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Jeff Garlin on more ‘Curb’ with Larry David: Would love to do it, ‘decent’ chance it’ll happen

Jeff Garlin, center, appears at the Disney/ABC Summer TCA press tour with his "Goldbergs" co-stars Troy Gentile and Wendi McLendon-Covey on Aug. 4, 2015, in Beverly Hills.

Jeff Garlin, center, appears at the Disney/ABC Summer TCA press tour with his “Goldbergs” co-stars Troy Gentile and Wendi McLendon-Covey on Aug. 4, 2015, in Beverly Hills.

(Richard Shotwell / Invision / AP)
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Jeff Garlin, like avid “Curb Your Enthusiasm” fans, is hoping for another season of Larry David’s HBO comedy.

“The Goldbergs” star, who played David’s jovial manager, Jeff Greene, on the semi-autobiographical comedy, fielded questions about the show during ABC’s Tuesday presentation at the Television Critics Assn. summer press tour.

That is, after he spoke extensively about what it’s like for his “Goldbergs” patriarch to be in his tighty whities all day: “Not enjoyable,” he said. “By the way, I go to craft service in my underwear, and I hang out like that. They’re all pretty much used to it.”

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Moving on ...

“Curb Your Enthusiasm” ran for eight seasons before it went off the air in 2011, and talk of a new season has piqued fan interest for years.

The actor said he’s in touch with the “Seinfeld” co-creator and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” mastermind “all the time” and admitted that he negotiated his “Goldbergs” contract so he could do “Curb” “if it comes back.”

Though he and David haven’t talked about the improvised HBO comedy’s revival, the actor said he’d certainly love to return to David’s minutiae-dissecting world.

“There’s not been any ‘We’re going to do it.’ You know what I mean? There’s nothing like that,” Garlin said at the panel. “But I certainly would love to. And he’s the best guy to do an improvised show, do the whole thing with. And it’s been such an honor to work with him. I hope he does. I’d love to,” Garlin said.

Then he did a killer impression of David’s hoarse voice, expounding a bit on the Emmy-winning writer’s creative process.

“OK, I’m going to tell you. There’s the ‘Uhh, I got an idea. Here it is. Do you like that?’ ‘Yeah.’ ‘I think I’m going to write the show.’ That’s step one,” he said. “Step two is when he’s about six or seven episodes in and goes, ‘Yeah, I’ll finish it.’ Because if he writes two and he’s not pleased, it’s not going to happen. ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ is the only show that I know of in the history of television that only moves forward because the creator is basing his decision entirely on creativity.

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“Larry David ... doesn’t have to do anything unless it’s good. He doesn’t want to embarrass himself. So it’s pretty pure. And I don’t know any shows that disregard that completely, whether or not — how much money we’ll get.”

“The Goldbergs” creator Adam F. Goldberg was on the dais with Garlin and willingly offered praise for David and his work.

“I want you to do [‘Curb’]. Please do it,” he told Garlin.

“That was the thing in negotiations,” Garlin added. “It’s like no one wanted to be the person who says that they were the one who stopped ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm.’ ... As much as I want to do the show, that was the thing that I was like it’s non-negotiable. I have to be able to do more ‘Curb.’ And I held out till the end. ... You know, you don’t want to be the one that kills it. And I’m hoping we do more. And I’d say decent chance. Not good. Not great. Decent. 51% [that it happens].”

At the beginning of the press tour, HBO programming chief Michael Lombardo said that it’s only a matter of time.

“The last time I saw Larry was right before his play [‘Fish in the Dark’] premiered,” Lombardo said. “He pulled out a little notebook and said, ‘Know what this is? It’s the next season.’ ... I don’t think it’s out of his system. I think he wants to have something to say.”

But Lombardo added: “We have nothing planned for next year.”

“You tell him the bald turd said hello.” Follow me on Twitter @NardineSaad.

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