curb_your_enthusiasm

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CurbYourEnthusiasm(2000Present)

We l l go to ABC. I don t have to be a t HBO. I t s not TV? I t s TV. What do

they th ink people a re watch ing? You watch i t on TV don t you? You don t

go to the mov ies to watch i t .

Larry Dav id in The Shr imp Inc ident

(CurbYourEnthusiasm 2 .4 )

WhenCurbYourEnthusiasm debuted on HBO in October of

2000 , HBOwas in i t s ha l cyon days . The f i r s t twoseasons of i t s

f l agsh ip ser ies TheSopranos had a i red (Season Three would beg in

the fo l lowing March) ; SexandtheCity was end ing Season Three

that samen ight ; Oz was on h ia tus in the midd le of i t s 4

t h

season; and the debut of Six FeetUnder was s t i l l months away , debut ing

in June of 2001 .

Not the f i r s t s i tcomon HBO(DreamOn [19901996] , for

example , had preceded i t ) nor the l ast (LuckyLouie debuted in 2006) , Curb was ,

however , the f i r s t to fo l lowthe formula for success that generated such HBOdramas

as TheSopranos , Six FeetUnder , and Deadwood, each of which had been the c reat ion

of an ind iv idua l who, a f ter forg ing a reputat ion

e l sewhere ( in network te lev i s ionTheSopranos

Dav id Chase , Deadwood s Dav id Mi l chor the

mov iesSix FeetUnder s A lan Ba l l ) , accepted an

inv i ta t ion and welcomedthe opportun i ty to

exper iment w i th mak ing not TV.1

Curb would of fer Larry Dav id , coc reator of

NBCs Seinfeld (19901998) , the smash, must see

comedy rankedby TVGuide a s te lev i s ion s a l l t ime

greatest show, the chance to take the g loves of f .

Seinfeld , o f course , had a l ready succeeded in

present ing , even wi th in the l imi ta t ions of Amer i can network te lev i s ion , outrageous,

po l i t i ca l l y incorrec t , r iba ld humor. Oneep i sode famous ly dea l s w i th a contest to see

1 Other examples ex ist , of course. Tanner 88 (created by f i lm d irector

Robert A l tman), Band of Brothers (produced by d irector Steven Spie lberg and

actor Tom Hanks), and Oz (the brainchi ld of Homicide s Tom Fontana) also

fo l lowed this formula.


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The Col lected Works of David Lavery 2

whocan go the longest w i thout masturbat ing ; in another E la ine ( Ju l i a Lou i s Dreyfus)

interv iewsposs ib le lovers before sex in order to determine whether they a re worthy

enough for her to use one of her now l imi ted supply of contracept ive sponges .

Seinfeld even got away wi th murder : the ins i s tence of George ( Jason A lexander) on

cheap wedding inv i ta t ions k i l l s h i s enve lope l i ck ing f i ance Susan. Seinfeld s George ,

the qu intessent ia l sch lemie l ,2was of course based on Dav id h imse l f , but h i s on

sc reen presence on the showwas l imi ted to a fewcameos and somevo ice work (he

ventr i loqu i sed NewYork Yankees owner George Ste inbrenner) .3On Curb ,

however , the author s teps forward f rombehind the curta in .

WhenCurb becamean ongoing ser ies , Dav id would import

Seinfeld s successfu l and innovat i ve formula : an obsess ion wi th the

t r i v ia l deta i l s o f modern urban ex i s tencewith noth ing , as i t would be

ca l led in Se in fe ld i anaanda re l i ance on a dominoef fec t p lot

s t ruc ture (Mi l lman, By George) .4 In an interv iewwi th HBOs TheBuzz just before

Curb s f i f th season would a i r , Robert Weide, the shows execut ive producer and

d i rec tor of twenty s i x of i t s f i f ty ep i sodes , would pretend to spoi l the season about

to a i r :

I w i l l te l l you a l l about Season F ive , and don t l e t Larry know I to ld you th i s .

La rry s go ing to say th ings that a re go ing to upset people . They a re go ing to

get very mada t h im, and there wi l l be a b ig misunderstanding . He l l t ry to

c lear i t up , th ings w i l l get worse , they l l snowba l l , and i t w i l l a l l b lowup in h i s

face a t the end of every ep i sode. That s just for you. Nobody e l se should know

that .

2 See Car la Johnson, Lost in New York: The Schlemiel and the

Schl imazel in Seinfeld, Journa l of Popular F i lm and Televis ion 22.3 (1994),

116-124.3Seinfeldi s , o f course, a constant presence on Curb . See Joyce

Mi l lman, By George,Salon.com, 9 October 2000

)

and David Lavery and Marc Leverette, Afterword: Rereading SeinfeldAfter

Curb Your Enthusiasm , in Seinfe ld, Master of I ts Domain: Revis i t ing TVs

Greatest Si tcom , ed. David Lavery and Sara Lewis Dunne (New York:

Cont inuum, 2006), 204-206.4 With Curb, Mi l lman would observe in the shows f i rst season (By

George), David brazenly recyclesOK, stealshis o ld show's nothing-and-

everything premise and domino-ef fect p lot structure. But, look, i t was a great

premise and p lot structure, and he seems to have more than enough funny

stuf f to do i t just ice here, so I 'm inc l ined to let the grand-theft-s i tcom

charges s l ide (By George).


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The joke here i s that th i s supposed ins ide scoopte l l s us noth ing wedon t a l ready

know i f we have seen even one ep i sode of th i s c r inge comedy .5

Un l i ke the sc r ipted Seinfeld , however , Curb , l i ke the or ig ina l HBO

documentary which was i t s foundat ion ,6 re l i es heav i l y on improv i sa t ion . Work ing

f roma deta i led out l ine , ac tors and ac tresses , both regu lars and guest per formers ,

o f ten not yet aware of future deve lopments in the story , invent in rea l t imethe i r

o f ten profane and f requent ly sacr i l eg ious d ia logue over mul t ip le takes and wi th

min ima l d i rec t ion .7 For example , when in KrazeeEyez K i l l a (3 .8 ) , the eponymous

rapper (p layed by Chr i s Wi l l i ams) reads Larry the obscene l y r i c s to I mComing to

5 Dana Stevens, Excruci- f ict ion: HBOs Sunday Night Cr inge-Comedy

Lineup,Slate 23 September 2005: http://www.slate.com/id/2126840/.When

HBO ran a Season F ive marathon on New Year s Eve 2005, ads for the event

inv i ted v iewers to cr inge in the New Year with Curb. 6 The seed crystal of Curb was Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm , a

1999 HBO mockumentary that fo l lowed his post-Seinfeldbi-coastal ef fort to

restart his standup career. (For more on D avid s standup career, see Marc

Leverette, Deconstruct ing Larry, The Last Man: Larry D avid, Seinfeld, Curb

YourEnthusiasm, and Comedies of the Sel f , Studies in Popular Culture 27,

no. 1 [2004]: 1-17.) The or ig inal Curb ends with Larry te l l ing HBO execut ives

he is qui t t ing the project due to the death of his stepfather (David, of course,

has no stepfather), but in the fashion of Fe l l in i s 8 , the f i lm he fa i ls to

make is the f i lm we are watching. Curb Your Enthusiasm the documentary,

d irected by Robert Weide, is avai lab le on the Season One Curb DVD set.7 Contemplat ing where to p i tch a s i tcom idea, Seinfeldalum Louis-

Dreyfus suggests HBO: I want to be able to say fuck, she admits to Larry

(The Shr imp Incident, 2.4). David nevertheless ins ists that he often toned

down the use of four let ter words (A Stop and Chat with Curb YourEnthusiasm , Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Complete Third Season).


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Get Ya , Dav id was hear ing themfor the f i r s t t imeon the set the day of f i lming , and

h i s responsehis ident i f i ca t ion of a R i ce Kr i sp ies a l lus ion , h i s suggested subst i tut ion

of b i tch for one of the mother fuckerswas improv i sed.8 Scenes a re captured

fo l lowing the bas i c convent ions of documentary f i lmmakingfor example , Curb

customar i l y uses on ly a s ing le , handheld camera .9

The f ina l cut of each ep i sode i s

presented wi th no laugh t rack , a ma jor d i f ference f romSeinfeld , and min ima l mus ica l

scor ing , a lmost a lways var ia t ions on the shows Fe l l in iesque thememusic .10

Borrowing a scht i ck f romear l ier HBOser ies l i ke TheLarry SandersShow, Curb

(19921996) would be set in the wor ld of showbus iness and feature rea l

persona l i t ies .11Dav id p lays h imse l f , or ra ther a f i c t iona l i zed vers ion of h imse l f ,

12 the

nowunemployedbut fabu lous ly wea l thy coc reator of Se in fe ld ,13a d i sgrunt led , c rass ,

d i s ingenuous, prevar i ca t ing , egomaniaca l , misanthrop ic , op in ionated, perpetua l l y

kvetch ing equa l opportun i ty of fender . Dav id s deadpanportra i t o f a guy whohas

ach ieved legendary s ta tus in the TV industry , but whoremains an unhappy , insecure

jerk14has earnedh imsevera l Emmynominat ions ( for Outstanding Lead Actor in a

Comedy Ser ies) .

8 Bob Costas, Interv iew with Larry David, Curb Your Enthusiasm: The

Complete F irst Season .9 In an interv iew, Robert Weide provides many ins ights into the shows

documentary feel . Take note that Weide had made several documentar ies,

inc luding f i lms on comedians Mort Sahl a nd Lenny Bruce, pr ior to his work on

Curb . Interv iew. Sound of Young America, 8 October 2005.

.10 David had heard Luciano Michel in i s "Fro l ic" years before on a local

te lev is ion bank commercia l and chose i t for the show because he sensed

(correct ly) that i t would mol l i fy v iewers as they encountered Curbsf requent ly over-the-top subject matter (Costas).

11 For example, on Larry Sanders the star of The X-Fi les played a David

Duchovny homoerot ical ly obsessed with Larry (Garry Shandl ing), the ser ies

eponymous TV talk show host, and Jon Stewart appeared, as himsel f , as

Larry s subst i tute host, who is p lott ing to make the show permanent ly his.12 As David explained on Sixty Minutes , I love the character. At f i rst I

d idn t real ize i t was gonna be a character. I just thought I was gonna be

doing me. And eventual ly as I kept wr i t ing i t , something emerged that was

not qui te me but a vers ion of me (Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm (60

Minutes II Interv iew with Bob Simon), CBS News 11 August 2004,

.13 In the shr imp Incident (2.4), an HBO execut ive, angry over Larry s

charge of shr imp theft f rom a Chinese take-out order, te l ls Larry what he can

do with his $475 mi l l ion. 14 Mil lman, By George.


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the Stuf fed Sh i r t , the Se l f AbsorbedSucker , and the Bu l l y , as c lass i ca l f i lmand

standupcomedy t rad i t iona l l y d id , Larry Dav id , in S iege l s judgment , sets h i s s i ghts

on the l i t t le guy , the perennia l ta rget of the Stuf fed Sh i r t , the Se l f AbsorbedSucker ,

and the Bu l l y . Dav id ' s nemesi s , accord ing to S iege l , i s usua l l y just the serv i ce

industry and a l l the people whowork in i t .16

CurbYourEnthusiasm resembles more

than a l i t t le those Romancomedies in which some inef fec tua l s l ave keeps the t rouble

bo i l ing . Dav id a lmost never p i cks on someoneh i s owns i ze . Whereas the comic

t rad i t ion , go ing back to i t c l ass i ca l or ig ins , set the sp i r i tua l order r i ght by turn ing

the soc ia l order ups ide down, Curb return[s ] the soc ia l order to i t s upr ight pos i t ion

by s tand ing comedy on i t s head. For perhaps the f i r s t t ime in the h i s tory of the

genre , S iege l conc ludes , Dav id has put comedy on the s ide of the b ig guy .

L i ke most c r i t i c s w i th an axe to gr ind , S iege l s compla ints a re not terr ib ly

prec i se . I t i s patent ly untrue , for example , that Dav id never p i cks on anyoneh i s own

s i ze on Curb . The network execut ives (a t HBO, ABC , CBS, NBC) , phys i c ians , and

lawyers w i th whomhe locks horns a re certa in ly formidable , as a re the stars (St i l l e r ,

Schwimmer, O Donnel l , Danson, A lexander , Lou i s Dreyfus) and producers and

d i rec tors (Brooks , Scorsese) . Sure ly S iege l would not a rgue that the 7 foot , 1 inch ,

325 poundNat iona l Basketba l l Assoc ia t ion star Shaqui l l e O Nea l (acc identa l l y t r ipped

by Larry whenhe stetches h i s l egs in Je f f s courts ide seats [Shaq, 2 .8 ] ) i s not

Dav id s s i ze . As longt imeco l l aborator Larry Char les has noted, i t i s easy to over look

the ega l i ta r ian nature of Dav id s cantankerous character .17

S iege l assessment of Curb contrasts sharp ly w i th TV c r i t i c Joyce Mi l lmans

cogent observat ion that thoughLarry may wel l be a sarcast i c , immature , abras ive

asshole . . . the people whomhes of fendedof ten turn out to be the b igger assholes

( Nasty) . I s Larry gu i l ty as charged of rac i smbecause he d idn t h i re that Afr i can

Amer i can ac tress for a part in SourGrapes ? (Af f i rmat ive Act ion , 1 .9 ) .18D id Larry

rea l l y deserve to be a t tacked by that wa i ter in The Acupunctur i s t (2 .6 ) for dowsing

h i s a rmwi th water when i t acc identa l l y ca tches f i re a t h i s tab le? I s that horr ib le typo

in the ob i tuary Dav id vo lunteered to wr i te for Chery l s aunt ( Be loved Cunt) Larry s

fau l t? I s Larry a bad manbecause he p lays a long , exchang ing f ingergun f i re , w i th

those k ids in the back seat of a profess iona l wrest ler s car? ( Thor , 2 .2 ) . D id he

16 But what real ly dr ives David into f i ts of animadvers ion, S iegel

observes, are people who impede his desire for instant grat i f icat ion.17 A Stop and Chat with Curb Your Enthusiasm. 18 For more on the charge of rac ism somet imes leveled against Seinfeld

see Lavery and Leverette (212-215).


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rea l l y deserve to be upbra ided for comment ing on Wanda Sykes tush?19 ( Thor) .

Was that to i le t paper ing of h i s house warranted, just because he refused to g i ve a

t reat to twoobnoxious , b las teens wg i weren t wear ing costumeson Ha l loween?

(Tr i ck or Treat , 2 .3 ) . D id Larry rea l l y deserve to have the po l i ce s i cced on h im (not

to ment ion a boyfr iend a t tack h im in a restaurant) because he was annoyedby an

intrus ive c lerk in a c loth ing s tore? (C lub Soda and Sa l t , 3 .3 ) .

I f put on t r i a l for h i s c r imes (as were the NewYork Four in the f ina l

ep i sode of Seinfeld 20) , La rry would certa in ly be foundgu i l ty by any jury in the wor ld .

But gu i l ty of what? Of break ing up a fu l l immers ion bapt i sm(which he mistakes for a

drowning) and then accept ing the out of p lace pra i se of h i s fe l lowJews for s topping

a convers ion? (The Bapt i sm, 2 .9 ) . Of miss ing h i s mother s funera l and then

repeated ly exp lo i t ing her death for h i s ownga in? (The Spec ia l Sec t ion , 3 .6 ) . Of

lust ing a f ter the V i rg in Mary and then coughing up a pubic ha i r? ( Mary , Joseph, and

Larry , 3 .9 ) . Of s tabb ing Ben St i l l e r in the eye wi th a skewer? (Bens B i r thday

Party , 4 .2 ) . Of s tea l ing a go ld c lub f roma cof f in? (The 5 Wood, 4 .5 ) . Of h i r ing a

prost i tute so he can dr i ve in the HOV lane? (The Car Pool Lane, 4 .6 ) . Of buy ing

G i r l s GoneWi ld , Co l lege Ed i t ion? (Wander ing Bear , 4 .8 ) . Of fe ign ing (1 ) rac i sm

toavo id jury duty (The Car Pool Lane) , (2 ) a handicapto jumpthe l ine in a

restroom(The Bowt ie , 5 .2 ) , and (3 ) a heart condi t iontoescape a t i re i ron

wie ld ing thug? (The Surrogate , 4 .7 ) . Of dr i v ing Yosh i to su i c ide by h i s jests

concern ing h i s fa i l ed kamikaze fa ther? (The Kamikaze B ingo, 5 .4 ) . Of inv i t ing a

ch i ld molester to a seder? (The Seder , 5 .7 ) . Of pretending to be an orthodox Jew in

order to suck up to the head of the k idney consort ium in a schemeto get out of

donat ing the organ he has promised Lewis , o f fer ing the mans very hungry , u l t ra

re l i g ious daughter a pa i r o f ed ib le pant ies to eat , and accus ing a womanof h id ing

Mickey Mant le s 500t h

homerunba l l i n her unusua l l y l a rge vag ina? (The Sk i L i f t ,

5 .9 ) . To the de l i ght of v iewers , the l i s t cou ld go on and on.

19 Larry s actual remark when he sees Sykes jogging (I d know that

tush anywhere) becomes a reference to her fat ass when she reports i t to

Chery l .20 The infamous Seinfeldf inale was, of course, wr i t ten by Larry David,

who returned for the f inale after having lef t the show at the end of Season

Seven. For more on Seinfeld s last ep isode, see Joanne Morreale, S i tcoms

Say Goodbye: The Cultural Spectacle of Seinfeld s Last Episode, in Crit iqu ingthe Sitcom: A Reader, The Telev is ion Ser ies, ed. Joanne Morreale (Syracuse:

Syracuse Univers i ty Press, 2003), 274-85 and Albert Auster, Much Ado About

Nothing: Some F inal Thoughts on Seinfeld, in Seinfel d, Master of I ts

Domain: Revis i t ing TVs Greatest Si tcom , ed. David Lavery (New York:

Cont inuum, 2006), 13-22.


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Asked in an interv iewto exp la in the ph i losophy beh ind Curb , Dav id exp la ins

s imply that Were sp l i t downthe midd le , betweengoodand ev i l , and good i sn t

funny .21As Weide revea l s Our s logan for the show, weused to say , [was] no good

or bad deedgoes unpuni shed.22

H a v i n g r u n f o r f i v e s e a s o n s , the future of Curb i s now in doubt . The t i t l e of the

Season F ive f ina le , The End, an ep i sode in which Larry , re luc tant ly donat ing a

k idney to Lewis , d ies on the operat ing tab le , goes to heaven, and i s sent back a f ter

prov ing , as usua l , to be insuf ferab le , certa in ly suggested c losure . At the t imeof

wr i t ing , Dav id had not yet agreed to do ing a s i xth , a l thoughrumors ind i cate that he

i s work ing on sc r ipts for a poss ib le presumedtobe f ina l s i x th season.23

ThoughLarry Dav id the character , b i t ing the handthat feeds the rea l Larry

Dav id , may d i smiss HBOs brandestab l i sh ing ins i s tence that i t i s not TV ( see the

ep igraph above) ,24 La rry Dav id the c reator of Curb has de l i vered an innovat i ve ,

21 Crowds Can Barely Curb Enthusiasm for Larry David, Interv iew with

Larry David on WCBSTV, New York 12 January 2006,

.22 A Stop and Chat with Curb Your Enthusiasm. 23 For more on Curbs possib le S ixth Season, see Curb Your

Enthusiasm, Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia:

.24 For more on development of the HBO brand and i ts inf luence on

programming, see Mark C. Rogers, Michael Epste in, and J immie Reeves, The

Sopranos as HBO Brand Equity: The Art of Commerce in the Age of Dig i ta l

Reproduct ion, in This Thing of Ours: Invest igat ing The Sopranos, ed. David


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unique in s ty le and sub jec t matter s i tcomthat more than sat i s f ies the re ign ing

miss ion sta tement . There may never be a Season S i x of Curb , but as Dav id makes

patent ly c lear in h i s in terv iewwi th BobCostas , one th ing i s certa in : he and h i s

outrageous humor wi l l never return to network te lev i s ion .

Bibliography

Auster , A lbert . MuchAdoAbout Noth ing : SomeF ina l Thoughts on Se in fe ld . In

Se in fe l d , Master o f I ts Domain :Rev i s i t ing TVs Greatest S i tcom , ed i ted by

Dav id Lavery . NewYork : Cont inuum, 2006 .

Costas , Bob. Interv iewwi th Larry Dav id . CurbYourEnthusiasm: TheCompleteF i rst

Season.

Crowds Can Bare ly Curb Enthus iasmfor Larry Dav id . Interv iewwi th Larry Dav id on

WCBSTV, NewYork , 12 January 2006: ht tp ://wcbstv .com/enterta inment/ loca l_story_012114244.html .

CurbYourEnthusiasm . Wikipedia: TheFreeEncyclopedia :

.

Epste in , Michae l M. , J immie L . Reeves , and Mark C . Rogers , Surv iv ing the H i t : Wi l l

TheSopranos S t i l l S ing for HBO? In Reading The Sopranos: HitTV fromHBO ,

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50 Greatest Showsof A l l T ime. TVGuide , 4 May 2002 , 1820 , 24 , 27 , 3236 , 3840 ,

42 , 44 , 46 , 48 , 52 , 5455 .

Hoggart , S imon. D ickens ian G loom. Spectator 29 Oct 2005 , 6667 .

Johnson, Car la . Lost in NewYork : The Sch lemie l and the Sch l imaze l in Seinfeld .

Journal of Popular F i lmandTelev is ion 22 .3 (1994) : 116124 .

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News11 August 2004 .

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Lavery , Dav id , w i th Marc Leverette . Af terword: Reread ing Se in fe ld A f ter CurbYour

Enthus iasm, In Se infe ld , Master o f I ts Domain : Rev i s i t ing TVs Greatest

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Lavery (New York: Columbia Univers i ty Press, 2002), 42-57 and Michael M.

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Sopranos St i l l S ing for HBO? in Reading The Sopranos: Hit TV from HBO , ed.

David Lavery (London: Taur is, 2006), 15-25.


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The Collected Works of David Lavery 10

Leverette , Marc . Deconstruct ing Larry , The Last Man : Larry Dav id , Seinfeld , Curb

Your Enthus iasm, and Comedies of the Se l f . Studies in Popular Culture 27 , no.

1 (2004) : 1 17 .

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___. As nasty as they wanna be: The squ i rmappea l o f CurbYourEnthusiasm and

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Morrea le , Joanne. S i tcomsSay Goodbye: The Cu l tura l Spectac le of Seinfeld s Last

Ep i sode. In Crit iquingtheS i tcom: AReader . The Te lev i s ion Ser ies , ed i ted by

JoanneMorrea le . Syracuse: Syracuse Univers i ty Press , 2003 .

Rogers , Mark C . , Michae l Epste in , and J immie Reeves , TheSopranos as HBOBrand

Equi ty : The Art of Commerce in the Age of D ig i ta l Reproduct ion . In ThisThing

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Co lumbia Univers i ty Press , 2002 .

S iege l , Lee . The L i t t le Th ings : The Ins ign i f i cance of Larry Dav id . TheNewRepubl ic ,

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Stevens , Dana . Excruc i f i c t ion: HBO's Sunday n ight c r ingecomedy l ineup. S la te 23

September 2005: ht tp ://www.s la te .com/ id/2126840/ .

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