Seinfeld season 4 is the undisputed high-point of the sitcom so much so that Larry David's follow-up show Curb Your Enthusiasm has remade it three times. The over-arching plot of Seinfeld season 4 saw Jerry and George develop a sitcom pilot with NBC which was a very similar show to the real-life show developed by Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David. This meta plot was a step-up for Seinfeld's show about nothing mission statement, but season 4 also contained many of the best-loved individual episodes of the show.
For example Larry David's favorite Seinfeld episode The Contest has no bearing on the NBC plot and is one of the best loved episodes of the whole show. Larry David went on to create Curb Your Enthusiasm, a meta-sitcom about the fictionalized life of Seinfeld co-creator Larry David. Building on the meta-premise of Seinfeld season 4 David would occasionally dedicate a whole season of Curb to Larry attempting to get a sitcom project off the ground. Across Curb's 11 seasons Larry David has remade Seinfled's overarching plot of a sitcom-in-development three times.
Curb season 2 opened with Larry developing a sitcom premise with Jason Alexander about a former sitcom star who struggles with typecasting. When Larry David and George Costanza actor Jason Alexander had the first of their many Curb fallouts Larry took the project to Julia Louis-Dreyfus instead. Season 2 of Curb saw Louis Dreyfus get more and more frustrated with Larry as they shopped their sitcom idea around the major networks.
Over the course of Curb season 2 Larry put their prospective deal with HBO at risk by accusing an executive of stealing shrimp upset an ABC executive's daughter by giving her doll a haircut and finally scuppered a deal with CBS by being accused of stealing cutlery. Unlike Seinfeld season 4 Larry and Julia never got their sitcom pilot into production, although Larry upsetting various network executives is very similar to how George alienated many of the NBC executives. With the Julia Louis-Dreyfus typecasting sitcom dead in the water Curb would follow the production of another sitcom five years later.
In Curb season 7 the fictional Larry David finally decided to revive Seinfeld in a selfish attempt to win back his wife Cheryl. In episode 3 The Revival Larry tried to convince Jerry Seinfeld to get on board, despite both men calling the idea of doing a revival pathetic . After almost derailing the revival before it got off the ground by again upsetting a network executive Larry and Jerry began writing the reunion show and Larry cast Cheryl as George's wife. Appropriately for a story about why a Seinfeld revival will never happen Curb season 7 follows a similar structure to Seinfeld season 7 combining the overarching plot of production on the revival with standalone episodes like the classic episode The Black Swan .
Like Seinfeld season 4 Curb season 7 ends with a double-length episode that depicts the filming of an episode of network television. Both Seinfeld's The Pilot and Curb's Seinfeld have an uncanny quality as they both feel like the Seinfeld that audiences know and love but with off-kilter changes. For example in Seinfeld Jason Alexander's long-standing feud with Larry David reached boiling point and he walked off the project. Alexander refusing to be a part of the sitcom revival is even funnier because, initially, Jason Alexander disliked Seinfeld season 4's Jerry plot. Jason Alexander's absence leads to the uncanny sight of Larry David playing the role of George Costanza alongside the rest of the Seinfeld cast.
The most recent season of Curb updated Seinfeld season 4 for the streaming landscape, as Larry repeatedly derailed his new sitcom by upsetting a Netflix executive and insisting on casting a terrible actress. Over the course of Curb season 11 Larry is being blackmailed by the brother of a burglar who drowned in Larry's un fenced swimming pool. While his new sitcom Young Larry entered production at Hulu Larry tried to find ways to get the legislation about fenced swimming pools repealed. While the multiple overarching plots of Curb season 11 is more complex than Seinfeld season 4's Jerry plot it still follows a similar structure.
As well as story lines involving Larry David's Netflix meeting, where he accuses an executive of lying about toilet repair Curb season 11 also has great standalone episodes like IRASSHAIMASE In that Larry upsets sushi chefs by parroting their Japanese greeting without understanding what it means. It's a classic Seinfeld-style story of cultural insensitivity that is still relevant in a modern world that sees itself as more enlightened. Curb Your Enthusiasm also updates the central plot of producing a sitcom for the streaming landscape and opens with The Five-Foot Fence a hilarious episode that reveals the fictionalized version of comedy legend Albert Brooks is a COVID hoarder . It's proof that Larry David's constant tinkering with the structure of Seinfeld season 4 isn't evidence of a lack of new ideas but evidence of a great comic mind adapting and tweaking a tried-and-tested formula to great success.
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