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Curb Your Enthusiasm is back — and this time, the show’s beloved characters are living in a post-COVID world.
On Tuesday evening, the cast and creators gathered at the Paramount Studios lot in Hollywood for a Curb-themed cocktail party, followed by a screening of the first two episodes in Paramount’s on-site theater.
Set in a post-pandemic world that has returned to normalcy, Curb’s 11th season tackles elements of COVID-19 in its improvised, fictional universe. But most of all, the cast affirmed that the season’s setting just feels like pre-pandemic life again.
“It’s the same as a pre-COVID world. Same world, but there are references to COVID,” creator and star Larry David said, without giving too much away. He also confirmed that the pandemic didn’t change much of his original vision for this season’s plotline.
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“It was like normal life,” longtime castmember Susie Essman added about the show’s post-pandemic timeline. “That’s how we lived all these years. Then, all of a sudden, now we’re living with masks and shields, and we’re Purell-ing. And so it felt like, ‘Oh my God, this is normal life.’ “
As for his own experience in pandemic lockdown, David said he didn’t mind the isolation, not unlike his character on the show. “I didn’t have to socialize, which was a benefit,” David joked. “I didn’t mind staying in the house.”
Schaffer and David wrote the season throughout the start of COVID lockdowns in early 2020. Instead of sitting together in a writers room, the co-executive producers virtually brainstormed their ideas.
“This had its own little ritual,” EP Jeff Schaffer said of the pair’s writing sessions. “Every day, Larry and I would get on FaceTime, and he’d say, ‘Ugh, hold on, I gotta plug my iPad in …’ Then, we’d talk for a while, and at 3 o’clock everyday, he would just vanish. He ran out of power.”
At the time, they’d imagined that once season 11 came around, the real world would have returned to a pre-pandemic normalcy, along with the timeline of the show. And although the world is not quite there yet, the fully vaccinated premiere offered a glimpse into what could be in the future, as every attendee was required to show not only proof of vaccination, but also a negative PCR test taken within 48 hours.
“You know, we had to decide — how much COVID stuff are we gonna do?” Schaffer said. “We didn’t want to be the last ones to the table, doing jokes that everyone had done. One of my biggest regrets, honestly, is that two seasons back we were gonna do jokes about someone wearing a mask. Like, ‘Why is he wearing a mask in front of Larry? Is it because of me?’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, I wish we had done that because now we can never do that!’”
He continued: “We do address COVID, but I think in a way that people won’t expect. We made a choice that when the show was gonna come out in the fall, COVID was going to have hit and be better. And we were a little early unfortunately, but I think for us [in the show], it was like, ‘Hey, COVID’s happened, it doesn’t exist anymore,’ so everyone’s living their normal lives.”
As for a future season 12, David couldn’t say yay or nay just yet.
“I said the same thing after season one: I don’t know,” David shrugged. On the other hand, Schaffer claims he’s “finally figured out why” each season of Curb could be the “end of all ends.”
“Basically, Larry puts all the ideas that he likes into a season of Curb, so when the season’s over, he’s used all the ideas that he likes, so why would he ever do another season?” Schaffer explained.
“Because he’s the only person on the planet that doesn’t think he’s gonna have more good ideas,” the producer said with a laugh. “So this is definitely the end, until it’s not. I’d bet on [Larry] having a few more good ideas.”
“I’ll do this until my dying day,” Essman said of returning for another potential season. “I don’t need any convincing. It’s up to Larry. It’s Larry’s world, I’m only living in it.”
Curb Your Enthusiasm season 11 will premiere Oct. 24 on HBO Max.
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