LarryDavidFan.com

The results of last week’s poll are in, and it is the closest one we’ve had so far. It asked: Who is your favourite supporting cast member of Curb Your Enthusiasm?

The lead was held by three different characters at different times: Jeff, Susie and Richard Lewis. Jeff ended up winning with 31 out of 109 votes, with my prediction and vote, Susie, coming second with 25.

This week’s poll will be the first in a series of polls to find fans’ favourite episode (so far) of Curb Your Enthusiasm. There will be a total of 6 polls over 6 weeks. The first 5 polls will ask fans to select their favourite episode from the first 5 seasons. The 6th and final poll will have the 5 winning episodes face off to find our favourite episode.

So this week’s poll is:

Which is your favourite episode from season one of Curb Your Enthusiasm?

You can see the options and then cast your vote in the sidebar to your right. For synopsis’ and other details to refresh your memory of the episodes in season one, have a look at the episode guides available at HBO, Wikipedia and EpGuides/TV.com.

As for me, I am yet to vote and will probably re-watch a few eps before choosing one, but at the moment it is between Interior Decorator and Affirmative Action.

Note: Thanks for the emails pointing out my my mispelling of favourite but I’m Australian and we spell ‘favorite’ with a ‘u’.

Amazon are selling Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Book by Deirdre Dolan for the low price of $7.99. I bought myself and a friend a copy, with shipping (I’m in Australia) costing more than both the books. If you’d ever considered purchasing it now would be a good time. In a week or so I should have my copy and I will be posting a review.

Meanwhile you can also check out my previous posts that featured details of the book, and a video review from ExpoTV. Also, as you can see the book has a 4.5 star rating on Amazon as well as very positive customer reviews.

One reviewer wrote:

This is a great companion to watching the Curb episodes. There are some bits of dialog as well as insights into what made the scenes so funny. If you love the series, this book is for you!

Just a quick post to let you know about a new feature to the site. You can now subscribe to the comments thread of a particular post. Just check the box as you leave a comment to receive an email when new comments are added to that post. You will be given a link then and in each email you receive to a page to manage your subscriptions. Here you can unsubscribe from specific threads or just block all emails, so don’t worry you will never have to worry about getting unwanted email (at least from this site).

Also I thought that signing off all my comments as admin was a little impersonal, so if you see any future comments from an Alex, that’s actually me!

Eric Goldman from IGN, talked to Larry and Jeff Garlin at a HBO party on the 13th. Speaking with Larry he found out a little more about season 6 of Curb:

“…Curb’s new season involves Larry and Cheryl (Cheryl Hines) taking in a family left homeless after just such a natural disaster. “Yeah, kind of,” David replied. “I thought seemed pretty ripe; a pretty ripe premise if I took in a homeless family.” David also told me that Season 6 would eventually involve he and Cheryl moving into yet another new house, which has been a bit of an unintentional running gag on the series.”

He spent more time with Larry’s costar Jeff, who is currently leading the weekly poll asking fans “Who is your favourite supporting cast member of Curb Your Enthusiasm?” He tells Eric about the scenes from Curb the audience never get to see. He claims many are hilarious but will never reach fans as Larry is not much of a ” DVD aficionado”. He also shares some Curb Your Enthusiasm trivia,

“You know why we’re in a different house every season? This is actually the first season we’re in the same house [at the beginning of the season]. It’s always because the owners are either a**holes or something doesn’t work out and they sell the house. It’s not because we’re trying to.”

He goes on to comment on his love of comic books, but leaves fans with hope for more Curb to come saying he is up for it but ultimately it lies with Larry’s wishes;

“Whenever he gives me the green light, we’ll go.”

A clever Larry David montage I captured from HBO.com.

(more)

The results are in and most fans agree that of Larry’s two brilliant sitcoms, Curb Your Enthusiasm the funniest. 36 out of 93 fans voted that Curb was defintely funnier than Seinfeld with a further 17 voting it was only slightly more hilarious. However a significant number (31%) voted that the two shows were equally funny. We have to allow for the fact that visitors at a Larry David fansite are more likely to be Curb Your Enthusiasm fans first and foremost. See the polls archive for full results.

And onto this week’s poll!

Who is your favourite supporting cast member of Curb Your Enthusiasm?

My vote, and prediction for the winner, is Susie. The foul-mouthed wife of Jeff is infamous for her use of expletives and ability to make Larry wet his pants. I am in the process of making video starring Susie and will hopefully have it up for you shortly.

Anyway, get voting!

I was delighted to read in two separate articles today about two fellow Larry David fans that one might not suspect:

The lovely Julie Delpy, and veteran actor and Academy-Award winner Jeff Bridges.

In a short piece written for Esquire Magazine, Delpy, the French star of two of my most favourite films, Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, divulged “8 Things You Don’t Know About Women”.

Her fourth piece of advice is:

Next time you have to buy your girlfriend a gift, make it a season of Curb Your Enthusiasm on DVD. The surest way to a woman’s heart is Larry David.

I’m sure that not only is that welcome news to male fans such as myself but I’m equally sure that Larry himself would be a little flattered that such a beautiful and talented French actress finds his comedy so appealing.

Jeff Bridges in a short interview with Metro.co.uk about his new film Surf’s Up, made mention of one of his favourite TV shows:

Surf’s Up has a reality TV component. Do you watch any of those shows?
The one I really like is Curb Your Enthusiasm – it’s not really a reality show but they’ve borrowed that feeling. They have an idea for a sketch and then they just turn the actors loose.

I, like Jeff, also appreciate the element of realism that distinguishes Curb from the rest of traditional sitcoms. And it’s with such a talented cast that Larry really is able to achieve that element of improvisation and realism that make’s Curb so uniquely hilarious.

Nonetheless, it is pleasing to know that other fans of Larry’s work come from so broad a spectrum.

I have a little more info on the story arc of season 6 of Curb Your Enthusiasm, set to premiere on the 9th September with the first episode titled Meet the Blacks. Canada’s The Movie Network writes:

This season’s storylines feature an African-American family named “The Blacks” who are displaced by Hurricane and end up moving in with Larry and Cheryl; Larry’s anger after a dry cleaner loses his Yankees jersey; the David family’s attempt at making up for a missed dinner party by showing up a day late; and Larry’s attempt at stealing flowers from a car-crash memorial.

Just a quick post to let you know the forum have been closed indefintely. I’ve decided that almost all discussion can take place in the comments section of my post, as the majority of it does at the moment. If there is significant demand for it to be reopened it will be a simple click to bring them back up.

As a budding guitarist I found this acoustic rendition of Luciano Michelini’s Frolic, the theme of Curb Your Enthusiasm, rather amusing and realised it really is a lovely little tune. The guitarist, adrianholovaty, is actually quite good so check out his other videos as well if you enjoy acoustic music.

It’s been a week since I started the first LarryDavidFan.com poll and it has been a resounding success! A healthy 77 votes were cast to help decide our favourite season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, but alas most people (38%) voted for answer for option 6: “I can’t decide, they’re all brilliant!” Following that season 2 was the most popular with 21% or 16 votes. Season 4 placed second with 11 votes, closely followed by season 3 with 10 votes, season 5 with 6 votes and season 1 with 5 votes. All poll results are viewable on the polls archive page.

As for this week’s poll, I think for many it will be a tougher decision than last week’s:

Which is funnier, Seinfeld or Curb Your Enthusiasm?

For me, although they are close, Seinfeld is my favourite show of all time and in my opinion the superior one. The influence of Jerry is evident in Seinfeld with the lighter, more trivial, less cringe-worthy humour. Whilst I can’t say I prefer Jerry’s to Larry’s humour I feel Seinfeld had the perfect balance between the two styles. And while Curb boasts one of the most impressive supporting cast in TV history with characters like Susie, Jeff, and Richard Lewis, I cannot go past Seinfeld as having THE best cast of any television show. George was and always will be my favourite sitcom character of all time. Although based on Larry the fact that he is also slightly overweight, often unemployed, incredibly cheap, a pathological liar with low self-esteem yet in some strange way oddly loveable, just makes him all the more hilarious.

Kramer. Must one even attempt to explain the zany hilarity that was this character? Whilst based on a real person (Kenny Kramer), Michael Richards created the funniest oddball neighbour on TV, with physical humour that I have yet to see matched. I must also mention Julia Louis Dreyfus’ Elaine, who as the sole female lead did an amazing job with this character. It is unfair to make a comparison with Cheryl as their roles are markedly different, where Cheryl acts more as a facilitator to Larry’s jokes. Regardless I feel Seinfeld really did operate as a terrific ensemble that Curb cannot really match. Memorable supporting characters that included Wayne Knight’s hilarious Newman, TV’s funniest married couple Frank and Estelle Costanza, Uncle Leo, the Seinfeld’s, J. Peterman, Crazy Joe Davola, and Larry’s own incarnation of Yankee manager George Steinbrenner just further contributed to the sitcom’s iconic status.

I have a lot more to say on this rather contentious subject, but as I notice this post is getting rather long I will reserve it for another occasion.

I hope to see some heated debate on this in the forums this coming week!

The epsiode titles for the first three episodes of season six of Curb Your Enthusiasm are viewable on the HBO website.

1. Meet The Blacks
2. The Anonymous Donor.
3. The Ida Funkhouser Roadside Memorial

Thanks to fellow fan Jim Finley for the heads up.

Here’s a short video review of the previously mentioned Curb Your Enthusiasm book done by ExpoTV. It gives you a bit of an idea of the contents if you were interested in purchasing. More details are in my previous post.