One of many hallmarks of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” was its slew of A-list superstar visitor stars, who typically appeared as themselves and lampooned their public personas via grating social interactions with Larry David. The present’s visitor star pedigree remained robust till the very finish, with the likes of Bruce Springsteen and Salman Rushdie making self-deprecating appearances in the previous couple of seasons.
Given the busy schedules of celebrities, followers can be forgiven for assuming the present had a number of folks in thoughts for every look. However at this week’s PaleyFest LA panel celebrating the present’s ultimate season, David and his collaborators revealed that they typically wrote scripts for particular folks with out backup plans in thoughts.
Whereas reflecting on the present’s many legendary visitor stars, sequence director and government producer Jeff Schaffer reminisced a few Season 10 storyline wherein the fictionalized Larry David writes a Broadway musical about Salman Rushdie’s fatwa and enlists Lin-Manuel Miranda to star. The famously good “Hamilton” creator appeared in two episodes, taking part in in opposition to kind as an egomaniac who always calls for ill-advised artistic adjustments.
Whereas the arc brilliantly capitalized on the cultural phenomenon of “Hamilton,” Schaffer revealed that it nearly didn’t occur. He famous that the crew had already deliberate the episodes earlier than studying about Miranda’s availability, and the composer’s busy schedule pressured them to maneuver capturing dates reasonably than search for a backup plan.
“We referred to as [Miranda] and stated ‘Did you wish to do that?’ He stated ‘Yeah, I’d like to, however I’m about to go to London for eight months. So we needed to in some way transfer heaven and earth to push that one,” Schaffer stated. “We by no means realized to name folks first.”
David echoed Schaffer’s sentiments, recalling that he went via an analogous course of for the present’s different Broadway-centric saga. Season 4 follows David as he’s forged in a manufacturing of Mel Brooks’ “The Producers” musical earlier than studying that Brooks was really recreating the premise of the unique movie by trying to maximise his private earnings by making a flop. David revealed that he wrote full episodes for Brooks earlier than asking the Oscar winner if he was even interested by showing on the present.
“Mel Brooks. I wrote the three to 4 episodes that he was in, after which I needed to have lunch with him,” David stated, earlier than joking that the season’s meta gag might have been altered to deal with one other musical. “However I might have achieved ‘Fiddler on the Roof.’”
Reporting by Marcus Jones.