Let me remind you that I actually am a fan of Larry David’s. In case you forgot, I was indeed more than a little wistful when CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM finally ended two Februarys ago, thus closing out an era that had endured for a dozen seasons spread out over nearly a quarter-century. And I somehow do find myself defaulting back to SEINFELD reruns when sleep eschews me and my slow-charging phone requires I actually drop it from my overly dependent right hand for a spell.
Such was the scenario last night when I settled down to watch the premiere of LIFE, LARRY AND THE PURSUIT OF UNHAPPINESS, an opportunity that apparently coaxed David out of a self-imposed but nevertheless well-earned retirement that was presented to him by none other than the prolific producing power couple Barack and Michelle Obama. It’s the first work of consequence that their Higher Ground production company has done beyond the cushy confines of Netflix, and a quick glance at the 17 projects they did for them would suggest that they had a lot better track record being the leader of the free world and the first lady. And I guess David and his producing partner Jeff Schaffer still had enough gravitas with the powers that be at HBO to earn them at least this seven-episode lark opportunitstically timed for our impending semiquincentennial.
Hence when I read Peter White’s celebratory preview which he dropped on DEADLINE’s platform yesterday I actually got more than a little jazzed than I already was:
The show emerged after President Obama called his golfing buddy David and asked whether he’d be interested in making a show to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the United States of America. David, a history major, was tickled by the idea… It then became a “summer camp” for comedians, including Curb regulars and the likes of Kathryn Hahn, Jerry Seinfeld and Rita Wilson, with David and President Obama as camp counsellors.
There is clearly a chemistry between the pair. Obama kicks off the premiere, which launches today, Friday, June 26, by celebrating America’s 250th birthday. Our founding fathers drafted a charter to guarantee the rule of law and the rights of man. Together they established a new nation, one where power resided not with a monarch but with ordinary citizens. We hold these truths to be self-evident. They remind me that all men are created equal. It was a radical idea, revolutionary, but what truly makes America unique is the fact that we’ve always been a work in progress,” he says in the first episode. “We’re not perfect, we can be irascible, petty, selfish, cheap, and let’s face it, some of us will always find something to complain about, but as Americans, we have always found a way to overcome these naysayers, these deeply unpleasant people who stood in the way of progress.”
Yet that set-up was perhaps the most original element of the kickoff episode I viewed last night. The concept was admittedly inspired by David’s noisy Super Bowl commercial for the FTX crypto platform where he schmeggegied his way through history in the same sorts of wigs and cosplay on display that Schaffer humble-brags about. Schaffer even conceded to White that the execution itself was essentially a regurgitation of CURB:
Writing wise and comedy wise, it’s done basically the same, we wrote an outline and then we sort of rewrite on the day. One of the things that we decided to do was have a sort of documentary style preamble to each sketch, which shouldered a lot of the burden explaining [things like] ‘What is the Alamo, who was fighting, who died?’. It’s educational and hopefully interesting. Sam Jackson’s voice was the perfect bounce to that whole thing, but that’s the setup, so it helped us, so that we could now do the comedy. We did the dialog and the comedy just like Curb. But what was very different from Curb was the production value, and the way we shot it. Larry and I talked about making sure this didn’t feel like a sketch show.
Except it very much did. Saturday Night Live has done these sorts of out-of-studio productions even going back to the days of Albert Brooks and continuing through the eras of Robert Smigel and Please Don’t Destroy. And the spoofing of history was an arena already done way better by one Mel Brooks–and recently resurrected for Hulu in a more mediocre but still satisfying sequel series. The fact that Brooks is back in the news cycle himself this weekend as he become a centenarian reminds one of that and the fact that he pulled it off with way more accuracy and originality than David does–and indeed contributed to one of the more inspired and outrageous season arcs of CURB’s history when Larry was tabbed to become the spiritual successor to Zero Mostel and Nathan Lane as THE PRODUCERS’ clueless protagonist Max Bialystock. A role much more aligned with the David persona than, say, the overly neurotic and inexplicably out-of-place bus passenger Murray who winds up plunked next to Rosa Parks on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama and makes her wish she had indeed moved to the back after all.
It’s cringey and frankly one-note sketches like this–that one should be surprised were approved from the folks at (ahem) Higher Ground–that offset the buzzier and more ambitious ones that have drawn the selective and curated attention of reviewers to date–a point the HOLLYWOOD REPORTER’s Daniel Fienberg made front and center of his:
HBO is asking critics to be coy when it comes to specific sketches and the roles played by specific guest stars, which is an unintentional acknowledgement of what is disappointing about Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Unhappiness: Too many sketches feature an identical core, so if I tell you who the guest stars are playing that eliminates the only real unknown from sketch to sketch. It’s astonishing to see something go from clever to formulaic this fast, but it’s a feat that Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Unhappiness creators David and director Jeff Schaffer pull off.
Well, since that premiere is itself now history and I wasn’t held to such a pinky promise I can tell you that I did get a kick of seeing Henry Winkler as a fellow Declaration of Independence author overruling David’s Festivus-like list of grievances, which as Fienberg further noted was itself an uninspired revisiting of ones we CURB fans were already far too familiar with.. But Richard Kind as the Mr. Watson to David’s kvetchy interpretation of Alexander Graham Bell was doing no more than channelling his Cousin Andy role from the series. And while seeing my friend Michael Chiklis in a cameo as an imposing commanding officer is always a welcome sight, the payoff to the scene he’s dropped into created the same reaction for me that David offered to a lovestruck and doomed soldier showing off a photo of his girlfriend back home. “Eh”.
Furthermore, judging by HBO’s decision to air this as a Friday night companion bookending REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER rather than ride the coattails of whatever higher-profile drama tentpoled Sunday nights as CURB did for its run would indicate they probably knew what they were dealing with more than their controlling publicists did–or at least would publicly admit. The fact is for as beloved as CURB was it was never a ratings success nor an audience draw beyond the examples where something truly outsized was its lead-in, and a short-lived rerun cycle on the upstart and reimagined TV GUIDE CHANNEL was an unmitigated bomb. I consulted on that project on spec in the hopes that with success it might have opened up a door for a permanent role with them. You won’t find that logo on my CV page.
So I hope you’ll understand that my hopes for LIFE, LARRY weren’t all that high to begin with. I’ll keep recording it, but like Larry will admonish I won’t go overly out of my way to watch with urgency unless it fits neatly into my schedule. And as for renewal potential, let’s just say that I have a hunch that HBO’s incoming business daddies aren’t likely going to go out of their way to do any favors for “Hussein” and his “husband.”
Until next time…