Curb Your Enthusiasm | |
---|---|
Genre |
Black comedy Cringe comedy Improvisational comedy |
Created by | Larry David |
Story by | Larry David |
Starring | Larry David Jeff Garlin Cheryl Hines Susie Essman |
Theme music composer | Luciano Michelini |
Opening theme | "Frolic" |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language(s) | English |
No. of seasons | 8 |
No. of episodes | 80 (plus 60-minute special) (list of episodes) |
Production | |
Executive producer(s) | Larry David Jeff Garlin Robert B. Weide Alec Berg David Mandel Jeff Schaffer Larry Charles Gavin Polone Tim Gibbons Erin O'Malley |
Location(s) |
Los Angeles New York City |
Camera setup | Single-camera |
Running time | 30 minutes |
Production company(s) | HBO Entertainment |
Distributor |
Warner Bros. Television HBO Enterprises |
Release | |
Original network | HBO |
Picture format |
480i (4:3 SDTV) (2000–07) 1080i (16:9 HDTV) (since 2009) |
Original release | October 15, 2000 | – present
External links | |
Website |
Curb Your Enthusiasm is an American comedy television series produced and broadcast by HBO that premiered on October 15, 2000. The series was created by Larry David, who stars as a semi-fictionalized version of himself. The series follows Larry in his life as a semi-retired television writer and producer in Los Angeles and later New York City. Also starring are Cheryl Hines as his wife, Cheryl; Jeff Garlin as his manager, Jeff; and Susie Essman as Jeff's wife, Susie. Curb Your Enthusiasm often features guest stars, and many of these appearances are by celebrities playing versions of themselves fictionalized to varying degrees.
The plots and subplots of the episodes are established in an outline written by David, and the dialogue is largely improvised by the actors (a technique known as retroscripting). As with Seinfeld, which David co-created, the subject matter in Curb Your Enthusiasm often involves the minutiae of daily life, and plots often revolve around Larry David's many faux pas and his problems with certain social conventions and expectations, as well as his annoyance with other people's behavior. The character has a hard time letting such annoyances go unexpressed, which often leads him into awkward situations.
The series was developed from a 1999 one-hour special, Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm, which David and HBO originally envisioned as a one-time project. The special was shot as a mockumentary, where the characters were aware of the presence of cameras and a crew. The series itself is not a mock documentary but is shot in a somewhat similar, cinéma vérité-like style.Curb Your Enthusiasm has received high critical acclaim and has grown in popularity since its debut. It has been nominated for 38 Primetime Emmy Awards, and Robert B. Weide received an Emmy for Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series for the episode "Krazee Eyez Killa". The show won the 2002 Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy.