'Curb Your Enthusiasm' finale: Larry David's 12-season neurosis ends with 'Seinfeld' do-over
Spoiler alert: This story contains details from the “Curb Your Enthusiasm” series finale, streaming now on Max.
Raise your Latte Larry's mugs. It's time to toast the "Curb Your Enthusiasm" finale.
Sunday, the TV version of "Seinfeld" co-creator Larry David aired his final grievances during the HBO comedy's ending, which mirrored the NBC sitcom. David, 76, dropped hints that he would revisit the widely criticized 1998 "Seinfeld" finale throughout the 12th and final season of "Curb," which debuted in 2000.
In Episode 6, in which Lori Loughlin poked fun at her part in a college admissions cheating scandal as a scheming, aspirational member of Larry's country club, Ted Danson asked Larry if he had a hand in ending NBC's classic sitcom. Larry explains that while he'd left the series after Season 7, he returned for the finale. (He is credited as the episode's writer.) And Jerry Seinfeld himself hinted at a reunion in an October standup performance, telling a crowd at Boston's Wang Theatre that "Something is going to happen that has to do with that ending."
Lori Loughlin makes fun of herself on 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' after college admissions scandal
'Curb Your Enthusiasm' series finale recap
The finale brings Larry, Leon Black (J.B. Smoove), Susie Greene (Susie Essman), Jeff Greene (Jeff Garlin), Richard Lewis, Larry's ex-wife Cheryl (Cheryl Hines), Ted Danson and Jerry Seinfeld to Atlanta for Larry’s trial for an election-law violation. In the season premiere, Larry met up with Leon’s Auntie Rae (Ellia English) to return the glasses she loaned him. To quench Auntie Rae’s thirst, Larry gave her a bottle of water while she was waiting in line to vote, against the law in Georgia. Though Larry was unaware of the “Election Integrity Act,” he relishes being treated as a hero.
Just like the trial in the “Seinfeld” finale, which followed the gang's refusal to aid a man being carjacked (thanks to a Massachusetts "Good Samaritan Law"), the “Curb” prosecutor (Greg Kinnear) calls witnesses from previous episodes to testify against Larry. Mocha Joe (Saverio Guerra) remembers how Larry trashed his subpar coffee shop and then launched his own spite store, Latte Larry’s. Bruce Springsteen, a guest star in last week’s penultimate episode, testifies that Larry gave him COVID-19, forcing him to cancel shows.
The jury finds Larry guilty and sentences him to a year in prison, the same amount of time as the “Seinfeld” gang. But the Big House isn’t Larry’s fate. Jerry quickly comes to free him, explaining he discovered that a man who'd accosted him in a bar was a juror in the case, and ignored the judge's requirement that he be sequestered. The result? A mistrial, leading Larry’s sentence to be tossed.
As Jerry’s freeing his friend from his cell, Jerry makes a not-so-subtle “Seinfeld” reference: “You don’t want to end up like this. Nobody wants to see it. Trust me.”
When Larry walks out, a light bulb goes off. “Oh my God! This is how we should’ve ended the ("Seinfeld") finale,” he says.
“You’re right!” Jerry agrees. “How did we not think of that?”
Richard Lewis remembered in 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' tribute, appears in scene with Larry David
What happened in the 'Seinfeld' finale?
The 'Seinfeld' finale drew more than 76 million viewers when it aired on May 14, 1998. During the episode, which is available to stream on Netflix, Kramer (Michael Richards) records a carjacking with his video camera while Jerry, Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and George (Jason Alexander) stand by and make fun of the victim's weight.
"Well, there goes the money for the lipo," Jerry says insensitively.
The four are placed under arrest for failing to help the victim in the tiny Massachusetts town where the crime occurred. The friends are found guilty and sentenced, just as they finally prepared to film an eponymous sitcom about Jerry. USA TODAY TV critic Robert Bianco, gave the finale just ★? out of four.
What USA TODAY said about the 'Seinfeld' series finale 20 years ago
Why did 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' end?
A guest on "Sunday Today with Willie Geist" over the weekend, David said he was "too old" now to appear on camera weekly. "To act the way I do on this show, how can I continue to act like that? It's insane," David said. "Yeah, "I can do it in my 50s and 60s to mid-70s. I'm not going into the 80s acting like that!"
Both David and Jeff Schaffer, an executive producer, writer and director for the series, have said that they didn't begin Season 12 thinking it would be the show's last.
"We didn’t know it was going to be the end, so we weren’t thinking, 'How do we wrap up an entire series with this one scene or this one episode?'" Schaffer said during a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter published in February. "When we figured out where it was going to end, it made sense it was the end. Because the funniest version of the end of this season was the end of the series. And that’s really what it came down to. It just worked."
Larry David says he talks to Richard Lewis after comic's death: 'I feel he's watching me'
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' series finale grants do-over of 'Seinfeld' end
