In the fall of 2009, Larry David returned as Larry David in the seventh season of his HBO comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm. No matter how long the series runs, it's hard to imagine a more notable season due to it featuring the medium's strangest sitcom reunion.
David is the co-creator of Seinfeld, and since the series concluded in 1998, he has probably been pestered by many fans and TV executives to revisit the show, especially since more than a few were disappointed in the finale, a sentiment David turns into a running joke that Larry continually defends. Instead of the typical reunion where the characters reunite for something like a wedding and viewers get an update of the characters, David takes it to another level by reuniting the actors to play varying variations of themselves attempting to create a reunion show.
Jerry Seinfeld as Jerry Seinfeld comes across as you would imagine he is in real life: affable and quick-witted. He and Larry have great chemistry together as they riff on things. At the other end of the spectrum, Jason Alexander plays Jason Alexander as a pompous actor. He writes a pamphlet-sized book entitled Acting Without Acting and constantly battles with Larry over things like improper uses of borrowed pens and the attention of Cheryl. Michael Richards has a scene that plays off his infamous rant at a comedy club and it works better than expected.
While it may seem hard to believe a curmudgeon like Larry, a man who demands a dollar back from children because their lemonade is terrible, would give in to the sentimentality of a reunion show, it all makes sense when the real motivation is revealed to be an opportunity to reunite with his ex-wife Cheryl (Cheryl Hines) by giving her a major part as George's ex-wife. Of course, nothing ever works out for Larry the way he plans.
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Article comments
1 - Greg Barbrick
Nice review. Curb is one of the funniest shows on television, and the way they handled the Seinfeld thing was brilliant.