Curb Your Enthusiasm – Season 8

[HBO]

I was but a seven-month-old cretin before Seinfeld launched, and as a result I’ve never watched an episode of it in my life. All I know is that the show is phenomenally successful, commanding an estimated audience of around 76 million in the series finale. That’s 58% of all viewers watching television that night.

Larry David co-created the show, executive producing and writing the majority of all episodes. In 2008 Larry made $55 million from Seinfeld syndication, DVD sales, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Whilst between June 2008 and June 2009, Jerry Seinfeld earned $85 million, making him the highest-paid comedian during that 12-month period. Sitcom ideas anybody?

In CYE, Larry writes and stars as a fictionalised version of himself, and the celebrities which feature also tend to guest star as themselves. When I say “writes”, I mean a storyline and the relative defining sub-plots are highlighted, then all dialogue is mostly improvised by the actors themselves. This is crucial to the laid back, natural feel of the show.

Featuring Ricky Gervais and Michael J Fox, 10 new episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm start Sunday, July 10th at 10pm on HBO.

-James Godwin, April 18th, 2011