# Enthusiasm for "Curb Your Enthusiasm?"
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enthusiasm-for-curb-your-enthusiasm/222518
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [January 3, 2004, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enthusiasm-for-curb-your-enthusiasm/222518 "2004-01-03T20:54:53Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2004, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enthusiasm-for-curb-your-enthusiasm/222518/1 "2004-01-03T20:54:53Z")
Never saw it till last night’s marathon. Can’t decide if I like it or not. Writing’s clever; all the characters are agreeably _awful_. I don’t _dis_like it–it’s certainly clever and well-written. Maybe it helps to be a Californian? Like being a New Yorker kinda gives _Sex and the City_ more of an edge?
---
### Author:  [@Lobsang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobsang)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2004, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enthusiasm-for-curb-your-enthusiasm/222518/2 "2004-01-03T20:57:30Z")
I caught one episode, normally I would have turned over in a second but I didn’t have control of the control. I found it to be trying too hard. Not that clever. But I _did_ only watch one episode.
---
### Author:  [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2004, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enthusiasm-for-curb-your-enthusiasm/222518/3 "2004-01-03T21:03:59Z")
I think it’s absolutely brilliant. My favorite HBO show.
A little background (to maybe make you appreciate it more): Larry David was the creator of and long-time writer of Seinfeld. And actually the character of George Costanza is based on him. That’s one reason I love this show; it’s very Seinfeld-esque.
Also, the entire show is ad-libbed. Larry gives the actors a basic outline of each scene, what should happen, the story, etc., but then the actors just play off each other.
Tomorrow night’s the long-awaited season premiere! Yay!
Happy
---
### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2004, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enthusiasm-for-curb-your-enthusiasm/222518/4 "2004-01-03T21:06:34Z")
Ah. Maybe that’s the reason I can’t quite warm up to it. Never cared for _Seinfeld_, and I absolutely _hate_ improv. Writers are writers; actors are actors. The two should never confuse themselves for one another.
---
### Author:  [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2004, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enthusiasm-for-curb-your-enthusiasm/222518/5 "2004-01-03T21:12:38Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Eve \*
> **Maybe it helps to be a Californian?**
From the brief portions that I’ve watched, it doesn’t help. I’m about as knowledgible about the mores of Southern California as you are about the mores of Newark.
---
### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2004, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enthusiasm-for-curb-your-enthusiasm/222518/6 "2004-01-03T21:15:23Z")
TV Tome does indeed say, “To keep the narrative fresh and spontaneous, _Curb Your Enthusiasm_ is shot without a script; the cast is given scene outlines and often improvise lines as they go.” I never would have tuned in has I read that first.
I must say it’s much better than 90% of improv . . . I suspect those “scene outlines” are pretty detailed and the scenes are honed and reshot quite a bit. The talented cast helps . . . Feh. I’ll give it another try.
---
### Author:  [@Murcielago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Murcielago)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2004, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enthusiasm-for-curb-your-enthusiasm/222518/7 "2004-01-03T21:16:49Z")
It is by far my favourite comedy currently on TV, I’m looking forward to the season 4 premire Sunday night. My familiarity with LA is a probably a factor, the show does play off the “feel” of the city. I’m always entertained by characters who are pointlessly antagonistic and difficult. I’ll admit that after a half-hour I’ve had about enough of David’s character, he is best taken in small doses.
Sill love that bit where David is responsible for an obit which turns “Beloved Aunt” into “Beloved Cunt.” The resulting argument was hilarious.
---
### Author:  [@The\_Universe\_Lashes\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Universe_Lashes_Out)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2004, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enthusiasm-for-curb-your-enthusiasm/222518/8 "2004-01-03T21:41:05Z")
Hi-larious. The funniest show on TV. There’s no automatic comedy gold quite like Susie calling Jeff a fat fuck. My favorite scene is probably the Baby-Jesus-as-animal-cookie exchange. “Larry, have you no shame?”
The reality feel of the show makes it nervewracking at times, as you can’t believe people actually behave this way. And then Larry keeps egging them on. But eventually you just have to sit back and laugh at them all. I can’t wait for the season premiere.
---
### Author:  [@HoldenCaulfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoldenCaulfield)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2004, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enthusiasm-for-curb-your-enthusiasm/222518/9 "2004-01-03T21:43:07Z")
I love the show, I can’t wait for the season premiere, and I’ve got the first season’s DVD on preorder.
---
### Author:  [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2004, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enthusiasm-for-curb-your-enthusiasm/222518/10 "2004-01-03T21:48:17Z")
It takes quite a while to shoot one episode of “Curb” because of the improvisation. Individual scenes take quite a while to shoot. And there are only certain actors who are good enough at improv to pull it off.
30 minutes is usually the limit that anyone can take of Larry David however. That character takes a lot of getting used to. The show’s pilot was a one-hour film that introduced the characters.
My personal favorite episode is the show where Larry’s mother dies. He and his wife are in New York and his father (played by Louis Nye) tells him when he gets back to L.A. that not only has his mother passed away, but they’ve already had the funeral. His father tells him that his mother’s last wish was “not to disturb Larry in New York.” Larry then realizes that he can blow off people in personal situations and claim that he’s grieving over his mother when in reality, he just doesn’t want to talk to them anyway.
---
### Author:  [@Survivor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Survivor)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2004, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enthusiasm-for-curb-your-enthusiasm/222518/11 "2004-01-03T21:58:06Z")
I think it is ABSOLUTELY the best program on TV… I’ve probably seen each episode three times and still crack up each time I see them…
I’m looking forward to the new season… and will be getting the DVD’s the moment they’re released…
---
### Author:  [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2004, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enthusiasm-for-curb-your-enthusiasm/222518/12 "2004-01-03T23:38:38Z")
Omigod, that was Louis Nye? Jesus, he got old.
I guess seeing it in a marathon is a bad idea. I’ll try it a half-hour a week.
---
### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [January 3, 2004, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enthusiasm-for-curb-your-enthusiasm/222518/13 "2004-01-03T23:41:24Z")
I find it tiresome and repetitive. Let’s see if I have this basic episode outline straight:
Larry runs into a person who has an arbitrary rule of some kind (I don’t give out phone numbers, we have a first-come-first-served policy, whatever) that proves greatly inconvenient. Larry tries to be funny, but ends up acting like a stubborn/thoughtless jerk. Sooner or later, somebody heaps oodles of profane abuse on poor Larry and then, irony of ironies, the arbitrary rule changes just as Larry adapts, so he’s out of luck again.
This isn’t a show about nothing, it’s a show about the same damn thing over and over again.
---
### Author:  [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2004, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enthusiasm-for-curb-your-enthusiasm/222518/14 "2004-01-04T01:53:04Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Eve \*
> \*\*Omigod, that was Louis Nye? Jesus, he got old.
>
> I guess seeing it in a marathon is a bad idea. I’ll try it a half-hour a week. \*\*
Louis Nye is 81 years old. Larry David is 56 years old so the ages work out.
Paul Dooley is 75 and he plays Cheryl Hines’ father and she is 38.
---
### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2004, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enthusiasm-for-curb-your-enthusiasm/222518/15 "2004-01-04T22:24:44Z")
I have absolutely no idea why this show is on TV. It is horribly painful to watch. This is a sitcom “by” George Costanza. I.e., he does everything he can do to avoid real work. So no script. The blank look in the eyes of the actors while they try to think of something to say is _incredibly bleeping obvious_.
Doesn’t _everybody_ see this?
A complete waste of a few good actors (e.g., Hines and Dooley).
---
### Author:  [@katie1341](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/katie1341)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2004, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enthusiasm-for-curb-your-enthusiasm/222518/16 "2004-01-04T22:53:45Z")
I like it, but I live in Georgia, what do I know? There was a special that Larry David did, I think it was on HBO, that I saw before he started his show, and it was great. Probably colored my opinion of “CYE”.
---
### Author:  [@Murcielago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Murcielago)
#### Post date: [January 4, 2004, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enthusiasm-for-curb-your-enthusiasm/222518/17 "2004-01-04T23:04:05Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by ftg \*
> \*\*I have absolutely no idea why this show is on TV. It is horribly painful to watch. This is a sitcom “by” George Costanza. I.e., he does everything he can do to avoid real work. So no script. The blank look in the eyes of the actors while they try to think of something to say is _incredibly bleeping obvious_.
>
> Doesn’t _everybody_ see this? \*\*
Apparently not, as the show has won rave reviews from the major papers in NY and LA, as well as from Variety, Entertainment Weekly, and Tom Shales from the Washington Post. It has also won an American Film Institute award for best comedy show. Not saying your opinion is invalid, but obviously it is not shared by _everybody_.
---
### Author:  [@Poonther](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poonther)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2004, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enthusiasm-for-curb-your-enthusiasm/222518/18 "2004-01-05T01:05:53Z")
I’m a big fan of the show. I’ve seen all the episodes at least once. I must admit that I did not like the show the first time I saw it. It took about 3 episodes for me to get the “feel” for it. Now I crack up all the time watching it.
One of my fav episodes is when Wanda Sykes calls Larry…“assy” over and over again because of something he said. Jeff’s wife Susie is so over the top that you just have to laugh. Jeff is one of my least favorite characters.
I’m not so sure the show has that much of a L.A. feel as it does a New Yorker feel…well in the case of Larry, Jeff and Susie. Cheryl does not give off the feeling and comes off just like the native of my hometown, Tallahassee, FL, that she is. I use to live in Boca Raton, FL which is a posh community comprised of ex New Yorkers and many are Jewish. I can really relate to the characters on the show after living there for 10 years.
---
### Author:  [@Patr100](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patr100)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2004, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enthusiasm-for-curb-your-enthusiasm/222518/19 "2004-01-05T01:29:47Z")
While Seinfled had it’s moments and It gets rave reviews here on the UK, " Sorry . It leaves me cold.
---
### Author:  [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)
#### Post date: [January 5, 2004, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enthusiasm-for-curb-your-enthusiasm/222518/20 "2004-01-05T02:38:36Z")
I don’t watch it regularly but I love it when I do see it-
especially the Christmas show!
_after eating some manger scene cookies_
I thought they were animal crackers!.. I didn’t know that was the Baby Jesus; I thought it was a monkey!
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/enthusiasm-for-curb-your-enthusiasm/222518.md?page=2)