When “Curb Your Enthusiasm” wrapped up its 24-year-run in 2024, fans were concerned it would be the last time they’d see Larry David on screen. He had been saying the HBO sitcom was ending for the better part of the series’ run, and with Season 12 he finally called it quits. (“I said it before,” he told Variety at the time. “But I wasn’t 76 when I said it.”)
But his longtime collaborator Jeff Schaffer — who, in his early 20s, joined “Seinfeld” as a writer before becoming a major force behind the scenes of “Curb” — always knew David would be back on TV.
“I guess we’re like a plague of locusts, but you don’t have to wait 17 years,” he says over Zoom ahead of the premiere of “Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness,” a historical sketch comedy show that he describes as “‘Curb’ in costume.” (Schaffer co-created the project with David and directed all seven episodes.)
The series, which premiered on HBO on June 26, is executive produced by Barack Obama, who also appears in a sketch. In typical David fashion, the “Curb” star plays selfish, petty and unfiltered men throughout history. For every Founding Father looking to free the colonies from British tyranny, there was a Larry (often called Lawrence here) who suggests that sharing desserts and umbrellas should be prohibited by the Declaration of Independence. And in this version of history, Larry takes a stand for Rosa Parks when a white bus driver demands she give up her seat — not because Larry cares about civil rights, but because he’s sitting in the aisle and doesn’t want to get up.
