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Season 9 of Curb Your Enthusiasm is finally debuting on HBO on October 9 and the premium cable channel ended its Summer 2017 TCA presentation with a look at the beloved improvised sitcom’s return. The sizzle reel we saw featured Larry waging battle with a bottle of shower gel mid-shower, going on Judge Judy over a ficus plant, and being told to “get the fuck out.”
The real news? Larry David really is related to Bernie Sanders. It came out during the panel — PBS spoiler alert! — that David went on Finding Your Roots and discovered that he really is related to Sanders. “They told me not to say anything, but you’re spilling the beans!” he exclaimed. He added his family tree also includes Nazis and slaveholders. The last of which got a hilarious aside from J.B. Smoove: “I figured that!”
“I was very happy about that,” David said. “I figured there must be some connection.”
“To Bernie Sanders,” Jeff Garlin quickly clarified with a chuckle. “Not to slaveholders.”
When asked about the huge time gap between Seasons 8 and 9, David said it wasn’t about a dearth in creativity. “I’ve gone into every season not thinking I had 10 shows,” David said to the crowd.
Executive Producer Jeff Schaffer was quick to point out that even though the show wasn’t in production, David was keeping notes over the six year gap. “It’s like we’re sitting on the Fort Knox of awkward.”
Curb Your Enthusiasm is not the only major sitcom David has spearheaded. Davis helped co-create Seinfeld and was the inspiration for George Costanza, so when one reporter asked if the future season would include a storyline when all the characters “Larry” had wronged returning to seek vengeance, David roasted him. “I guess that’s a Seinfeld reference? A Seinfeld finale reference? What are you doing?” Later ranting, “Shame on you! I braved traffic to be here!” The roasting didn’t end there. David was in rare form, shooting back at many of the questions asked of him with his typical brand of humor.
When one reporter asked if people avoided him because of his curmudgeon-y persona, David fired back: “What the fuck?!?” Later he said that the show had changed his social interactions in one key way: “A lot of people THINK they’re providing me with fodder, but they’re NOT!”
Through out the panel, the question of a possible Season 10 hung in the air, but David and company were non-committal about the possibility. While it seemed like HBO didn’t want to rule one out, David joked that he loved quitting. “I love to quit things, too!” he said. Later Schaffer illuminated their production process: “Only after the season is mostly done do we tell anyone we’re doing it.”
Curb Your Enthusiasm returns to HBO October 1.
