David Mandel is one of only a handful of people in Hollywood not named Larry David who can legitimately claim to have written for both “Seinfeld” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” two of the most influential sitcoms of the past 20 years.
Still, he is quick to point out that he’s an odd selection for a feature bearing the “Writers' Room" stamp.
“Ironically -- and this should be pointed out at the top -- ‘Seinfeld’ and ‘Curb’ are both unique in not having a writers' room,” says Mandel (pictured, directing an episode of "Curb"), by phone from the New York City set of “The Dictator,” a Sacha Baron Cohen movie that he co-wrote along with his longtime cronies Jeff Schaffer and Alec Berg. “And they were actually much better shows because they didn’t.”
With the eighth-season premiere of the HBO comedy arriving Sunday at 10 p.m. ET, we’ve decided to go through with our plan to interview Mandel anyway. In this sprawling discussion, the 40-year-old talks about what’s in store for Larry David this year, whether there'll be a ninth season of "Curb," and how he’ll approach writing the “Fletch” reboot. But first things first.
You say that “Seinfeld” didn't use the traditional writers' room format. Why do you see that as an advantage?
I think part of it was just the way Larry and Jerry came up with the show, and the way it originally started, with them basically writing all the episodes themselves and very slowly adding other writers. Since they didn’t come out of the TV factory, if you will, they came forward with a rather unique idea: A writer should pitch a story and then write a show based on that pitch. That goes against everything else that gets put on television, practically, at least in terms of sitcoms.
In the average sitcom, you sit in a room, and everybody pitches ideas and lines on your story. It’s either tape-recorded or notes are made by a writer’s assistant. And then it’s assigned to whoever’s turn it is. Therefore, you could pitch out a really great story, and it gets handed to the guy sitting next to you, who doesn't have enthusiasm for it. Or you could be given something that you don’t have enthusiasm for. It’s been a long time so I haven't been around rooms that much, but my understanding is you’re given what the room came up with, and you’re not expected to go too far afield from it. So at some point or another, you think, “Couldn't a monkey be taught to do this? Why do you need a writer?”
Whereas at “Seinfeld,” you didn’t end up with those “room” jokes that I can't stand -- things that have sort of joke-like structures and joke-like rhythms, but are not jokes. You know what I mean?
You mean jokes that end with a rimshot?
Yeah, those sort of pass by in rooms -- they’re just very “written” lines that no one would actually say.
