The other day I witnessed one of the greatest atrocities in modern history: an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm censored and cut short. This episode (“The Bracelet” from Season 1) was on a basic cable network and thus, needed to be censored to meet certain FCC guidelines. And since Curb plays on the commercial-free HBO, most episodes are in the 28-30 minute range. When they get syndicated to basic cable, they need to be abridged to 22 minutes to account for ad time. Censoring the risqué material usually cuts down a few minutes, but getting it to 22 minutes takes some more slicing.
You may ask yourself, what’s wrong with this? Well if you’re a die-hard Curb fan like myself, you know that the only way to enjoy Curb is through Larry David’s unfiltered, uncut lens. Anything short of this defeats the purpose of watching the show. It’s all about an estranged man trying to overcome societal norms in his dismal life journey. The way the show works is by constantly building on newly introduced topics until everything finally comes together at the end. The episodes are unscripted (besides the basic thematic plot points) and the actors improv all of their dialogue. Adding commercial breaks breaks the flow LD does such a careful job of crafting.
In this particular case, the perpetrating network (WGAN) literally cut out the entire ending so it could fit the episode in the 22 minutes it had apportioned. Without the ending, the story made no sense and was an absolute train wreck. Be warned – don’t watch Curb Your Enthusiasm on a basic cable channel, it is an inaccurate representation of Larry David’s genius.
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