Larry David is back on television, and he has Barack Obama to thank for it.
The new HBO comedy series Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness premiered on Friday, June 26, with David playing figures from American history. The show is produced by Obama through his Higher Ground production company.
According to Deadline, the project began when Obama called David, a longtime golfing partner, and asked if he would be interested in making a show to mark the 250th anniversary of the United States. David, who studied history in college, was drawn to the concept.
The premiere opens with David in period costume, playing Robert R. Livingston, one of the founding fathers, imagining that Livingston wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence rather than Thomas Jefferson. David's character complains about being told who will attend a dinner party and about laws against sharing an umbrella.
"We jokingly call it Curb in costume," executive producer Jeff Schaffer told Deadline. Schaffer has worked with David as a longtime collaborator on Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Schaffer described how he pitched the show to HBO comedy chief Amy Gravitt. "What if I could bring you two people that half of America loves?" he said he told her.
The cast includes several familiar faces from Curb Your Enthusiasm, along with Kathryn Hahn, Jerry Seinfeld and Rita Wilson. David and Obama function as what Schaffer called camp counselors for what became a gathering of comedians.
Obama appears in the first episode. "Our founding fathers drafted a charter to guarantee the rule of law and the rights of man. Together they established a new nation, one where power resided not with a monarch but with ordinary citizens. We hold these truths to be self-evident. They remind me that all men are created equal. It was a radical idea, revolutionary, but what truly makes America unique is the fact that we've always been a work in progress," Obama says. "We're not perfect, we can be irascible, petty, selfish, cheap, and let's face it, some of us will always find something to complain about, but as Americans, we have always found a way to overcome these naysayers, these deeply unpleasant people who stood in the way of progress."
David said at the show's premiere event that he was enthusiastic about the project, which Schaffer noted is not a word typically associated with David's public persona.
Schaffer told Deadline that David's decision to take on any project comes down entirely to the material. "Larry only says yes for one reason, one reason only. It's not about the who, it's really about the what. For him, the idea either grips him or, in 99% of the cases, he doesn't want to do it," Schaffer said.
Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness is now streaming on HBO.
