Don’t Panic, But You May Not Be Getting Any New ‘Louie’ For A While

Louis C.K.‘s misanthropic, weird and brilliant Louie finished its shorter-than-normal fifth season in May of last year, and there will be no new episodes of the series in 2016.
This isn’t the first time Louie has gone on a break – the show didn’t air any new episodes throughout the whole of 2013, between its third and fourth seasons. 
This break, however, looks like it’s going to be a big ‘un, with C.K. telling a Television Critics Association panel that he is putting the show on indefinite hiatus until he feels inspired to return.
Louis has been busy of late, executive producing the new Zach Galifinakis show Baskets. He is also working on an animated series with comedy legend Albert Brooks, and writing for his Louie co-star Pamela Adlon‘s upcoming Better Things
He told journalists at the panel that he’ll do another season of the show if and when he gets a “boner” to write one, saying:

“I have put it aside for right now because of all this other stuff. I want to give real thought and care to the shows I’m working on. When I don’t think about something, I really don’t think about it. If you try to think about ten percent of 100 things, you’re ten percent as good as you could be. If you take all those ten percnts and put them away and give 100 percent of your brain it works better. Louie’s out of my head right now.”
He also said he’s wary of over-exposure, and does not want to give thirsty Louie fans too much of a good thing:

“Louie was going by really fast I felt like, even though we took some breaks. It did occur to me it’d be nice to let people go back and watch it for a while and let it soak in a little. I’ve put out seven stand-up specials in seven years and five seasons of television. That’s a lot of me, and I’m on stage every night. So it did feel like good farming to let the soil have a couple winters to freeze and thaw. It’s going to be better for me creatively and also I don’t want people to get sick of me. Once you’re being promoted and people are trying to get people to watch your show, then a lot of people are seeing you that don’t even like you. If it can all quiet down for a while, that’s probably a positive thing.”
This would put Louie on similar footing to Larry David‘s Curb Your Enthusiasm, which often took breaks between seasons, and aired its last run of episodes on HBO all the way back in 2011.
David has said that after the debacle that was the Seinfeld finale, he never wants to formally wrap up another show, but he has nor ruled out a ninth season, and has hinted in the intervening years that he might write more episodes.
Story: Slash Film
Photo: Frederick M Brown / Getty

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