Larry David Spills Seinfeld Reunion Secrets

The Curb Your Enthusiasm creator dishes on just how he reunites Jerry Seinfeld and the gang

By Natalie Abrams Jul 31, 2009 3:07 AMTags
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It's been months since the news broke that the cast of Seinfeld was reuniting on Curb Your Enthusiasm. However, no plot details were released until executive producer and star Larry David sat down with reporters at the Television Critics Association summer press tour earlier today.

Finally we know how Jerry Seinfeld, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander and Michael Richards reunite for the first time in more than 11 years. It's basically a show within a show, where the cast is actually doing a reunion episode in the Curb universe.

We'll let Larry explain...

"The context is that for years I've been asked about a Seinfeld reunion," he says. "I would always say, 'No. There's not going to be a reunion show. We would never do that. It's a lame idea.' And then I thought it might be very funny to do that on Curb. I kept thinking about it. I started to think of different scenarios and how we can pull this off. I called Jerry, and Jerry was game. I said, 'Well, I'll call the others.' And I did and we did it. So we're doing a Seinfeld reunion show on Curb."

What exactly will we see during the creation of a faux reunion special? "We're going to see writing. We'll see aspects of the read-through, parts of rehearsals. You'll see the show being filmed, and you'll see it on TV. You won't see the entire show. You'll see parts of the show. You'll get an idea of what happened 11 years later. It will be incorporated into regular Curb episodes, so the castmembers will be playing themselves on Curb while all of this is going on."

Though it seems this could take up the entire season, he explains, "The reunion is scattered through the season, and I think the cast will be on five shows. All four won't be on all five shows. Jerry is on five shows; the others will be on at least four. The season finale will be about the reunion show. It could very well be [a one-hour episode], but I haven't finished editing it yet. But that's a good possibility."

When asked why he finally caved, he says, "That will be answered in one of the episodes. That's a big thing because I would never do that. So there's a compelling reason as to why I decided to do it."

There's a lot of story to be told, but Larry says he found it quite easy to jump back to the Seinfeld state of mind. "It was surprisingly smooth," he says. "Coming up with the right ideas for what's happened in the 11 years, that took some thought. Three of the guys working on my show as executive producers were also producers on Seinfeld. I think we came up with some interesting stuff." Don't assume all is hunky-dory though, Larry says "it's possible" there will be a mention of Richards sordid past.

So will the character Larry ruin the reunion of the Seinfeld cast? He adds, with an evil laugh, "He might. My guy might consider wrecking something like that. We'll see what happens. My guy could very well wreck it. I'm not saying he did. I don't know."

Will the reunion be any good? "Yeah, you mean as opposed to the finale?" jokes Larry. "It's good. I think the reunion is pretty good."

What do you think of bringing the Seinfeld cast back together? The comments await.

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What else is going down at TCA? Get all of our 2009 press tour coverage here.