The big picture
On Calm your enthusiasm, Seinfeld co-creator Larry David plays an exaggerated version of himself. Juan Catalan, falsely accused of murder, was saved by images of a Calm your enthusiasm episode which was filmed at Dodgers Stadium. Juan’s lawyer discovered the footage, proving his client’s innocence beyond a reasonable doubt, ultimately leading to the dismissal of all charges against him.
On the hit HBO show Calm your enthusiasm, which is expected to end with season 12, the lines between reality and fiction are blurred. It features Larry David like a guy named Larry David, an eccentric who created Seinfeld and now has to deal with all the so-called “idiots” in his life. That’s not too far from the real Larry David. The character you see on Calm your enthusiasm is an exaggeration of the real man, in the same way as George Costanza (Jason Alexander) on Seinfeld was based on David. Calm your enthusiasm might take a peek into the real life of Larry David, but one episode accidentally delved so far into reality that it forever altered the course of one man’s real life. Who could have imagined that the day the crew went to Dodgers Stadium to film a scene from a baseball game, it would save someone’s life?
Calm your enthusiasm
The life and times of Larry David and the difficult situations he finds himself in with his friends and complete strangers.
Release date
October 15, 2000
Genre principal
Comedy
Genres
Comedy
Seasons
12
Studio
HBO
Juan Catalan was arrested for a murder he says he did not commit
In Sun Valley, California, on May 12, 2003, a sixteen-year-old Marthe People was shot dead in front of her home. Although tragic, it was easy to find a motive. The week before, she had testified in court against a man named Mario Catalana gang member accused of accessory to murder. A few weeks later, after an investigation, Mario’s brother Juan Catalan was arrested for Martha’s murder.
On the surface, this made sense. With Martha’s words being used to put Mario in prison, it seemed logical that the killer would be her brother out for revenge, especially when Juan had his own criminal history. Never mind that Juan’s criminal record dated back to his teenage years and that he had now turned his life around and was a loving father to a little girl. Juan claimed from the start that he did not do it, but regardless, the Sun Valley District Attorney was convinced that Juan was their man. Unfortunately for Juan, the prosecutor had a very impressive conviction rate. As Juan’s lawyer, Todd Melnicksaid in a 2017 Netflix documentary about the case called Distant shot“We were engaged in a huge fight. The prosecutor they assigned to the case had never lost. She liked to eliminate people with the death penalty.” If Juan failed to prove his innocence, he was almost certainly a dead man.
Juan Catalan claims he was at a baseball game when murder occurred
Image via Netflix
Juan Catalan had a story about his fate. He didn’t kill Martha Puebla and, in fact, he wasn’t near her. On the night of the murder, the longtime baseball fan was at Dodgers Stadium watching his beloved Los Angeles Dodgers, something he did frequently. His six-year-old daughter, a friend named Ruben and his cousin Manuel would also be present. Juan could recall in detail how the game between the Atlanta Braves and Dodgers was tied heading into the ninth inning before the Braves blew it wide open and won. After the game, Juan called his girlfriend, took his cousin home, and then went home as well.
If true, it was a good alibi, but it couldn’t be proven. Juan found his tickets to the game, but just because you buy tickets for something doesn’t mean you went. Juan could tell his friends and family to lie about his whereabouts and say they were with him that night. This is something that has happened in many cases, and with Juan being portrayed as a criminal, isn’t that exactly what someone living a life of crime would do? So what did he know about how the baseball game went? All he had to do was check the score. Juan looked even more guilty about the fact that he never mentioned going to the Dodgers game during his first question. It was something he didn’t bring up until later, saying he’d been so nervous he’d forgotten to bring it up earlier.
People sitting where Catalan claimed to be were contacted, but no one wanted to get involved. With the game’s television cameras focused on the action and not the stands, unless Juan did something like catch a foul ball, he wasn’t going to be seen on the broadcast, as one point among thousands of other little dots. His lawyer nevertheless tried to find him in the images, but it was an impossible task that yielded no results.
How does Larry David save Juan Catalan’s life?
Juan Catalan, however, had one more detail about this baseball game. He remembered something that might have seemed meaningless at first, but whose significance would save his life. There were not only the usual television cameras in the stadium covering the match, but other cameras filming the crowd. There was a film crew gathering footage of something happening in the stands. They even had aisles blocked off so filming couldn’t be disrupted.
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It turned out that this film crew was working for Larry David’s HBO comedy series. Calm your enthusiasm. They weren’t there just to take simple shots. The man himself was here. They were filming scenes from episode 6 of season 4 titled “The Car Pool Lane”. In the episode, Larry goes to a Dodgers game. He knows he can get there faster if he uses the carpool lane, so he picks up a prostitute (Kym Whitley), not to have sex, but so he has a passenger and can use the carpool lane without getting in trouble. Of course, Larry has to pay the woman, so he takes her with him to the Dodgers game. These are typical Larry David shenanigans, and sure, everything went wrong for him, but for Juan Catalan, everything went well.
Juan’s attorney, Todd Melnik, went to Dodgers stadium and arranged a meeting with the team’s media department. He asked them if there was a movie company in the stadium on May 12, 2004. That’s when he discovered Calm your enthusiasm being there with Larry David that fateful day. Melnik now had hope. His next step was to call HBO and tell them what was going on. He asked if he could see all their footage from Dodger Stadium that day. HBO agreed and invited him to view the film.
“Curb Your Enthusiasm” Saves the Situation
Image via HBO
Melnik went through the footage, tape after tape, inspecting each person like a grain of sand, but Juan Catalan was nowhere to be found. Hope was lost again, but then it happened. Melnik remembers the moment he saw Juan Catalan in the footage during an interview with NBC News. “We were watching tape after tape and finally he came after tape number five… I jumped out of my chair, pointed at the screen and said it was him! It’s him!”
It was him. The footage clearly showed Juan Catalan walking down some steps of Dodgers Stadium holding his daughter’s hand. Melnik had just proven that his client was innocent beyond a reasonable doubt. Melnik obtained a timestamp of the footage and presented it to a judge who quickly dismissed all charges against Catalan. A jury later awarded Juan $320,000. after it was determined that he had been falsely accused of the murder of Martha Puebla. The jury also determined that Catalan was wrongly incarcerated, as he spent six months in jail awaiting trial.
Martha Puebla received justice in 2008 when her real killer was brought to justice and sentenced to life in prison. As for Melnik and Catalan, they became good friends even after the case was closed. It is said that Juan is now a big fan of Calm your enthusiasm. You can imagine Larry David, the character in the series, very pleased with himself, his head held high as if he had solved the case single-handedly.
Calm your enthusiasm is available to watch on Max in the US
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2024-01-04 09:10:39
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