After a few pseudo-final episodes and several multi-year breaks between seasons — including one that lasted six years — it’s no wonder the most common question asked before… Curb your enthusiasmThe twelfth and final season was, is this really the end?
“This time it really feels like it,” Amy Gravett, HBO’s head of comedy, told Deadline at the HBO Awards. Encirclement Season 12 premiere party this week. “This is definitely the most statement I’ve ever tried.”
Encirclement Creator, star and executive producer Larry David and fellow executive producer Jeff Schiffer told HBO brass early on that Season 12 would be the comedy’s final chapter.
“As has always been the case, publishing the stories drove the decision,” Gravett said. “So, while they were writing, Larry and Jeff called to say the best version was the final version. It’s hard to argue with that!”
Having been with HBO for 20 years, Gravitt has developed all but the network’s current comedy series Encirclementwhich premiered in 2000, two years after the film finished seinfeld, The hit NBC sitcom that David co-created with Jerry Seinfeld.
HBO’s single-camera follow-up made people feel awkward laughing when Larry David, the character David played on the show, said “things we always wanted to say but never did,” Gravett said onstage at the premiere.
While David lives up to his curmudgeonly ego in his public statements, he actually loves attending his show’s premieres, Gravett said.
“His favorite part is watching the show in the audience,” she said. “He loves watching episodes.”
Looking back on encircle’“I think he’s always been a north star for us,” Gravett said. “A lot of people have come in who have worked on the show, established themselves on the show, or someone like Issa (Rae), who shares as much DNA with Larry, as some of the other shows do that people keep coming back to. Having a strong writer and performer in The center of the show, and having those tightly woven episodic stories, I think that really set the bar for what comedy could be.
like Encirclement It’s coming to an end, is David concerned about the potential spin-offs?
“I don’t think so, I think he’s serious this time,” Gravett said of David leaving the club. Encirclement The world beyond.
The comedy writer also did not speak to HBO about another series to follow Encirclement But the network will be a game.
“I would love that,” Gravett said.
EncirclementThe final season premieres Sunday, February 4 on HBO and Max.