BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. _ Curmudgeon Larry David is back with his popular "Curb Your Enthusiasm" on HBO. Resurrecting the show after six years was against his better judgment, he insists.
"I'm not a misser, so to speak. I don't really miss things, people that much," he says at a press gathering here. "But I was missing it. And I was missing these idiots (co-stars). So I thought, 'Yeah, what the hell?' And I got tired of people asking me, 'Is the show coming back?' I couldn't face that question anymore. And I wasn't ready to say, 'No, never.' And I kept saying, 'Oh, you know, maybe. Who knows?' So I thought, 'Yeah, I won't have to be asked THAT anymore.'"
Also returning is executive producer Jeff Schaffer, who's been with the acerbic comic since Schaffer was 24 and on the payroll while they produced the hotly treasured "Seinfeld."
"I did learn everything about how to write comedy from Jerry (Seinfeld) and Larry on 'Seinfeld,'" says Schaffer. "You guys would let me and my then-partner, Alec Berg, we used to follow him (David) around on the set. And we'd be in the editing room. So we learned how to edit. We'd go to the sound mixes, taught us how to do (that). We learned how to do all of that stuff basically for the first two years ... at Seinfeld,'" recalls Schaffer.
David is convinced that he has no more new ideas to perpetuate the series, says Schaffer. "It really starts with, 'Well, every season is done. Right? We are done. There's no more seasons. There's not going to be another season.' Then he calls up and goes, 'We are NOT doing another season. Even if we did, I only have one idea.'
"I go, 'Well, do you want to talk about it?' 'No. It's stupid for me to talk about it. It's a waste of time.' And we talk about it, and then I'm, like, 'Do you want me to come back to that office?' 'No. It's a waste of your time.' 'Well, I have other things to do.'
"And this goes on for months. And then there's about six or seven shows written, and then we go, 'Hey, do you want to tell HBO you want to do another season?' So that's the order. And only after the season is mostly written do we tell anyone that we are doing it," says Schaffer.
Though this ninth season makes "Curb Your Enthusiasm" HBO's longest-running scripted series, David confesses, "I've gone into every season not thinking I had 10 shows."
"After every season, Larry used to say, 'This is it. I'm NEVER doing another one.' So we were used to that," says Susie Essman, who plays Susie Greene on the show.
"At the end of Season 5, the last show was called 'The End,'" recalls Schaffer. "Every season was the last season."
"On 'Seinfeld' I would write season endings to the last show because I didn't think I'd be back. So that's just my nature," shrugs David. "I like to quit things too. You know, it's a very satisfying thing, quitting. Did you ever go up to a boss and say, 'I'm done. I've had it. Go to hell'? It's fun."
Schaffer says these intervening years have given David plenty of awkward instances to write about. But David insists his ideas don't come from personal confrontations.
"A lot of people think they're always providing me with fodder, but they're not. You know, all of a sudden, I'll write something down, and they'll go, 'Oh, did I just say something? Did I just give you that?' 'No, no, you didn't. Shut up. No.'"
Back in the fold will be Jeff Garlin as Jeff Greene, J.B. Smoove as Leon Black, and Richard Lewis as himself. Also appearing will be Bryan Cranston, Ted Danson, Bob Einstein and Cheryl Hines.
Smoove says his character hasn't changed during the protracted hiatus. "It's a new 'Curb,' same old Leon, and I think that is the thing that I love about the character," he says.
"I love that he's an in-the-moment guy. He's a guy that lives day-to-day. ... The first day on the set, it was I could tell the man had a little glitter. Do you know what I mean? ... One take, and this man was back to gold again, you know, it's like playing tee-ball. He sets you up so well, you can't go wrong. And I'm happy to be back on the show."
While the series often provokes controversy, that's not why David writes it, say his co-producers. "Anyone who really is writing and doing things to be provocative is probably not funny," says Garlin, who also stars as the patriarch on ABC's "The Goldbergs."
"So they are looking for another way to shock people or bring them in. I'm going to say that I don't think Larry thinks about anything except what he thinks is funny."
'GIFTED' PRESENTATION EARNS AIRTIME
It's no easy task selling a new show idea to some of the "suits" in the tall tower. But sometimes it can be a symphony says Joeph Loeb, executive vice president of Marvel Television. "The Gifted," a new show from the Marvel universe of "X Men," premieres on Fox this week. It was created and is executive produced by Matt Nix, who's best known as creator of the long running "Burn Notice."
"I don't know if any of you have ever had the opportunity to see Matt pitch, but ... it's a rock concert of pitching," says Loeb. "And he, for an hour, held a group of people in complete awe of a story that he wanted to tell _ not just in the first episode _ but where he saw the series going, who the characters were, some of the ideal casting that he wanted, some of the faces that are here. And it really was a chance to sort of look at it and hear how the show could come together if Matt was our guy. And I think it's probably one of the few times I've ever been to a pitch where people applauded at the end of the pitch," says Loeb.
The show is about an ordinary couple who discover their teenagers are imbued with mutant powers. And when they flee from a burgeoning threat, they seek the help from underground mutants. "Telling a story about mutants in the Marvel universe on the publishing side always has been this great metaphor for diversity," says Loeb.
"It always has been this great metaphor for people that feel like they're different from someone else and _ whether that's gender or religion or race _ any of those things are the metaphors that work really well with 'mutant-kind.'"
DISCRETION MAY BE THE BETTER PART OF 'VALOR'
Of the several military dramas bivouacking on TV this fall, the CW's "Valor" displays a feminine side and tends to run to romance. But executive producer and creator Kyle Jarrow is not apologizing for that. "Folks in the military, my brother was in the military, 173rd Airborne, for a bunch of years. And folks in the military, like my brother, they're cheating on people. They're struggling with questions of personal morality and personal choices, just like we all do. It felt really important to dramatize that in telling a full story of what it's like to be someone in the military," he says.
"So in terms of delivering those 'soapy' elements, it actually feels like it's also being honest about what it is to be somebody in the military. So, hopefully, we can get some good soapy intrigue in a way that feels authentic and true to the lives of military folks." "Valor" premieres next Monday.
SONG CHOICE BY COMMITTEE
Ever wonder how the contestants on NBC's "The Voice" choose the songs that they sing? They don't exactly. It turns out that it's a joint decision. If it were only up to the singers they'd all pick the same songs, says executive producer Audrey Morrissey. What happens is that the contender gives the producers a list of the songs he would like to perform.
"We have several recordings of (the contestants). We've seen them in person. We listen to them again. We cross reference with their list. Then we think, 'OK, what is the right song for them to get a push?' That's all we're thinking about," says Morrissey.
"What song do we feel they can handle? ... Oftentimes artists are not clear on what kind of artist they want to be. Sometimes they're just putting songs on their list that they love and they're not really thinking about their personal statement. I can tell you this: regardless of what people may say at the moment, there is no person that goes on that stage that the song that they ultimately perform and end up with isn't a song that derived from their list, or was inspired by their list. Or that they did not raise their hand and say, 'I don't feel good about this.' At any point they can, and their song will be changed."
