“Curb Your Enthusiasm” (10:05 p.m. Sunday, HBO, TV-MA) enters its 12th and final season. For those keeping score, this may be the last “legacy” HBO series to return to the schedule of the HBO-Max hybrid, a link to a series that was first broadcast on Oct. 15, 2000. That’s a long time ago! To put things in perspective, “The Sopranos” was just entering its second season. Bill Clinton was still president. The term “9/11” was still a number for calling the police. Some people’s entire online experience existed within the walls of AOL.
“Curb” has always had its fans, and nobody is going to watch it or skip it based on what a TV critic writes in 2024. But I was a bit unimpressed from the get-go. “Curb” had all the highly contrived and ridiculous situations that had made “Seinfeld” tick, but they seemed so much more belabored. It was like seeing the strings of the puppeteers.
Like any “Seinfeld” fan, I was both amused and a tad aghast at the strenuous immaturity of its characters. But you had the sense that these 30-somethings were going through one last spasm of arrested development before settling down. Even the notoriously odd “Seinfeld” series finale seemed to punish the gang for their sins. They were literally put behind bars for their indifference and flagrant self-absorption.
So, when “Curb” arrived just two years after “Seinfeld” departed, I was a little shocked to see Larry David playing a fictional approximation of himself. He was just a little over 50 when the show debuted, but with his receding, or rather vanishing, hairline, he looked much older. For this viewer, it was one thing to have a young(ish) avatar like George Costanza (Jason Alexander) portray your unbridled ego and undisciplined id, but David’s character in “Curb” looked at least 60. It wasn’t funny to watch a man that old engage in petty, obsessional antics — it was sad.
I still feel that way — 24 years later.
— Trevor Noah hosts the “The 66th Annual Grammy Awards” (8 p.m., Sunday, CBS, TV-14). Scheduled performers include Joni Mitchell, Billie Eilish, Dua Lipa, Olivia Rodrigo, Burna Boy, Luke Combs, Travis Scott and SZA. Billy Joel is scheduled to perform as well.
One of the most influential singers to come out of the singer/songwriter heyday of the 1970s, Mitchell was never shy about her problems with the business end of the music industry. While presenting herself as a free spirit of the Laurel Canyon music scene, one of her most fruitful periods was associated with super-producer David Geffen, the man celebrated in her song “Free Man in Paris” as a master of “the star-maker machinery behind the popular song.”
Perhaps it was proximity to a corporate mover and shaker (and future billionaire) that made Mitchell so wary of the corporate control that has brought so much predictable sameness to the scene. In 2002 she left the industry that she condemned as a “corrupt cesspool” and found “repugnant.” “Record companies,” she observed, “are not looking for talent. They’re looking for a look and a willingness to cooperate.”
Time and a couple of health scares appear to have softened her attitude — that and the embrace of a younger audience and younger performers.
— The Grammys aren’t the only awards of the weekend. Joel McHale will host the 51st Annual Saturn Awards (7 p.m., Sunday). These awards are presented by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films and can be streamed on the ElectricNow app available on Roku and other streaming platforms.
Keanu Reeves will receive the very first Reddick Legacy Award. Reeves is cited here for his work in the sci-fi genre, most notably “The Matrix” films and as a goodwill ambassador for the industry. The entire evening’s ceremony is dedicated to the memory of Lance Reddick, who died on March 17 of last year and who appeared with Reeves in the John Wick movies.
SATURDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
— “Byron Allen Presents the Grio Awards” (8 p.m., CBS, TV-PG) celebrates Black achievement in the fields of film, music, comedy, sports and education.
— Maryland hosts Iowa in Women’s College Basketball (8 p.m., Fox).
— A ventriloquist comic and his dummies anticipate Valentine’s Day on “Jeff Dunham: I’m With Cupid” (8 p.m., Comedy Central, TV-14).
— A troubled sculptor hunts for her missing newborn in the 2023 shocker “A Mother’s Intuition” (8 p.m., Lifetime, TV-14).
— A scholar hits it off with a Jane Austen reenactor the 2024 romance “Paging Mr. Darcy” (8 p.m., Hallmark, TV-G).
— The New York Knicks host the Los Angeles Lakers in NBA action (8:30 p.m., ABC).
— Kentucky hosts Tennessee in college basketball (8:30 p.m., ESPN).
— A freed slave and operator of the Underground Railroad offers shelter to a Union deserter in the 2022 Civil War drama “Freedom’s Path” (9 p.m., Showtime, TV-MA).
— Ayo Edebiri hosts “Saturday Night Live” (11:30 p.m., NBC, TV-14), featuring musical guest Jennifer Lopez.
SUNDAY’S HIGHLIGHTS
— Scheduled on “60 Minutes” (7 p.m., CBS).
— NASCAR Cup Series action (8 p.m., Fox)
— A world of killer competition on “Miss Scarlett and the Duke” on “Masterpiece” (8 p.m., PBS, TV-PG, check local listings).
— Tired of football talk? There’s always Pickleball Slam 2 (8:30 p.m., ESPN).
— The war closes in on “All Creatures Great and Small” on “Masterpiece” (9 p.m., PBS, TV-PG).
— The four-part documentary profile “The Many Lives of Martha Stewart” (CNN) concludes with scandal and prison (9 p.m.) and an unusual comeback (10 p.m.).
— Theresa plays detective to find her father on “Monsieur Spade” (9 p.m., AMC, TV-MA).
— Navarro’s grasp on reality comes into question on “True Detective: Night Country” (9 p.m., HBO, TV-MA).
— A fellow survivor’s funeral puts Lorna on edge on “The Woman in the Wall” (9 p.m., Showtime, TV-MA).
— Barbara is consumed with feelings of failure when she retreats to Blackpool on “Funny Woman” (10 p.m., PBS, TV-14, check local listings).
CULT CHOICE
Years in the making, the 1996 documentary “When We Were Kings” (8 p.m. Saturday, TCM, TV-14) chronicles the 1974 championship boxing bout between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali. Dubbed “The Rumble in the Jungle,” the fight was held in Zaire at the time of a musical festival, Zaire 74, featuring both African musicians as well as B.B. King and James Brown. The film ponders the paradoxes of the setting. Some saw it as symbolic of pan-African pride and others as an endorsement of a brutal dictatorship. Look for archival interviews of celebrity attendees including George Plimpton and Norman Mailer, as well as later thoughts from director Spike Lee glancing back from the 1990s.
SATURDAY SERIES
“The Wall” (8 p.m., NBC, r, TV-PG) … “Weakest Link” (9 p.m., NBC, r, TV-PG) … “48 Hours” (10 p.m., CBS) … A vintage helping of “Saturday Night Live” (10 p.m., NBC, r, TV-14).
SUNDAY SERIES
“America’s Got Talent: Fantasy League” (7 p.m., NBC, r, TV-PG) … “America’s Funniest Home Videos” (8 p.m., ABC, r, TV-PG) … “Dateline” (9 p.m., NBC, r) … Two repeat episodes of “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune” (9 p.m., and 10 p.m., ABC, TV-PG).
