Larry David was almost dead. Pretty pretty pretty pretty prettyyyyyyyyy dead.
That’s the surprising insight into the previous season of the show provided by Curb Your Enthusiasm showrunner Jeff Schaffer. In a new interview, Schaffer revealed that there was a very good chance that Season 11 could have been the series’ last. And if that was the case … Larry would have died.
That’s one way to end a comedy show!
Schaffer told The Hollywood Reporter they “shot as if [Season 11] was going to be the last one ever” in order to be prepared for the real possibility that David would decide he didn’t want to make additional episodes. (Curb has now been on the air for over 22 years, and produced 110 shows.) After a season built around Larry trying to get out of building a fence around his pool after a burglar drowned in it, the end of the show — and fictional Larry’s entire life! — would have seen him falling into a pool with no fence around it and then drowning as well.
Here’s more, from Schaffer:
I know I say this all the time, but every season is the last season. And I wanted to prepare as if it was the last one. So Larry kept falling into that pool without the fence and banging his head [for the scene]. We actually have a shot after he’d fallen in, of the still pool with just the envelope floating in the middle, and maybe adding one bubble.
While the show was fully ready for a super-dark (but also hilariously fitting) finale if Larry had decided he was ready to wrap things up, he ultimately decided, according to Schaffer, “I’m not ready to die.” And so fictional Larry was spared from his poetic fate
HBO has already renewed Curb Your Enthusiasm for a 12th season. Who knows how the show will eventually end, but it’s going to be tough to top that drowning idea. That really feels like the ultimate Curb way for Larry to go.
