The highly improvised and unconventional HBO comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm is returning for a ninth season.
Curb Your Enthusiasm originally ran on HBO from 2000-2011, totaling 80 episodes and 8 seasons. Larry David, who has become quite popular for his recent portrayal of Bernie Sanders on Saturday Night Live, created and starred in the series. David’s character was a fictionalized version of himself, a semi-retired television writer and producer. The comedy was unique in the way it was written, largely because there wasn’t much written in terms of a script. Each episode was laid out as an outline, but it was up to the actors to improvise the dialogue.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, about his return, Larry David said, “In the immortal words of Julius Caesar, ‘I left, I did nothing, I returned.’”
Of course, anyone who has tuned into Saturday Night Live at all this season can tell you David hasn’t done “nothing.” His portrayal of Bernie Sanders on SNL was one of the highlights of the most recent season, and he even hosted an episode.
While the announcement that the series is coming back is exciting, it is not necessarily a complete surprise. There was talk already that the writer and comedian was considering rebooting his series.
In an interview with Rich Eisen on The Rich Eisen Show, Curb Your Enthusias star J.B. Smoove told the host, “So I called Larry, like, two weeks ago and I said, ‘Hey, Larry man.’ I just talk about regular stuff with him. It’s not always Curb stuff. But this time — aha. This time, he brings up Curb Your Enthusiasm. I don’t ever bring it up. He brought it up this time.”
At the time of the interview, the reboot was still just a possibility, but according too Smoove, that was a good thing.”But see, that’s great because he has not said no, which puts us in a great position for possibilities. That means it’s still going, and if Larry does not say no, there’s a possibility he’s going to say yes. And then he went the extra, ‘If I do come back, are you going to be available?’ And I said, ‘You know something Larry, I’m going to be available.'”
Not it looks like Smoove was right. And, even though no returning actors have been confirmed, it sounds like he at least will be returning in some capacity.
During its 8 season run, Curb Your Enthusiasm earned 39 Emmy nominations but only won twice for directing and editing. The last season which ended in 2011 was the most successful and averaged 2 million love viewers each episode.
No word has bee released as to when season 9 will premiere.