The Larry Sanders Show
The Larry Sanders Show is an American television sitcom set in the office and studio of a fictional late-night talk show. Created by Garry Shandling and Dennis Klein, the show ran for six seasons and 90 episodes on the HBO cable television network from August 15, 1992, to May 31, 1998.
The show stars Shandling, Jeffrey Tambor, and Rip Torn and features celebrities playing exaggerated, parodic versions of themselves. The show has its roots in Shandling's stand-up comedy background, his experience as a guest host on The Tonight Show, and his earlier sitcom, It's Garry Shandling's Show. The program has had a marked and long-lasting influence on HBO as well as on television shows in the United States and United Kingdom such as Curb Your Enthusiasm, 30 Rock, and The Office. The supporting cast includes Janeane Garofalo, Wallace Langham, Penny Johnson, Linda Doucett, Scott Thompson, and Jeremy Piven.
The show received universal critical acclaim and is often regarded as an influential and landmark series. It ranked 38 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time, and was also included in Time magazine's list of the "100 Best TV Shows of All Time". The show won 24 major awards, including three Primetime Emmy Awards, five CableACE Awards, four American Comedy Awards, two British Comedy Awards, two Peabody Awards, a BAFTA Award and a Satellite Award. It also received 86 nominations, including 56 Primetime Emmy Awards nominations, five Directors Guild of America nominations, six Writers Guild of America nominations, six American Comedy Awards nominations, three Golden Globe nominations, three Satellite Awards nominations and a GLAAD Award nomination.
Premise
Origins
From the mid-1980s to the late 1990s, a stream of American stand-up comedians found success in sitcoms on broadcast network television, including Bill Cosby, Roseanne Barr, Richard Lewis, Jerry Seinfeld, Tim Allen, Paul Reiser, Tom Arnold, Brett Butler, Ellen DeGeneres, Drew Carey, Kevin Brennan, and Ray Romano. Garry Shandling took a slightly different path with the cable network sitcoms The Larry Sanders Show and its forerunner It's Garry Shandling's Show.In It's Garry Shandling's Show, Shandling makes use of the George Burns technique of directly addressing the audience. He speaks to the studio and home audiences as well as the other actors, often in quick succession. In both shows celebrity guests appear as themselves and Shandling essentially plays himself: a star of a television show and stand-up comedian with a distinctive "comic persona and rhythm". Shandling said, in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, "the idea for doing something about a talk show host actually came out of an It's Garry Shandling's Show episode in which I was the guest on an LA morning show ... I thought I could make the talk show look very real so the audience would buy that part and then slowly suck them into the realities of life once Larry goes behind the curtain."
In 1981, Shandling performed a stand-up routine on The Tonight Show and subsequently became a regular guest, particularly on short notice. He also began appearing as a guest host and, in 1986, replaced Joan Rivers as "permanent guest host." He was considered to be a possible, although unlikely, successor to Johnny Carson. After Jay Leno replaced Carson in 1992, Shandling was offered his own late-night talk show but preferred instead to create "a show about a talk-show", The Larry Sanders Show. The series has similarities to The Player, The King of Comedy and classic Hollywood back-stage musicals with their "let's put on a show" theme, but the links to The Tonight Show are so strong it verges on parody. Alex Pareene commented "Shandling turned down hosting a network late night show to do a brilliant cult hit sitcom about a version of himself who took the deal."
Plot
The show follows the production of a fictional late-night talk show The Larry Sanders Show. It chronicles the daily life of host Larry, producer Arthur "Artie", sidekick Hank Kingsley and their interaction with celebrity guests, the network and others. Episodes focus on the professional and personal lives of the principal characters, with most focusing on Larry. Ancillary characters are also featured, among them the writers Phil and Jerry, talent bookers Paula and Mary Lou and the personal assistants Beverly, Darlene, and Brian. Larry's wife, ex-wife, and girlfriends are frequent sources of conflict, and his home is a secondary location for the show.Episodes often focus on power dynamics. Supporting characters commonly struggle for status or power, both within the structure of the show's staff as well as within the broader Hollywood community. These struggles almost always end with the character receiving their comeuppance from Larry, Artie, or one of the episode's guest stars.
A typical early episode opens to the titles with the sound of Hank's audience warm-up routine in the background. This is followed by the talk show's titles and an excerpt from Larry's monologue. Episodes vary after this, sometimes continuing with the studio recording, but often cutting to a back-stage shot or to the production offices.
Writing and production
The Larry Sanders Show is a satire on show business that mixes fact with fiction. It featured real-life celebrity guests as they performed on the talk show and as they appeared behind the scenes. For example, in the final episode Larry interviews Sean Penn who, once they cut to a commercial break, gossips freely about Shandling's acting, insecurity, and behavior towards Penn's wife on the set of Hurlyburly, in which all three appear. The scripts often shocked by appearing to show the guest's malice, or the difference between their public and private personas.Profanities are used on the show, although not gratuitously, with the writers taking advantage of the freedom allowed by HBO as a subscription cable service. It paved the way for subsequent HBO shows such as Oz, The Sopranos, and Deadwood. According to Peter Tolan, early episodes were also recorded with language suitable for broadcast syndication until midway through the second season, when the actors resisted shooting the extra takes.
The show used both videotape and film. The behind the scenes footage was shot on film, often using hand-held cameras, in a documentary style. Four video cameras recorded the show-within-a-show which gives a brighter, less grainy picture and helps distinguish the talk show from the back-stage scenes. The talk show was staged with realistic music, lighting and set design. It was recorded in front of an actual live studio audience during the first season and then occasionally during later episodes.
The show had a few catchphrases used throughout its entire run. The most common was "Hey now," a phrase Hank repeats in the opening credits of the fictional talk show and whenever he greets someone. It mirrors the "Hi-yo" catchphrase used by Ed McMahon, upon whom Hank Kingsley was based. In season 1 episode 10, "The Party", Hank says: "No, no, no. You see, when I was a kid, I used to say 'hey,' and then later I said 'now,' but I never put them together until much later." Radio host Howard Stern later adopted “Hey now!” as his on-air greeting, stating that it was a deliberate homage to Hank Kingsley and the series. In 2007, Nickelodeon's TV Land ranked "Hey Now" as the 87th Best Television catchphrase. "No flipping" is a phrase Larry uses to go to commercial breaks, encouraging the viewer audience not to change to another channel. At the end of the season 2, : Larry says: "You may feel free to flip" upon deciding at the end of a talk show scene to retire and relocate to Montana. During the series finale, the last thing Larry says on his talk show is, "You may now flip."
Episodes
Season 1
The first season premiered on August 15, 1992, and ended on November 7, 1992, and was an immediate success. Story arcs include the breakdown of Larry's relationship with his second wife Jeannie and his abuse of Excedrin tablets.Season 2
The second season premiered on June 2, 1993, and ended on September 29, 1993. The story arcs include Larry beginning a new relationship with his ex-wife Francine and Hank investing all his money in a street-level revolving restaurant.Jeremy Piven grew tired of playing the character Jerry, head writer of the fictional talk show, because his character was not given much of a background. He was written out during the episode "Larry's Birthday", where Artie fired Jerry because of his behavior. Eventually, Wallace Langham replaced him as the talk show's head writer.
Some popular episodes of the season were: "Larry's Agent", in which Larry tries to fire his agent; "Broadcast Nudes", in which Hank wants Darlene to pose nude in Playboy magazine ; "Larry's Birthday" in which Larry doesn't want anyone throwing a party for his birthday; "The Grand Opening", in which Hank tries to promote his new restaurant; "Off Camera", in which Larry has to deal with all the stress that Artie suffers every show and the season finale "L.A. or N.Y?", in which Larry leaves the talk show and moves to Montana, to protest the network's desire to shift the talk show's base from L.A. to New York.