“In the immortal words of Julius Caesar, ‘I left, I did nothing, I returned.’”
That’s the reason given by Larry David for returning to HBO for a ninth season of his award-winning show, Curb Your Enthusiasm. The plans for the new run of shows were announced this afternoon in a typically blasé press release, but, still: This news is pretty, pretty, pretty good. It’s also not entirely unexpected, given David’s renewed spotlight thanks to his Bernie Sanders character in the latest run of Saturday Night Live. Also, as recent as last week we were convincing rumors of his return.
Specifically, series regular J.B. Smoove teased the possibility of a new season during an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show, saying,
“If Larry does not say no, there is a possibility he may say yes. He went extra and said, ‘If I do come back, are you going to be available?’ I said, ‘You know something, Larry? I’m going to be available. Call me. Give me early notice. I’ll be there.’ I’ll move anything I’m doing to the side for Curb Your Enthusiasm, which would be a fabulous thing to do. Season nine would be fabulous.”
As that same press release points out, Curb Your Enthusiasm has aired 80 episodes to date, and so is HBO’s longest running scripted drama or comedy. It’ll also be right at home with HBO’s newer shows, especially Veep and Silicon Valley, which have inherited Curb‘s angry, sometimes petty sense of humor. No date is set for the show’s premiere, and given the five years between the eighth season and this announcement, well, we could be waiting for a while.