{"id":43349,"date":"2025-09-25T21:13:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T21:13:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/43349\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T21:13:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T21:13:08","slug":"curb-your-enthusiasm-book-goes-inside-seinfeld-reunion-exclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/43349\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ Book Goes Inside ‘Seinfeld’ Reunion (Exclusive)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe following is excerpted from No Lessons Learned<\/a> <\/a>by HBO and Lorraine Ali (Black Dog & Leventhal). Copyright \u00a9 2025. On sale\u00a0Sept. 30. <\/p>\n

\n\t***<\/p>\n

\n\tLarry David<\/a>\u2019s character, Larry David, wasn\u2019t trying to be funny when he stumbled each week into hilariously tragic situations as if they were unavoidable potholes. He was simply a natural at saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, and even better at screwing up the chance to apologize. But a great comedy like Curb doesn\u2019t just wander into ludicrous situations. It takes hard work to create the illusion of effortless humor, which is exactly what the HBO series did over 12 seasons, 120 episodes, and 24 years.<\/p>\n

\n\tTV Larry\u2019s debacles took meticulous planning and skilled execution by the real Larry David, along with a dedicated crew that included writers, producers, editors and talent. Curb\u2019s team brought Susie\u2019s rants, Jeff\u2019s lies, Cheryl\u2019s suffering and Leon\u2019s bad advice to life, scene by scene, set by set, edit by edit.<\/p>\n

\n\tEach new chapter of Curb presented unique challenges, but for the sake of brevity and humanity\u2019s shrinking attention span, we\u2019ll focus on just one season: 2009\u2019s Seinfeld<\/a> reunion story arc, aka season seven. David went to great lengths to reunite the NBC sitcom\u2019s original cast and crew, and resurrect the original set on the original soundstage so that the \u201cshow within the show\u201d appeared absolutely authentic. But let\u2019s not get ahead of ourselves. Here\u2019s how the season came to be, from Larry\u2019s first scribblings to the show\u2019s final edits.<\/p>\n

\t\tDawn of a New Season\t<\/p>\n

\n\tJEFF SCHAFFER<\/a> (WRITER, DIRECTOR AND EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, \u00adSEASONS 5-12): A new season usually starts at the end of the season before it, when Larry says \u2018Curb is finished! There will never be more Curb. Curb is done. Dead. Stick a fork in it.\u2019 A few months later, he calls and says, \u2018I\u2019m not doing another season.\u2019 We go, \u2018OK.\u2019 Then he says, \u2018I only have one idea.\u2019 \u2018Do you want to talk about it?\u2019 we ask. \u2018No,\u2019 he says, \u2018it\u2019s a waste of time.\u2019 Then . . . we\u2019ll talk about it. We\u2019ll end up working on something that Larry is convinced will never, ever see the light of day. We figure out a season arc, and that\u2019s when it\u2019s clear that a new season is actually happening.<\/p>\n

\n\tWell, it\u2019s clear to me. Larry still refuses to think we\u2019re actually making the show. It\u2019s not until we have seven or eight shows written I tell Larry, \u201cHey, we need to call HBO and tell them we are doing another season so we can crew up.<\/p>\n

\n\tLARRY DAVID (CREATOR, WRITER AND STAR): I have these notebooks with ideas, and Jeff [Schaffer] has his own notebooks. We pick through them like the Mission: Impossible team for ideas. We\u2019re looking to combine stories and ideas that seemingly have nothing to do with each other. The main thing is the premise and the story have to be funny. They have to be ideas that make us laugh, like pee splashing on Jesus in the bathroom and it looks like he\u2019s crying. It has to be something that tickles us.<\/p>\n

\n\tSCHAFFER: Larry is fearless about jumping in and starting, even when we don\u2019t know where we\u2019re going to end up. He\u2019ll say, \u201cLet\u2019s put these things together and see what happens.\u201d And I\u2019ll be like, \u201cWell, where\u2019s it going to go?\u201d And he\u2019s like, \u201cI don\u2019t know, that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to find out.\u201d He\u2019s great at starting, and I\u2019m always thinking about finishing. We somehow meet in the middle.<\/p>\n

\n\tDAVID: From start to finish, it takes around 18 months to make a season; six months of writing, six months of shooting, and six months of editing.<\/p>\n

\n\tSCHAFFER: Each Curb episode is actually written three times. The first time is the outline. We throw it up on a dry-erase board (just like we wrote Seinfeld) and do comedy geometry until the stories all intersect in a pleasing way that pays off at the end. (That\u2019s the toughest part. As a measure of how difficult this part is: In November of 2020 we shot in the middle of the pandemic <\/a>when there were no vaccines yet, all on location with an older cast. Why? Because we had already written it. Larry was like, we wrote it; we\u2019re doing it. And I\u2019ll deal with the consequences.) The second time the show is written is on set where these incredible improv actors make magic happen, and every scene is a live rewrite generating lots of funny options. And then the show is written for the third and final time in the edit where we choose which takes and jokes to use.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tLarry David with Jerry Seinfeld during season seven\u2019s Seinfeld reunion plotting.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDoug Hyun\/HBO\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\t\tThe Outline\t<\/p>\n

\n\tDavid is renowned for creating airtight outlines that form the scaffolding around each scene, episode, and season. The beams of this sturdy plot structure support the freewheeling improv performances that take place within, allowing for a final seamless narrative where all the disparate subplots converge.<\/p>\n

\n\tDAVID: We\u2019re always looking for a great story arc, and they\u2019re not that easy to come up with. They\u2019re more in the vein of a movie premise. That\u2019s how the Seinfeld reunion came about. We knew it was something we could have fun with . . . and we had no other ideas at the time.<\/p>\n

\n\tSCHAFFER: We knew we weren\u2019t going to do the Seinfeld reunion that NBC wanted. [We wouldn\u2019t do] corny. We were going to do a Curb-style Seinfeld reunion, which meant Curb Larry was going to get the cast back together and do a reunion for his own selfish reasons. He wanted to get back with Cheryl. His whole agenda was self-serving. All those things that people wanted in a Seinfeld reunion, like, \u201cOh, I can\u2019t wait for Jerry and Elaine to get together and the show is going to end with a wedding!\u201d We gave it to them, but off-camera, because the two split up before the reunion.<\/p>\n

\n\tDAVID: We decided that she\u2019d already had a kid with Jerry.<\/p>\n

\n\tSCHAFFER: The choice was to deprive people of exactly what they wanted. It was a very Curb choice.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe season seven finale, \u201cSeinfeld,\u201d presented unique challenges, even for a comedy as unique as Curb.<\/p>\n

\n\tSCHAFFER: There was an added level of complexity because it was a Curb episode, but it was also part of a supposed Seinfeld special. And knowing that Curb Larry is only doing the reunion to get Cheryl back, it became logical that he\u2019s going to lose Cheryl to Jason. So once we knew that\u2019s where we were going to end the season, we had to aim everything toward that conclusion. He was going to almost lose her, then get her back, then lose her for good when he sees the ring stain on Julia [Louis-Dreyfus]\u2019s wood table. [Context: Larry attends a party at Julia\u2019s house where he is blamed for leaving a ring stain on her wood table. His defense is that someone else did it because he \u201crespects wood\u201d; he spends the rest of the episode interrogating everyone he encounters: \u201cDo you respect wood?\u201d]<\/p>\n

\t\tCasting\t<\/p>\n

\n\tWith season seven, David reunited Seinfeld\u2019s original cast, wrote a redeeming storyline for Michael Richards (Kramer) after the comedian faced widespread criticism for a racially charged tirade during a 2006 stand-up set, and introduced Mocha Joe (Saverio Guerra) as Larry\u2019s new nemesis.<\/p>\n

\n\tLAURA STREICHER (CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCER): Some of Curb\u2019s story arcs were reliant on specific guest stars signing on for the season but were written before Larry approached them about it. Mel Brooks for The Producers season. Lin-Manuel Miranda for the Fatwa\/Hamilton arc. Even Jerry, Julia, Jason and Michael for the Seinfeld reunion. And I would say to him, \u201cLarry, you\u2019ve written a couple episodes now. Maybe it\u2019s time to make the calls and ask if they want to do it?\u201d But he\u2019d never worry about it, he\u2019d just keep writing, and, when the time came to finally ask, somehow it always worked out for him \u2026 Clearly Larry David is the king of manifestation. I mean, imagine writing a whole season and them being like, \u201cI don\u2019t think so, Larry.\u201d What would we have done?<\/p>\n

\n\tDAVID: I don\u2019t remember having to talk to the cast about it beyond one or two conversations. It wasn\u2019t a big deal. Jerry was onboard immediately, and so once we had Jerry, then getting the others wasn\u2019t that hard.<\/p>\n

\n\tJERRY SEINFELD: I did think it was a good idea because I knew that doing a conventional network-type reunion show was never going to be appropriate for us. So being on Larry\u2019s show was a perfect way to do it.<\/p>\n

\n\tJASON ALEXANDER \u00ad(GEORGE COSTANZA): Initially I had concerns that a reunion show wouldn\u2019t be a good thing to do, or a fun thing to do. We hadn\u2019t worked as a group in 10 years. So we\u2019re all 10 years older. So the first thing I\u2019m thinking is, what was barely charming on characters in their thirties and forties may be completely devoid of charm in their forties and fifties, and that may be a mistake. Would we be able to resurrect that sense of ensemble play that we had so effortlessly on our show? But then also just the pure technicality of, it\u2019s hard enough to improvise a scene when it\u2019s two people, but when you\u2019ve got six people?! \u201cMy turn, no, my turn..\u201d I thought this was a daunting task that could show us as being less than we were. But the experience was glorious; the ensemble feeling that we had, the affection that we had for each other, it was immediate. And walking back onto those exact replicas of our sets was like a time tunnel. It was just astonishing.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tHere, Jason Alexander and Jerry Seinfeld are playing George and Jerry, respectively, in the Seinfeld reunion on Curb.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDoug Hyun\/HBO\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\t\t\u201cBEING ON LARRY\u2019S SHOW WAS A PERFECT WAY TO DO IT.\u201d -Jerry Seinfeld\t<\/p>\n

\n\tDAVID: I have to give credit to Jason. He was playing a really prickly version of himself, which he did the whole season. Remember the scene in the restaurant where he wouldn\u2019t coordinate the tip? It still makes me laugh.<\/p>\n

\n\tROGER NYGARD (EDITOR, SEASONS 6-8, 10-12): Larry needs someone who\u2019s going to fight back and fight with him, so the actors from Seinfeld are the perfect foils [for him] and they work with whatever you give them. They\u2019re good at creating conflict. I remember asking Julia Louis-Dreyfus, \u201cWhat does it take for you to make a scene funny?\u201d And she said, \u201cI need to have something to push back against, then I can make it funny.\u201d And that\u2019s what Larry does, he pushes back against stupid social mores or somebody\u2019s dumb rule and he gets to have the arguments. So they were the perfect match for Larry.<\/p>\n

\n\tSCHAFFER: Obviously Larry has a longstanding relationship with all of those guys. So the improv always felt pretty natural. Jason\u2019s playing a fun-house version of himself. Julia is playing a version of herself that is more irascible. Everyone just sort of amped it up to make Larry uncomfortable. You\u2019re following a lot of people and a lot of stories at the end of the season; they\u2019re coming together on a show that Larry and Jerry had to write. It was really complicated.<\/p>\n

\n\tDAVID: I wanted to do something for Michael [Richards]. Like a little gesture for him in that episode because he was coming off of that horrible stand-up set [that went viral]. I just wanted to put him on the show. So we ended up pairing him with JB [Smoove], who was playing Leon playing Danny Duberstein.<\/p>\n

\n\tSCHAFFER: We also brought back the crew and our staff from Seinfeld to play the people on Curb\u2019s \u201cSeinfeld\u201d set, like our producer Susie Mamann Greenberg, writers assistants, our former AD [assistant director] Randy Carter. It was exhilarating to see everybody back there, and for this one brief shining moment, it was like we were on Seinfeld again. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tJulia Louis-Dreyfus with Larry David off the reunion set during the Curb episode.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tDoug Hyun\/HBO\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\tMost of the Curb audience had no idea that the crew portrayed on the Seinfeld reunion set were in fact the original Seinfeld crew. Why did the team go to the trouble of bringing them back when no one but Curb insiders knew?<\/p>\n

\n\tDAVID: Well, if we were shooting on the Seinfeld stage with the Seinfeld cast, why not the Seinfeld crew?<\/p>\n

\n\tSCHAFFER: And we\u2019re only making the show for us. I\u2019ve always said, if Larry was making this show as a home video for himself, nothing would be different.<\/p>\n

\t\tThe Location and Set\t<\/p>\n

\n\tCurb traversed the city of Los Angeles for the majority of its twelve seasons. The various homes of the Greenes and Davids were actually rented properties in Malibu, the Hollywood Hills and Brentwood. Angelenos may have noticed that Larry\u2019s dining spots included Canter\u2019s Deli and Don Cuco\u2019s Mexican Restaurant. The Seinfeld reunion season moved the show back onto the original lot and soundstage where the nineties sitcom was shot. But for authenticity\u2019s sake, Larry pushed it a step further.<\/p>\n

\n\tERIN O\u2019MALLEY (PRODUCER, SEASONS 5-8; DIRECTOR OF THE SURPRISE PARTY): Larry wanted me to get the original Seinfeld set, so I said, \u201cSure, where is it stored?\u201d And he\u2019s like, \u201cI don\u2019t know, call somebody.\u201d It became a quest. There were rumors that the set was at the Smithsonian. I checked; it wasn\u2019t. So I called NBC, and they said to call Castle Rock. It took a while, but somebody at Castle Rock finally narrowed it down to a storage facility way out in the San Fernando Valley. I sent my production designer to this giant warehouse. We\u2019re on the phone as he\u2019s in this facility walking, walking, walking. He finally sees this strip of wood, and it says \u201cSeinfeld\u201d on it. And there it was, literally tucked away in a corner.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe set it up back on the CBS Radford lot. I didn\u2019t have all the little pieces, because the guys from Seinfeld\u2014Jerry, Julia\u2014said that everyone took pieces when the show ended, as keepsakes. But Larry also wanted to update the set, so we were taking this iconic set and modernizing it. But it was such a bizarre thing to actually stand on that set. It was like touching history.<\/p>\n

\n\tSCHAFFER: We re-created Larry and Jerry\u2019s office in the same space where their actual office used to be, in Building 5. And we had their two desks facing each other, because that was how it used to be arranged. There\u2019s also a dry-erase board on the wall in those reunion scenes, and you\u2019ll see ideas written on there. Those were actual ideas that Alec [Berg] and I had pitched when we worked on Seinfeld that Larry said no to, so we never used them. It\u2019s like we finally got to use them. You\u2019ll also see that building in \u201cThe Bare Midriff\u201d [Season 7, Episode 6], when Larry catches his assistant\u2019s stomach to keep from falling off the roof. That\u2019s the roof of the building where Seinfeld was written.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tNo Lessons Learned: The Making of Curb Your Enthusiasm<\/a> As Told by Larry David and the Cast and Crew book cover.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBlack Dog & Leventhal<\/p>\n

\t\tProduction\t<\/p>\n

\n\tDIRECTING<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen Curb and Seinfeld collided for the reunion storyline, directors Jeff Schaffer, Alec Berg and Dave Mandel had to manage a show within a show. It wasn\u2019t always easy.<\/p>\n

\n\tSCHAFFER: It was surreal to work back on the old set on Stage Nine, on the Radford lot in Studio City. We\u2019d be shooting a Curb scene where Larry was watching and giving notes on a Seinfeld scene. There were the Seinfeld cameras, and then behind that were the Curb cameras where Alec and I were directing. Once, when the take-inside-a-take ended and Curb Larry walked up to give notes to the Seinfeld cast, I also had notes on the Seinfeld scene just like I used to back in the nineties. I started to walk out on set to give them, and Alec literally had to grab me by my belt, and say, \u201cIdiot, you\u2019re going to ruin the shot!\u201d We were still in the scene! It was so instinctive to think, all right, the Seinfeld scene\u2019s over. Larry\u2019s got some notes and I\u2019ve got some notes. It was a real mindbending situation.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe also wanted to show the set from different angles for viewers who watched Seinfeld but didn\u2019t get to go behind the scenes. So we had the cameras follow Cheryl going behind the set, past our set PA actor (Eric Andr\u00e9, in one of his first roles ever) and all over the place on the lot.<\/p>\n

\n\tPERFORMANCES<\/p>\n

\n\tIn the reunion season, fictionalized Jason walks out of the production and Curb Larry steps into the role of George Costanza to keep the show going. But since the fussy Seinfeld character was initially created as an elevated version of David himself, this sowed understandable confusion on the Curb set.<\/p>\n

\n\tDAVID: I was uncomfortable because he was doing me on the show Seinfeld, and now I\u2019m doing him, doing me. It was weird and crazy.<\/p>\n

\n\tSCHAFFER: You were really uncomfortable. All I could say is, \u201cBut it\u2019s going to be so funny.\u201d You were squirming around trying to figure out if there was another way to get to the same spot in the story arc without playing George. It was supposed to look like a big mistake, and it did. He was taking me through it. I would say to him, \u201cHow do you say this?\u201d And he\u2019d go, \u201cGeorge is getting upset!\u201d But think about how crazy that was. There\u2019s going to be a Seinfeld reunion, and Jason\u2019s not going to be in it, but TV Larry is going to be playing George. Very odd.<\/p>\n

\n\tSAVERIO GUERRA (MOCHA JOE AND LAWYER JOE D\u2019ANGELO): When they were working on the reunion, Curb Larry thought Cheryl was having sex with Jason in the back of his car out on the lot. So Larry opened the door, and Jason\u2019s got these two killer dogs in the back. They chase me [as Mocha Joe] down the lot, and they bite me. So Larry comes over to my cart. I\u2019ve got a bandage on my hand. I say, \u201cI\u2019m going to have Jason\u2019s dogs euthanized.\u201d He said, \u201cYou can\u2019t do that.\u201d I said, \u201cNot only am I gonna have them euthanized, but I\u2019m gonna have it televised!\u201d Then the director said, \u201cNo, no, that\u2019s too much.\u2019 And [the real] Larry said, \u201cNo it\u2019s not. Leave it in.\u201d That\u2019s when I realized he edits in his head, even when he\u2019s acting.<\/p>\n

\n\tProps<\/p>\n

\n\tDORT CLARK (PROPERTY MASTER, SEASONS 1-9): The glasses on the show were the real glasses he wore. They were a certain style of Oliver Peoples frames from the 1990s. He only had two pairs, one that was transitional and one that was clear.<\/p>\n

\n\tROSE LEIKER (PROPERTY MASTER, SEASONS 11-12): Larry\u2019s glasses were the property department\u2019s daily heart attack. I was only on the final two seasons and by that time, the glasses protocol was already established, but what I can say is that it is impossible to get the exact frames today. What I was told was that a few seasons before me, a producer went down the rabbit hole in search for the manufacturer of the exact pair of glasses. She was able to find someone in a small cabin in Switzerland to make four pairs, which Larry inherited. So every day, the prop department was in charge of his personal irreplaceable glasses. Remember, in some episodes we even had to drop them in a toilet or bend them!<\/p>\n

\n\tWardrobe<\/p>\n

\n\tLESLIE SCHILLING (COSTUME DESIGNER, SEASONS 9-12): Everyone always says Larry just wears his own clothes. This is a bit of a misconception. Larry likes to be Larry. When I first started the show, I went to his house to \u201cshop\u201d his closet. It was clear to me not a lot of shopping had been done in the years when the show was on a break [a six-year gap between seasons eight and nine]. Styles had changed. Larry\u2019s taste had not. Larry likes a simple silhouette. Slim but not tight. Fitted but not structured. I bought him new versions of the same things and maybe every gray and blue cashmere sweater in town. James Perse had a modern version of his corduroy jacket. The AG Tellis became the perfect five-pocket pant. At the end of each season Larry took his closet home so at the beginning of the next season I would \u2018shop\u2019 his closet and supplement with newer pieces as we filmed. When I see Larry in public, I like to spot the pieces I bought him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The following is excerpted from No Lessons Learned by HBO and Lorraine Ali (Black Dog & Leventhal). Copyright…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[32373,93,61,60,32374,32375,32376,282],"class_list":{"0":"post-43349","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-curb-your-enthusiasm","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-jeff-schaffer","13":"tag-larry-david","14":"tag-seinfeld","15":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}