“Honey, I’m home”
Larry David is ruining lives again as Curb Your Enthusiasm returns to TV after a seven-year hiatus.
Curb Your Enthusiasm
Season 9 Fridays (from 11 May) M-Net (*101) 22:30
Comedian and show writer Larry David is back, “Balder, badder and as self-absorbed as you may recall,” says the 70-year- old. He’s reprising his role as a fictionalised version of himself in his award-winning comedy Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000- current) and as outlandish as his character may seem, Larry says that “TV Larry is exactly the same as I am. There is no difference.” What is different is that everyone has moved on from where season 8 ended in 2011. “It’s been like six or seven years and the entire landscape has changed. Everything is different, so the characters have also had to move on,” says Larry. For his character, that’s been a top-secret project that he’s kept under wraps for almost six years. But he doesn’t get the response he’d hoped for when he reveals it to his family and friends. “He’s shocked. How can they not appreciate this?” laughs Larry.
THE BEST OF THE REST
Getting the other cast back for the new season wasn’t difficult, explains Jeff Garlin (Jeff Greene in the show). “I thought they were insane when they came to me with this idea for a season 9. But then I read it and phoned Larry and went, ‘Are you for real? Are you pulling my leg? Because if you re pranking me, I will kill you!’ It was that simple – if this was really going to happen, no one would say no. And luckily we’re all back.” Larry is still bumping into his ex-wife Cheryl (Cheryl Hines) and they’re still in the same neighbourhood, so that is an awkward complication at the best of times. Jeff is still happily married to Susie (Susie Essman) and that irks Larry “because he needs everything to be about him. Seeing them so madly in love disgusts Larry, but in a fun way.” But it’s not going so well with Larry’s bestie Richard (Richard Lewis) “because they have a falling out over the most stupid thing: Richard’s parakeet dies but Larry needs attention”. Also keep an eye out for Ted Danson (Michael in The Good Place – read right), who makes enemies with Larry when he asks Larry for permission to date Cheryl.