HBO announces that Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen will return to the core cast of Larry David’s Curb Your Enthusiasm
Curb Your Enthusiasm season 9 is shaping up to reuniting its classic cast. Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen, who have been on the show since the very beginning and are still married in real life, signed deals to return to Larry David’s HBO comedy series, according to Deadline. David, Jeff Garlin, Cheryl Hines and Susie Essman have already signed on to return.
Danson and Steenburgen play themselves on the show and have been doing it since the “Ted And Mary” episode, the first to run after the pilot.
Danson appeared in 13 of 80 episodes over the first eight seasons. Steenburgen has appeared in five episodes.
Danson currently stars on the comedy The Good Place at NBC. Steenburgen co-stars on Fox’s post-apocalyptic comedy The Last Man on Earth. Danson and Steenburgen will work around the shows’ schedules.
Cheryl Hines currently stars on Fox’s Son of Zorn. Jeff Garlin stars on the comedy The Goldbergs at ABC.
Curb Your Enthusiasm season 8 ended five years ago. David starred in and co-wrote the 2013 HBO Films presentation Clear History, but since then he’s best known as the guy on Saturday Night Live who looks and sounds like Bernie Sanders. This isn’t new to HBO, Uncle Junior on The Sopranos mistook David for himself while watching an early episode. I guess that was better than noticing how much he looked like the dancing Great Adventure spokesman.
“In the immortal words of Julius Caesar, ‘I left, I did nothing, I returned,’” David explained in a statement.
Curb Your Enthusiasm is HBO’s longest-running scripted comedy or drama series. It debuted in 2000 and produced 80 episodes between 2000 and 2011.
HBO chairman and CEO Richard Plepler told reporters at the 2012 Television Critics Association press tour that David “essentially has carte blanche with us … And when he wants to come back and do Curb, we’d be thrilled.”
David plays an over-the-top version of himself on Curb Your Enthusiasm, as if George Costanza wasn’t over the top enough on Seinfeld. Jeff Garlin plays his agent and friend. Susie Essman, J.B. Smoove and Cheryl Hines have all been part of the cast.
A year and a half ago, David put odds against any more seasons at six to one in an interview with Howard Stern. The creator of Seinfeld is still on parole after one series finale.
Last year, costar Jeff Garlin said he thought there was a 51 percent chance the show could return. J.B. Smoove, who plays Leon Black on Curb Your Enthusiasm, recently said the odds are getting better.
During a recent interview on The Rich Eisen Show, Smoove admitted that he calls “Larry every two weeks, because he’s old and I always check on older people.”
“I just talk about regular stuff with him; it’s not always Curb stuff. This time, he brings up Curb Your Enthusiasm. I never brought it up. This was about a month ago. He said, ‘You know, I’m thinking about coming back.’ See, that’s great because he has not said no, which puts us in a great position for possibilities. That means it’s still going. If Larry does not say no, there is a possibility he may say yes. He went extra and said, ‘If I do come back, are you going to be available?’ I said, ‘You know something, Larry? I’m going to be available. Call me. Give me early notice. I’ll be there.’ I’ll move anything I’m doing to the side for Curb Your Enthusiasm, which would be a fabulous thing to do. Season nine would be fabulous.”
Smoove joined the HBO series in 2007.
Curb Your Enthusiasm’s final episode aired Sept. 11, 2011.
HBO hasn’t released any details on a Curb Your EnthusiasmSeason 9 premiere date. No casting announcements have been made.
SOURCE: VARIETY