• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, January 29, 2024

The upcoming 12th season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” is being billed as its last go-round, bringing the curtain down on one of the last vestiges of the golden age of HBO.

The 10-episode season starts this coming Sunday, February 4, on HBO and Max. The show’s renewal for a 12th season was first announced in August 2022. 

In that press release -- and one that came in December announcing the premiere date -- Larry David, 76, put on a display of his contrary nature, choosing evidently to write his own prepared statements rather than leave it to the publicists.

“Playing the role of Larry David has been the greatest honor of my life,” he said in the August 2022 release.

“In researching this multi-faceted, multi-talented man, I discovered that there’s more to him than I ever could have imagined: He speaks six languages, brines his own pickles, and spearheads a national movement to install a bidet in every home.

“I’ve also been told from numerous sources that he is the most generous of lovers. I am so excited to once again transform into this force of nature. I only pray that I can do him justice.”

In the December release, he waxed nostalgic about his farewell to the character that has sustained him for 24 years (along with the incalculable millions he earns from the syndication of “Seinfeld”).

“As ‘Curb’ comes to an end, I will now have the opportunity to finally shed this ‘Larry David’ persona and become the person God intended me to be -- the thoughtful, kind, caring, considerate human being I was until I got derailed by portraying this malignant character,” he said.

“And so ‘Larry David,’ I bid you farewell. Your misanthropy will not be missed. And for those of you who would like to get in touch with me, you can reach me at Doctors Without Borders.”

There is no word yet on the plot of this final season. Scheduled to appear are Jeff Garlin, Susie Essman, JB Smoove, Richard Lewis, Ted Danson, Vince Vaughn and Tracey Ullman.

Now just shy of 24 years old, “Curb Your Enthusiasm” was a major contributor to the reputation for quality that HBO built from roughly the late 1990s, through the ’00s and into the ’10s.

In the pre-streaming era, the channel emphasized quality over quantity. And yet, the quantity of memorable titles that accumulated over the years was prodigious.

A list of at least some of them (in no particular order) makes for a long paragraph -- “Angels in America,” “The Sopranos,” “Oz,” Deadwood,” “Carnivàle,” “Entourage,” “Sex and the City,” “Six Feet Under,” “True Blood,” “The Wire,” “Rome,” “Big Love,” “Da Ali G Show,” “Flight of the Conchords,” “Band of Brothers,” “John Adams” and “Game of Thrones.”

Compared to everything else that was on TV at the time, HBO was the luxury brand. When you subscribed to HBO, you felt as if you were in on something special that you could get nowhere else.

This is not to minimize or denigrate the shows now seen on HBO. But today, the HBO-branded shows are subsumed into a content goliath in which they are just cogs in a much bigger enterprise. 

As for Larry David, he personally has had a major impact on comedy and the popular culture.

Those old enough to remember the heyday of the pre-scandal Woody Allen are aware of the similar impact that he and his movies had long ago.

“Annie Hall” inspired fashion trends and the persona Allen cultivated onscreen in movie after movie was adopted by many, whether they realized it or not.

By virtue of “Seinfeld” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” Larry David has done much the same thing.

Perhaps his influence can best be summed up in just a few words from “Curb Your Enthusiasm”: “Pret-tay, pret-tay, pret-tay good!”