Curb Your Enthusiasm (2000)

*Curb Your Enthusiasm* is a sitcom that premiered in 2000. The entire show is based on Larry David’s personal experiences in the Los Angeles entertainment industry, depicting a series of hilarious situations the protagonist, David, encounters in everyday life.

*Curb Your Enthusiasm* is essentially an improvised series, with most of the script being created on set. Despite this unconventional approach, the network still approved of it because Larry David was the co-creator of the hugely successful series *Seinfeld*.

Up until the fourth season of *Curb Your Enthusiasm*, Larry David was the sole writer. After that, he brought on three writers from *Seinfeld* to help develop storylines, allowing for collaborative brainstorming that helped enrich the show’s content.

*Curb Your Enthusiasm* produces 10 episodes each year, with a writing period of six months for each production cycle. The show is created in a linear fashion—two episodes are prepared, filmed, and edited at a time before moving on to the next pair.

The production team consists of about 20 people, including the director, script coordinator, producers, sound engineers, and various assistants. They typically shoot two episodes over a three-week span, spending around seven days filming each episode.

To achieve the best results, each scene is usually shot 8 to 15 times, and sometimes reshoots are required. In total, they record around 40 hours of footage per episode, which is eventually edited down to just 30 minutes. As a result, it takes about a year to complete an entire season.

In the first season of *Curb Your Enthusiasm*, each episode had a budget of around \$400,000. At the time, Larry could only afford to pay all the guest actors the minimum union wage, and the actors even had to change costumes in restaurant restrooms.

Now, the production has access to trailers for actors and assistants, as well as sufficient filming locations.

It’s worth noting that because the show’s ratings have increased year after year, HBO has largely refrained from interfering in the production process.