For more than 20 years, the world has been acquainted with two Larry Davids. There is the Emmy-winning creator of Seinfeld and former occasional SNL sketch comedy performer we all know and love in the real world, and then there is the hapless, self-absorbed, cynical man-child who is not so easy to love, as depicted by the star himself in Curb Your Enthusiasm. Well, we will be seeing the last of the latter Larry David when Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 12 premieres.
It has been years since the release of a new season for the HBO show -- one of the best TV shows streaming on Max -- which started off as a one-off mockumentary special on HBO before it spun-off into a series. Luckily, the wait is almost over. Learn all about when you can expect one of the best Larry David TV shows to come back, and other basic facts we already know about the upcoming return of Curb Your Enthusiasm, in our guide below.
What Is The Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 12 Premiere Date?
According to a report by Variety, the new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm is set to premiere on HBO on Sunday, February 4, 2024, at 10 p.m. It will also be available to stream with a Max subscription at the same time. Only a handful of great comedy TV shows can say they have lasted 10 seasons or more and even fewer can say they been on for more than two decades. However, Curb will be able claim both very soon.
The Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 12 Trailer Is Classic Larry
There is actually a brief moment in the official trailer for Curb Your Enthusiasm's final run which suggests that Larry David's onscreen alter ego is in a greater state of mind, expressing that he is "the happiest" he has ever been. The rest of the clip, however, is pretty much more of the same alienating remarks, overt rudeness, and celebrity cameos (such as Sean Hayes and Dan Levy) that we have come to expect. See for yourself by watching it below:
Another, more symbolic Curb Season 12 teaser was later released in which Larry has a close encounter with an extraterrestrial. They stare at each other for a while before Larry pulls off his mask to reveal he has been an alien the entire time that his "work here is done." As he follows his long-estranged comrade into the flying saucer, he asks about "the idiot" who designed the face he has been wearing for the past two decades.
Larry David Returns As Larry David
No season of Curb Your Enthusiasm would be complete with Larry David appearing as the highly exaggerated version of himself. According to the Variety article above, the comedian is, indeed reprising his most iconic role (not counting his appearances on Saturday Night Live as Bernie Sanders).
Also confirmed to appear in the Curb Your Enthusiasm cast for Season 12 are series veterans Jeff Garlin as Larry’s best friend and manager, Jeff Greene; Susie Essman as Jeff’s wife of the same name; Cheryl Hines as Larry’s ex-wife (and one of TV’s most iconic divorcées), Cheryl; J.B. Smoove as Leon Black, Vince Vaughn as Freddy Funkhauser, Tracey Ullman as Irma Kostroski, and Ted Danson and Richard Lewis as themselves. Given the series’ reputations for some amazing celebrity guest appearances — including all four main Seinfeld cast members — we can only imagine what is in store this time.
The Season Consists Of 10 Half-Hour Episodes
There is not much we can say at the moment about the main story of Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 12. What we do know is that the story will be told over the course of 10 episodes, each lasting 30 minutes. This should come as no surprise to Curb fans, considering the first 11 seasons also came in the form of 10 chapters each.
This Will Be The Final Season Of Curb
What could have possibly come as a surprise to some Curb Your Enthusiasm fans is that the upcoming twelfth season will also be the series very last. Of course, as longtime viewers should also know, each of the last several seasons of the show have been conceived as its potential curtain call. Producer Jeff Schaffer even reflected on this to IndieWire in the following quote from 2022:
When you sign up to do a season of Curb, you’re signing up to do the final season of Curb. And I finally figured out why. It’s because when Larry does a season, he puts every idea that he really likes into that season. So at the end of the season, there’s this hole — there aren’t any ideas that he really likes — so how could he possibly do another season? He’s the only person on the planet who doesn’t think he’s going to come up with more good ideas.
That being said, Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 12 is the first season to be formally announced as a definitive end to the series. A promotional ad for the return refers to it as “the final season” at the very top of the page and underneath lies the tagline “The last of his kind” with image of Larry David standing on top of a melting ice cap below it.
Larry David Executive Produces With Jeff Garlin And Jeff Schaffer
Larry David is not only the star of Curb Your Enthusiasm, but also the creator and one of the executive producers of the partially improvised comedy TV show. The aforementioned Variety article confirmed that he is returning as EP for Season 12, along with his co-star, Jeff Garlin, and Jeff Schaffer, who also used to write for Seinfeld and created two of the funniest TV shows on Hulu: FX’s The League and Dave.
Larry David Penned A Farewell To His TV Alter Ego
Fans were given assurance that Curb Your Enthusiasm Season 12 would mark the end of the series by Larry David himself. It would come in the form of an Instagram post shared on both the show’s official account and HBO’s account that, essentially serves as the actor’s good riddance to his fictional doppelgänger. Read the full quote from the post below:
As CURB comes to an end, I will now have the opportunity to shed this ‘Larry David’ persona and become the person God intended me to be — the thoughtful, kind, caring, considerate human being I was until I got derailed by portraying this malignant character. And so, ‘Larry David,’ I bid you farewell. Your misanthropy will not be missed. And for those of you who would like to get in touch with me, you can reach me at Doctors Without Borders.
I cannot think of a better way to send-up one of the greatest performances by actors playing themselves than this post, which is also a perfect representation of David’s self-effacing sense of humor.
The Curb Cast Will Appear At PaleyFest LA To Celebrate The Series’ Run
Following the series finale, which will air on HBO on April 7, there will (technically) be more Curb Your Enthusiasm where that comes from. According to the Paley Center for Media’s official website, Larry David and his co-stars from the HBO comedy will take the stage at the 41st PaleyFest LA for a discussion about the series’ astonishing run and the cast’s favorite moments. The group is scheduled to appear on April 18 — the seventh night of the annual event, which is taking place at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre from April 12-21 — and the festival’s full line-up will be announced on January 29, which is the day before tickets go on sale.
If this is the season that Larry David and co. have decided to end Curb Your Enthusiasm with, we can only hope that ends up being pretty, pretty, pretty good.
