Star Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Stars: Larry David, Jeff Garlin, J.B. Smoove, Susie Essman, Cheryl Hines, Bob Einstein and guest stars Paul F. Tompkins and Gary Cole

The Big Idea: The season premiere is titled “The Divorce,” and to elaborate on the title specifically would be too big a spoiler. Suffice it to say that there is at least one divorce happening in the episode (and as many as three eventually), and that fact leads Larry to be at odds with a Jewish attorney who turns out not to be Jewish (Tompkins), a Major League Baseball team owner (Cole), a whole troop of cookie-selling Girl Scouts and Marty Funkhouser (Einstein).

There’s also a cringe-inducing encounter involving Larry and a teenage girl who’s gotten her first period (Justified scene stealer Kaitlyn Dever), while Leon (Smoove) continues to be Larry’s seemingly permanent houseguest and source of frank wisdom about women.

To Watch or Not to Watch: Yes, and DVR it, because you’re going to want to watch it more than once. It’s not an exaggeration at all to say that this promises to be the best Curb season ever – no small thing for a show in its eighth season – and there’s one simple reason why. In the past, Larry has always gone about life in his Larry way, but often with an apologetic air. But no more. He’s full-on Larry this season, butting heads with anyone who dares to go against the societal rules by which Lar thinks we all should operate. Girl Scouts, Susie Greene, Susie and Jeff’s teenage daughter, the owner of the Dodgers and a New York mechanic (the inspiration for Brad Garrett‘s overzealous mechanic Tony on Seinfeld?) are but a few of Larry’s nemesis this season, and it’s with pure glee that he tangles with them.

TV Screener Tidbit: Both Ricky Gervais and Michael J. Fox guest star as themselves later in the season (and, yes, will have issues with Larry), but stay tuned for the Sept. 4 episode, “Mister Softee.” Not only does it give us a hilarious glimpse at the teenage Larry, but it also reveals an encounter from his past that really explains a lot about why Larry is so, well, Larry. For more scoop on the new season, check out my Curb preview feature at AOL TV.

Curb Your Enthusiasm‘s 8th season premieres Sunday, July 10, at 10PM ET on HBO

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(ALL TIMES ET)

10PM, SUN | HBO – 8TH SEASON PREMIERE
Curb Your Enthusiasm – Larry has second thoughts about his attorney (guest Paul F. Tompkins) when he finds out something he assumed is true isn’t, and then Mr. David has a scrap with some Girl Scouts when he decides he no longer wants to honor his big cookie order.

8PM, SAT | NICK
A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner! – Drake Bell plays Timmy in this live-action version of The Fairly OddParents. Bell as Timmy is 23-years-old, but he wants to remain a kid forever so he can keep his fairy godparents, Cosmo (Jason Alexander) and Wanda (Cheryl Hines). Until he gets a look at the all-grown-up Tootie.

10PM, SAT | CNBC – SERIES PREMIERE
Princess – Til Debt Do Us Part host and financial guru Gail Vaz-Oxlade hosts this new series, in which women living fabulous lifestyles – and falling deeper and deeper into debt, and possibly ruining their marriages, doing it – get a reality check. In other words, no more spoiled princess once Gail comes into their lives.

8PM, SUN | VH1
Mob Wives Reunion – Remember what they were doing the last time we saw them? So, yeah, this should be fun.

9PM, SUN | VH1
Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew – Sean Young dishes the details of the many ways her career has been negatively impacted by her addiction.

9PM, SUN | ABC
Jaycee Dugard: In Her Own Words – Diane Sawyer interviews the California kidnapping victim, whose book detailing her horrific 18-year-long experience with the evil Phillip and Nancy Garrido is being released on Tuesday.

9PM, SUN | DISCOVERY
Secrets of SEAL Team 6 – We all know some of the stuff they have done. Now we get a peek at just exactly how the elite team goes about doing what they do.

10PM, SUN | VH1 – SERIES PREMIERE
Famous Food – It may be the guiltiest pleasure of the summer, assuming there’s any pleasure involved. Seven D-list celebs, including Heidi Montag, Real Housewives alum Danielle Staub, Bachelor Jake Pavelka and The Sopranos‘ Vincent Pastore, try to launch a restaurant together. Hey, you always knew some of those jokers would end up asking, “Would you like fries with that?” Right?

10PM, SUN | BRAVO
Real Housewives of New Jersey – There’s drama in Caroline‘s family during the holiday season, which will probably make for good viewing. On the other hand, Teresa and Joe get frisky, which will probably make for gag-inducing viewing.

10PM, SUN | FOOD NETWORK – SERIES PREMIERE
Tough Cookies – The Jersey Shore meets Mrs. Fields in this reality series chronicling two sisters who run a cookie biz in Ocean City, New Jersey.

Worth flipping to during commercials:
– On Dino Gangs (Sat., 8PM, Discovery), the remains of 68 Tyrannosaurus rexes are found in the Gobi Desert, suggesting they traveled together in a gang and were even deadlier than previously thought;
– The Wall Street sequel, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, makes its TV premiere on HBO (Sat., 8PM);
– On Carson Nation (Sat., 10PM, OWN), Carson travels to Scottsdale to help a stay-at-home mom who needs a full makeover and a transgender woman who has lived as a man for six decades;
– Simon hopes for romance with Tara, but of course the fellas get in his way on The InBetweeners (Sat., 11PM, BBC America);
– Nominations for evictions are revealed on Big Brother (Sun., 8PM, CBS);
– Gigi moves into a new apartment on Jerseylicious (Sun., 8PM, Style);
– A woman crashes her hubby-to-be’s bachelor party and throws down with his ex on Bridezillas (Sun., 9PM, WE);
– On Drop Dead Diva (Sun., 9PM, Lifetime), Jane is waiting for a call from Dr. Bill while representing the mother of a dwarf in a case against a sperm bank;
– Lisa‘s hauling her biggest load ever in hopes of getting a promotion on Ice Road Truckers (Sun., 9PM, History);
– Nate and the team try to thwart a sleazy PR guy on Leverage (Sun., 9PM, TNT);
– On The Next Food Network Star (Sun., 9PM, Food Network), the contestants have to open food trucks and create commercials for them;
– Jessica turns to Bill for advice and Sookie has her hands full with Eric on True Blood (Sun., 9PM, HBO);
– Hal launches a dangerous plan to rescue Ben and the other kids on Falling Skies (Sun., 10PM, TNT);
– On The Glades (Sun., 10PM, A&E), Carlos tries to help a former co-worker he was involved with;
– A twin has to enter WITSEC because of his brother, and Mary has to protect them both (including from each other) on In Plain Sight (Sun., 10PM, USA).

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• Tags: A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up Timmy Turner!, Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew, Curb Your Enthusiasm season 8, Famous Food premiere, Mob Wives reunion, Real Housewives of New Jersey, Secrets of SEAL Team 6, Tough Cookies premiere

Hello, Larry! July 10, 10PM ET, HBO … the insanity continues as Larry David spends a good deal of the new Curb Your Enthusiasm season in New York City. Great poster, no?

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The premiere is still more than a month away (July 10), but here’s the trailer for the eighth season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, and, what else is there to say … it will be good to have Larry David back in primetime.

The show will take place in both Los Angeles and New York City this season, which, as the clip previews, just means there are two coasts of people for Larry to offend, or, as pal and manager Jeff Garlin says, now there are two coasts in which Larry can be a “social assassin,’ a title that makes Larry quite proud.

The clip also shows guest stars like Paul F. Tompkins, Bob Einstein (Marty Funkhouser in the house!) and, eeeeeee!, Michael J. Fox, while Ricky Gervais and Rosie O’Donnell are also scheduled to make appearances, and the scene-stealing J.B. Smoove returns as Larry’s pal and housemate Leon.

Can you stand the wait? And what mischief do you predict for Larry in the new season?

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Last season, with the separated Larry trying to reunite with wife Cheryl and the much-anticipated Seinfeld reunion, was a great one. And now Curb Your Enthusiasm fans can get excited about today’s news from HBO: The network has decided that an eighth season of Larry David‘s hilarious sitcom is a pretty, pretty, pretty good idea.

David and company will begin production this summer on another 10 episodes of the Emmy-winning show, with season eight to hit HBO in 2011.

Any plotline or character wishes for the new season? Do you want to see Larry and Cheryl reunited, or still separated? Which characters do you want to see more, or less, of? I’m hoping J.B. Smoove returns as Leon, whose interactions with Larry are raunchy, ridiculous and so, so funny.

Below, HBO’s official press release on the renewal:

For Immediate Release

HBO RENEWS HIT COMEDY SERIES CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM,
STARRING LARRY DAVID, FOR EIGHTH SEASON

LOS ANGELES, April 20, 2010 – HBO has renewed the hit comedy series CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, starring Larry David, for a ten-episode eighth season, it was announced today by Michael Lombardo, president, Programming Group and West Coast Operations, HBO. Production of the new episodes will begin this summer in Los Angeles and New York, with debut slated for 2011.

Said Lombardo, “Larry always loves to paint himself into a corner, and after the incredibly wonderful seventh season of CURB, you have to ask, ‘How does he ever top this?’ But he always finds a way. We can’t wait to see what he does in season eight.”

“After much soul searching – and by the way, it was nowhere to be found – I have decided to do another season of CURB,” says Larry David. “I look forward to the end of shooting, when I can once again resume the hunt for my elusive soul. I know it’s here somewhere or perhaps in the rugged mountainous regions of Pakistan.”

CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM stars “Seinfeld” co-creator David as an over-the-top version of himself in an unsparing but tongue-in-cheek depiction of his life. The series also stars Cheryl Hines as David’s wife Cheryl, Jeff Garlin as David’s manager Jeff and Susie Essman as Jeff’s wife Susie.

Concluding its seventh season last November, with 70 episodes to date, CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM is HBO’s longest-running scripted comedy or drama series. Season seven inspired critical raves, with the Washington Post calling the show “side-splitting,” and hailing David as “the best thing to happen to TV comedy,” while Newsday declared, “Larry David is a comic genius,” and the Boston Globe described the series as “the funniest show on television.”

Season seven credits: CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM is executive produced by Larry David, Jeff Garlin, Gavin Polone, Alec Berg, David Mandel, Jeff Schaffer, Tim Gibbons and Erin O’Malley.

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