by Josh Levine
Some viewers prefer it when Larry is his aggressive, trivial, ridiculous self, but Larry David has found a way to bring some emotional weight to some of the episodes and this is one. Larry seems truly devastated by the loss of Cheryl and at the same time fed up. He’s tried his best and failed, and now he can do nothing but give up. The fight is lost. But what Larry doesn’t know is that Cheryl overheard him tell Jeff on the phone that he had only been doing the reunion to win her back. Eavesdropping is an old device, especially in love stories (see Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing) but when it comes to romance, sometimes the tried and true is best.
How much time has elapsed? None that we can tell, yet the Seinfeld reunion show is being broadcast on television. It begins in the traditional way with Jerry doing stand-up. We see a montage of totally credible Seinfeld scenes, complete with laugh track. Some of them we’ve seen in rehearsal, others are new, and all of them work. George looks like he’s wearing the same jacket as he used to, but he does use a new catchphrase — “Pretty, pretty, pretty good.” (That must have been fun for Jason Alexander to deliver.)
We see Larry watching from his sofa, smiling and laughing at the scenes. But when Amanda comes in — played not by Cheryl but by Virginia — he looks surprised and disconcerted. In a moment of perfect timing the doorbell rings and he finds Cheryl herself at the door. She tells Larry that she quit the show. “After you left . . . it wasn’t the same,” she says. Larry invites her in to watch and they both hear Virginia deliver the commonplace but still powerful truth, “You have to be away from something to really appreciate it.”
The show is over, Larry and Cheryl kiss, and their words tell us they are back together. Larry’s happiness is our happiness. And we are just as happy to discover that he is still the same Larry, for when he realizes that it was Cheryl who left a ring stain on a table in Julia’s house (something Julia accused him of), he insists that Cheryl phone immediately to tell her.
A taste of Seinfeld, a love story with a happy ending, and the return of the Larry we know and cringe at. Now that’s a satisfying season closer.
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Photo Section
A boyish but already balding Larry David during his stint as a writer and performer on the Saturday Night Live knockoff Fridays.
Connections made on Fridays would be important for the future. Among the cast members was Michael Richards (top right), who Larry later cast as Kramer on Seinfeld. Several other cast members got Seinfeld guest spots.
Larry performs in a Fridays sketch. His on-camera presence was raw and unfocused, but the beginnings of the Larry of Curb Your Enthusiasm are visible.
The table read of Larry’s script for the final episode of Seinfeld. Jerry Seinfeld is laughing, but viewers and critics would not be as amused. The table read in season seven of Curb Your Enthusiasm would create a fictional version of just such a moment.
Hooting the finale of Seinfeld. Although Larry didn’t direct Seinfeld (Andy Ackerman helmed the final episode), he was a major presence on set.
Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld chuckle over the script for the “The Pilot” episodes in season four of Seinfeld. He would again comically explore what he knows best — television-making — in seasons two and seven of Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Larry David walks with writer/director Woody Allen and co-star Evan Rachel Wood while shooting Whatever Works. Larry doubted his acting ability, but idol Woody convinced him he could do it.
At the June 8, 2009, premiere of Whatever Works in West Hollywood, California. The film, and Larry’s performance, would be generally well received.
Bearded Larry looks dour about the airing of Curb Your Enthusiasm’s first season. After the poor reviews of his film Sour Grapes and the Seinfeld finale, the first warm reviews of Curb would prove a relief.
The gang’s all here: Susie Essman, Jeff Garlin, Richard Lewis, Larry David, and Cheryl Hines at a theater screening of the season five opener in September 2005, a few days before the HBO broadcast. The show had turned them all into recognizable faces. By then each new season was eagerly anticipated by viewers and critics.
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