Garry Shandling makes the need for approval funny and exhausting. His writing and acting in The Larry Sanders Show deserve revisiting because he lets us care about a selfish man without pretending he is easy company.
Fi1m perspective
Larry Sanders can host a late-night chat show; talking to the people around it is harder. Garry Shandling plays him as a man so busy checking how he is being received that a compliment scarcely registers. We laughed at Larry's inability to take comfort from praise, then felt sorry for him: Shandling plays the worry as something he cannot switch off. The selfishness remains visible throughout.
The earlier It’s Garry Shandling’s Show (1986) made the sitcom itself part of the joke: its central character knew he was in one. Shandling created, wrote for and acted in a programme that could address its audience directly. With The Larry Sanders Show (1992), created with Dennis Klein, the attention shifted to the people employed to keep a television star content. That change gave Larry's self-absorption a workplace full of people who had to deal with it.
The acting partners matter as much as the premise. Shandling's anxious performance becomes funnier beside Jeffrey Tambor's neediness and Rip Torn's impatience, with each man making the others harder to bear. Across six seasons and 90 episodes, those competing demands give us a reason to keep watching after the novelty of the backstage setting has worn off. Shandling lets Larry be tiresome without pausing to plead for our affection.
There are limits to the appeal: some celebrity references need explaining, and this much wounded pride can be tiring company. The celebrity guests playing versions of themselves belong to the satire, but recognising everybody is not essential to understanding the office grievances. The later feature What Planet Are You From? (2000), which Shandling wrote and starred in, was a less successful use of his comic persona. Television gave his anxious characters time to become familiar without obliging them to become agreeable. Start with The Larry Sanders Show, preferably with someone who has also had to keep a difficult colleague happy.
Biography
Garry Shandling was an American comedian, actor, writer and producer. He began his career writing for sitcoms including Sanford and Son and Welcome Back, Kotter before moving into stand-up comedy, making his television debut on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in 1981 and becoming a frequent guest host.
In 1986 he created and starred in It's Garry Shandling's Show for Showtime, which ran until 1990. He followed this with The Larry Sanders Show (1992–1998) on HBO, where he played the title role of a late-night talk-show host, also serving as creator and writer. Shandling and Peter Tolan won the 1998 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for the series finale.
