When diehard fans of Seinfeld hear the title Prognosis: Negative, they’ll likely smile in recognition. And thanks to the recent emergence of an unproduced 1983 screenplay by Seinfeld creator Larry David, the origins of that running joke are finally being revealed.
The leaked draft of Prognosis: Negative, dated May 3, 1983, emerged online in February after a Reddit user purchased the script off eBay and uploaded it for public viewing, The New York Times reported last week. The 24-year-old Reddit user, named Jeremy Smith, bought it from an account selling several unpublished scripts, though it is unclear how the seller obtained David’s screenplay in the first place.
Despite never reaching the silver screen, the would-be film lent its title to a recurring gag about a fictional film on Seinfeld, which David created in 1989. And now that the screenplay is available to read online, it's evident that its title was but one small part of the film David would go on to repurpose for future projects.
Prognosis: Negative follows Leo Black, a man who can't seem to commit to the women he dates. But when he finds out that his ex-girlfriend is dying, he decides to give the relationship another shot. She would not, after all, be around much longer. If that darkly humorous premise rings any bells, it’s likely because it appears as a story line on Curb Your Enthusiasm some 20 years later, when David’s character tries to break up with a girlfriend (Vivica A. Fox) who has cancer.
David was a stand-up comedian when he wrote Prognosis: Negative, but even then his writing focused on the same sorts of Jewish, neurotic characters he would later become known for. In the early 80s he shared the script with Robert Weide, who would later serve as a producer and director of Curb Your Enthusiasm; at the time, however, Weide worked as head of development for a Hollywood talent agency, and he told The New York Times that the Prognosis: Negative screenplay was “probably the funniest script that I read during my tenure there.”
Weide urged the agency’s partners – Jack Rollins, Larry Brezner, Buddy Morra and Charles Joffe – to meet with David and, according to notes Weide shared from the meeting, the partners passed on the idea because “the main character, Leo, is not at all likeable.”
The notes reportedly said Brezner “pointed out problems with Leo being ‘too ethnic’ — too Jewish/neurotic. That character has been overdone.”
Weide recalled that, when Brezner asked David if there was a way to make Leo more sympathetic, “He looked at Brezner and said, ‘No, I don’t think so.’ And that was it.”
“I look at the notes from that meeting now, and my stomach just churns for 1983 Larry,” Weide told NY Times in an email. “The idea of having to implement notes that you don’t agree with in order to possibly get something made is a terrible position to be in if you have any creative integrity. And Larry sure could have used the money back then.”
Although David never got the movie made due to his unwillingness to alter the main character’s personality, he managed to build an illustrious career off characters like Leo Black, including George Costanza in Seinfeld and his own eponymous character Larry in Curb.
“Leo Black is Larry David,” Weide said. “Just as George wound up being Larry David on Seinfeld and then Larry would up being Larry David on Curb. There’s a definite through line. It’s the personality. It’s his attitude about life. It’s about not suffering fools gladly.”
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