HBO series, “Barry,” to write the fourth season in progress. After several months of shooting with safety protocols, the team convinced him he could do so.
Bill Hader in Season 11 of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
HBO
“He thanked us later, because he was like, ‘Oh my God, I saw how you can make a show amid all these protocols and restrictions. “He felt it gave him a huge confidence boost to go and go practice Barry in a few months,” he says. ‘I got a front row seat to listen to this genius accent you’re trying to make [the brothers] They are all different, and he sends me these recordings. Those scenes took a long time to film because Larry was laughing so hard.”
Ultimately, Schafer credits the longevity of the “Curb” appeal to “all the terrible people out there” who watch. “People aren’t great. People walk by double standards. And so when the audience sees Larry doing something selfish, they know in their hearts, they’re going to do it too. And when they see it like making fun of a little injustice, they think, ‘Oh, I’ve always wanted to tell someone Likewise, “The show is the fulfillment of people’s wishes.”
He continues, “And in fact, it’s a fulfillment wish for Larry. He said it best when we went back last season: He realized that playing Larry David was more fun than playing Larry David. I always say documenting the bad behavior of the Westside of Los Angeles is an evergreen business. Even You can walk outside and not be bothered by your fellow man, we still have a job.”
Of course, “Larry Damn David” is the reason for the show’s success, he adds, nodding to David’s constant attachment, which he first mastered on “Seinfeld” to transform everyday frustrations and strange moments of banality into intertwined epic tales.
“People still love that feeling that stories come together in a surprising way,” Schafer says. In fact, he and David are already in the midst of crafting the twelfth season.
“I’m talking to you from my desk in Larry’s office, and I’m looking at a dry-erase board with an episode diagram,” he says. “So if we can tell the end of it, yes: another season. The bald Emily Post is back.”
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