Submitted photo Howland native Jeff Schaffer, center, is shown with Jerry Seinfeld, left, and Larry David on the set of “Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness.” Schaffer directed all seven episodes of the HBO series and is a co-writer as well as a co-executive producer, along with David and Barack and Michelle Obama.

In a career that includes being a writer and producer on “Seinfeld,” co-writer and director of the film “Eurotrip” and a decadeslong collaboration with Larry David, Howland native Jeff Schaffer has written words for and given direction to some of the biggest stars in entertainment.

On his latest project, Schaffer got to tell a former U.S. President what to do.

Schaffer directed all seven episodes of “Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness,” which premieres at 9 p.m. Friday on HBO and HBO Max. He co-wrote the show with David, and joining them as executive producers are Barack and Michelle Obama.

The 44th U.S. president also makes multiple appearances in the sketch comedy show, Schaffer said during a telephone interview on Thursday that coincided with the opening ceremony for the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Chicago.

“He was so funny,” Schaffer said. “His timing was amazing. He was a really good actor, not just for being a former president, but for being an actor. He was actually a dream to direct, because he got all the jokes,and he hit everything in the best way. He’s also just one of the coolest guys on the planet. It was an incredible, incredible experience.”

David and Obama are friends and occasionally play golf together. Following the final season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” David and Schaffer were tossing around different ideas about what to do next. Obama mentioned to David that he and Michelle were interested in doing something in conjunction with the America250 celebration.

Four years ago, David and Schaffer worked together on a Super Bowl commercial for the crypto trading platform FTX where David was shown disparaging great ideas from throughout history, everything from the wheel to indoor plumbing to the light bulb.

All of those different threads came together for “Life, Larry and Pursuit of Unhappiness,” a sketch comedy series that looks at U.S. history through David’s distinctive perspective. He may be playing one of the framers of the Declaration of Independence or half of the 19th century explorer duo Lewis & Clark, but those characters still have the petty grievances and annoyances familiar to fans of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Seinfeld.”

“When we started to talk about American history in the 250th and all of that, I think Larry remembered how much he liked being in costume and forgot how much he hated being in wigs, and he’s like, ‘This will be great, let’s do it,'” Schaffer said. “I get that celebrating the country right now may feel like throwing a birthday party for your friend who’s in rehab. He’s screwed up at the moment, but we still love him.”

Comedy is the primary aim and the different scenes aren’t historically accurate — it’s safe to say “no sharing of desserts” wasn’t included in an early draft of the Declaration of Independence — but the sketches are rooted in truth. David is a history buff and majored in American history at the University of Maryland-College Park, and he was insistent on staying true to certain facts. Schaffer recalled a time when they were working on “Curb,” and Ted Danson (playing himself) was starring in a play about Abraham Lincoln. There was a scene in the play where Lincoln and his wife were going to dinner at the home of Secretary of State William H. Seward.

“Lincoln was like, ‘Oh, we have to go to dinner at the Sewards. If I have to hear about his Alaska purchase one more time, I’m going to join the Confederacy.’ And it got a nice laugh from the crowd, it’s fun,” Schaffer said. “We’re sitting in editing, and Larry’s like, ‘Something’s not right.’ Then he realizes Lincoln wasn’t alive when Alaska was purchased by Seward (in 1867). He made us go in and reshoot, not for continuity, but for historical accuracy. So he’s a buff, for sure.

“People ask, ‘How important was historical accuracy?’ I think we tried really hard — the sets, the costumes, the props — to make it seem as realistic as possible. We call them sketches, but they’re really like little movie shorts. We built a World War I trench. There’s a Boston Tea Party (scene). The idea was to drop Larry into these very realistic historical situations and then let all hell break.”

“Life, Larry …” follows a similar format to “Curb.” David and Schaffer created a detailed outline for each sketch with story elements and some dialogue planned for each scene. But within that structure, there is room for the actors to improvise. There were times when those opportunities were minimized — such as shooting battles scenes with lots of action and extras on set — but not often.

“Every scene’s a live rewrite, and we got amazing stuff that we never thought, when we walked in that day, that we were ever going to get,” Schaffer said. “There are scenes that go in wildly, amazingly different directions. It all depends on the sketch.”

That means more work for the director, in this case Schaffer. Many directors do storyboards and plot out every shot long before they arrive on set. Schaffer and the crew have to adjust to the whims of the moment. An improvised line they want to keep can create a chain reaction of activity — changing the camera angle to accentuate the punchline, shooting additional coverage for a reaction shot or promoting an extra to an acting role because of a newly created need.

“Life, Larry …” reunites David with Jerry Seinfeld (who plays the other half of Lewis & Clark), “Curb” regulars JB Smoove, Susie Essman and Jeff Garlin and other actors who played recurring characters or guested on that show. Schaffer also teased that there are some other surprise guest stars in the seven episodes that haven’t been revealed yet.

It might be hard to top a former president, though, and Schaffer said the dynamic between David and Obama was just as entertaining off-camera.

“Larry and President Obama are really fun together. They really like giving each other crap. I remember our first note session, President Obama was giving a note about a sketch or something, and Larry goes, ‘Yeah, no, we’ll take care of it. We got it,'” and Obama just goes, ‘OK, I see how this is going to be. I just spent a half an hour telling you about how great this was. I give one note, and you get into a defensive crouch.’ The president says, ‘You know, I like to think when I was in the Oval Office, I took notes and advice from the people I worked with,’ and Larry just goes, ‘Yeah, but I’m president of this.'”

“Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness” was planned as a six-episode limited series. They had so much material, it expanded to seven episodes. After working with David on several “final seasons” of “Curb,” Schaffer has learned to never say never about the new show continuing.

Even if it’s not mining history for comedy, Schaffer is certain David will be doing something else.

“He’s always working. He’s like Joey Chestnut, who’s eating hot dogs on his day off. He just likes doing it. He doesn’t sit still.”

And Schaffer plans to be right there with him.

“I think it says something odd about me that the longest relationship I’ve ever had is with Larry. But it’s great. I mean, we wrote them together. I shot them, and we sit on an editing couch together for six months wrapping the stuff all up. I think it works really well. I always say that he does what I can’t do, and I do what he doesn’t want to do.”