Pretty, Pretty, Pretty Good: Larry David and the Making of Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm
Josh Levine
Language: English
Pages: 289
ISBN: 1550229478
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
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with celebrity friends like Ted Danson and his wife Mary Steenburgen. They sometimes hired a private jet, a cost that for Larry was now equivalent to taking a cab ride, something he once couldn’t even afford to do. He had fallen in love with golf while at summer camp; now he belonged to the Riviera, the most exclusive and expensive golf club in Los Angeles. Larry preferred that people didn’t know about the Riviera membership. Or talk about his wealth — which grew exponentially as Seinfeld went
before the show. Larry would have to go back to the clubs. There are at least two versions of what happened next. The official one is that Larry decided to talk over the idea of returning to stand-up with his friend Alan Zweibel. In addition to an office next to Larry David’s at Castle Rock, Zweibel had rather a lot in common with the Seinfeld creator. Also a Brooklyn Jew, Zweibel had done time on Saturday Night Live and had written a movie, North, which Roger Ebert hated even more than he hated
himself. But the press had written extensively about his writing the script as part of the lead-up to the airdate. The pressure had been on him to end the show on an appropriately high note. Jerry had been running the show without his co-creator since Larry had quit in 1996 after seven seasons. But before the ninth began to film, he met with Larry to tell him he thought this would be the show’s last. The characters, he thought, were getting too old to keep acting so immaturely. As Larry later
(certainly not as at ease as SNL veterans would become), and Larry was no exception. He tended to keep his head slightly down, and with his bush of hair — a bald strip clearly visible down the middle — and his enormous glasses he did not always make the clearest impression. In one sketch, two couples spend the night comparing childhood games they know, giving each other “Indian sunburns,” “noogies,” “Uncle Wigglys,” and other painful pinches and knocks. It’s a rather good idea poorly executed. In
if Cheryl is simply gone from the show. But Larry runs into her, and she’s looking lovely. What’s more, she’s no longer seeing the No Fly Zone guy. And the seed is planted for the season story arc when she mentions, “It was different when you were working on Seinfeld.” Larry says, “I get that. Too much Larry. We can reduce Larry.” The hope of getting Cheryl back makes the need to break up with Loretta even more urgent. Alas, he doesn’t beat the doctor back to the house and the news isn’t good.