The story arc for the fourth season of Curb Your Enthusiasm (which is available for streaming on HBO Now) saw Larry David accepting an offer from Mel Brooks to head back to his hometown of New York City to star in The Producers on Broadway. It was an unlikely role for someone who did not have a whole lot of acting experience, and one in which Larry wasn’t even confident in himself to pull off. But throughout the season, he met with professional instructors to learn each of the choreographed dance steps and routines, and by the end of the season, he had even managed to memorize all of his lines as the lead character, Max Bialystock. It was quite the leap from where he had been at the beginning of the season, when things looked hopeless for him.
But not every episode of season four had Larry focusing on his new gig on Broadway; some episodes had Larry getting into his typical shenanigans in and around Los Angeles. For instance, in the season’s sixth episode, Larry found himself with two tickets to a Dodgers game, tickets in which he had gone to great lengths to get his hands on. Unfortunately, his manager Jeff had to cancel on him at the last minute, which meant that he would not be able to use the carpool lane to get there, and he’d probably miss most of the game.
Enter Monena, the prostitute. Monena agreed to skip the typical social activities she was accustomed to performing, and instead be paid a flat rate for accompanying Larry to the baseball game, which allowed him to utilize the carpool lane and make it to the game on time. An unlikely scenario? Well, only if you’re not familiar with Larry David.
“The Car Pool Lane” didn’t do much to advance the overall story arc for season four as it pertained to Larry’s leading role on Broadway, but it was still a fun episode with one particularly incredible anecdote that occurred four months after it originally aired (which we’ll get to in a minute). It also introduced us to an actor who would later grow much more familiar to us over the next half-dozen years on Lost.
Here, now, are five fun facts about “The Car Pool Lane” that you may not have known.
Actress Kym Whitley Improvised Her Role As The Prostitute, With An Assist From David Koechner.
Curb Your Enthusiasm is famous for being an unscripted show, with the actors only having a basic outline of what they’re supposed to do and where the scene is supposed to go. For Whitley, who completely nailed her role as the episode’s prostitute, she received a helpful tip during casting from actor David Koechner on how to get the part. Koechner, who had appeared on Curb the previous season in “Mary, Joseph and Larry,” suggested to Whitley that she “always have something in her quiver.” He meant that she should be prepared to be a prostitute when auditioning, and understand the lingo of what a prostitute from Los Angeles might say. So, Williams auditioned with the “digging for diamonds” and “lollipop love” lines all ready to go. She then nailed the audition, and the rest is history. To this day, Whitley has 83 acting credits on her resume, including I Love You, Man and We Bought A Zoo, but she admits that it’s her guest appearance on Curb that gets her recognized in public the most.
Time To Learn Some Yiddish.
Near the end of the episode, Larry’s dad Nat (played by actor Shelley Berman) had a scene with Monena, and the two of them sat on the couch in Nat’s living room and shared some marijuana (for Nat’s glaucoma, of course). They both took a liking to each other right away, with Nat enjoying the fancy “eye medicine” she brought, and Monena quickly falling in love with the little old man in glasses. While together, Monena gave Nat a lesson in Ebonics: “this chronic is the shiznick,” while Nat gave Monena a lesson in Yiddish: “Gay kocken offen yom.” Translated, it means, essentially, to go take a sh*t in the ocean. Nat also taught Monena to say “mashugana,” which, in the context of this scene, meant that they were acting a bit silly.
The Actor Who Played Hurley On Lost Got His Start In This Episode.
From 2004-2010, actor Jorge Garcia entertained fans of Lost as Hugo “Hurley” Reyes. But it was his role in this episode, as Larry’s drug dealer, that caught the eyes of Lost producers. As the story goes, J.J. Abrams, who was one of the creators of Lost, saw this episode and immediately went to casting and said “get me that guy.” Garcia turned his brief guest appearance on Curb into a full-time gig on Lost, which lasted for six seasons on ABC.
The Scene At Dodgers Stadium Was Filmed During An Actual Game.
At the beginning of the episode, Larry and Jeff may have over-sold the importance of the Dodgers game a bit, with Jeff indicating that none of his connections had any extra tickets, and Larry saying, “it’s gonna be some game.” In actuality, the footage was from a game that took place on May 12, 2003 against the Atlanta Braves, and the paid attendance was roughly 27,000. So, Larry would have had no problem simply purchasing a ticket at the gate. As for the actual game, the Dodgers lost 11-4 after Eric Gagne gave up four runs in the top of the ninth inning of what had been a tie game up to that point. Interestingly enough, Gagne only gave up 11 earned runs total in all of 2003, en route to winning the Cy Young Award, which means nearly 40 percent of the runs he gave up in an entire season just so happened to occur while the production team from Curb was in attendance. Maybe he was nervous with all the extra cameras.
An Extra Was Cleared Of A Murder Charge Due To Footage From This Episode.
Juan Catalan spent five and a half months in Los Angeles County jail after he was falsely accused of murdering a 16-year-old girl. The crime took place on May 12, 2003, which, you may have noticed, was also the same day of the Dodgers game I just mentioned. An eyewitness to the crime pointed out Catalan as the gunman, and he was quickly arrested and detained. However, all along, Catalan maintained that he had an alibi during the murder, pleading his case that he was at the game, and he had the ticket stubs to prove it. But the district attorney wasn’t buying it, so he continued to sit in jail. That was, until, he convinced his lawyers to go to HBO.
Catalan remembered that an HBO TV crew had been filming near him while he was at the game, so as a shot in the dark, his lawyers went to HBO to see if they could get lucky. After scouring hours of footage, they finally spotted him, sitting in a seat just as he said he was, eating a hot dog. Since the game was going on 20 miles away from where the murder took place, a judge promptly released him from jail and he was cleared of all charges. Catalan later sued the city for misconduct, and in 2007 he was awarded $320,000 in damages.
