Curb Your Enthusiasm: Pretty Pretty Pretty...

Larry David’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” will return for Season 9 on HBO, the premium cabler announced Tuesday.

“We’re thrilled that Larry has decided to do a new season of ‘Curb’ and can’t wait to see what he has planned,” said Casey Bloys, president, HBO programming.

Asked why he decided to come back, David said, “In the immortal words of Julius Caesar, ‘I left, I did nothing, I returned.’”

The hit comedy stars “Seinfeld” co-creator David as an over-the-top version of himself in an unsparing but tongue-in-cheek depiction of his life. With 80 episodes to date, the show is HBO’s longest-running scripted comedy or drama series. David also starred in and co-wrote the 2013 HBO Films presentation “Clear History.”

No details on a Season 9 premiere date or additional casting have been announced at this time. The show hasn’t aired new episodes since 2011, but back in 2012, HBO chairman and CEO Richard Plepler told reporters at the annual Television Critics Assn. press tour that David “essentially has carte blanche with us … And when he wants to come back and do ‘Curb,’ we’d be thrilled.”

Variety.

Don't disappoint us, Larry.

The Disgustings: Yup

The Disgustings from jordan firstman on Vimeo.

Pierce is an egocentric complainer. Daryl is a judgmental ruthless witch. They are best friends. Together, they are "The Disgustings". In this comedic short film, Pierce and Daryl go through their seemingly lovely day while decimating every person, creation, or ideal they can get their words on. Through their interactions with different humans, they begin to examine the notion that they might not be better than the world...

A puckish satire on contemporary rich gay LA life.

Fagburn senses the influence of Curb - pretty, pretty, pretty good.

Well, it's okay, really.

Loxfest: What Has Am, What Has Am, What Has Ambridge Done To Deserve This?

Pet Shop Boys have been announced as the surprise headline act at Borsetshire's first and finest music festival, Loxfest!

Fagburn is too thrilled for words.

Apart from all the words I am now typing, clearly.

The episode will be broadcast on Monday.

This is like, I dunno, Chomsky appearing on Curb Your Enthusiasm or something.

Fagburn would like to pad this out with loads of hopeless farming puns on Pet Shop Boys' song titles - West End Cows, It's A Pig etc - but needs a lie-down now.

PS But does this mean Ambridge rejected Morrissey?

PPS Next Pets' stop Festival No. 6 at Portmeirion! Now that's a nice venue...

Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Boy Who Loved To Sew

This episode - Larry Vs Michael J Fox - aired last night in the States.
Hilarious.

• By synchronicity, Brian Palmer asks on Slate today; "When do gay kids start 'acting gay'?"

Simon Amstell: How To Review 'Grandma's House'

Simon (Amstell) says: "I didn't want to hide behind another name. I've seen sitcoms where they've changed the name of the person and they don't ring as true as something like Curb Your Enthusiasm or Seinfeld."
Yesterday's The Independent preview declared: "a British Curb Your Enthusiasm".
Today's review in The Independent; "In some ways, Grandma's House is The Royle Family with chopped liver."
But it was also "Seinfeld removed to Gants Hill" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm also has loud echoes in Grandma's House."
Co-writer Dan Swimer got to puff away in Saturday's Guardian Guide, but jokily warned; "this show's nothing like Seinfeld, starring comedian Jerry Seinfeld playing a comedian whose name is Jerry. Or Curb Your Enthusiasm, about the creator of Seinfeld, Larry David, who if I recall is played by a man called Larry. Nor is it anything like Hancock's Half Hour, Roseanne or It's Garry Shandling's Show. No way..."
Today's review in The Guardian mused; "Maybe think of it as a kind of British Curb Your Enthusiasm.
"No, that's clearly ridiculous, an insult to Larry David. But it does sort of work..."
Yesterday's Times' preview was more certain and more enthusiastic; "the funniest and most original new sitcom since Getting On... in the grand tradition of Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David..."
The Times on Saturday put it in similarly illustrious company; "Fiction meets reality, high-life meets mundanity; it’s a path well-trodden on American shows such as Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm. They are high benchmarks, although the feel here is much more downmarket, a kind of Royle Family atmosphere..."
Today's Times review namedropped two new references and two - by-now - old friends; "Ever since the American Danny Thomas Show in the Fifties, comedians have liked to play sitcoms about their lives off-set... No one much remembers the BBC’s Kelly Monteith show, although it ran for years in the Seventies, but no one will forget Seinfeld, nor its even more self-referential spin-off Curb Your Enthusiasm."
You can say that again.

Curb Your Enthusiasm: Aunts Are Still Running The World

I don't care about you, but I'm spending the weekend watching the seventh series of Curb Your Enthusiasm on DVD.
I'm about halfway in and it's been a bit too gentle for me, that is until 'Denise Handicapped'.
Larry David's face is all over the place over here right now, in part because he's starring in the new Woody Allen movie, Whatever Works.
Judging from the ads and posters for the film what works is having a big picture of Larry and only mentioning it's a Woody Allen movie in the small print.
Over here Curb is still pretty cult, the last series was shunted away at silly o'clock over on More4.
It's fitting in a way - the whole point of the character "Larry David" is that he's not going to win any popularity contests - but it's also frustrating as The Finest and Funniest Sit Com of the Noughties deserves a much bigger audience.
It's still pretty niche in the US where it's shown on Home Box Office, though I read yesterday that it's soon to air for the first time on a mainstream cable channel.
"Each episode will be followed by a 10-minute panel discussion to contemplate the "issues" raised by the show."
Like Curb is schools' TV and "Larry David" is just a lesson in how not to treat people.
This also means the cast has been busy dubbing over Curb's copious swear words.
"You say 'freak' for 'fuck' and 'shoot' for 'shit' and 'baloney' for 'bullshit', or whatever fits the movement of your lips," David explains.
I can't wait to see the clean version of my favourite episode, 'Beloved Aunt'.