Ted Danson Thought CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM "Sucked" So He Offered to Play Himself Because He Felt Sorry for Larry David
Ted Danson (Cheers, The Good Place) appeared in almost all 12 seasons of the hit HBO comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm as one of creator Larry David‘s nemeses.
Playing a pretentious and smug version of himself, Danson became a fan-favorite on the show, most recently appearing in the series finale.
But Danson was initially quite skeptical of the unscripted HBO sitcom, and only offered to play himself out of pity for David.
Danson said on his podcast, “Where Everybody Knows Your Name,” while talking to Curb co-star J.B. Smoove, “Curb really did change my life, because it reinvigorated my desire to be funny.” But when he first watched the pilot with his wife, Mary Steenburgen, Danson “thought it sucked.”
“I thought it absolutely sucked, and I felt sorry for my new friend, Larry David. So, in trying to be an encouraging kind of thing, I said, ‘If you ever need us to play ourselves, we’d be happy to.’ And in that sort of idiocy, I ended up being part of something that changed my life.”
David, of course, took Danson up on his offer, as he and Steenburgen starred as heightened versions of themselves in the second episode of Curb, titled “Ted and Mary.”
Danson also made headlines recently while recalling a story from the set of Curb Your Enthusiasm, when he realized mid-shoot that his character was despised by David’s character.
When he arrived on his mark too early, Danson overheard the dialogue between David and another actor on Curb, which went something like: “Danson, he’s a real asshole.”
“I was like, ‘Wait, what?’ Because I never read the scripts,” Danson said on Late Night With Seth Meyers in November. “I went to Jeff Garlin and he said, ‘You don’t know? You’re the worst human being on the planet. Larry hates you!'”
Larry David is ridiculous and hilarious, and between Seinfeld and Curb, he has proven himself as a comedic genius. I’m sad to see the series come to an end, but it had a great run.
via: Variety