Properly, that is it. Curb your Enthusiasm has aired its supposed sequence finale, and it was fairly, fairly, prett-ay good. Paradoxically, the twelfth and closing season ended in court docket similar to Seinfeld (although flipped that present’s finale round topsy-turvy like), referring to David’s constant theme of ambiguous ethics and karmic justice. Whereas the sequence was a cultural milestone, wanting again, maybe its most vital contribution was nearly precisely 21 years in the past, when Curb Your Enthusiasm saved an precise human life, exonerating a person and saving him from the loss of life penalty.

All of it begins on the evening of Could 12, 2003, when 16-year-old Martha Puebla was discovered shot to loss of life in entrance of her house within the San Fernando Valley. The suspect who fled the scene was described by the LAPD as “a medium construct male Hispanic, 19-25 years of age, 5’8″ to five’10″. He had very brief hair and a mustache and seemed to be a gang member.” Puebla’s loss of life was thought-about retribution and the silencing of a witness; in keeping with the Los Angeles Day by day Information:

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Later, a 24-year-old man named Juan Catalan was driving to work earlier than being blocked off by police automobiles and surrounded with cops pointing weapons at him and his very younger daughter within the backseat. He was accused of Puebla’s homicide, arrested and charged, and spent 5 months in jail awaiting trial. Catalan was going through the loss of life penalty. He insisted upon his innocence, claiming that he was at an L.A. Dodgers sport along with his six-year-old daughter on the time of the homicide. Sadly, attorneys could not discover any proof of this. That’s, till they found that HBO was filming an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm at Dodger Stadium that very evening.

Coincidence or Happenstance: Larry David’s Present Saves a Man’s Life

A section of the traditional Curb Your Enthusiasm episode “The Automotive Pool Lane” was being filmed at Doger Stadium the night of Could 12, 2003. The episode chronicles David’s scheme to rent a intercourse employee merely to have a seated passenger to make the most of the carpool lane on the interstate. It sarcastically options David’s harmless good friend, Marty Funkhouser (the late, nice Bob Einstein), being wrongly arrested (for carrying marijuana that was in David’s jacket).

Attorneys for Catalan contacted HBO and the Curb Your Enthusiasm group and sifted by way of all of the footage that they filmed on the baseball sport. It was a needle in a haystack state of affairs — how do you discover one particular person in a stadium that seats 56 thousand folks, utilizing footage solely taken in a single particular part?

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Properly, the wild karma of Curb labored in Catalan’s favor. It simply so occurs that Catalan had left his seat to buy some sweet for him and his daughter, and whereas HBO was filming a shot of David strolling up the part’s stairs at Dodger Stadium, Catalan might be seen returning to his seat with the sweet. The footage was timestamped and have become irrefutable proof of the person’s innocence. The district legal professional needed to drop the case they usually awarded Catalan a settlement of $300,000.

The true assassin, Vineland Boyz gang member Raul Robledo, was convicted in July 2008. The helpfulness and kindness of Larry David’s character in Curb Your Enthusiasm could also be questionable at greatest, however the precise David and his present got here by way of when it mattered essentially the most. This story was lined briefly by HBO in a video essay and was later the topic of the Netflix unique documentary, Lengthy Shot, which you’ll be able to watch beneath:

Watch Lengthy Shot