Ever since Curb Your Enthusiasm last aired a new episode back in the summer of 2011, creator Larry David and HBO have had the same line: The show has not been cancelled, and it will come back if and when David decides to produce a new season. Over time those chances have appeared more or less likely, depending on the tone of that particular interview with David. The series, a semi-fictional and mostly exaggerated comedy starring David as himself, premiered in 2000 and aired eight seasons between then and 2011.
Fans of the show got some hope last week when J.B. Smoove, who plays Leon Black on the Curb, said in an interview with sportscaster Rich Eisen that David had recently asked him whether he might be available for a new season. And now, it appears a ninth season of Curb Your Enthusiasm is finally a reality.
HBO announced in a press release Tuesday that Curb Your Enthusiasm will return for a ninth season. Casey Bloys, who recently took over as president of HBO programming, revealed the news. Further details about the series - presumably about premiere date, locations, which co-stars of the past will be available to come back - will be “announced as they are confirmed,” HBO said. Asked why he decided to come back, David replied, “In the immortal words of Julius Caesar, ‘I left, I did nothing, I returned.’”
The return of Curb Your Enthusiasm is great news for fans of the series, of David, and of comedy in general. With any luck, David has built up several years of dynamite ideas that he’s ready to bring to the series. But there’s not exactly any truth to the “I did nothing” part - the Seinfeld co-creator has been busy since Curb last aired, writing and starring in the HBO movie Clear History, hitting Broadway with Fish in the Dark and doing a well-received Bernie Sanders impression throughout the most recent season of Saturday Night Live. Any and all of that could likely give David material for the show.
Sure, there’s the worry that David and the rest of his ensemble will come in rusty for the new episodes. But a comedy world with Curb Your Enthusiasm in it is certainly preferable to one without.
No air date has yet been announced for the ninth season of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Source: HBO
