Everything about David's first 20 years in show business implied that his success lay behind the scenes. He embarked on a stand-up career in the '70s, which led to a mediocre gig as a writer/performer on the late-night sketch show Fridays. After a handful of small film roles and a fruitless one-year stint as a Saturday Night Live writer, David cocreated one of the most beloved and influential sitcoms of all time, Seinfeld, in 1990. After leaving the show, the disgruntled humorist wrote and directed the notoriously unfunny film Sour Grapes before wisely returning to his small-screen roots with the 1999 HBO special Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm. The show was so successful it spawned an offbeat, semi-improvised, wince-inducing series that turned the fiftysomething, balding neurotic into an on-camera star.